Last Friday Tatjana, Claudia and I decided to get out of the campus and do a day trip to the MOCA gallery for the second time. It was a new artist that I'm sure some of you are familiar with: David Lachapelle. He is known for his ability to create scenes of extreme reality using rich and vibrant colours which we definitely saw from the exhibition. He's photographed plenty of images for magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ, and has photographed many stars including Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, and Muhammad Ali to name a few. He's also directed a number of crazy music videos for many new age artists.
I don't think I've ever enjoyed art so much as this. It was very racy and shocking and completely beautiful with all the colours and fine detail. We ended up spending the entire afternoon there, taking our time as wen walked through and trying to capture as much with our cameras as we could.
The objective of this exhibition - in Lachapelle's words - was to document America's obsessions and compulsions in the broadest sense of the word, using popular people in the world to communicate to the public in an explicit and understandable way. Here are some of my favorites:
This is Lachapelle's modern day interpretation of Michelangelo's great fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It represents the future that may await us, and what it might look like if it were to come. Being the first piece of the exhibition it also sets the theme/tone for the rest of the tour. I thought it was really funny to see this painting with a modern twist - women in heels, televisions floating by, girls with fake breasts etc.
Courtney Love is photographed here in a death scene that is supposed to contrast Michelangelo's Pieta. The level of detail and the lighting in this piece was incredible.
I chose the following three pieces from a section Lachapelle calls, "Destruction and Disasters." The following are landscapes that have been devastated by natural disasters or technological catastrophes, as well as the blind fury of individuals:
Reality really struck me while I was looking at this section. It eerily mirrored many movies we see in Hollywood these days about the future devastation of the world.
This piece entitled, "Rape of Africa" shows the land being sucked of its natural resources for the purpose of mining gold and diamonds. It was also inspired by Botticelli's painting, "The Venus and Mars." You can't see it here, but Naiomi Campbell plays Lachapelle's Venus.
Uma Thurman. Both Tatjana and I agreed that this piece looked incredible in real life. The colours were so rich and deep, it was almost mesmerizing.
For some reason, this piece really hit me. Lachapelle was trying to present the idea that if a figure such as Jesus was alive today and preached the same gospel, this is where we would see him - as a man of the people and the streets caring for the less fortunate, not a high society elite.
Lady Gaga. I really just put this one up for you dad.
I don't know about this one. Just wanted to show Lachapelle's bizarre nature.
After the gallery we went to Shida (a small part of the city comprised of neat boutique shops, funky lounge bars, and diverse cuisine) for some dinner and shopping. We went to a great Moroccan place that had delicious chicken curry with naan bread and garlic salad. After that Tatjana led us to a cake cafe that actually had the really good, dense, sugary sweets that I've been missing for so long. Take a look at what we ordered:
Chocolate orange cake, raspberry cheesecake, and warm apple pie with ice cream. It was heaven.
We had so much fun chatting and indulging together before we knew it, three hours had gone by and it was time to head home. We all agreed that the night was just what we needed to get out of the "weather slump."
It's Tuesday night now and I am trying to force myself to study Chinese so I don't have to when I'm in HONG KONG! Did I mention we leave this Thursday? By "we" I mean Tatjana, Leslie and I. It worked out perfectly actually. Leslie was planning a trip around China in early May and had to fly to Hong Kong first anyway, so she'll be spending the first few days with us. When Tatjana found out we were going she hopped on board right away (she can't stand sticking around in one spot for too long - a quality I really love about her because she is always up to something fun). So Tatjana and I will have a full five days to explore Hong Kong and the surrounding area (including Macao). We plan to meet up with her friend Max who was with us on the Kenting trip plans to get a tour around the city. My parents have some friends through friends that live there also and my mom just informed me that they would love to meet up as well. Of course I will also be visiting one of my dads business contacts early Monday morning at his office, as that was the whole purpose of the trip from the start. I am really looking forward to it, and will have lots to blog about when I get back.
Until then!
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