Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Gabriel Orozco's Graphite on gray whale skeleton




So I went to the MoMA over break (mostly to see the Tim Burton feature exhibit... I'll get to that later) but while meandering through the other exhibits I saw this whale installation. I think it is AWESOME. The curator tag said that it took over 1,000 graphite pencils and about 12 people to do the line-design work on the bones.

This piece was intended to fill the atrium of a library's ceiling. The way it is displayed in the MoMA is really interesting. You can see it from not only different angles in the round, but from different levels (as exhibited in the balcony shot... yea, that's me in that far window.) I really like that Gabriel Orozco not only used an unusual canvas of animal bones, but used line work to force the viewer to look at each individual bones, instead of just seeing a whale skeleton and walking off (Not to mention that it has really beautiful lighting and ergo, beautiful shadows.) I would definitely recommend going to the MoMA and seeing this piece up close. (Just so you know, all SUNY and CUNY kids get in free. Go!)