Night At the Museum

(I really couldn't resist the corny title.)

Last Thursday night, LACMA offered a college night event centered on its surrealist feminist exhibition. First off, let me talk about the atmosphere the and the experience. It was great being able to go with people my own age - it felt more familiar and relevant. We actually ended up waiting in line for food, along with hundreds of other college students from UCLA, USC, and other schools. I do wish they had a more efficient workflow that could accomodate more people at the museum. That made it difficult to get through all the content in a timely fashion.

Now, as for the art itself: the exhibition offered some treats you might not have expected from a free exhibit. What really caught my eye were the Frida Kahlo pieces. The signature style shined through the large self-portrait. What I didn't, at first, realize was her involvement in some very different pieces. We remember her most (and perhaps exclusively) for what she drew of herself, but she also ventured into less literal subjects. Even further, I hadn't realized the exhibit was related to feminism at all until someone pointed it out to me that night. You might have missed that theme given the diversity of works on display.

I was most drawn to the abstract pieces that seemed to depict barren natural landscapes. Some of the art was violent and heavy, while other pieces were subdued, freeflowing, and perhaps mindless. My favorite piece from the show was a darkly forbidding tower. It reminded me of Ganon's Tower from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a video game from several years ago. The different arts seem to have more in common than they do different.

Before we saw the main exhibit, our group decided to venture off to a side hall with a few abstract pieces. Someone later told me the video screen with hand movements demonstrated every possible gesture on can make with fingers (since a finger can either be raised or lowered, that makes 2^10, or 1024 combinations - yes, if you think about it, our hands use binary as well).

At some point in the future I would like to return to the museum and check out some of the other work. I really enjoyed the few harried minutes we were able to spend on the modern design exhibit that came after the feminist section. It featured edgy, modern designs that were much more appealing to me than classical art. While it was only my first time at LACMA, I had the chance to experience a valuable segment of what makes the museum so notable.

Casey Penk