CP #6

I took Binshan to the Museum of Fine Arts for our last conversation session. I told her that many of my friends had made art shown in the gallery, and that I hope she'd see something she liked. Binshan said she was excited, and said something along the lines of "normal people don't understand art." This began a short discussion about the objective value/impact of art, how a given piece can fall flat for one person, but move another.

Inside the museum, they were preparing for the retirement party of a faculty member. Everyone was really excited, slinging food and booze in preparation. Binshan and I pretty much had the place to ourselves. She really seemed to like this spread of ceramic creatures on 2-D chalk drawings. Her reactions to most of the artwork were very immediate; "Scary!", "Pretty...", "Ugly!" We walked into a back room exhibit with large ceremonial figures. Among the 7 foot tall jaguar, lion, owl, and ram--I asked Binshan which she'd like to have the power of. She said the Lion, because it looked more strong and fearless than the rest. I chose the owl, because it seemed to know something the others didn't, and the clay texture of its feathers was pretty wild.

We walked downstairs to see my friend Abigail's installation. It's a piece about the personal identity between two cultures. Binshan found this interesting, and liked sitting in the armchair within the installation. She seemed to like the atmosphere of it, which I think good art does.

The last piece we hung around was Holly's, outside. We only looked at it through the window, but Binshan was "wowing" about it. There's something innately sad about Holly's piece, but you can see some catharsis as well. It's a makeshift, outdoor hall of white cloths, surrounding lines of smashed pottery. I have seen this installation and related to it in the way that we all go through periods of peace and pain. Binshan talked to me about how, older generations in China would mourn the death of a loved one by hanging cloths in the same fashion. We talked about how it was brave to share your personal emotions in public. I gave thanks.