I’ve been visiting a lot of museums. As of writing this, I’ve been to:
Royal Ontario Museum
Gardiner Museum
Textile Museum
Aga Khan Museum
Mackenzie House
Museum of Contemporary Art
Bata Shoe Museum
and lots more to go to!
There are some things I’ve noticed, some things I liked and some things I didn’t like.
- It’s interesting how trade was so important for growth. History was built on connecting and learning from other cities.
– On contrary, colonialism wasn’t good for many civilizations. - Traditional art makes me feel something because I have meaning attached to many things displayed. Contemporary art, though interesting, doesn’t have any meaning attached to it.
– Art is supposed to make you feel something, make you think about something. But without the history, the message relayed doesn’t come across as intended.
– “I am you and you are me” was a dialogue from a performance I went to recently. What was the most interesting realization was, 2000 years ago, different civilizations didn’t interact with each other. Now, many move to new places, and most people consume content which isn’t “local”. However, there is more uniformity in traditions than the modern world. Is content overdose, information overload the reason? - A lot of history had meaning attached to it. And what is looked at today as nouveau will be classic 50 years later.
– But “trends” die too quickly now. What will keep moving forward through the noise? According to the half life principle, anything is always at it’s half life. A book around for 20 years is expected to survive 20 more. How does that pan?
Overall, connection, interconnectedness and displacement seems to be a major theme in art these days. Of course, there’s so much to learn. As a human who wears clothes most of the time, how much does one know about the work that goes into it. How much does one know about the plates they use or the devices they carry or the shoes they wear. Museums are here to preserve life itself. Technology and art is to take it forward.