University of Pittsburgh Student Union where we did some orientation sessions last week.
Once we were done with the official business of our trip to Pittsburgh (registering Stella for fall classes and sitting through the orientation sessions) we had time to meet up with my dear friend Madelyn Roehrig who works at the Carnegie Museum of Art and is herself an artist. I’ve written about Madelyn’s work before and I was eager to see her new piece in the Three Rivers Arts Festival (more on that in the next post).
Stella and I went to the Museum to pick up Madelyn. We didn’t have time to do a full tour but I spied a great Jean Dubuffet in the lobby. The piece has two moving parts that revolve so slowly I almost didn’t notice. The piece is flatter than Philadelphia’s public piece by Dubuffet, Milord LaChamarre, which is one of Philly’s best-kept secrets, sited as it is, up high and tucked in a corner between two big buildings (See post with image — the piece is still in its spot between the two buildings). This Dubuffet figure group with its nice slow movement was terrific and reminded me of how much I love this artist.
Video by Phil Collins shown at Carnegie Museum’s Forum 59 project space on the first floor. Karaoke of people in non-English-speaking countries singing their hearts out to the Smiths music.
Also in the first floor in the Forum space was another piece that made me feel right at home for having a Philadelphia connection– Phil Collins‘s The World Won’t Listen, his Smiths karaoke video shot in Bogota, Colombia and Istanbul, Turkey. Seeing it felt like running into an old friend. Collins had a big show at Temple Gallery a few years back and Libby and I both had a memorable encounter with the artist (here and here). While the Smiths karaoke piece was not in the Temple show, Collins ran a clip from it in a lecture he gave. The piece is poignant, political and quirky like all of his work. Seeing it at the Carnegie made me remember how good Collins is and how under-known he still is by most people, even those who follow art closely.
Phil Collins at Forum 59
Carnegie Museum of Art
Pittsburgh
to July 2
More Pittsburgh coming soon. Meanwhile here’s flickr pix on our trip.
