An art exhibition Saturday at the Meat Market Gallery in Dupont—Lisa Blas’s “Meet Me at the Mason Dixon.” It was small, but reasonably varied as Blas works in different media—it consisted of four paintings, about eight prints and an “installation” wall: a collage, a kind of large workbook that leads her through what she’s thinking about. While I really enjoyed hearing the artist talk about the exhibition, I was struck by a sense that without this wall of material, the exhibition would feel adrift. And though Blas now feels that the wall collage is “finished” it’s the one piece not for sale. I sometimes wonder about these types of installation pieces, because to move them involves a disassembly—without even going into the conservation nightmare (practical impossibility?) involved with the handful of newspaper clippings. But then, even as a “finished” piece, it’s transitory nature is what makes it so charming, and fascinating. She had a few pieces of text—on in particular, braiding biographical details of three historical figures whose lives had led them to areas around the Mason-Dixon line. This braiding as a form struck me as useful—both for thinking about the structure of the exhibition, but also potentially as something to explore for myself. (Good poets borrow, great poets…) I’m sure my father would be pleased that I chose an exhibition with Civil War associations rather than just any old exhibition!
I vanquished Sir Walter Scott last night, which leads me—delightedly—to George Eliot and
Daniel Deronda. This last book of the semester for National Identity and the Nineteenth Century Novel. It is one I haven’t read before, though I am crazy for George Eliot. Somehow, I just didn’t get there. So—it’s a treat, although it will also be fairly intense reading loading with that alongside study for the final papers for Milton and Contemporary Poetry (or, as I more often think of latter, “Gewanter”). Reading poetry in my spare time—Lorca. Beautiful.
An art exhibition Saturday at the Meat Market Gallery in Dupont—Lisa Blas’s “Meet Me at the Mason Dixon.” It was small, but reasonably varied as Blas works in different media—it consisted of four paintings, about eight prints and an “installation” wall: a collage, a kind of large workbook that leads her through what she’s thinking about. While I really enjoyed hearing the artist talk about the exhibition, I was struck by a sense that without this wall of material, the exhibition would feel adrift. And though Blas now feels that the wall collage is “finished” it’s the one piece not for sale. I sometimes wonder about these types of installation pieces, because to move them involves a disassembly—without even going into the conservation nightmare (practical impossibility?) involved with the handful of newspaper clippings. But then, even as a “finished” piece, it’s transitory nature is what makes it so charming, and fascinating. She had a few pieces of text—on in particular, braiding biographical details of three historical figures whose lives had led them to areas around the Mason-Dixon line. This braiding as a form struck me as useful—both for thinking about the structure of the exhibition, but also potentially as something to explore for myself. (Good poets borrow, great poets…) I’m sure my father would be pleased that I chose an exhibition with Civil War associations rather than just any old exhibition!
I vanquished Sir Walter Scott last night, which leads me—delightedly—to George Eliot and Daniel Deronda. This last book of the semester for National Identity and the Nineteenth Century Novel. It is one I haven’t read before, though I am crazy for George Eliot. Somehow, I just didn’t get there. So—it’s a treat, although it will also be fairly intense reading loading with that alongside study for the final papers for Milton and Contemporary Poetry (or, as I more often think of latter, “Gewanter”). Reading poetry in my spare time—Lorca. Beautiful.
