Archive for the ‘Arts & Humanities’ Category

Is It Art ?

It was a cold damp evening, although not to bad for Chicago in January. We hurried our way down Wabash Ave. en route to the Chicago Cultural Center. The anticipation of the trip, as well as my familiarity with the city allowed the El trains above me to shuffle by without the least bit notice,while their presence passed over like some second nature. As we turned onto Randolph St. the vaulted windows and Ionic columns of the old building came into view. I couldn’t help but to wonder if my fellow students felt the same sense of awe, and curious anticipation with regard to this Historic Landmark we were about to visit on this day.

As we entered the building we were instructed to split up, take in what time allowed and take with us our over all impression. On this particular evening there where a few collections on exhibit. While deciding on which direction to take, I couldn’t help but notice a 1960′s style cigarette machine. The machine being there didn’t strike me as odd at all. I even caught myself fumbling through my pockets for the thirty five cents, a pack would have cost back then. Of course it didn’t vend cigarettes now! I believe it sold maps or some other other kind of souvenir. How ever this forty year old relic still stood out. It was out of place there, but it belonged. A machine well past it’s prime and purpose, but still being utilized for the bemusement of old nostalgic fools like myself. The five floors in all had four exhibits I can recall. The Staffs of Tradition by David Philpot, of which I truly enjoyed. A collection of African walking sticks with impressive wood and metal crafting. Reflections by Peter Wexler, and Finger prints by Merle Temkin, to me were less impressive. The first struck me as something put together by a man coming down from an Acid trip, and the second put to mind a file marked “Subversive” floating around some F.B.I library. I don’t recall the name of the last exhibit. It was the first one I visited. It consisted of a Taj-Mahal tent like piece of art, which was nowhere near as impressive as the Bhai Temple , just twenty miles north of here. And another work of wine bottles hanging on a string, Which to a recovering alcoholic said “It’s time to go”. All this was art though. Just not my type of art.

I think the true art, the true culture, was in the building it self. The South Staircase with winding rails was majestic, as well as the hall which housed it. An arched entrance way with the names of the great