Delicious Form and Texture

There is such lovely form and texture in this work. Over the last few days since they were posted in my twitter stream (thanks, Petri!) I have been loading and re-loading them almost as a meditation. The quality of ambient light, the selection of subjects, the soft yet machined feel... it is so delicious!

        

This one in particular reminded me of Georgia O'Keefe, whose work and ranch I went to see in Santa Fe, earlier this summer. The southwest is inspirational - vast, magnificently colorful and at times barren and otherworldly - things she translated quite well. But she was also able to create a feeling of intimacy which almost overwhelms: magnified detail that amplifies the fundamental, primal experience of color and shape.

Anish Kapoor's stunning pigment sculptures also have this intense, intimate quality. I happened to be in London for a press event that coincided with his show at the Royal a few years ago, and was really transformed by seeing the work up close. Especially the piece below which took my breath away, leaving me speechless in the room with it for quite some time.

I have been to see a lot of art at museums and galleries, and there is an aspect of remove that one slips into at times - as when entering a church, government hall or school. It's not my favorite part of experiencing art in public, but it's something that I think I'd become... accustomed to. This show shook that remove from nearly everyone who attended, which was amazing to me!

I have never seen so many people literally unable to keep their hands off of the work. For each room of sculpture, there were 3-4 docents on constant duty explaining (especially to kids!) that the work was to be seen and not touched.

There was such a tactile and consuming quality to these pieces... it felt physically difficult not to touch them (especially the shiny, distorting mirrored surfaces and wet, angry-looking wax textures). This feeling of tension between the work as something to view versus something to experience through play or touch is with me still. It makes my toes curl!

I would like to build an interactive experience that captures this sense of delicious contrast between the visual and the tactile experience of form.