Been a while without posting anything on the blog. Have had a few ailments and mishaps in recent weeks preventing me from typing. A couple of weeks back I was on a work trip to Germany and Luxembourg. Had not a lot of time for photography, but the iPhone makes photography on the go so easy.
I had a very pleasant trip to the Museum of Modern Art in Luxembourg. The building is spectacular. Light streams in to create beautiful walkways and rooms. Sadly, the majority of the art, was in a word, uninspiring. I can understand why modern art alienates so many people. I am baffled as to how some art ends up in museums and galleries. I believe art ceases to be the owned by the creator once it is viewed by another person. The viewer claims ownership and what they see, what they connect with, what the art triggers in them, is all theirs. Whatever the artist intended is precariously hoisted and may or may not be transferred. Modern art can terrify the viewer. People seem threatened, put upon and obliged to find the meaning/the message the artist intended. But that is not what it should be about. Art, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My photos below may appear ridiculous to some, beautiful (I hope) to others and leave others cold. And that is how it should be. From time to time, I get comments on Flickr that through my photos I am trying to represent something; something grand. No! Most of the time, I like the colour, the shape, the movement, the possibility, the scope, the limit of what I am trying to see. If I was trying to conceptually construct something limited in a message, I would never raise my camera to my eye. I would be terrified.
Art can only exist when someone experiences it. And the experience can be that:
“I just do not get how this piece of wood plonked down in a cordoned off space can question the utility of lines and their simplicity in our urban noise.” That was the description of the artist’s intention/motivation/message for the stump of wood placed on the ground in one room. I mean, honestly – WTF? I can just imagine my father’s reaction to seeing that and reading its explanation.
But hey, for me it was a treasure trove. There was the most amazing light and wonderful security guards dressed in white shirts and black trousers who were perfect for photographing. Here is a selection of photographs I took with the iPhone in the Luxembourg Museum of Modern Art.
