art inside: Lorraine O'Grady
Stepping back from the NYC streets I took a trip to the Brooklyn Museum and became inspired by the work of Lorraine O'Grady.
Art. One of the many building blocks of New York City, can be found anywhere and everywhere. While I like to focus on the street art, music, and people that surround me here, I think it’s important to still have an appreciation for the finer pieces through out the museums and galleries.
I’ve been to the MET, I’ve looked through their online collection plenty of times, and I’ve gone to the Swiss Institute, but one place I had not yet traversed was the Brooklyn Museum. My sister came up to visit me this past weekend and she decided to plan a little trip for us to go, her interest peaked by seeing that their new Lorraine O’Grady exhibit, Both/And, had just opened.
While the museum has a good collection of ancient art ranging from Assyrian, Egyptian, American, and European, they also dabble in other types that can be found in their exhibits, Design: 1880 to Now, John Edmonds: A Sidelong Glance, and JR: The Chronicles of New York City. Although all the art I viewed was beautiful and interesting, nothing was as awe-inspiring to me than the work of Lorraine O’Grady.
Starting on March 5, 2021 and running until July 18, 2021, The Brooklyn Museum is hosting Lorrain O’Grady: Both/And, an exhibit featuring twelve of O’Grady’s major projects she’s produced over the years, with five of them featured through out collection galleries in the museum. Some of her pieces currently on exhibit include Cutting Out The New York Times, Rivers, First Draft or The Woman in Red, Body Is The Ground of My Experience, and my personal favorite, Art Is…
The Cutting Out The New York Times reminded me of black out poetry. Some of the poems resonated with me more than others like one that said, “In the Beginning Crazy Love Tomorrow Personal Landmarks,” another I found funny. It exclaimed, “Relax. You can’t be replaced by a machine.” Viewing Body Is The Ground of My Experience inspired me. It felt like a collage, and I enjoy making my own art that way. With Rivers, First Draft, I found the photographs to be extremely interesting and intriguing. They told a story, almost from the point of view of multiple people, and while I enjoyed the oddness of it, I found a closer, personal connection to Art Is…
People walking, smiling, holding gold frames. Happiness, pureness. Laughter exudes from this piece. Wholesome, is the easiest way for me to describe it. Seeing it in person evoked more emotions in me than I was expecting to feel when visiting the museum. While I learned that through this piece O’Grady was showing that avant-garde art can be black, for me it was able to evoke feelings of joy and being with friends. The frames, holding them up to people’s faces as they exclaimed, “I’m art!” “You’re art!” reminded me of one of my own experiences in early October.
One of my friends, who I had only met once prior at the time, was carrying around a large, wooden picture frame painted white and a much smaller gold one. Holding it up to people he would tell them they were pieces of art, saying they were so beautiful. I was with a friend when he approached us. Holding the smaller one up to us and speaking in a random, European pirate accent, he jokingly said “Look at the two wenches!” We acted as if were offended and messed with him about it for a bit but, that moment represented the beginning of our friendship.
To me, that’s the really beautiful thing about art. Out of nowhere, You can have such a profound reaction to it. The happiness in Art Is… reminded me of the happiness and laughter I shared with my friends in that moment. Along with the picture frames being placed in front of people sharing joyous moments, I was able to find similarities between the piece and my own experiences.
It’s like they say, life imitates art, and Lorraine O’Grady proved that for me.