24 Inches Stops the Migration
For a while there, around 9:00pm or so, the town was entirely quiet. So still outside that a gust of wind took me by surprise and made me jump to the side of the road for fear that it was a car behind me. The city's finest sodium lights are pumping out their standard orange except that with a heavy coat of white on everything the glow is much more pronounced. Cars in the parking lot behind my house have been reduced to bumps in a field of white. I felt so sorry for the pizza-man that I tipped him double the normal; the chinese delivery place wouldn't even deliver.
Due to the necessity of certain household items, I made my first trip outside of the house in the last 48 hours: no cars on the highway, no cars on the street, one person with a shovel, even the plows are idling, all the stores are closed. Providence's many televisions are turned off: news is not necessary. The forecast is obvious and prevention impossible.
Six hours later: Now. A fleet of twelve plow/salt trucks ambles by on the elevated highway outside my living room window and yet the snow has not stopped.
The Thomas Struth show up at the Met is worth a viewing if you can make it. Michael Kimmelman points out the obvious Gursky connections and does a good job of validating Struth's techno-reluctance-- not that it needs to be. What I like most about Struth's photos is that they are either so well composed and scaled that they become extremely realistic. His Gallery series, at times, plays tricks with my eyes and makes me think I am looking into another wing of the museum. Or his images hover on the edge between realism and absurdity. In this case they do not act as windows but as a magnifying glass, enhancing the viewers scrutiny of the reproduced scene. There is an interior photo of a church under construction in the show that begins to question the truthfulness of photographic representation in a way similar to Gursky's digital manipulations, but simply by happening to frame the right view at the right time with great skill in reproducing detail.
The New Hotels for Global Nomads show surprised me. I didn't expect much from it, but what I found was a nicely curated look at what I will call "hotel culture." Having expected a design exhibition (what, with the museum's name and all) it was a bit surprising at first to find something more sociological. Upon more thought I believe this was the best way to do it. Most of the designs are a bit old-hat so taking a cultural approach was critical and, ultimately, more informative. As an architectural typology hotels aren't too exciting anyway. I liked that the show itself was a little theatrical-- the wall of service bells, the mirrors to reflect a heart shaped tub downstairs, a try-it-yourself capsule hotel-- like a hotel should be. I also liked the fact that the show combines existing hotels, proposed properties, and art pieces to represent this idea they are talking about. The one thing that I wanted to know more about is the clientele for these 'new hotels.' Yes, I know who is using the love hotels. Yes, I know who is staying at the super-lux sail shaped thing in Dubai. But specifically who comprises this group of "global nomads?" Am I a global nomad because I average 2-3 stamps in my passport per year? What about someone with more than 20? Is Pico Iyer a global nomad because he was born in one country, educated in another, and resides in a third? Are international business men? The term has been used for some time now and yet I have not seen a good definition. This group of people is not defined by ethnicity so is it economic, culture, education, or simple predilection? In the end, answering this question is a much more interesting task because the specifics of that highly mobile class will define the industries that serves it. However, the exhibit gives a (somewhat one-sided) glimpse into this world and in doing so begins to expose the ultimate paradox of New Nomadicism: that it's becoming sedentary, part of our world, staying put.
p.s. if you're into that sort of thing, the full text of this site is now available in rss. find the link to the right.
--Posted 02/18/03 03:16AM