I made a special trip today to see The Gates in Central Park. Many people find The Gates suspect, they scream out “waste!” “pretension!” “orange!” but I just took it for what it was and found myself thoroughly seduced. I liked these gates. Here I am appreciating the gates. My facial expression seems to say: “Hmm, I mean, they’re big and orange and billowy, but I can still like them, right?”
And here’s a big gate in case you want to see one up close:
What I liked about the Gates most was the sense of being swallowed up in some surreal happening. There were Gates tourbuses, Gates tourguides, Gates t-shirts. There were tourists and locals, picture-takers and wanderers. In my biggest flight of fancy, I imagined we were in some enchanted kingdom that really liked the color orange. I left The Gates and went to the Time Warner Center so I could buy olive oil at Williams Sonoma. (See this is food related.) I attempted to pay the cashier in orange fabric. She smacked me. And my flight of fancy was over.
A call for help to the food blogging community. I am one of the organisers of the Soil Association Organic Food Festival held in Bristol, UK on the first week of September. It’s probably the largest celebration of organic food anywhere with over 200 exhibitors and 40,000 visitors. This year we are planning an Arts Fringe Festival with all the arts themed around food. So far we have the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, Matthew Herbert’s Plat du Jour in collaboration with Heston Blumenthal, Attik Dance Co. with Passion Fruit plus film, sculpture and lots of street theatre. Has anybody got an ideas regarding other artists who may like to take part. We would love to hear from you. (steve@organicfoodfairs.co.uk)
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Steve Symons
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Steve Symons
Creativity Events
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I went to the gates this past weekend and loved it. I just walked and walked and walked, I couldn’t stop walking! I really felt part of something and their was such a pleasantly celebratory and optimistic atmosphere in the air. Most of my friends are laughing at the piece (I got my BFA with them years ago) which I think speaks a lot about what is considered “good” or “acceptable” by the art community today. I think they feels much more comfortable with the esoteric, sardonic and glib, or hostile. Something so large, embracing, democratic and uplifting is subject to clever little jokes.
Although I do like this clever little joke, can’t help it as I adore cats…
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