An afternoon at the museum

Saturday afternoon I did one of my favorite activities and went to the art museum. It was a perfect day to go, as the sun was out and it was just hot enough to want to spend the afternoon inside with cool air conditioning. I found an exhibit on avante-garde contemporary Chinese art. I am so happy I lucked upon this museum and exhibit because the architecture and exhibit were exceptional!

The museum itself is a very modern design and one of those buildings that you think is from the future! The structure is made of glass and concrete, two of my favorite materials used in modern buildings. I took some pictures, which I am sure do not do justice to seeing the museum in person, but I tried. One of my favorite things about living in Japan, and Tokyo in particular, is that more often than not you can stumble upon thoroughly modern buildings like this all over the city, sometimes hidden between homes or buildings much, much older. It is just one of the many juxtapositions of life here!

The exhibit on avant-garde Chinese art was also really interesting. The exhibit surveyed contemporary Chinese artists from the last twenty years. Some of the artists made some normal criticisms of post-Maoist China and western industrial life, while others made points that I could not quite understand - such as having a video showing experiments on pain and the body or setting up corpses of various nationalities randomly moving around in electric wheel chairs in a large space or people dressed as pet dogs (in haute couture too!) and running around an office building barking. While it all made for an interesting exhibit, I guess I need to know more about post-modern China and Chinese culture to understand more. You, too, would need to see it to believe it, but I am not sure if you would understand any more than I. But then again, maybe you would. (And if so, please explain it to me!)

I've provided a link to the museum and the exhibit that I saw if you are interested in reading more about it (just click on this entry's title and you can go to the museum website). Saturday was just one of what I hope will be many more enjoyable weekend afternoons in my new home!

JRG