It was 2321 photographs great — An Elegant Sufficiency

Feb 4

Feb 4 It was 2321 photographs great

We are home. We have both unpacked and if it wasn’t for the fact that the washing machine is (still) needing attention, we’d have been getting on with that.

At 5.30pm last evening, the First Officer announced that he’d be flying us out of Miami on more or less a straight line to London, anticipating a shorter than usual flight time of 7 hours 30 minutes. Most importantly, he added that it was generally calm en route and he anticipated no turbulence. It was about 10pm then (I altered my watch immediately) when I put my head on my pillow and went to sleep for more or less six hours, only waking when someone offered me a bowl of fruit for breakfast.

We’d spent a great morning at the art museum, with one hitch. I stumbled on one of the steps and did something horrible to my right knee. Aaagh! Since then, I’ve been doing an impression of an old lady…

But let’s not dwell on such things. The outstanding exhibit at the Perez Art Museum was undoubtedly the work of Julio Le Parc, of whom, till now, we knew nothing.

There was a notice as we were about to enter the exhibition. Oooo.

Would I be brave enough? Of course!

To begin with, the feel was definitely “pop art”. Some black and white exploration of pattern and some even more interesting exploration of colour work with pages from sketchbooks, which I love. The larger, developed pieces were stunning – rather fun, too. After all, whose spirit can’t be lifted by a rainbow of bright, saturated colour?

Even better, we had the exhibit more or less to ourselves.

So, we had time to explore, to look closely and most important, to stand back and take as long as we wanted to consider and work it out. Because some of these pieces were simple, but oh so very clever.

By moving just a couple of feet, by looking up or down and shifting the air just the slightest bit, the patterns created by the focused lighting became mesmerising.

This piece, hung on the ceiling, had a large, 8ft square “mattress” beneath it, so we did what we thought we were meant to do. We lay on it and looked up, noticing the reflected frieze on the black walls surrounding it. How could we have done that in a packed gallery?

We could have spent all day in there, playing. These panels were suspended from the ceiling and were made from pieces of organza, weighted top and bottom but hanging freely. When we moved, the whole thing moved, shimmered and set up interference patterns. Wow.

Yes, there were other exhibits including this one by Ulla von Brandenburg. Yes, we rather liked them too.

We loved the sketchbooks revealing the experimentation which led to the creation of the finished pieces in this room.

In fact, we liked the sketchbooks more than the (enormous) finished pieces.

So much to think about, to consider and to reflect on.

How concepts and cultures are exported, shared, transmitted and absorbed.

And not restricting the art to merely visual pieces, it was interesting how the sounds of lost and endangered languages were exhibited, though by then, we were feeling hungry and a little overwhelmed. What a pity then that we can’t return to that exhibit in a few days time, to begin afresh!

So we left the galleries and retreated to the cafe for a spot of lunch in the most lovely surroundings.

We enjoyed a little swing in the comfiest of seats.

We looked over to the cruise ship terminal and wondered where they were all going this weekend. We mused on what an enormous business this is and wondered where all the people come from to fill these huge ships (Later, we looked them up here and discovered that almost all were headed for the Bahamas this weekend)