Sep 9, 2012 | music
This song is much more intense than Regina’s usual jam, but I think that’s what makes it so great – you’re not expecting it. And the best part is, the whole song’s about art! She’s lamenting over the captivity of masterpieces, destined to spend eternity locked away in museums because of how beautiful they are.
As a “free the art” kind of girl, I like to think that this song is about the selfishness of the museums, for hoarding away all these masterpieces and holding them ransom for admission prices. I personally believe that some material items exist in a sphere of magnificence above price – they’re too beautiful to be bought, and should belong to the people. Of course, since the museums can’t go giving each of us a Van Gogh or a piece of the Dead Sea Scrolls, their responsibility is to keep these items safe; to preserve them for us and our children and our children’s children.
But no matter what, these works should always belong to the collective society, who put up with things like visiting hours because that’s bearable to exchange for our masterpieces’ safety, plus we can’t expect museum workers to have an overnight shift. But things like outrageously high admission prices and “museum storage” are things we shouldn’t have to put up with. The museum doesn’t need $20 from an art student who wants to draw after the Greek greats, and it shouldn’t ever NOT be showcasing a work of art that we deserve to see. If they’re not going to have it on display, they should donate it to a smaller museum that will. I get that you like to rotate some exhibits to “keep things fresh,” but your need to have new items in your next email newsletter is not a good enough reason to hide priceless, timeless items from some of the greatest civilizations and people who ever lived.
So that’s what I like to think Regina is singing about in this song, but I know it can’t be that specific. I don’t know where the rowboats are trying to row off to, but nothing lasts as long as the stuff as museums, so maybe it’s just a desire to be mortal – to be real. Maybe they miss the artists who made them and died centuries ago, or maybe instead they represent those artists and that’s why it’s nothing but a mausoleum… And that’s why this song it so great.
Check out Regina’s “All the Rowboats” music video and lyrics below.
What do you think she’s singing about?
All the rowboats in the paintings
They keep trying to row away
And the captains’ worried faces
Stay contorted and staring at the waves
They’ll keep hanging in their gold frames
For forever, forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away
Hear them whispering French and German
Dutch, Italian, and Latin
When no one’s looking I touch a sculpture
Marble, cold and soft as satin
But the most special are the most lonely
God, I pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing, how to sing
First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences
It’s their own fault for being timeless
There’s a price to pay and a consequence
All the galleries, the museums
Here’s your ticket, welcome to the tombs
They’re just public mausoleums
The living dead fill every room
But the most special are the most lonely
God, I pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing
They will stay there in their gold frames
For forever, forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away
First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences
It’s their own fault for being timeless
There’s a price to pay and a consequence
All the galleries, the museums
They will stay there forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away…
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Sep 8, 2012 | news, political art
The Divided State of America is a collection of huge spray paintings by renowned artist Chor Boogie, all with representations of the issues we’re facing in modern politics. The exhibition was shown throughout the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC, with all events hosted by entrepreneurs.
They also hosted a symposium yesterday afternoon during the convention, gathering prominent minds in different fields and asking them fundamental questions about why America is so polarized right now ,and how we can resolve all these huge differences before the election.
This collection will also feature at a later series of public events around the country in preparation for the presidential election in November.
For more info check out their Facebook page here.
And you can read the original story on BrooklynStreetArt.com here.
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They’re powerful images for sure, almost too violent – although I suppose it could be argued that the current state of things warrants all that harshness.
I spent a good part of yesterday catching up on all the major speeches from both conventions, and the differences in the rhetoric were absolutely ridiculous. It was like they were speaking two different languages.
Like with climate change: Mitt Romney made a sarcastic face 16 seconds too long while everyone in the room cracked up at the “sea level rising” – and Obama treats that same issue with the seriousness and respect of our children’s futures.
The differences are too big now. The gulf is so wide that understanding and compromise now seem so impossible, because hard-heartedness and violence has filled up that space.And these spray paintings by Chor Boogie certainly have that intense quality to them. Almost like propaganda for a war. It’s them versus us – the powerful few against the less powerful many.
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PAIN AT THE PUMP
One side advocates the use of nuclear power and the expansion of oil drilling. The other for the construction of windmills and solar panels. And yet, both solutions are not enough – waning resources are insufficient to support America’s continued consumption, and the economy is suppressed by Wall Street, continuing wars, and our unsustainable growth. The same gas that fuels American productivity forms the noose that may one day hang us.
