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Ever since my house burned down, I see the moon more clearly...
This may be, hands down, the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life. Jason of Preshrunk and I wandered over to the Ashes and Snow exhibit this weekend, expecting to find a normal art gallery. This was anything but.
Ashes and Snow is a nomadic exhibit, assembled of old packing crates-- the kind on train cars. Architected by Shigeru Ban, it houses the photography of Gregory Colbert, taken in India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Dominica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tonga, Namibia and Antarctica. The images are graceful, magical, and evoke a world that doesn't seem to occupy the same space as the one I know. Men swimming with elephants, chimpanzees praying over women in canoes, children sleeping among wild-eyed cheetahs. The structure feels like a temple, propped by metal pillars that look like steel bamboo, each painting floating above a pool of gray pebbles. Music sways beneath the whole experience, reinforcing the feeling that you are now in some otherworldy elsewhere.
More amazing than the photographs are the video screens playing the same imagery-- the moment you realize that this is not staged or manipulated, the subjects really are as they appear, dancing like demons in a ring of excited hyenas.
I was awestruck. If you are near Santa Monica, the show runs till May 14, and you should definitely check it out. Already hitting Venice and NYC, the next stop appears to be Bejing. If you can't make it, check out the store for some of the prints and the DVD. (You can see more pictures of the exhibit here.)
(link)
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