These were all found in the strip district on our walk to what was an excellent breakfast of pancakes and chorizo and eggs at Pamela's. The line actually DOES move pretty fast but we still wandered around while we waited and found amazing foccacia from Mancini's Bread Company down the street. We bought one to eat then and two to take with us on our way back home.
- The event that brought us north was held at the Mattress Factory, a great small museum that shows contemporary art. We got the chance to tour the galleries, view installation works by James Turrell, Sarah Oppenheimer, and two Yayoi Kusama mirror rooms. We had a blast playing there and not just because we got to celebrate two great people.
- Even with the Mattress Factory as a given I was still able to convince my husband to check out more contemporary art at the Warhol Museum, I have no idea how that happened. Despite his ubiquity, I still got to see Warhol works that were new to me such as his video works, a full floor was devoted to them, the Silver Clouds (more about that later), and canvases covered in diamond dust. Warhol TV! What an amazing concept I was too young to appreciate while it was on. On the few I spent time with I saw interviews with Halston, other artists such as Cindy Sherman, and roundtable discussions where Andy presides.
- Even though we past this vista numerous times, tucked between more
contemporary buildings, each time we passed it again, I kept thinking it
looked like a John Sloan painting. Maybe something like this one?- The Silver Clouds, a sight from the Silver Factory, bobbed and dipped in a room, buoyed and pushed along by strategically placed fans. You can wander through the room gently pushing the "clouds" out of the way or pretend you're Mario or Luigi and duck away from them as you speed through. We were able to see them at Artisphere in Rosslyn, VA too! Two silver cloud installations in a month, not a small feat and the installations were so different that it was truly two experiences.
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| Image of Silver Clouds from Artisphere.com |
The space at Artisphere was much larger so it was easier to avoid the clouds if you wanted to just step back and watch others interact with them as opposed to being almost completely immersed in flying objects in Pittsburgh. There were many more in Rosslyn but so many had lost their buoyancy that there was an entire layer of silver at floor level, obscuring your feet and the ground beneath them. This was cause for some concern for the one-year old we had in our group but as soon as he realized he could affect the course of the clouds, he changed his view of the exhibit.
- Lastly, we wandered the University of Pittsburgh campus before I left for the airport, touring the Cathedral of Learning Nationality Rooms. Some were more interesting than others and there were varying levels of execution. What I thought was even better was this....
Gardners: Warhol, 1095-96. John Sloan, amazingly the entire Ashcan School is omitted.
