Shirin Neshat, William Kentridge and Mika Rottenberg
Disappointingly finding out the tickets for Edward Yang’s A Bright Summer Day at YBCA, I went across the street to SFMOMA. It was on the last day of Calder to Warhol, so there were many visitors. Even though, my target was Mika Rottenberg’s new work, I checked many sections of the museum. The two video works I had seen before by Shirin Neshat and William Kentridge again made me think about certain things around art making seriously again. The use of music in visual art. One of the most seductive and dangerous things. Yes, those pieces by them had much much more to talk about of course, but I am at this point focusing on music or musical aspect of a time-based art…. Well, I should write more about this sometime later…
Still images from Passage by Shirin Neshat and Philip Glass.
Well… I should say the work was so moving, but I am not sure if Philip Glass’s music was necessary. Of course, it is not thoughtful to divide a piece of art into its elements like that because an artwork is presented as one entity in front of me, and experiential wholeness is indivisible. Also, this work Passage seemed to be commissioned by Philip Glass.
William Kentridge’s Magic Flute. I have seen the piece in his retrospective exhibition at SF MoMA. Was it there?? Probably there… I cannot remember certain things lately. Mozart! Yes, his music is always the biggest question in my head, his insanity in using excessive amount of musical motifs mostly within magically crafted and well-ordered structures.
Mika Rottenberg’s work was amazing. I haven’t seen such a funny and sarcastic political work recently. It was very inspiring. Here I found an interview of her on YouTube.
Mika Rottenberg Interviewed: