Night at the (Chrysler) Museum

I've been meaning to take advantage of the Chrysler Museum's extended Wednesday hours for a while. Tonight J. & I were getting ready for dinner, and I turned to him and said, "Hey, want to go see some art?" He was into the idea, so we grabbed the baby (already in her jammies) and drove downtown to do just that.

There was one exhibit I especially wanted to see, by Pinaree Sanpitak. Basically, it involved a bare room full of these pobby silk shapes inspired by Buddhist stupas. WITH a hidden surprise...when you got close to the stupas, or touched them in any way, they began to vibrate and make a sort of chiming/buzzing/moaning sound.

If you weren't expecting it, it could be a little scary.

The second exhibit we saw was "Charlotte's Web" by Charlotte Potter, a series of beautiful cameos (each one representing one of the artist's 864 Facebook friends) linked together by delicate chain. It was intricate and sly and humorous and I have a renewed love for cameos, now. 

I think we were the only ones in the museum (besides the staff), which was a really subversive and special feeling -- as though all of these amazing objects and paintings had been laid out just for us. We drifted through rooms of ancient pottery, passed walls of antique kimonos with outstretched arms, and knelt down to examine an Egyptian sarcophagus...  I could have spent hours pouring over everything but we were creeping up on bedtime and so we left. But not without planning to come back very soon. 

So that's the story of how a spur of the moment whim became one of my favorite outings ever.  Isn't it nice how that works?
 


FYI: Next Wednesday is Halloween, and the Chrysler is open until 9 PM again -- if you're in the area, you should stop by to see the staff dress up in costumes representing their favorite works of art in the museum! We would be there except we already have plans...somebody please go and tell me how awesome it was?