21c Museum Exhibition

Contemporary art collector Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson founded 21c Museum and Hotel in 2006. They are committed to broadening the access of viewing art to the public through museums like 21c, which is free of charge to the public. Along with the permanent artwork on display, 21c has expanded and includes work from all over the world. They have carefully selected engaging art work that reflect 21^st century life. When visiting the museum many things grab your attention. In particular, two works of art stood out the most, in both the physical brilliance of the art and the mentality of the reasoning behind the art. Those two art pieces are Meadow and Bombed Mosque. 

When first walking into the museum, viewers are enveloped by a room filled with sculptures that appear as buildings. The closer you approach the pieces the more you learn about the artwork. From a distance, you see the rounded architecture of buildings with middle eastern feel. As you get closer, you start to see that these buildings are made out of guns, bullets, and bullet shells. These stunning pieces were created by Al Farrow in 2010 and include an entire series of images that are designed to evoke emotion from the viewer. One of the most moving images was a sculpture of a Bombed Mosque that appeared to have been badly damaged over many years, but still standing in its deteriorated state. When reading the description of the piece, you learn of the devastation that weapons can cause on even the most holy of sites.  

Bombed Mosque.
Al Farrow, 2010
(Back)

Bombed Mosque.
Al Farrow, 2010
(Front)

Creating a building using materials with which it was destroyed, is a form of juxtaposition. This building was destroyed by weapons and this artist used weapons to recreate the building, with accurate dimensions in the architecture. It's a stark contrast between beautiful decoration and destruction within the dome. The artist was successful with his series and this one in particular, because the image conjured feelings of sadness in beauty. Moreover, Farrow was successful in making a political anti-war statement, by producing art with military materials.

Upon moving downstairs of the museum, a brightly illuminated fixture captures your eye. From afar, it almost appears as a very textured light up panel on the wall. However, as you get closer, you realize this board has hundreds of plastic strings hanging out of it. Each string has LED lights shining through, to create texture and colors that change periodically. This piece is called Meadow by Astrid Krodh. He was interested in natural and digital light coming together. This piece is a representation of the morning light transitioning to darkness, in a meadow. The changing of colors, helped achieve this effect and provided a beautiful depiction of the artist’s vision. 

Meadow.
Astrid Krodh, 2013.

This piece is successful because it perfectly captures the projection of color on the "grass" in a meadow. This image was strikingly accurate to actual morning and night, when the sun is rising and setting. When the sun rises and the rays are beamed out into the meadow, the colors are often a combination of many colors, patterns, and forms. He's successful with this because his light and pattern is never the same nor makes sense, just like the color of the sun rays.  

Overall 21c has an enjoyable diversity of artwork showcased. The artworks Meadow and Bomb Mosque stands out the most due to one having a series of multiple sculptures and the other shining bright illuminating lights that catches your eye. Al Farrow and Astrid Krodh, although having different pieces of art, both artist works were similar in being contemporary art. They both are using, to an extent, minimalism in creating the imagery of something that depicts a deeper meaning into the piece. Both artworks were stunning and very worth the visit.

- Emily Thompson