East Boston Open Studios
Oct. 13th, 2002 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidAnother mizzly day, but despite wanting to lie around in bed all day reading novels while vegetable soup simmered and cookies or brownies baked, I got out of the house. And once out, it was reasonably decent weather.
Queue and I met Hrafn down at Long Wharf. We walked around, and finally found the "Art Ferry" to the open studios. It was a small boat, enclosed with plastic; a very different feel from the ferry to George's Island Wednesday, much closer to the water. I was surprised there was a bicyclist with his bike on the ferry. I enjoyed seeing the harbor from the water again, and the trails we left in the water. I haven't been in a boat in ages, and now twice in a week. The dock by the Marriot had been newish metal; the dock we got off at was wood, by the refueling area. Somehow it seemed incongruous to have gas tanks next to the water, though motor boats have to refuel somehow. Hrafn spotted wild jellyfish under the pier; very cool.
We took the shuttle bus to our first location (there were only four locations in all). There were balloons marking the route from the dock to the Jeffries Point Neighborhood Center, so we could've walked, but the shuttle was right there, and empty, waiting for us, the people on the first ferry. So we rode instead (saving lots of staircases). The neighborhood center was one big room with displays of many people's art. The woman who does drive-by poetry and art cars and other performance art was interesting. Her car was in the lot, and there were photos of it in previous decorative incarnations. There were some photos of the area, including a nice cityscape. My favorite piece, though, was a shirt made of labels from other clothing. Very cool.
Shuttle to our other stop, at 80 Border Street. It took a while: not only were there barricades up due to a parade (Columbus Day), something was going on at a church on our route, with lots of purple-clad people in the street by a decorated dais. There were lots of double-parked people, and it took lots and lots of points for a bus to make the turn...
80 Border Street is a big old factory building, redone into studio spaces. It felt more like I expect an Open Studios to be, with one or two artists' work in a space, and the spaces themselves interesting.
There was lots of interesting stuff. Of course, as usual, there were lots of things that didn't appeal to me, either.
When we first walked in, there was sound playing from behind some plastic strips hanging in a doorway. On the other side, through another door, were two TVs playing a video, of moving around some canyon-y places, trying to get out, perhaps. And beyond that was a projected image of the cityscape, with long silver shapes dangling in front, reflecting light from a projector. I hadn't expected an installation... felt sort of like a haunted house.
We worked our way upwards. There was a slide show about the East Boston neighborhood that I mostly didn't find interesting, except for the Lite Brite slides (remember Lite Brite?). There was also a short locally-made movie (~30 minutes) that we ended up watching most of. I don't know the official title, but The Squirrelator seemed not unlikely. Lots of Star Wars references as squirrels took things into their own hands to get revenge on people. It was very funny.
Other art I liked:
Pictures of old ladies, in a style I like. One had a gold background - Madonna in her golden years?
Painted wooden blocks that came off the wall at you (as it were).
Detailed murals, the artist still working on them.
A series of egg adventure photos, including one between the soles of feet.
Some nice nature photography.
Short poetry written on eggs.
A kinetic sculpture made of tongue depressors.
Some watercolors with ink.
Rhinocerouses on roller-blades.
Paper chains made of old maps.
Silver chain jewelry.
Small lemon portraits.
Other interesting bits:
The welcome mat wired to make Halloween sounds when stepped on.
The plastic bloody hand coming out of a crack in the wall.
Some doors lying in a hallway.
All the bathrooms odd in different ways.
The views from the windows were great.
(Instead of fields for mood and/or music at the end of a post, I'd prefer to have a nameable field, so I can have whatever mentionable thing I want to modify my post. Keep "mood," I suppose, since so many people like the icons. But a longer field would be useful there, too.)
Bread name OTD: Kentish Huffkins
Queue and I met Hrafn down at Long Wharf. We walked around, and finally found the "Art Ferry" to the open studios. It was a small boat, enclosed with plastic; a very different feel from the ferry to George's Island Wednesday, much closer to the water. I was surprised there was a bicyclist with his bike on the ferry. I enjoyed seeing the harbor from the water again, and the trails we left in the water. I haven't been in a boat in ages, and now twice in a week. The dock by the Marriot had been newish metal; the dock we got off at was wood, by the refueling area. Somehow it seemed incongruous to have gas tanks next to the water, though motor boats have to refuel somehow. Hrafn spotted wild jellyfish under the pier; very cool.
We took the shuttle bus to our first location (there were only four locations in all). There were balloons marking the route from the dock to the Jeffries Point Neighborhood Center, so we could've walked, but the shuttle was right there, and empty, waiting for us, the people on the first ferry. So we rode instead (saving lots of staircases). The neighborhood center was one big room with displays of many people's art. The woman who does drive-by poetry and art cars and other performance art was interesting. Her car was in the lot, and there were photos of it in previous decorative incarnations. There were some photos of the area, including a nice cityscape. My favorite piece, though, was a shirt made of labels from other clothing. Very cool.
Shuttle to our other stop, at 80 Border Street. It took a while: not only were there barricades up due to a parade (Columbus Day), something was going on at a church on our route, with lots of purple-clad people in the street by a decorated dais. There were lots of double-parked people, and it took lots and lots of points for a bus to make the turn...
80 Border Street is a big old factory building, redone into studio spaces. It felt more like I expect an Open Studios to be, with one or two artists' work in a space, and the spaces themselves interesting.
There was lots of interesting stuff. Of course, as usual, there were lots of things that didn't appeal to me, either.
When we first walked in, there was sound playing from behind some plastic strips hanging in a doorway. On the other side, through another door, were two TVs playing a video, of moving around some canyon-y places, trying to get out, perhaps. And beyond that was a projected image of the cityscape, with long silver shapes dangling in front, reflecting light from a projector. I hadn't expected an installation... felt sort of like a haunted house.
We worked our way upwards. There was a slide show about the East Boston neighborhood that I mostly didn't find interesting, except for the Lite Brite slides (remember Lite Brite?). There was also a short locally-made movie (~30 minutes) that we ended up watching most of. I don't know the official title, but The Squirrelator seemed not unlikely. Lots of Star Wars references as squirrels took things into their own hands to get revenge on people. It was very funny.
Other art I liked:
Pictures of old ladies, in a style I like. One had a gold background - Madonna in her golden years?
Painted wooden blocks that came off the wall at you (as it were).
Detailed murals, the artist still working on them.
A series of egg adventure photos, including one between the soles of feet.
Some nice nature photography.
Short poetry written on eggs.
A kinetic sculpture made of tongue depressors.
Some watercolors with ink.
Rhinocerouses on roller-blades.
Paper chains made of old maps.
Silver chain jewelry.
Small lemon portraits.
Other interesting bits:
The welcome mat wired to make Halloween sounds when stepped on.
The plastic bloody hand coming out of a crack in the wall.
Some doors lying in a hallway.
All the bathrooms odd in different ways.
The views from the windows were great.
(Instead of fields for mood and/or music at the end of a post, I'd prefer to have a nameable field, so I can have whatever mentionable thing I want to modify my post. Keep "mood," I suppose, since so many people like the icons. But a longer field would be useful there, too.)
Bread name OTD: Kentish Huffkins