Hey Girl Hey

Without much context, besides the featured adverts on the train, I was in attendance at the Guggenheim, this Friday, to observe 'I Want to Believe'.

There were an array of seemingly varied oevres from Cai Guo-Qiang. In essence, however, these pieces spoke to the same principles. Which, in truth, is the title of the exhibition. The truth is, I want to believe. Using the violence of nature, in the context of innately human, and social conditions.The element of fire is a platform through which violence is presented in method by which the piece is constricted, as opposed to a theme in the resulting image; if you do not see them to be inextricable from each other. From the gunpowder and paper series to the cars, that appear to be a snapshot of fireworks projecting outward from the center of the body, suspended through the core of the museum the violence of fire is present.

As the installation progressed the titles and pieces introduced more intricate themes and beliefs. That is to say, the large, mural-sized pieces had title's that represented the image being produced by the mediums. Like, 'Eagle and Pinetree' and you look and you see the eagle and the branch o fa pine tree. Or, '9 Cars', a circle showing different angles of a car that is spinning, suspended in air, keeping in mind that this car, whenever it touched the Earth again would be in grave shape, to say the least. Moving through the exhibition the pieces had a more alien tone. As in, there would be references to aliens and the human race. Not to mention there were characters in the pieces, making knowing the language all the more desirable.

Next, was the wolves. There were about ninety life-sized wolves. At the beginning of the installment, the wolves are standing on the floor dispersed throughout the traditional walk way, as most pieces are on the wall. You are able to weave in and out of the for about twenty feet, after that point in rows of threes, in a straight line, the wolves gradually ascend in a wave that reminds of me of reindeer taking off on Christmas night. There is a beautiful movement, as, from a far, you follow the suggested trajectory of these stationary, three-dimensional, animals. Unlike the fabled reindeer, these wolves, convincingly, tumble from the ceiling as if they hit an invisible wall, or the ground underneath them is invisible and we watch them imitate lemmings. You walk and you see these animals lying down, strewn in various positions at your feet. Due to the design and ones preference to take the elevator up, or walk up will mitigate how you are introduced to the piece. As you would know, I started from the top so I was introduced with wolves at my feet.

Next, were the unrefined, life sized clay statues depicting Chinese labour and/or slavery. Unrefined, ONLY in the sense that they were not put in kiln and were therefor cracking and falling apart, but, it only enhanced the affect of this installment. The details of the faces, the subtleties that betrayed the emotion of pain and loss to great degrees, the shirt of a woman on all fours being pulled by a man behind her as she hold her child out, the way the clay looks like a shirt that is actually being pulled. These statues and scenes are also dispersed along the, better know as, walkway. So, it was not an observation as much as it was walking through a haulted second in time, or among ghosts, as another patron put it. Broken backs and lives; broken sculptures and hearts.

After this, there are life-like tigers all in different positions that can be translated as them having been frozen during an attack. Each tiger has arrows sticking out of them, as if to protect a village or town, all of the archers had to shoot the tiger repeatedly until it was felled. The tigers appear to be ferocious, so, I feel a certain way about seeing these likenesses pierced with, what seems to be, too many arrows, and to feel the different ways in which human beings express their violent natures. However, I understand that it is kill or be killed. All in all, real and deaths that are alluded to, is a hard thing for me.

I want to believe in the vast potential of the human mind. That we are not alone, that life is not as hard and violent as the exhibition only hints at. But I know the truth. Guo-Qiang must as well. And we may not even share the same beliefs, but I would like to think I was close.

Go see that shit.
Guggenheim through May 24, I believe.

Okay, I've already insisted that all of you have watched Gossip Girl, even if you're too ashamed to admit it. I'm not ashamed, alright?
While stalking these girls, dubbed the ethnic sidekicks by GAWKER, I came to the realization that a college degree might be worth more than I thought it was. The girl on the left, her name is Nan Zhang and her parents spent thousands of dollars sending her to Johns Hopkins to study Neuroscience. The girl on the right, she's Nicole Fiscella and she's got a BA and a MA in Anthro from Tufts. So..... yeah. I've decided if these people can make it work so can I.