Can America pledge allegiance to finding sustainable solution? |
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ANNUIT COEPTIS
On every dollar bill, the Great Seal of the United States seals our fate with Annuit Coeptis, Latin for “He approves of the undertakings.” Since the Citizens United decision, centers of power – not the individual – approve of the undertakings of American politicians over the heads of working citizens. Atlas-like Americans have been rendered silent by this influence in a society intended to be of the people, by the people, for the people.
How do we restore the voice of the people as the political authority in the United States? |
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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
For a nation built on the idea that all men are created equal, prejudice divides us at the polls and on the streets. Gone are of Lincoln’s log cabins and the fifty years since we sent man into space, and yet our youth are still targeted by “the man” and his manmade means of oppression. The Pursuit of Happiness remains in fierce competition with the deadly forces of injustice, prejudice, and inequality.
How can all Americans be truly endowed with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? |
**All captions and images from the Divided State of America Facebook page here.
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Sep 4, 2012 | Brooklyn Museum, features, museums
This post was meant to precede the Brooklyn Museum’s Target First Saturday this past weekend, but as it turns out, they didn’t even have it this month because of the West Indian-American Day Parade. The first Saturday of every month, the Brooklyn Museum allows free admission for everyone, and hosts a number of (pretty rowdy) events from 5pm-10pm, sponsored by Target.
But truth be told, the Target First events are pretty distracting from the art you’re there to see. The museum was packed full when I visited on the first Saturday of August, and it’s clear that most everyone is there for the drinking and music, with very few people bothering to look at all the beautiful things surrounding them.
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Blossom
by Sanford Biggers, 2007 |
The outside of the building is incredible – neoclassical architecture reminiscent of the Met, with statues of Old Testament prophets and Greek philosophers lining the exterior. You’d never guess that the inside is fully modernized with glass panels and exposed brick leading you into the center lobby that all the art revolves around.
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Maximum Sensation
by Mounir Fatmi, 2010 |
The first floor’s Great Hall exhibit is overwhelming. They’ve collected and curated pieces that in no way go together, but it’s interesting to compare these works that came from completely opposite times and cultures. They call it, Connecting Cultures, A World in Brooklyn and it focuses on three simplistic themes: connecting places, people, and things, with juxtaposed artworks for each section. One of my favorite pieces from the whole museum was sitting just outside this exhibit: a piano (working keyboard included) with a tree growing up out of the center of it. It’s called “Blossom,” and could have only been more beautiful if the tree was actually real.
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Grey Area (Brown Version)
by Fred Wilson, 1993 |
The first floor is also home to a pretty extensive collection of African art. The art of Asia and the Isalmic World finds a home on the second floor, and they have nearly a whole floor’s worth of Ancient Egyptian work, complete with decorated walls and ceilings matching the ancient vibe. The third floor also has a fantastic collection of European art surrounding the open court below. It’s separated by country, with translations of each description, determined by the nationality of the artist.
The fourth floor has a lot of great contemporary pieces also circling the open court, one floor directly above the European paintings. Here you can find Mounir Fatmi’s “Maximum Sensation” from 2010: beautifully decorated felt-covered skateboards skattered about on the floor. Walk a bit farther and there’s Fred Wilson’s “Grey Area (Brown Version)”, five different solid shades of the iconic Cleopatra bust lined up in the center of an alarmingly yellow wall from lightest to darkest.
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Female Model on a Rocker
by Philip Pearlstein, 1977-78
American Art, 5th floor |
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On the fifth floor is the Luce Center for American Art, with everything from Native American artifacts to portraits of George Washington; everything from sixteenth century to contemporary American work. The most remarkable part of the museum is here on this floor: the Brooklyn Museum’s Visible Storage Center, where you can see all the works not on view, organized by numbers in clear glass cases. There’s shelves upon shelves of sculptures and rows upon rows of paintings, plus computer screens where you can search for anything you might be looking for. There’s even smaller, more fragile works stored in protective metal drawers.
I loved being taken behind the scenes in this special exhibit, and I honestly believe it’s something every larger-scale museum should have. If the works aren’t being used in a particular themed gallery, that doesn’t mean your visitors should be kept from them, especially since it’s just museum management’s decision to hide them away. Share all your art all the time – because why not?
See all my Brooklyn Museum photos in the Flickr set here.
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As a “free the art” kind of girl, I like to think that this song is about the selfishness of the museums, for hoarding away all these masterpieces and holding them ransom for admission prices. I personally believe that some material items exist in a sphere of magnificence above price – they’re too beautiful to be bought, and should belong to the people. Of course, since the museums can’t go giving each of us a Van Gogh or a piece of the Dead Sea Scrolls, their responsibility is to keep these items safe; to preserve them for us and our children and our children’s children. 
