Friday, March 17, 2017

High-tech robots or Alice in Wonderland, MASS MoCA has it all

MASS MoCA


review by Shannon Wu


            History to contemporary; factory to museum. MASS Museum of Contemporary Art, MASS MoCA, was once a factory. In 1986, the city of which MASS MoCA was located, North Adams, was seeking for creative ways to re-use the area after the factory had closed down; therefore, it was turned into a museum. This also made what was different about MASS MoCA than other museums. As you walk through the museum, you can still see the old pipes on the walls and ceilings, which gives you the factory-feel as you are enjoying the art pieces. 
            There were tremendous amount of exhibitions in MASS MoCA considering the size of the museum was huge. You could spend all day in there and still might not go through all the art work in there. Maybe that’s their trick to have people go back to the museum. Anyway, out of all the unrepeatable exhibitions, the Radical Small Exhibit by Elizabeth King was outstanding from all others. Using extremely small tools, Elizabeth King successfully created incredibly realistic human sculptures and features. Looking at her work made the possibility of human robots in the future become more present. Art is no longer in its own category anymore. Everything in the world is connected somehow. In this case, technology, human body, and art were joined to create this unbelievable exhibition.
            Another notable exhibition was Until created by Nick Cave. Displayed in a huge room, crystals were hung from the ceiling to make into giant chandeliers. A room-full of these crystals made you feel as if you were in Alice Wonderland. After walking through the giant chandeliers, it was a magical, floating tree world. You had to climb up these tall stairs that were only allowed to be on one person at a time to enjoy the otherworldly piece of art. The stairs extended a little bit into the art; therefore as you were on the top of the stairs, it seemed as you were a part of the cartoon-like world with all the different kinds of creatures Nick Cave decided to display as part of the art work.

            Everyone exhibition is unique and unrepeatable. MASS MoCA is a museum full of surprises and would never bore you.

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