Mrs. Poirier and I attended an Educator's workshop on Wednesday evening at the Museum of Fine Arts. The lecture and tour were centered around the new exhibition: Megacities Asia. We were able to hear from one of the co-curators, Laura Weinstein, about how the show was selected, the background of the artists, as well as context to the large installations around the museum.
Each artist is from a city in Asian that has over ten million inhabitants. To put that into perspective, Boston has roughly 650,000 inhabitants, New York City has 8.4 million. These artists are exhibiting large installations--sculptural pieces that may change based on where they are installed--that deal with cultural changes over time, material use (for example plastics can be used for good and also create lots of trash), and also how people are adapting to the ever changing world.
The images taken while on our visit have subtitles to give some background or information that I feel will help viewers understand what the artist was using as material and also what is the commentary they are hoping to bring to light.
These sorts of workshops are fascinating because often when looking at these installations we may not have enough information to understand the artist's point of view. We can certainly hypothesize and reflect on those pieces from our own point of view but often our limited experiences can sway those thoughts in certain directions. I have never been to a megacity, and I have never been to Asia--so my feelings or impressions of the artwork would be vastly different than perhaps a teacher or student from Mumbai or Shanghai.
Well--enough writing--take a look at these amazing pieces. Hopefully you will find the time to visit the Museum on your own! The Abington Public Library has discounted passes here.
