The Thin Beer

Mr. Smith goes to Washington

We went to see Mr. Smith goes to Washington tonight, presented by the Aarhus Students' Film Club.  I had never seen it all the way through, so it was sort of interesting.  It was on film, a very old print with Danish subtitles.

We joined the film club, the membership cards are really cool.  Mine has Superman (Christopher Reeve) on it, and Angie's has Louise Brooks on it.

Kevin's take on Bill Viola

Angela gave a good review of the Bill Viola exhibit already.

My two favorite pieces were Five Angels for the Millenium (which is a permanent exhibit at ARoS), and The Crossing.  One of the really amazing things is that video allows him to play with time (besides the obvious visual and sound elements).  In these two pieces, he is able to use the piece's extension in time to build up a tremendous anticipation that something is going to happen.

A wierd thing about The Crossing is that the artist looks a little like one of our friends from Minnesota (the one with the yellow VW Beetle, you know who you are).  It was a little eerie to watch you burst into flames.

Now I want to go back and spend some more time with the five angels.

Boy

While we were at ARoS we visited Boy (by Australian artist Ron Mueck). Kevin thinks that the boy feels that he is small.  That's why he is hiding his face.  I think the boy feels like he is growing too fast and wishes he could stay a boy...that's why he tries to make himself small, by crouching down like this.

Bill Viola

Kevin and I raced downtown (on foot) Wednesday night to meet a group at ARoS (Århus' art museum) to take another tour.  Yes, we've been there before but like all good museums, you really need multiple visits to take it all in.  I also think it is best to approach a really large museum in 2 hour segments.  When Kevin and I were in London in 1999 we spent 2 hours looking at only the Orazio Gentileschi exhibit at the National Gallery...and years later we actually remember what we saw.

So, Wednesday night (after arriving late - embarrassing since we were the only Americans in the group) we had a one hour tour of the highlights of the museum.  This was our second tour and it was still worth it to take a second spin of the museum's highlights as each guide takes you around to their favorite pieces.  I was amused to see a color photo from Bryce Canyon, Utah....Bryce Canyon is one of the landscapes from Kevin's and my earliest dating days.

After the tour, free to roam the museum on our own for the last hour before closing, Kevin and I visited the special exhibit by Bill Viola.  I have never been much for video art so had never heard of him before.  (Most video art I have experienced is designed to torture you with its boring, highly intellectual comment, on the strangeness of the art.  It seems they are designed to alienate you.)  Bill Viola, however, revels in his ability to draw you in.   We've all seen video before.  We watch it every day.  But we haven't seen video like this.  His images  draw on iconic imagery from art, religion, film and television.  He tackles what he calls "universal human issues" using image and sound.  He has been working on his creations for 30 years and in the last five years he has become the big name in the field.  (If you check out his biography you can read all about his honorary degrees, awards, and international exhibits.)  Anyway, we really enjoyed his large piece The Crossing, 1996 and Going Forth by Day, 2002.  We are returning in another two weeks with another one of our tour groups and maybe then we can stay longer in the viewing room for Five Angels for the Millenium, 2001.  Kevin saw two angels, but I didn't.  The size of these rooms are huge.  In some of the exhibits you stand there in the dark with video playing on all four walls around you.   The sound envelopes you.  Each screen's imagery tempts you to watch.  What a neat experience this work is.