Brenda Nguyen: Museum Visit

Museum Visit

There were two galleries that I went to, one was the Center of Art Gallery at Calvin College and the other was the gallery at Frederick Meijer Gardens. The piece that caught my attention the most was Redux: Stripes for St. Joseph by Nick Kline and Amy Goldrich. There were many pieces that took part in this piece and I chose to focus on one part that especially caught my attention. This was the cross. 

ISO: 400 f/5.6 1/80

This whole collection of items was located in one full room at Frederick Meijer Gardens. There about four different black and white pictures that were on two of the walls. Each picture was different and had a different profile of a person. There were also different parts of the church included in this piece of art. There were different lights that may have been a part of the original church. There were also some old church pews that were in the right corner of the the room. There was also a cross that was on the left side of the room that was sticking almost straight out to give the shadow of the cross on the wall. This is what I found most intriguing and what I took a picture of. 

The reason that I enjoyed this piece was because it was scattered but somehow fit together. It gave multiple things to look at and consider. The placing of the objects was important especially when looking at the cross. The artist could have had it standing straight up but instead had it give off a shadow. I also enjoyed this because of the eerie feeling that was given off with the use of old church objects like the pews and lights. 

My interpretation of the piece would be looking at how each of the members in the pictures belong to a certain community and how this church was important to the community. I would also interpret this by noticing how many of the pieces are old and are supposed to allow the viewer to see how this is based from St. Joseph. With the majority of the pieces being dark and antique it gives off this idea of how it's falling apart. When looking at the different pictures of the people and the different pieces of the church items, it makes me feel like there is some brokenness between the two and it makes the viewer make some assumptions about how they relate to each other. 

My final judgment about this piece is that it is extremely intriguing. I personally do like this piece because of the different elements used by the artist as well as the openness to what a person can experience while looking at this. There is the overall idea of how the community has uncertainty and  it probably struggling. I think that cross was beautiful and made me feel this sense of peace within the uncertainty. I picked the cross as the main focus of my thoughts about this piece because it stood out to me more than the rest. I tried to show the same idea by going into our chapel and taking a picture of the cross. I especially focused on the shadows because that is what is so important and I wanted to keep the idea of the cross not being looked at straight on but rather from a different angle. 

ISO: 3200 f/4.5 1/125