Sunflower in the Hall: Dorothea Tanning

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1943, Dorothea Tanning 

It has been years since I've been to the Tate Modern, but I remember coming home afterward and trying to google a painting featuring little girls in a hallways with what seemed like a very dangerous and large sunflower. I couldn't find anything about it.

Recently I happened across the image in a blog post about Dorothea Tanning, and all mysteries were revealed. Dorothea Tanning was speaking about her painting (my mystery image) when she said:

At night one imagines all sorts of happenings in the shadows of the darkness. A hotel bedroom is both intimate and unfamiliar, almost alienation, and this can conjure a feeling of menace and unknown forces at play. But these unknown forces are a projection of our own imaginations: our own private nightmares.
     —Dorothea Tanning in an interview with Victoria Carruthers, Art, History and the Senses: 1830 to the Present, 2010, p. 112.

Well, perhaps not all mysteries.

For the benefit of all future mes, I added "girls in hallway" and "sunflower" as tags to this post.

Dust up over Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds

And I thought it looked like a fun romp. Silly me. Apparently everyone (like Roberta Smith ) knew Ai Weiwei's installation of clay sunflower seeds was a potential health hazard due to the dust created when people romped or otherwise interacted with the installation.

Personally, I would sign a waiver to take a run through an enormous hall of sunflower seeds like it was some McDonald's ball pit on art steroids. But before you get like me, and sniff pish posh on deadly dust, check out these 8 Deadly Works of Art at Hyperallergic.

Romping through Sunflower Seeds at the Tate Modern

"Last week, we[*] had the pleasure of making the journey out to the Tate Modern in London to experience Ai Weiwei’s latest installation. The contemporary artist from China worked with the village of Jingdezhen to individually mold and hand paint over 100 million ceramic “Sunflower Seeds” which lined the entry hall adjacent to main doors of the museum. Every person was invited to partake and interact with the “land of seeds”. It was a romp for many who jumped, ran, played, and even laid down on the 1000 square meters of hand created artwork. The seed carpet, measuring inches thick, was a veritable playground for the staff of AM as we scurried onto the ceramic play-land along with the hundreds of families and museum patrons that made believe they were on the beach, in the snow or simply relaxing in the park. Ai Weiwei seemed to have captured the imagination of everyone who stepped foot on his seemingly magical creation."

 *being the author of article at Arrested Motion blog, also the source of the image

The line that really drew me in was "a romp for many who jumped, ran, played, and even laid down on." I love experiencing art like that--interactively, in my own way. And the fact that it is in Tate Modern's spectacular Turbine Hall really seals the deal.  It was at the Tate Modern that I first really fell for contemporary art via Cy Twombley's Le Quattre Staggione (which later moved to the atrium at MoMA where I saw them again upon moving to NYC). 

I want to fly to London(!), but for now I guess I'll settle for my blog reader and going to work.

Installation Shot in the Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London

Blogging Street Art

Street art is a lot like blogs. It's about an individual voice being thrown out into the public arena, adorning a public space with commentary. Some blogs might get a lot of attention, like the artists who covered the facade of the Tate Modern last year or Whole in the Wall, but most don't. Trolling through different links or streeets, you never know what you come across, creating a landscape of surprise.

Blogs also might document street art better than Whole in the Wall exhibition I vlogged about yesterday. In the video, I said that the street art seems to be heading into a fine art, spraypaint-on-canvas-on-wall direction. I take that back.

Street art is still being done on the streets, and there are a number of blogs that document it. You can see how it plays against and becomes a part of its enviornment, often with a sense of humor (like Little People!), and how it can surprise you with an element of beauty where you would least expect it. So to balance out the white box and gilt rooms of my video yesterday, see these websites that document street art still in the street;

• Wooster Collective


• Streetsy


• Brooklyn Street Art


• Eyegunk: Daily NYC