婉兮清扬

Yueba Buena

发表时间：2008-05-09 21:33:57

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It is extremely frustrating and annoying to realize that you are on a different intelllectual level as compared to someone else. That was exactly my feeling when visiting the Yueba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) at downtown San Francisco.

I agree that we are living in a crazy world, and artists today are reflecting our crazy world back to us. I agree that through their works they are trying to capture our attention, make us think, and force us to care. However, I have a feeling that all this can be done in a more straight-forward, more persuasive, and therefore more productive way. Especially, it seems to me that it is very difficult to make people realize this crazy world by driving them crazy.

For example, in contemporary art video is often used as an element in an artwork. Although I myself don't watch TV that often I don't have any problem with this new element in an artwork. The problem is, if you want to show people a video clip, you really need to learn some camera skills, at least don't make the camera shiver in your hands. Data from medical researches in related fields has indicated that watching a vibrating video not only leads to visual impair and motion sickness, but also stimulates psychiatric disorders. I must agree that an audience will feel uncomfortable after viewing such an artwork (vibrating motion scenes on a screen), and come to the conclusion that only in a really crazy world can such a piece of crap be considered as artwork, which might be exactly what the artists want. But, what happens after the audience resumes consciousness? I don't know what other people will do but I really hate that artist who makes me sick through his/her work. They should all be put to jail for murdering the neurons and brain cells of their audiences with such a systematic plot.

With that said, I should probably step back and admit that I am just too dumb to understand all these. :-(

PS:

During the past 4 years I have been visiting San Francisco for a dozen times, but I have never really walked around downtown San Francisco. (I usually stay at Palo Alto and work at Menlo Park, which is 45 minutes drive from downtown San Francisco.) This time the JavaOne conference was being held at the Moscone Center in downtown Francisco, and I had the opportunity to take a 2-hour walk after all the highly intensive work. It was a great pleasure to find out that San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts (MOMA) was quite close to Moscone Center, where the JavaOne conference was being held. However, my time was so limited that I decided to visit YBCA instead, which was a lot smaller. (And I am feeling sorry for the decision.) A couple of blocks away, on Market Street, stands Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Not far away from YBCA there is a shop of 琉璃工坊（Liuli Gongfang, AKA Glass Arts Workshop）, which is labeled as an art gallery. I stepped in, and a Chinese lady greeted me with charming smile on her face. I was delighted to see my favorite 娟索手 designed by Lady Huishan Yang on the shelf, but gave up the purchase when looking at the price tag.

Will probably come back in July. By that time I really need to spend a whole day hanging around the museums.

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