Let Her Glow

Let Her Glow. Beacon, New York. November 2017.

Girl meets Flavin. Girl is entranced. Dia:Beacon is the place to go to be completely immersed in contemporary art. The museum is located outside of NYC, along the Hudson River, in Beacon, New York. 

Dia Art Foundation helped spearhead the movement of converting former warehouses and industrial buildings into museums and art spaces. With the help of some artists and architects, including Robert Irwin, Dia:Beacon was converted from a 31 acre Nabisco company printing plant into the immersive art space it is today. 

This girl was sitting in her stroller until her family pulled up in front of this Flavin. Once up on her legs, she strutted immediately towards the lights. I was lucky to snap this shot right before her grandmother came into the frame to prevent her from touching the installation. I get it girl, I want to touch the Flavin too. 

L.O.V.E.

L.O.V.E. Milan, Italy. May 2015.

Milan has a sense of humor. This is one of the more fascinating sculptures in the city that one should not miss. Located in the middle of Piazza Affari, it is hidden in the business district of the city. The sculpture was created in 2010 by Maurizio Cattelan, placed in the piazza, and was only supposed to stay in the square for a couple of weeks, yet here it stands seven years later. The Milanese government decided to keep it up indefinitely. So what is Cattelan's sculpture flipping off? Well, that's the best part; the hand is placed right in front of the "Borsa" a.k.a. Italian stock exchange. While Cattelan has never explicitly said what the message of his work is, it is safe to assume that it is a big "f*ck you" bankers. It is widely accepted to be a harsh commentary on the European economic crisis that plagued Europe in 2008 and hit Italy especially hard. If the gesture itself and the placement are not explicit enough, Cattelan titled his piece L.O.V.E., an acronym for Libertà, Odio, Vendetta, Eternità (Freedom, Hate, Vengeance, Eternity). Irony at its best.

Ciao Bello

Ciao Bello. Milan, Italy. July 2015. 

One of the benefits of living in Milan is being in the middle of high fashion. The same day Expo Milano 2015 opened, so did Armani/Silos, a fashion museum dedicated to creations by Giorgio Armani. When I visited last year, Armani/Silos was hosting a retrospective exhibition displaying 40 years of Armani's works over 4,500 square meters of industrial space designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Tadao Ando. The building was actually a silo for grain in the 1950s and is now home to roughly 600 dresses and 200 accessories. Walking through the corridors, you have to fight every impulse to touch and feel everything, although, on second thought, it would be a good way of catching the attention and starting a mild flirtation with one of the black-suited models/docents.