Traditions Within the City Project

 

The cultural project required us to observe a culture rich event either in our personal culture or the culture of the city we live in. I chose to go observe the culture of the museum of High Art in Atlanta, Georgia. I decided to go to the High Museum of Art on one of the free Sundays. When I first entered the exhibit there where minimal art pieces that you tend to see at every city museum that is until I got to the high floors. On the high floors of the museum there were blown glasses, Asian ink wash paintings, Mediterranean & Spanish ceramics, and most shockingly the museum had an African art exhibit showcasing this 16-foot steel blanket with fabric threads holding them together and other awe spiring arts I didn’t get to photograph. It was an 18-foot wooden staff for some sort of chief. They even had architecture of the port’s slaves were kept at in the South America’s. One exhibit I found interesting is the Tobacco Demon, by Alison Saar in 1993, which was a sculpture at the museum of what seemed to look like a tobacco crop overseer or a tobacco plantation boss. I figured because of the sickle in his hand and the cigar in his mouth it probably has some sort of significance. I also noticed how he was holding the chain and the fact he had a cigarette in his mouth. I found it extremely creative to have used tin, steel, and shellac on wood. The reason I was so captivated by this sculpture is because it was proportionate to the size of an actual human.

El Anatsui, Taago at High Museum Atlanta | Ginger | Flickr

The Museum of High Art’s sculptures, hanging pieces, and gravity defying art were the most captivating for me and my experience. I say that because the very first art piece that caught my eye was the “Taago” which was this giant metal quilt hanging from the ceiling on the wall. The metal quilt was by El Anatsui, who does a mixture of Ghanaian and Nigerian metal textile work. In the art pieces I could see all the details of the quilt and how the metal works contributed to the textile of the giant quilt.

From my experience I can say I enjoyed all of the tribal art, metal work, sculptures, and gravity defying art the most because it gave me a perspective of art outside of a box or a literal square framing. 

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