slightly wonky

This week, I took my five year old son to the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA.  I LOVE this museum.  In spite of the fact that I had to keep saying, “AAAAAAA…DON’T CLIMB ON THAT,” I think he had a great time.  He met some other kids and they spent a good amount of time climbing on some logs cut up from a fallen tree.  I was wishing that I’d somehow brought a latte and a lawn chair, but no luck.  They should rent those.  (I mean the chairs, not the lattes…)

Okay Mountain, 4-Wheeler Rollover

This was the sculpture that I wanted my son to see.  Hilarious, right?  So awesome.  The tire ruts in the ground are in a swirly/loopy path that noodles around until you reach the tipped over ATV.  It just makes me laugh, for some reason.  (I hope that doesn’t offend the artists…)  It’s great to have this kind of thing in a place that’s rather highbrow…not that this art is lowbrow…(or Loenbrau…) but you know what I mean.

Tony Feher, The Nothing Before Something

Tony Feher currently has a solo exhibition at the DeCordova.  I wrote about the show here.  This is very striking…a brightly painted telephone pole.  It’s like the Z axis…or a big stake in the ground…It makes me think of the astronauts putting a flag on the moon…kind of monumental.

Speaking of monumental…

Sol LeWitt, Tower (DC)

I like how pure this is.  I kind of wish it was enormous…building sized…except that you can’t go in.  That would be cool, right?

The next three works are all busts…so different, though!

John Wilson, Eternal Presence

I am SUCH a fan of his work.  Gorgeous.  He had a solo show at the Danforth, which I wrote about here.  He is supremely talented and brilliant.

I’m kind of pondering the base, though.  I think that they need to fill in the dirt around it so that we don’t see the rough bottom edge of the concrete.  Thoughts?  It kind of makes it look like an afterthought, or as if it could be moved anywhere, and isn’t properly rooted to it’s ground.  Just my two cents.  It’s a stunning work of art, though.

Jaume Plensa, Humming

I love how this is distorted and elongated.  Don’t you love the title too? I think of the sound of Buddhist monks chanting a long “Om……”  I like how this one is in the shade….seems right.

Joseph Wheelwright, Listening Stone

Fascinating, right?  I don’t know whether to think his upper ear is listening, possibly to the sounds of nature or of my son’s yelling, or is he listening to the earth?  Thoughts?  Sometimes as a parent, I feel like my head’s made of stone and I’m not listening.  Is that bad?

Aaron Stephan, Untitled (16 Cans)

You can see the silhouette of my son standing amongst this sculpture.  It’s pretty minimal.  It’s also kind of funny, because if you turn around…this is what you see:

No, that’s not part of the sculpture.  That’s just a trash can.  Don’t you love the DeCordova???

Besides this excursion, we also went to visit a friend who was renting a house on Plum Island.  My son and my friend’s son had a blast generally running around and yelling. You know how it is, right?  No?  Well, you’re damn lucky, then.

Take a look at this RIDICULOUS dahlia we saw:

No joke.

Speaking of ridiculous, take a look at this turkey we saw at the same farm:

They are SO CRAZY looking.  He really is like a big butterball.  Sometimes, he would raise and fan out his scraggly tail feathers, like a moth eaten peacock.  What an odd creature.  I love the dark iridescent feathers on the main part of his body.  I could do without the blobby snood.  Look how freakish the domestic turkey is compared to the wild one:

Right????  If I was that wild turkey…I’d run, or rather fly, out of there STAT!  It makes me think of these guys:

Run, Alice!  RUUUUUNNNNNN!!!!!