EYE-CONIC

 

This sculpture was in the background of yesterday’s post. I referred to it as iconic for Laumeier Sculpture Park. It was only later that I realized that this was an opportunity for a really terrible pun.

Odd that there is not a hint of an optic nerve in the back.                       

STATE SURVEILLANCE

Likely the most popular work at Laumeier Sculpture park is Tony Tasset's Eye, https://www.laumeiersculpturepark.org/tony-tasset-2007. The descriptions and interpretations provided by art venues, as in this link, are mostly written by curators. They may speak to the creators' ideas or to scholarship but I wonder how much they resonate with the average viewer. They don't always resonate much with me. Eye creeps me out. Big Brother might be watching you if it could move around.           

I SEE BEER

A change of scene to the big art fair at Laumeier Sculpture Park. Tony Tasset's Eye must be looking for something other than the beer truck. I'd take a left.          

Madeleine Monday

There was an event Saturday evening at Laumeier Sculpture Park called Light The Way. The reference is to the monumental structure at the end of the park's great lawn. It was mostly for children: lawn games, crafts, face painting and so on.

Ellie had a great time. The adults did not. It was cold. The lines at the food and beer trucks were awful. There was a least a half-hour long line for face painting; we were fortunate to talk her out of that.

The kid was happy to pose with  Tony Tasset's Eye. Her Nepalese leopard hat added a certain touch. I didn't know which picture I preferred so I used both. Below, she is enclosed in the arms of Niki de Saint Phalle's Ricardo Cat.  

       

Big Brother Is Watching You

So I had to go to a hardware store last weekend a bit further out in the suburbs. As usual, I needed blog material and had no ideas. The store was very near Laumeier Sculpture Park, a 76 acre haven of art and nature amidst our suburban sprawl. Hadn't been there for a while so let's go see what's up. 

Many visitors' strongest impression of the park is Tony Tasset's Eye. The description in this link strikes me as art babble but there is no question of its power. Think of it as a metaphor of what every web site you ever visited has done to you.    

The Vision Thing

The phrase was coined by someone else, but here it is, in your face, a mote in your eye bigger than your whole body. Tony Tasset's Eye is the must-have-a-snap sculpture for visitors to Laumeier Sculpture Park. However, it's something you need to think about for a while. The description on the park's website (click the link) is a bit of art babble. Better if you can sit by it and consider the associations that come from this disembodied organ, 12 feet / 3 2/3 meters in diameter. I think it's terribly creepy.                   

The Vision Thing

.

You did not have to go through a security check to enter the art fair at Laumeier Sculpture Park but you did have to pass by an inspection of sorts. This is Eye by Tont Tasset. There is no further information on the park's web site. It's at least two meters in diameter. You can interpret it all sorts of ways: observe the observer; anatomy class for giants; really big brother is watching you; the world's biggest ocular prosthesis; wow, man, that is really freaky; and on and on. What do you, uh, see in it?

By the way, the title of this post refers to a quote by former president George H. W. Bush (George I), something he said when he was asked why he wasn't paying more attention to the long term needs of the country.


There is a new Arch photo
today on GATEWAY. About time.


TOMORROW: at least someone is.