For whatever it means, and whatever it is worth, everything about today has been like this picture:
I woke up eight minutes before the alarm. The donut shop had all of the donuts I wanted. And when I ate them I wished I had one less. We had an Internet connection problem but that was going to require a tech. And the tech couldn’t come for several days. So what are you gonna do? And then they called back and said, yes, they could come out today. I had this nice ride, getting home just as it got dark. We had a delicious dinner and I’ve enjoyed terrific snacks today. I had to make a trip to Walmart, but they had everything I needed. The only problem was in waiting in line to check out. And when that’s the worst part of your day, well, everything has been like that photo.
Anyway, this is the weekly post of extra photos and videos from the week that was. They didn’t find a home, I need content for the day, it all works out well.
More of the art I discovered last week. This is called The Mediator, by Bill Brown, who was working in steel. There is a QR code on the nearby sign, it will take you to this page which discusses more about the artist than the work. So we’ll never know what this is mediating. There is an audio recording, too. Brown says the arch, as a strong architectural piece, is symbolic of addressing a modern lack of communication. So there you go. It earned second place in this juried show.
In the background there’s a solar panel and one of the campus emergency call posts. Those aren’t art. In the foreground there’s a phone booth. Only it isn’t a phone booth. If you saw just the side panel, as I did at first glance, you might think it was a hand washing station, which would be both odd and random on a sidewalk. Then you read that sign.
And then you read this sign. The fine print of which discusses facilitating and controlling prayer, which is an odd formulation. Anyway, you flip down the bench and pray fast. Because the bench isn’t that comfortable on the knees:
Ahh. “There is no literal affiliation with any particular faith per se, rather the piece aims to question the idea of prayer in the public domain. The piece fuses humor, sarcasm and sincerity, and aims to highlight and spark further discussion about the contemporary expression of religion within the public community.”
Seems the artist has been trying to sell this for a few years. Maybe if the bench was more comfortable.
It is a house. A framework of a house. A set piece from the Beetlejuice movie. Who knows.
It was inspired, I’m guessing, by episodes of Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner. Walk inside and you can feel the world closing in on you. And good luck getting out the other side.
Says the artist: “With my Bridge sculpture I created a tunnel where viewers experience the shotgun house at a human scale that then expands to the outer limits of the building, activating space outside the structure. I want the viewer to be part of an intimate space defined by walls and of another type of space defined by implied limits and exterior devices.”
Looking at this photo of a previous installation, I’m sticking with the Roadrunner explanation.
One of the bluegrass bands that played at Syrup Sopping yesterday:
