UMOCA | Bedelia

I spent some time admiring Megan Geckler and Siren Bliss last night.

Megan Geckler‘s installation was definitely the most captivating. It was called No Chance to Move Backwards and See. You really did need the “Do not touch” signs because as soon as you saw the room you are drawn in and want to go right to it. Then as you walk around you realize every angle creates a different experience.

Here’s a video of her putting together the installation at UMOCA:

The exhibit on Bliss was a completely different experience. I think one of the things that interested me most about Siren Bliss is his scale of creation. He is constantly producing. He claims to have created over 80,000 pieces. He barters his art for what he needs with no exact system in place. One day he’ll trade for stocks, the next day for prunes. He claims to have no bank account or credit card. He’s a nomad who’s known under at least six different names (Siren Bliss/Micheal Wipple/Sky Jones/Joseph Banker/Richard S. Dickens/Art Carter).

The curators made a point not to contact Bliss and to treat the exhibit like a history lesson. So nothing came directly from him; even the artwork in the displays were reproductions. To me he was portrayed like a mystical figure. It made me feel like Bliss is actually some sort of myth. Someone who gets to work with different rules. How else did he escape all the tiny little things that seem to furtively push the rest of us towards that same little streak of trivial day to day compulsions? Why does he get away with it and not us?

But then again maybe he doesn’t.

Maybe the exhibit romanticizes it. Maybe he really submits his tax returns in February, has tedious conversations with his friends about how boring and awful the DMV is, worries about high cholesterol, and dreads how much work he’ll have to do when he gets back from a long vacation. But I’m not sure I want him to have a common thread with “regular” people. I like picturing an idealized Siren Bliss picking a new name every few years, traveling the world (with his self run museum in tow), measuring his work in prunes, pantyhose, or whatever he can get his hands on, and going through gallons and gallons of paint because he just can’t stop drawing and painting. But even if it’s not that way I’d still like to see his museum one day.

It’s kind of funny because I felt like I didn’t get too see that much artwork of his; I’m mostly fascinated with his story. Isn’t it weird how being in the public eye, even on a small scale, can create a “persona” for someone? I think I may need to learn more about the real Siren Bliss. I’ve found a website with the following introduction:

“This website along with our sister site at www.bankerart.com are the only authorized websites for Sky Jones Art, and the only sites where you can communicate directly with Sky Jones. Don’t be fooled by sites pretending to represent the Bankers Art Museum and Sky Jones. You are already here.”

It seems like a good place to start.

Currently: grateful for gloves, long knit scarves, and all things warm

I love art. And cupcakes.

So this UMOCA (Utah Museum of Contemporary Arts) exhibit was perfect for me. It was called Let Them Eat Cupcakes (I went in April, I’ve been meaning to get this up for ages now). In exchange for writing your thoughts about hunger on a large index card and adding them to the exhibit you were given a cupcake. The exhibit had already been to LA so there were lots of cards to read and look at.

Me with my cupcake.

The cards had a wide variety of things. Some had funny stories, some talked about people’s philosophy about hunger and how they would solve hunger problems, some were just little kids who wanted to participate, other people complained that the resources for this exhibit should have gone to hungry people, other people wrote their own sad stories (many homeless people wrote on the cards), and a small few even offered assistance and contact information.

The cards were displayed in a tent. They were hung from the ceiling and connected with binder rings. The tent itself was decorated in bright colors and had a candy print for the back wall.

Emily’s contribution to the exhibit.

This exhibit was part of the Museum’s First Friday event, which means the exhibit (and the rest of the museum) was free to the public. I’d never been in the UMOCA before so I took this opportunity to look around and see what the museum had to offer.

One of the things we explored was the fax exhibit. This had a lot of interesting individual faxes that artists and other collaborators had contributed. We also explored a bunch of technology exhibits. A lot of them were interactive. A few of them were even games.

This was a technology exhibit that featured a loop of video featuring people “melting down” over technology.

Let Them Eat Cupcakes was a great introduction to the UMOCA. I look forward to more fun here in the future!

Currently: Spending too much time on Pinterest and watching Community

Bedelia

The less literal and fictional Amelia

Tag Archives: UMOCA

No Chance To Move Backwards And See

Let Them Eat Cupcakes!