Idiotic Fascination by Vanessa Hsiao

"It’s much more than a contemporary art museum!” I explained to my brother on the phone with anger. I was totally ready to defend the museum. I was talking about the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, or Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA. I visited on March 16, 2015 and was especially drawn to Lee Boroson’s Plastic Fantastic.

Boroson’s work at Mass MoCA contains four components: Moisture Content, Deep Current, Uplift, and Subterranean Set. At the Deep Current, a machine on the ceiling released white plastic balls that fall straight down within the restrain of a net. The balls fall into a brown square box with a slanted bottom and a little opening in which the balls go in to. The balls then go through a metal pipe that goes up to the machine on the ceiling. The machine closes up the hole after the balls are released. This cycle happens about every three minutes. Though this piece of work silly and idiotic, it is actually fascinating. The white balls falling actually reminisce a waterfall. The theme of this collection is plastic but yet, it shows a different representation of nature.

The MASS MoCA is a great museum with interactive and unique art. MASS MoCA is definitely worth going if you’re interested in seeing more than an oil painting on a canvas, and Lee Boroson’s work is a good representation of that.