BMA: Katharina Grosse (1961 - )

The other contemporary artist's who installation at the Baltimore Museum of Art that I will share with you is by German born, Katharina Grosse. It was a single piece. Monumental in size. Took up the entirety of of the largest gallery in this section of the museum. A work of hung fabric that could only be compared to a Sam Gilliam (1933 - ) on steroids! I can see were some might not know what to do with this piece, let alone what to make of it. And that is the thing that people don't get about art. Whether it's da Vinci (1452-1519) or Chakaia Booker (1953 - ) the artist is not trying to create something easy to comprehend. And if you stop at the surface, you've not experienced the fullness of ART. Art is always an onion; and while, there aspect of art that are less challenging, there will always be components that only intentional participation can expose. And with all art--let me say that again: ALL ART--the power it possess to enrich your life comes not from the object, but from your willingness to engage with the object.

People do this all the time without consciously realizing it when they invest sentimental attachments to art, when they have visceral reactions to art, when they remember the art, days, months, even years after first encountering it. Art will speak to you, because that's what art does. In return, we can cultivate our ability to listen to art. When you do, you will come to understand that it doesn't matter what art tells you--it is right. Even if you are the only person who can hear it, it is right.

Join me then, and I will tell you what this art said to me.

Psst!  Hey you!  Yes, you.  Stop wasting your time with Lisa's tit paintings and come see me.

What are you!?  Are you an Angel?  Are you a Circus Tent?  Are you a Trap?

Yes.  

And you expect me to just walk through this slit of an opening?

Expectations are a waste of time.  But you will enter, because you can.

So, you're not going to give me a straight answer?

Only if you ask me a straight question...now, stop wasting time.

And why are you looking over your shoulder?  Do you think you can't get out?

Maybe.

Getting out, like getting in, is up to you.

What are you thinking?

Seriously?  Um, Jonah in the Belly of the Whale meets Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Coat.

So who are you?  Jonah, or Joseph!

Suddenly, I am neither.  I am John Wesley Powell with delusions of being the first person to travel down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon!

[smug silence], then: 

The magic is working.

Is that the face of a Blue Lion rising?  Or an Elephant's Orange Eye looking from above the fold of it's canvas tusk?  

Why are you asking me such obvious questions?

Because I have never seen such an amazing Elephant.

Have you ever looked for such an amazing Elephant?

In the clouds.

That's a good start.

How many things are there in here?

Besides you?

Yeah.

Dunno.  Never bothered to count.  I have nothing to do with the answer, after all.

Right....

And around this corner, Mr Powell, what do you see?

Who?

Mr. John Wesley Powell.

Oh, him.  He was just a fleeting impression.  Here, I see a magnificent American Mammoth Jackass on the floor with ears extended upward, and the statue of some meso-American god peering out from the jungle's greenery...and the silhouette of some amazing bird wearing a Native American headdress...and music?

Music?

Yeah, that song from Willie Wonka.  You know it.  "Come with me...and you see..."

Not to surprise you, but I get that one a lot.  So look, when the music starts, it's time.

Time?

Time to go.

Go?

Are we down to one word sentences?  Cause if we are, you might have been here too long.

Go where?  Two words.

There.  Through the opening.  Time to make room for others.

Thank you.

De nada...I'll see you again.