W. A. S. H. I. N. G. T. O. N., baby, D. C.
On my way home from the Castleton Festival, my dad and I stopped in Washington DC. I had never been to the city before. These are the things I saw:
1. I saw the Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. (I also saw the related Jefferson's Bible exhibit.)
2. I saw the AIDS Quilt, or at least a part of it, spread out on the grass in the National Mall. There were "readers" who continuously spoke the names of AIDS victims over a loudspeaker, every five seconds, all day (or at least the whole time I was there).
3. I saw the Sculpture Garden at the Hirshhorn Museum, including lots of sculptures by Rodin, de Kooning, Koons, Liechtenstein, and others. My favorite sculpture was a piece by Juan Muñoz called Last Conversation Piece. This was also my favorite thing that I saw all afternoon.
4. I saw an exhibit of photography by Robert Weingarten called Portraits Unbound. This exhibit was in an underground gallery; I'm not really sure where it was. He made portraits of famous people that did not include their faces, but instead used images of a few of their favorite things. I did not much care for this exhibit (how enlightening is it to learn that Billy Graham likes Jesus, or that Hank Aaron enjoys fishing as well as baseball?), and I found it similar to the kind of thing people put on their Facebook cover photo. As I am writing this for posterity, I guess, I wonder if people in the future will know what a Facebook cover photo is. If you don't... well, it's not important.
Dad liked the Weingarten exhibit, but that could be because it's the first art exhibit he's been to since he got his glasses, which means that it might be the first art exhibit he's really seen in ten years.
We only had a few hours in Washington, so we only saw one or two things at each location. I'd like to go back there soon, maybe once Jeremy's back from his trip to Spain, or maybe once the weather's cooled down a little, and check out these places in more detail.
1. I saw the Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. (I also saw the related Jefferson's Bible exhibit.)
2. I saw the AIDS Quilt, or at least a part of it, spread out on the grass in the National Mall. There were "readers" who continuously spoke the names of AIDS victims over a loudspeaker, every five seconds, all day (or at least the whole time I was there).
3. I saw the Sculpture Garden at the Hirshhorn Museum, including lots of sculptures by Rodin, de Kooning, Koons, Liechtenstein, and others. My favorite sculpture was a piece by Juan Muñoz called Last Conversation Piece. This was also my favorite thing that I saw all afternoon.
4. I saw an exhibit of photography by Robert Weingarten called Portraits Unbound. This exhibit was in an underground gallery; I'm not really sure where it was. He made portraits of famous people that did not include their faces, but instead used images of a few of their favorite things. I did not much care for this exhibit (how enlightening is it to learn that Billy Graham likes Jesus, or that Hank Aaron enjoys fishing as well as baseball?), and I found it similar to the kind of thing people put on their Facebook cover photo. As I am writing this for posterity, I guess, I wonder if people in the future will know what a Facebook cover photo is. If you don't... well, it's not important.
Dad liked the Weingarten exhibit, but that could be because it's the first art exhibit he's been to since he got his glasses, which means that it might be the first art exhibit he's really seen in ten years.
We only had a few hours in Washington, so we only saw one or two things at each location. I'd like to go back there soon, maybe once Jeremy's back from his trip to Spain, or maybe once the weather's cooled down a little, and check out these places in more detail.