My Trip to NYC

7/27/2019 My Trip to NYC

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New

York -A

Long

ThinPhotoEssayBy Chris

Garcia


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OK, so Im a at guy. Iknow I am, and its OK becauseScience will save us all! Anyhoo,I have eaten so many dierentkinds o ood over the years, itnutty! Ive had about 100 dier-ent kinds o oods rom around

the world, which is noth-ing compared to many o myriends, but Ive always said itwas a lot or a guy who has onlyle th eContinent twice!

Anyhoo, New Yorkprobably has more dierenttypes o Cuisine than any cityother than London! I was hop-ing to get a lot o great ood, butI really only managed two sig-nicant meals out: one at a Rus-sian restaurant where I dinedwith two legitimate EasternEuropean models! It was awe-some! Te other was Austra-lian ood at a place in Queenscalled Te Tirsty Koala. It wasso good. We had Lamb Lollies (I

was nearly on the road to a Rooburger) and and it was amazing!Some o hte best lamb Ive everhad, but the caramelized Pump-kin was the best thing ever!

Te thing about theplace was how well-cooked ev-erything was. Te crispness othe salad stood up well to themusky pumpkin and the gamey

lamb! PERFEC!

Yes, that is anactual Emmy and thatis the view I had outo the window o theApartment on WallStreet where Meg andWill live. Im airly

sure thats the buildingwhere the Museum oAmerican Finance islocated.

And this wasthe second Emmy Ihad seen on my trip toNYC.

You see, thereason I was therewas to do the inter-

views with ComputerGraphics pioneer Lil-lian Schwartz, butother things got addedon. When we got toLillians, we lookedaround and ound thatshe had an EMMY!

Shed beennominated or anoth-er, or her work withEd Emsh on Lathe oHeaven in 1979, butshe won one (a ech-nical Emmy) and itwas on her counter.

Its slightlysmaller than the one at

Wills, but no less cool!

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Te Metropolitan Museumo Art is a hallowed Hall or Mu-seum ypes. Its a legandary placeand its got a collection among thebest that Ive ever seen. I went therewhen I was a kid, but I hvent beenback in more than twenty years!

Tus, I went there this time with theidea that Id enjoy a leisureely visit.

Now, the real reason I wasin New York at all was or Oral His-tories, and the one I had to do onTursday was scheduled or 10am,but it ended up lasting until almost2:30! Tat happens, but it meantthat I had only 2 hours to go allthrough the place.

So, once again, Chris Powertrips through a Museum!

Tey have an exceptionalcollection o Medieval, Egyptian,Roman, and various Arican, Me-soAmerican, and European pieceso Art & Culture. Its an amazingcollection, and it was in the RomanGalleries that I had the most un.

Tats right, the RomanGalleries.

You see in that statue overthere, these guys understodd howto make realistic pieces. Tat guy inthat statue there, upclose, and i youdont notice that his skin is marble,its amazingmly realistic. Te hairand the beard especially. Greek artwas nice, but it didnt look real.

Roman art DID!

Now, I headedover to the Museum oAmerican Finance, rightacross Wall Street romwhere I was staying withMeg otusek and WillFrank. I hadnt planned on

going, but I saw the signas I was walking back totheir place and gured Idswing by. Its a pretty nicelocation, actaully. Its gota lot o stock artiacts, in-cluding ickertapes romthe 1929 Crash, and lotso stock certicates, a biton the history o money.Te place is largely dedi-cated to Al Hamilton. Tatpair o statues o Burr andHamilton acing o withtheir guns raised, greatsyou as you come up thestairway into the museumarea.

Now, the Burr

Hamilton duel was a sig-nicant poit in the historyo American Politics, Imean Burr was VIce-Pres-ident and Hamilton wasone o the most respectedmen in all o America...even i he was a dirty or-eigner.

Go there, i only to

see all the interactives!

Te

Met

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I am not a big an oOlde yme Art. It just leaves mecold. Its just cra, an atte,]mptto recreate the image o the woldwe live in, with as great a del-ity as possible. Even El Greco, soinfuenced so many o the early

Modernist Artists, was tryingto paint the real worl, but alas,wasnt a great painter. Te actthat he got over with Art Hisorytypes and the buyers o the dayis a testament to the brillianceo his compositions.

