Friday, April 6, 2012

My Week in Review (Cindy Sherman, A Quick Jaunt to Chicago, and My Lazy Cat)

I realize it has been a while since my last post. What can I say other than work has been really crazy. Here are a few photos from the past few weeks, which included a whirlwind week of traveling to Philadelphia and Chicago, a trip to the always inspiring Museum of Modern Art, and a narcoleptic cat.
This was the view out the plane window on my flight back from Chicago. I was literally in Chicago for 6 hours total - flew out at 6am and back that afternoon. I had to go give a last minute presentation for work, and to be honest I was a little nervous. I spent the entire plane ride there prepping for the presentation, but for the plane ride back I purchased Glamour and Rolling Stone magazines, some granola bars and coconut water, and spent the 2 hour flight alternating between reading articles on Jennifer Lawrence (I saw the Hunger Games and am now obsessed (and apparently so is every magazine)) and enjoying the view out the airplane window (I always try to get window seats so that I can do just that). One thing that will never cease to amaze me is the view out of plane windows. I've been flying my entire life so you would think that the novelty has worn off, but every time I look out the window and see the tops of the clouds, I can't help but be fascinated by the extreme beauty and grandeur. It really is amazing that we routinely fly above the clouds, having the opportunity to look down on the earth, and yet think nothing of it...

Changing gears a bit, last weekend my husband and I went to the MOMA to see the Cindy Sherman exhibit. Although the exhibit runs through June, I really wanted to go and we both have access to free MOMA tickets through work, so we took advantage of our empty schedules on Saturday afternoon to wander through the exhibit. Verdict: I was not really impressed. Now, in full disclosure I had not seen too many Cindy Sherman pieces prior to this exhibit. I knew about her mainly from my Art History courses in college, in which we looked at a few slides of her work, focusing mainly on this one where she photographed herself in a Caravaggio portrait.
The exhibit at the MOMA was quite extensive, featuring work of hers from the 70s through to 2008. Each room had a slightly different theme but all the pieces were tied together by the main feature of her work: they were self-portraits of the artist with over-exaggerated makeup and costumes, applied to make the viewer feel slightly uncomfortable and to make a statement on the roles of woman and the extreme lengths to which they will go for appearance. As I mentioned, I was not really impressed with the exhibit but I can't articulate one solid reason why. Her photos are slightly disturbing, and they're not anything I would ever look at and think "wow, I would love to own that and hang it on my wall." Additionally, I didn't feel like here statement was all that revolutionary, but I guess her place in photography, especially as a female photographer is quite impressive, so I have to give her that.
And lastly, I did a giant load of laundry on Sunday. This by itself is not noteworthy, but right after I folded the laundry and sorted it on the couch, I took the first portion into my room to put it away, and when I returned someone had decided that the pile of clean, nicely folded clothes made the perfect bed. The first photo was snapped while she was peacefully snoozing. The second one, where she is glaring at me, was snapped after I tried to gently wake her up so that I could put the rest of the laundry away...she was not amused.