One weekend this January, I was in Washington with my dad for an appointment and after we ate lunch near DuPont Circle we decided to go to the Phillips Collection. I had been there before but not in a while, and I remembered really liking it. It proved being better than I remembered; the collection contains a comprehensive journey of some of the most famous and influential modern art from around the world, from Courbet to Cezanne to Miró. But something that left a lasting and interesting impression on me was not a painting, but rather 440 melted pounds of beeswax lined in a 6x7x10 foot room, illuminated by one single lightbulb suspended from the ceiling. The Laib Wax Room, installed by German artist Wolfgang Laib, is a permanent installation at the Phillips, and is really a cool experience. The room is strangely calming yet unnerving: the warm golden hue combined with the physical warmth from the slightly heated wax that surrounds you is almost therapeutic until you realize that you’re in a room smaller than a jail cell with an underground sense of space in every direction. It was at this point that I quickly strode out of the room, but I was still amazed and impressed at the work’s ability to impose such a sensation on me.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Max FrankelI ride bikes, take pictures and study Art IV at Maggie Walker Governor's School. Archives
April 2017
Categories |