Te urn-o-Te-Cen-tury arts world gave us a bunch

o artists who were concernedwith teh idea o portrayingmovement. Te Statues o theFuturists were amazing, andthere are others that may ormay not have been a part o themovement (including Bran-cussis works, and that womanwho seems to be made o con-crete-dipped pipecleaners. Both

the Met and the MoMA hadthis statue, or two that were soclosely ormed as to be nearlyindistinguishable, and they tella story o how traditional art isno longer suited to sit stationaryin a gallery, how the pressingorward motion o time must bepresented in the arts, and thesestatues do just that!

Also, I just like this one.

Te Museum

of American

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I like to take pictures opeople taking pictures.

Almost universally,their pictures are better thanmine taking pictures o themtaking pictures.

Im not good at the pic-

ture thing, and part o that iswhat I want out o photos.

What do I want? I wanta situation. I want people in-teracting with their spaces,especailly i that space is amuseum. Tere is little moreinteractive than visiting a mu-seum. You have to be aroundpeople. you have to rea, you dostu together. You might nottalk, but you are all intereact-ing with the same items. Andtaking a photo is a high-levelorm o an individual interact-ing with their museum.

You see, the thing Mu-seum types want more thananything is or visitors to walk

away with an experience, andone in which teyve signicant-ly interacted with the artiasts,Its them taking a moment intheir lives and putting it to im-age so that they can re-live itwhenever they want.

I like to capture thatmoment, largely because I cncan ardly o that on my mu-

seum visisi. Tis one,

Tat previous image was oa Peruvian Scissor Dancer. No othervideo showed a dance that was asenergetic as teh Peruvian ScissorDaners. Tey dance a jib-like, leap-ing dance. First o, theyre dancingwith scissors! Real scissors! Tats

gotta be dangerous!Te pose they put the Scissor

Dancer into was as i it was fying,which was a bit urther than any-thing they showed in teh video, butit captured motion and was so di-erent than anything else in the dis-play, which I assume was the point!

Te one on this page is romthe Hopi, a costume used in the But-terfy Dance. Its a gorgeous piece,one o the nest Ive ever seen inperson. Te Headdress is made oreach woman who wears it by theboy she dances with. I dont thinkIve ever seen a headdress this talland wide. Its a beautiul thing, andthe lighting in the place really playsit o in the colorzones it portrays!

Te outts in teh exhibitwere all exceptional, and well-pre-sented. Im glad to nd that this is tobe aroud or ve years. Tats a longtime or an exhibit, and I am cer-tainly saying everyone should makea trip to see it!

Tese costumes arent justethnographic studies put in cases:theyre works o art, incredbily pre-

pared.

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SO, I took pictures o me inevery mirror I could nd at the Met.It is a staple o th eworld o Social Me-dia to do shots in Mirrors (especiallythe Bathroom Mirror Pic) or o onessel (called the Sele). I like Mirrors,so I went and did some comedy pos-

es in them.My avorite mirror in the

world is in teh Hollywood RooseveldtHotel in Hollywood. Its my avoriteHotel as well, but there is a missor, Ibelieve its till on the second foor, thatis suppoedly haunted by the ghost oMarilyn Monroe.

Now, I know, there are nosuch thing as ghosts, only there are,totally. Have I seen them? Sorta. HaveI heard enough ghost stories to turnmy beard white? Its getting there.Have I hears them? Yes. But those areother stories.

I completely believe thaghosts exist, and that they can im-print on objectsMirrors are creepyobjets or me. Sometimes very creepy.

I get cold shivers sometimes at themuseum when Im ther alone and Iwalk into the bathroom and am acedwith a great rank o mirrors. Its scary.Ive been on the foor looking at thatmirror and it it, in act, creepy. Itsnot that mirrors scary-looking, butits out-o-place, somehow. Much likethis rame, its gilded and ornate, notat all in the style o the Modern Roo-

seveldt. I gotta take Linda there.

