A surprise in the ol' inbox today. A photo the people at the de Young in San Francisco took weeks ago during a celebration of the tearing down of Maya Lin's 2x4 Landscape in the foyer. Now it is preserved as a digital photo with myself and a friend standing in front of it.
Digging through my archive, it is also preserved through a snap I took of it that evening.
I had completely forgotton about that experience until this came today (the de young being a slightly forgettable museum after a day of planetarium/rainforest/aquarium/etc gauntlet, one was simply too tired for it)...and I do remember wondering how strangely relative it was that the museum was offering photographs in front of the installation. It was, after all, supposed to mimic a landscape of sorts. Looking at it now, you can see how Lin's wish for the viewer to become a part of her 'imagined landscape' became very much a reality in the action of a photograph. They were like tourist shots! Even the photo I took myself is a slightly romanticised version of the installation, resembling a picture of a geological landmark during sunset, or something similar.
Although it is hard to deny the sculpture's connection to the land, I must admit that I had not really felt it so strongly until I looked at these pictures. I now wish that I hadn't been so cheap and paid to go see the rest of the exhibition (a measly $10USD really) or had tried harder to sneak in as we successfully did for the YSL show that was also an extra charge.
When do they start inventing Time Machines?
- Agnes
Edit: Looking at it again, it's even more like a tourist photo due to the way we are posing...and aided as well by the nikon (a 'sightseeing' accessory) I have around my shoulder. Ha! Throw in a fannypack and a visor and you'd spot us as visitors a mile away...
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