Part 1 of our Ai Wei Wei tour. We started at the Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. This room took my breath away. It's a cheeky take on Monet's water lilies at Giverny, done in LEGO. I left a piece of my heart at the Musée de l'Orangerie and this piece transported me back.
Ai Wei Wei Part 2, at the downtown Seattle Art Museum.
When we were headed up the escalators, the person scanning our tickets looked at me, looked at my kids, and said, "You know...?" Yep, I knew going in there were going to be interesting conversations. We saw the middle finger sculpture, f-bomb in neon lights and a condom in the exhibit and talked about their meanings and how this art is meant to be provocative.
We also watched a film attributed to Ai Wei Wei he didn't shoot. Read about a Lego art installation created by "deputized volunteers." And saw a straight-up U.S. Postal mailbox on a pedestal. What is art? Who is the artist? More interesting conversations.
It was a lot. If you want to see pretty art without the big conversations, go to Volunteer Park.
* The museum is doing timed ticketing for Ai Wei Wei, but it was pretty quiet when we were there, on a weekend afternoon. The admissions person was sitting at the entrance casually reading a book. Ah, those were the days.
** Apparently a lobby remodel is in the works, to make the lobby less "bank-like." They took out half the admissions desk and put in two self-serve kiosks.