i had all day sunday before i had to depart for the airport, so i spent the day driving around detroit in the snow. yes, there was snow and it's only november. as a result, my original plans of driving around with the aid of design*sponge's detroit guide had to be scrapped, as did my hunt for the lafayette park area featured in this month's dwell magazine. what to do on a nasty cold snowy day in a city you're not familiar with? head to a museum, and that's exactly what i did.
i spent most my 3+ hours in the detroit institute of arts inside michael graves-designed expansion that houses most of their contemporary art, where i was amazed by this life-sized motorcycle meticulously constructed of wood. (forgive me, dia, i didn't catch the artist's name).
i was also particularly impressed with the special exhibit devoted paper artist jane hammond who works with rubber stamps, copy machines, silkscreens, etc. to create the most elaborate (and inspirational) collages. this show made me swear to myself never to send another naked postcard. embellishments will always be a must from now on. i'll just have to travel with a glue stick and scissors.
i also spent an inordinate amount of time staring at the enormous murals of industry by diego rivera.
he sure can pack a lot of symbolism into a work and if it weren't for the dia's free hi-tech handheld computer tours, i wouldn't have figured out an ounce of it.
thank god for museum technology. it turns out that rivera's masterpiece is not only a depiction of the power of technology and industry in american society but also a cautionary tale of its potential harm. yeah, i might have figured that out even without the computer, but what the hey...
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