Black Friday & University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Waking up around 5 a.m. on Black Friday to visit major retailers with my handheld field-recording devices has developed into an annual ritualistic comportment over the past few years. The massive sonic scenery of the crowd swarming toward doorbusters was extraordinary, and to me, this was the sound symbolizing the love, adoration, and the holiday spirit of the beautiful everyday-people.

 

I said goodbyes to the supersized stores and the seasonal excitements a little bit after the daybreak, driving through undisturbed streets after streets while Arthur Grumiaux’s Bach violin partitas slowly growing a warm musical cocoon inside the car. This Black Friday morning was particularly cute and peaceful, I thought, very much like sleepwalking on the bottom of the Antarctic Ocean with my favorite dreams. I hummed along with Grumiaux, softly, and was suddenly overrun by flocks of pristineness and serenity.

A quick and impromptu stop in front of the Don L. Love Memorial Library located at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s city campus was prolonged into a short walk with my camera in the mildly chilled 13th & ‘R’ Streets area. I strolled around, quietly, hoping to steal few gorgeous shots before the muse of Black Friday being disturbed from her long and soundless beauty sleep.

Comments Off / Nov 27.09 / Photo, Travel / by Jen-Kuang Chang

Fashion I

Fashion I | 2006 | Jen-Kuang Chang

Spending this seasonably chilly night to unhurriedly categorize Fashion, a series of graphics completed a few years back, was starting to feel like watching the remake of Planet of the Apes without the complimentary popcorn and soda. I handled myself, little by little, with some extraneous thoughts developed after rereading Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and few petite bites of Hachez Chocolatier’s Premier Cru, the divineness of 88% cocoa with cocoa nibs from Germany. Helplessly invincible, I felt. The process of this prolonged categorization was then carried on, scene by scene, with the pleasant accompaniment of The Cave of the Yellow Dog, directed by Byambasuren Davaa, and Mongolian Ping Pong, directed by Ning Hao.

No Comments / Nov 24.09 / Graphics / by Jen-Kuang Chang

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis

The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis felt more like a minimalistic boonies when I entered it. It was an eventless Wednesday afternoon after all. I decorously circled through the group exhibition, titled “For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there,” like a civilized zombie hungry for the art. I stared at Bruno Munari’s Seeking comfort in an uncomfortable armchair, transfixed, like gawking down a helpless victim before depriving the essence of time out of her. A line from Dexter, “loneliness is an art form,” doggedly circumnavigated around me during my entire visit to this space. Few reasons for that particular occurrence, but there were inadequate ones as usual.

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis

No Comments / Nov 24.09 / Art, Travel / by Jen-Kuang Chang

Laumeier Sculpture Park

 

My mind was unfrozen by the unusually warm November morning while driving toward Laumeier Sculpture Park located in the outskirt of St. Louis. Pristine visual memory of Louise Bourgeois’s enormous spider sculpture flashed with her remark, invading my abysmal sense of direction, bit by bit.

“Emotions are universal. The artist has access to his unconscious through his work. This is a gift, and it is magic. My work does not need any words, by me or anybody else. I don’t owe an explanation of why I work or what the work means to anybody. I only know that I need to make it, that I feel better after I have made it, and that’s magic.

I aimlessly chewed her words with Per Nørgård’s Konstellationer quietly sound. Bourgeois’s observation of artistic process is charming. It excluded myself from the artistic circle with poise as I can’t recall ever experiencing the enchanting magic of feeling better after art-making process. Bummer.

Hertitage Schooner for Debra Lakin | George Greenamyer | Photo by Jen-Kuang Chang

Laumeier Sculpture Park greeted me with Ricardo Cat by Niki de Saint Phalle. I stood in front of it for 4’33” with all my goofiness before initiating my hour-long magical conversations with sculptures, landscapes, and spotless sky. A big chuck of time was spent near Hertitage Schooner for Debra Lakin by George Greenamyer, trying to steal a quick peek of her choice of piano music to beguilingly steer through her life. With a little help from my Nikon zoom lens, I was finally able to conclude this little investigation. “Something Debussy!” I determined, looking forward to have some Clair de lune for myself on my way back to the city as well.

Laumeier Sculpture Park | 2009 | Photo by Jen-Kuang Chang

Laumeier Sculpture Park

No Comments / Nov 17.09 / Art, Photo, Travel / by Jen-Kuang Chang

Holland Performing Arts Center

The Holland Performing Arts Center, located right next to Omaha’s Old Market District and Gene Leahy Mall, was opened in October 2005. The design of the center was inspired by The Musikverein in Vienna, the home to the Vienna Philharmonic, featuring the 2,000-seat Peter Kiewit Concert Hall and 400-seat Suzanne & Walter Scott Recital Hall.

The Holland Performing Arts Center

No Comments / Nov 11.09 / Music, Travel / by Jen-Kuang Chang