The other day, I took a detour to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and I’m so glad I did.
In addition to a really bizarre but fantastic Nathalie Djurberg exhibition (featuring papier-mâché birds and short films that are the stuff of nightmares), I came upon a very interesting art installation exhibition exposition whatever.
One of its components was a DJ station equipped of the artist’s personal collection of vinyl records. I exclaimed to the guide, “WHY WOULD HE DO THAT?!” (If those records were in Houston, they would be gone. I grew up around Houston so I can say that.)
Along one wall – another component of the exhibition – invited visitors to leave something of theirs behind on a gigantic shelf.
I saw a receipt, a handwritten note, a hat, little doodads. I didn’t leave anything, nor would I have even if I’d had anything other than my wallet and phone on me. It’s one thing to put my writing on the Internet and in magazines, another to put my personal thoughts on my blog, and yet another to put a personal object that has been in my hands, my pockets, my room. My words are more representative of my personality than the things that I own, and I feel uneasy about people judging me based on things. (Besides, what would future employers think of my Hello Kitty toys?)
Anyhoo, I took with me a little workbook that contains questions “devised by the artist as an aid to thinking about memories, experiences, and ideas…” My personal challenge over the next to weeks is to answer each of the eight questions in the workbook.
So if you’re tired of me emo-ing all over my blog, you’d better stay away for a while… or buy me dinner to a really nice restaurant for me to write a fun review about.
Words by Jenna 