The Garden at Pezzi's

We have been going to this Pizza Shop for years. Back when Kathy had an office just down the street from this restaurant, we would eat dinner there from time to time.  But we have always bought our Pizza from them.  There are two brothers and their father started this restaurant and then they gradually took over the business from him.  I think it was this year, for the first time, that flowers were planted along the edge of the parking lot and it was such a nice addition and dressed the parking lot up.  I asked them who did that and they said one of the workers at the restaurant was doing it.  I really love what he did with only a one foot depth to the garden.  Today I saw this, and although it is not really a traditional garden photograph I was attracted to the textures and the patterns of the leaves and felt this was an interesting photograph, even thought the flowers are fading.

 

"Technologies of Relation"

These are three photographs from a large exhibition with work from 12 artists. From the catalog:  "Technologies of Relation" examines how we relate to each other, to the world around us and to the technologies that often mediate those relationships.  The artists in the exhibition embrace how technology can connect us, but also acknowledge how it harms us."  There is a lot more text about these exhibits but I didn't understand much of it.  So here is the crazy thing - they have booklets available to take, with detailed informaton and photographs, about all the different exhibitions on display.  I have the booklet for this exhibition, but I neglected to photograph the text on the wall for this particular part of the exhibition.  I have read the book and searched the Mass MoCA website and there is no mention at all, that I can find of what is going on in this room with pink light!  But it was so interesting to feel the mood created by these objects and the pink light.  I will leave it up to you to see what you think this might be about.

So this is a kitchen and was created by five artists and is titled "One Who Looks at the Cup" and harkens back to family traditions of the art of tasseography, a predictive technology that interprets patterns and symbols in coffee grounds at the bottom of a cup.  The box on the table, which was not working, unfortunately, would normally produce a cup of coffee and leave you with grounds which the device reads after using AI on which it was trained on transcripts and images from coffee readings from the past.  The fabrics are traditional Armenian designs.  It was, in some way, a beautiful room that seemed so cheery and was nice to be in.

This is only part of an exhibit that shows a film "Speculations on Capture" about the pioneering technological advancements made in the 1200's in Iran, while mourning the acquisition of instruments by Western museums.  The artist speaks of storage rooms where astrolabes, celestial globes, ephemeris and talismanic bowls from Persia and Pakistan, are "held captive" having been separated from the peoples who created them.  I did not see the film but I was taken by this "architectural sculpture" which is inspired by the Maragha Observatory, a site of significant scientific discovery in the Islamic world and beyond, founded in 1259 in Northwest Iran.  This also functions as seating for those who want to watch the film.

 

"Rhapsody"

There is a very large gallery on the second floor of the main building.  On this trip the whole gallery was used for an exhibition called "Rhapsody."  It is a really long gallery and the entire back wall, to the left in this photograph was entirely filled with a video presentation.  To the right of center behind that screen were tables with small examples of different artist's work.  Here is a funny story - see the two chairs to the left?  I couldn't figure out if they were part of the exhibit.  They were not remarkable in their construction at all, but I didn't want to take a chance.  I asked one of the employees about them, and he said they were for visitors to sit in!  So I did.  There was also a soundtrack playing.  I found that I really enjoyed sitting in one of the chairs and taking all of this in.  I just really enjoyed the space and the light and the sounds, and I must have sat there for quite a while, just drinking it in.

This is a "screen" that is the work of Rosendo Diaz.  It is made from carved pieces of wood and held together with wooden pegs.  I spent a lot of time examining how it was put together.  This piece is what gave the interesting shadows on the lower right hand corner of the overall photograph that was posted above.

This is a woven fabric piece, and the more I studied it, the more interesting it became.  It is almost a landscape, but created with different stitches and parts of it are quite subtle.  It is titled "I keep the laughter for your return" by Lucia Raineri and it was really worth spending time with it.  I first glanced at it and was going to keep going but something in it grabbed me and I stopped and gave it the time it deserved.

