Tag: Museums

Paris in September

IMG_8924“He who contemplates the depths of Paris is seized with vertigo. Nothing is more fantastic. Nothing is more tragic. Nothing is more sublime.” — Victor Hugo.

I recently spent a week in Paris with my oldest son. It was a return trip for me but first time for my adult son. We had a great time. Not as crowded with tourists and cooler weather.

We enjoy museums, which made Paris an ideal destination. So many to visit and we covered almost our entire list. The Louvre, Muse d’Orsay, Rodin, Picasso and the Pompidou Center. Our favorite was the d’Orsay. Fantastic setting inside an old train station and a killer collection with more Impressionist paintings than you can handle in three days.

We took the time to get all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph as well as Sacré-Coeur on beautiful sunny days.

One of the most interesting attractions were the catacombs beneath Paris. Amazing to see the bones of tens of thousands of Parisians who died and were relocated underground to prevent the spread of disease.

Everyone treated us with kindness and respect and went out of their way in restaurants to accommodate my son’s allergies. Terrific culture, food and of course wine.

We ventured away from our usual airlines and took a chance on Air France. Their service was premium all the way. Boarding, seats, entertainment choices and the food get top grades. I would recommend them.

My wife and I are discussing living in Paris for a summer after retirement.

My Paris album on Flickr is here https://flic.kr/s/aHsm5r4Xqq

 

Video Self-Portrait From SFMOMA

I had an extra hour this week between sessions while attending a board of advisors meeting in San Francisco, so I walked two blocks to the Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). I really love this structure and was here while it was under construction, then came back a couple of times after it opened. The finished product is an appropriate space for a modern art collection. It’s constructed in perfectly even layers of black, gray, white, brown and blue. The modern interpretation of geologic strata found naturally in rocks of the west. Mostly straight lines and crisp angles, with curves sprinkled in to soften the experience and direct your eyes back into the main space of the building. None of the art can be seen without taking sharp turns. It’s the opposite of the Guggenheim in NY, where the art can be viewed from almost anywhere, as if one was surveying the landscape. An oval eye is proped up on top of the structure, evoking a communications dish poised to collect radio waves from the cosmos.

There was a fascinating media art installation on the third floor entitled, Opposing Mirrors and Video Monitors on Time Delay. The artist is Dan Graham, and it was composed of two black and white television monitors, two video cameras and two large mirrors positioned on opposite sides of a wide gallery. As you approach, the camera records you, but holds it for a few seconds before feeding the video to a small TV screen. The result is a bit jarring. You move inquisitively toward the television screen expecting to see yourself but you don’t. Suddenly you appear as you were a few seconds earlier, giving you an opportunity to study yourself in motion. It takes a while to notice what’s going on, but once you get it, the brain lights up.

It’s like that old trick where you are looking into what you believe to be a mirror, but in fact it’s an opening, and someone else is facing you (your identical twin), pretending to be your reflection. That person mimics your body movements and facial expressions exactly, hoping to keep up the illusion. You then try to outsmart the reflection by making sudden, unexpected movements. In the trick it works, but in this installation, it’s always you. I snapped this photo of me inside the monitor with my iPhone.

Eventually you start performing, to see what you look like. You move in for a close up and make faces. Travel from one side of the gallery to the other and do it all over again. The mirrors keep the image moving and changes the point of view, so you can see both your front and back. Kind of a reality show on yourself, but without the personal humiliation or prize money. Everyone that passed by was instantly engaged. This is the power of modern art; the viewer participates and the common perspectives are challenged.

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to see much of anything else, but captured a few more images on the way back to the summit.

 

Photos by Steve A. Furman

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