Sunday, January 08, 2006

LACMA Construction In Progress


2006-01-02 LACMA Construction
Originally uploaded by AArt Vark.
I was rather annoyed by the King Tut exhibit at LACMA. It was neither a really good museum exhibit nor an entertaining freak show. It could of gone both ways and didn't go either.

A really good exhibit of Egyptian rarities to gawk at and ponder.
A fantabulous extravaganza on the midway complete with gigantic blow up Sphinx as the entrance and the docents dressed in "authentic" period Egyptian garb.

The exhibit ended up being a sort of half assed and uncomfortable affair with way too many people in all too small of a space, even on a slow day, not really facilitating any enjoyment of the artifacts. The only reason for attendance would have been to share a close approximation to the Egypto-ephemera in badly lit cases. Hell, the sarcophagus featured on the poster and adopted as the identifying logo wasn't even part of the exhibit! I hope they made a fuck-load of money off it to pay for this construction...
Now, the improvement of LACMA is something that I am looking forward to as it promises to really add something of value to the museum.
I was rather annoyed that the side street I took as a shortcut to work in the morning, S. Orange Grove Ave. was being taken over by the museum and incorporated in the new campus, but upon seeing the plans and models in the Ahmenson Building provided by Renzo Piano (architect of the new buildings and improvements) I've got to say I'm pleased... I'm also pleased that it's not another hack job given to Frank Ghery - maybe he's just become the architect I love to hate, I don't know...
If you're interested, take yourself on over to LACMA and have a look at the models and check out the construction site. The construction site is active, so there's something new every day!
If you're curious about Renzo Piano, Wikipedia is a good place to get you acquainted with him.

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