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Tis picture, possibly morethan any other, shows the troubles Ihave with general photograpy. You see,this is a lovely chessboard, I believerom beore the 17th Century. Te ap-estry is even older, I think. Te ChessBoard is lit museum-style. Te light alls

on the object at the proper lumens, butmore important that is hits things well.Now, the area o the tapestry that is nearthe board is well-lit, and visible, and atull-size, its rally petty. Now, I use a verysimple camera, a Sony Bloggie. I alsohas a Video mode, and its what wereshooting 5 Cons with. Tis Camerahas no fash. which is actually a plusin a Museum as they almost never al-low Flash. Te problem is that you cantthrow any light on a subject.

And neither do my composi-tions.

You see, I like headroom. Pre-erably lots o it. Or excessive oreground.Teres a photo later that is one o htebetter examples o that. I like to eel likeeverything is either being loomed over

by the world, or is removed rom us. Iknow, I know, Im the height o preten-tion. Its what I do.

So here, I wanted some spacebeneath the ornate eet o the chess-board, so I stepped back as ar as Icould. It resulted in catching that edgeyou see at the bottom.

Ive got athis thing where what Ilove doing I have absolutely no talent at.

Still, I love it so. On to MoMA...

Tere is an exception-ally good portion o the NewYork National Museum othe American Indian and it iscalled Circle o Dance. Its alovely, and GIGANICALLYopen circular area (I believe

its called the Diker Pavillion)with 1/4 o the wall being aprojection screen showinga continuous loop o vari-ous orms o Indian dance.Around 1/2 the area are cas-es with examples o dancecostumes. Te presentationtakes up a lot o space, but itspowerul. Tere are a buncho amazing pieces, and the

videos are snippets, but theyare powerul examples. Teentire eect o the exhibit iso being emersed, and I wasquite pleased to get a chanceto see it.

Te importance odance to various communi-

ties is huge, and one o thereasons I was hoping to goto the National Archives andsee the various dance oot-ages theyve collected.

Tis piece is a dressworn during traditional Sem-inole Stomp dances, which isa wonderully simple dance,but also an excellent orm o

aerobic excercise!

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I am 1/8 Ohlone. Its somethingI am proud o. My Great-Grandmother,Mary Cota, was one o hte last pure-blood-ed Ohlones o her band, and my Grand-mother is one o the last living Ohloneso 1/2 blood. I spent a air bit o time re-searching my heritage, and while I was at

the National Museum o American Art inWashington D.C., I worked with a buncho Indian Art, most notably a series oPueblo paintings rom Santa Clara Pueb-lo, as well as a series o Water colors romNew Mexico.

At that point, the National Muse-um o the American Indian wasnt open,either in Washington or in New York. Itwas an interesting time because they wereshowing their stu at various other mu-seums and making preparations to open.Eventually, they opened in NYC with thecollection that had once been Te Museumo Te American Indian, Tey housed it inthe U.S. Custom House in Lower Manhat-tan. Its a lovely building, and its gorgeous.

Its also tiny.I mean, looking at it, youve got a

good setting with a lot o space, and thetwo or three small exhibits are well-done,but thats about it. I think its somewherearound 10K square eet, though they doput a lot o great artiacts up. Comparedto many o the other museums, even theMesoAmerican portion o Te Met has alarger display space. Now, it may be thatthere was a gallery or two that theyre re-developing, but it was a slight downer.

Still, lovely stu!

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Tis young lady, who appearstwice more in these pages, came in atthe same time I arrived and we basi-cally took a similar path all day. Shewas paused takign what seemed tobe a hundred photos o a fourescenttube, painted yellow, on a wall with

little else. So, I took about a dozenpics o her taking those pictures, andthis one happens to be my avorite.Well, thats not true. Te original

version o this, beor eI cropped it,had about an equal amount o foor

visible as there was wall. I like thelonlieness that image provides, buthere, in the cropped version, I thinkits a bit more moddy.

O course, i I had Photo-shop, and knew how to use it, I couldprobably amp that up a air bit. I didmonkey a lot with teh cropping, butthats easy days! See, I try!

I caught up with her later inthe day and showed her the photos.She was Collmbian, though spoke

very good English, and she wanted

to put the images on her iPad. So wedid.

