brian eno

its funny you dont know how lucky you are until circumstances change for the worse...

millie and i went to see the brian eno exhibit at cal state long beach last week. we didnt go to the lecture because it was a hundred bucks... a hundred bucks!

and our timing was such that we arrived at the exhibit when everyone else was in the lecture... there were just a couple kids manning the university art museum... and they didnt know anything from anything. but they were sweet.

there is a room of prints ~ giclee copies of prints ~ in the first room of the museum. they are competent and attractive. they are the basis for enos installation.

the next room has the sound and light show.

the reviews of the show were lukewarm but we decided to see for ourselves what was what. and we did.

the focus of the room is a wall of twelve monitors mounted in a kaleidescope pattern. on the monitors, images of enos prints slowly dissolve one into another. at first, the change is so slow we couldnt see them change. we thought the monitors themselves were moving but couldnt see the images move.

with no-one else in the museum, i could go up close to the monitors and really view them. we could sit ~ and we did for 45 minutes ~ and watch the slow parade of images...

enos trademark ambient music filled the room. and piles of gravel were placed in certain places...

the images and music were randomly generated and layered so the experience was always new... it was a meditation and millie and i thoroughly enjoyed it. it was beautiful.

we looked at the other exhibit ~ cory arcangel ~ before we left. it was also wonderful (an abstract, generated film thing ~ you have to see it).

millie and i went to papa luccis in belmont shore to eat veggie pizza... then across the street to finerprint records to look for music...

then we decided to go back to see the eno exhibit again.

the lecture was out and people were coming and going ~ mostly attractive college kids... there were different kids manning the desk and everywhere people were visiting... and as we sat in the viewing room, the noise of people talking, doors slamming, and general hubbub was a complete distraction from the meditation of the art. it is the noisiest museum i have ever been in. no respect, i tell you.

the exhibit is great ~ you need to see it. but go when the museum is closed ~ even the staff can be loud!