I love this little guy, on one of the first tables.  I am sad to say I was unable to figure out who the artist was.  The curators did a huge disservice to the artists by putting all the credits on large sheets of text, one at each end of the gallery.  So you would find an object you liked than walk to one end or the other then look at the map of the tables and then try and figure out which object they were referring to on which table and try and guess the artist.  Honestly that was a ridiculous way to credit the artists!  SO...  What was this gallery all about?  Here is some of the text for the exhibit:  "In 'Rhapsody', Jimena Sarno, who organized this exhibit, invites visitors, the community and collaborators to craft tools and relationships that can reshape the present and, ultimately, work to collectively repair the tears in the social fabric...  Sarno has gathered collaborators - mostly from the Global South - to contribute objects, soundscapes, and films that work toward visions for just futures."  Many of the objects in the exhibition are made using techniques associated with folk and craft traditions. including weaving, woodwork, felting and pottery."  So I hope this information might be helpful.

 

Topsy Turvey

This is such an interesting work of art.  It is simple and beautiful in it's design and in its experience.  It is in the middle of a long hallway, and it is not clear what it is or is supposed to do.  So you go to the wall and read the full page of text.  Then you go back to the device and discover that it moves and that you are supposed to move it while looking through it.  The glass sides of the long rectangular box function as mirrors and yet you can see through them.  When you try to move the device, you find it is really, really heavy, and yet it moves smoothly, though with a lot of force required.  But it moves in a strange way.  As you move it to the right it begins to point up toward the ceiling as it rotates further.  As you look, you see tilted views of the windows and scenes outside the windows.  It is such a surprise to find out what it does.  It alters our sensibilities.  And the unexpected weight is such a surprise.

So this is a view through the inside of the long rectangular box with glass sides.  It is disorienting, and it is supposed to be that, according to the text on the wall.  The text says this:  “Sarah Oppenheimer creates precise instruments for manipulating our built environment - altering our frame of spatial reference, displacing our experience of inside and out, and inverting our sense of what is near and far, here and there.” The piece is titled “S-334473.”

 

Back to Mass MoCA

I have a bunch more photographs from my recent visit to Mass MoCA and I will start posting them.  I have taken a number of exterior photographs of the museum buildings.  If you want to have some fun, go to the upper left hand corner of a daily post and there is a white box with a magnifying glass.  Enter "Mass MoCA" in there and you will be surprised how many architectural photographs there are.  I decided on this trip that I didn't remember having any photographs of the first buildings you see when you enter the parking lot.  I liked this one because when I first saw the blue and white stripes for the handicapped parking it made the picture much brighter and more colorful

This is the same building, seen from the other side.  I really love the modern parking lot lighting structure in this photograph.  It is not a very exciting photograph, however.  Better lighting at the right time on a sunny day would improve this no doubt. But I have a starter photo which I need to improve on. Stay tuned next year!

 

Oh No! I Dropped My iPad and it Broke!

Oh No!  I dropped my iPad and look what happened!  The screen was completely shattered!  Oh no!  It is ruined!  No I didn't!  This is a joke.  First of all it is not an iPad, but some kind of Verizon tablet.  It was given to me by someone in the astronomy club probably 10 years ago.  She got it free when she signed up for internet service from Verizon I think.  So I played with it for a while just to see what it was like and it was nowhere as easy to use as an iPad.  So I put it somewhere and recently uncovered it.  I plugged it in to charge it and the battery was shot.  So what I had wanted to do was to get it up and running so I could wipe the memory.  I had no idea what personal information was in it, but I wanted to delete it all. So I couldn't do that, so instead I decided to destroy it!  I got a small hammer and hit the screen and the hammer bounced off of it! I hit it a bit harder and it bounced off again.  I think it was two more hits, and the last one was really hard, and this is the result!  It makes a pretty pattern, right?  I am not finished demolishing it to make sure that no one could possible get the data off it.

So this is proof of what caused the nice round circle of cracked glass in the center.  I hope you enjoyed my joke!  Do you remember my other post a couple of years ago called "My laptop is shot?"  I actually shot a hole in the 20 year old laptop screen in the back yard, just for fun, before throwing the laptop away.

 

A Surprise at the Beach Tonight

We had such a surprise on our walk along the beach sidewalk just around sunset today!  This first photograph shows what we saw at first.  I have figured out, after shooting this shot, that we are looking at the backs of the newly engaged couple and they are looking at photographs taken by a young woman and young man on the backs of their cameras.  We were not sure if they were just starting, or whether they were finished.

Turns out they were finished and they walked away from this pretty setup at the water's edge.  A little bit later, two cars drove up here and two men disassembled the whole setup and packed everything into their cars.  I wished we had seen the shoot going on, just for fun.  But it was nice to see this.  A very fancy proposal and engagement, I think!