Tats the thing about takingpictures o people rom behind: theycan have tons o their images cap-tured, theyll likely never be able tobe recognised, and that photo mightgo aroundthe world,

So, this is a part o series I

call Girl With Lots o Space

National

Museu

mof

T

eAme

ricanI

ndian

MoMA

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Andrew Wyeths Christin-eas World is an American reasure.

Id never seen it until this trip. Its a

masterpiece, no doubt, but its also

somewhat troubing because you

have no idea why shes down there,

do you? Teres no one anywhere

around, so its likely she ell on herown, or theres someone lurking

just o the canvas, and theres also

no one to help her up. I understand

that the subject or this painting was

actually mildly crippled, and Wyeth

was making a statement on that.

What really bothers me is

that I cant see her ace.

Say what you want about

the Mona Lisa being mysterious,

but you have evidence. Shes smil-

ing, a little, and shes not in pain,

in act shes in a position where we

might say shes in relative comort.

Christina? We have no idea. Has

she allen and is she in pain? Is she

simply laying on the grass lookign

out at the armhouses? Is she crying

rom having run rom the house a-ter some rebuke? What is the look

on her ace?

I consider this one o the

most beautiul and distressing

paintings Ive ever seen.

In the last 16 months, Ive

seen the two paintings that I con-

sider the true American Respresen-

tive Classics: Whistlers Mother and

Christinas World.

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Robert Rauschenberg.Te man was ballsy. Hed puttaxidermied animals on hispaintings, slap random thingstogether, and then olks wouldassign them value. His expla-nation o his work Bed is awe-

some, as he basically says hehad this quilt laying aroundand he decided to work withit, and he just thought that aBed was a good idea.

He didnt say anythingon the Museums Audio ourabout this one with an eagleon it.

o be honest, this isnot my ave o his works, thatwould be the one with the An-gora Goat on it, which I thinkis called Goat. I think Id likethis one more i there was amore obvious symbolism. Iknow, I know, thats exactlywhat hes trying ot say, thatthere is NO meaning, but i

it had been a vulture I couldspin a ton o meanings out oit, liek how it was about thecollectors o art who circleworks, picking up what theycan scavenge while they waitor artists to die so they canmake their money. HAwould have been somethingto work with, but alas, thats

not what we got!

I am a videogame historian.

I get paid to helpensure that the historyo video games is pre-sented to the genera-tions o the uture.

I also happen tohate the academic studyo video games.

Let me start bysayign that the MoMAhas a new Video GameArt exhibit, which Iound a bit conusing,but it was interesting.Te problem with ev-ery study or exhibit Iveseen about video gamesis so simple: they orgetthat no one is playingthe games or any rea-son other than theyreun. Yes, I get it thatthere are rehabilitativeorms o gaming, and

educational, but really,the truth o video gamesis entertainment, andwe dont celebrate thatwhen people write theirpapers and put togethertheir exhibits. I, like DonDraper, believe that nos-talgia is the most power-ul o emotions, and that

separates me rom them.

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I am a an o ContemporaryArt, which encompasses everythignrom Post-Modernism to Stuckistgurativism. Te MoMA denesit as art rom 1980s to today. TeMoMAs contemporary gallery isawesome. Teres David Salle, who

is one o my avorites, and theresGilbert & George, and a beautiul-ly nutty Je Koons. Tere was alsoa piece called Spanish Head Com-position by George Condo that Idnever seen.

Tis moved me.You see, its collage, as Con-

do took drawings he made and at-tached them to the canvas, thendrew a large and impressive gurein the center. Te aces are strange,some drawn out, all o them with amessy urgency. Tey are all dier-ent, all strange, its as i its an eth-nographic study o a planet wherethe inhabitants are bizarrely shapedmonsters.

Its a wonderul piece, and

Condos a very popular artist withmuseums and art curators. I cansee why. His work is very painter-ly, much more than Spanish HeadComposition would say. Condosgot something,and even his regulargurative images have a sort o bi-zarre un-worldly sense to them.

I love how an artists workmight vary all over the map and

still, theres a singular sense to it.

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My Trip to NYC