My Visit to the ICA

Cagen Luse
9/30/07

My Visit to the ICA

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to the ICA. I had not had a chance to go since they moved from their Bolyston Street location, but had heard great things about the building and exhibits. I was not disappointed. The building was incredible but I thought the exhibit space was rather small. The really had some nice exhibit spaces, particularly the Mediatheque room that faces down to the water of Boston harbor. The lines of MACs offered kiosks with a great amount of information about the exhibits and other artists like Lyhla Ali. (I would like to see more of her work) as well as man on the street interviews about the meaning of art. I think this made the whole experience more able to connect to the average viewer, which I think is very important.
Chino Aoshima’s piece The Divine Gas on the Feinberg Art Wall when you first enter the building was impressively large in both content and scale. The main figure of the angelic somewhat alien seems both out of place and at the same time part of the landscape. I spent a great deal of time examining it and saw multiple levels of detail I would have easily missed if I had not taken the time to look at it closely (like the fish swimming in her tears).

MOMENTUM 8: DAVE MCKENZIE
I had read an article in the Boston Globe about his artwork and was very interested in seeing his presentation. In the article it had talked about him greeting visitors in a large head mask of him self dispensing bobble head dolls of himself, which I thought made and interesting statement about fame and taking art too seriously. I found his film work compelling although rather amateurish in production and scattered. I keep watching waiting for a climax of some sort but it seemed never to come. His use of dolls to represent himself and Andy Warhol seemed to make a statement about the art world and the connection to the past. I was a little unsure what the reference to Mr. Limpett and the swimming goldfish meant at first but the brochure explained that it was a pop culture reference, albeit obscure, to a children’s film starring Don Knotts.

BOURGEOIS IN BOSTON
I found Louise Bourgeois’ exhibit interesting. The body of work and span of time in which they were created was immense. The pieces focusing on the spider forms really held my interest. It was interesting to see the exploration of the same form in many different ways from simple paintings to an immense metal sculture. Jitterbug, a painting of two spiders dancing on a sheet of paper with musical bars was rather clever. I also really liked some of her other works like Cell (Hand and Mirrors) and Janus Fleuri. The hands in the multi-door box that gave a different view of it when you looked at it from different angles was very cool experience. Janus Fleuri on the other hand looked like a disfigured pelvis of a paraplegic, I found this one a little disturbing and grotesque but none the less a compelling piece that made me look more than once.

Over all the ICA was a great experience. I wandered to the second and third floors and was disappointed to find them locked up tight. I would like to return to experience what they do with the Education center, Digital Studio and Theater I was denied access to. I will definitely return to see the design exhibit and lectures in this incredible structure.