Blog Assignment: Museum of Modern Art

Walking through The Shape of Things in the Museum of Modern Art really always you to experience the evolution of images firsthand. One of the images that stuck out to me the most was a piece from John Gossage from the series Berlin the Time of the Wall. This image shows what appears to be an X and in between the space are four different images. It almost looks like four completely separate images, one with a set of feet walking, one of trees, one with a building, and one of the sky. This image felt like it had four different scenes occurring in one still image, which is very fascinating.

Another image I found intriguing was Val Telberg’s Exhibition of the Witch, which used several negatives that made it look like the images seen in silent films. The description of the piece explained that this type of image was used in silent films to express states of dreaming, fantasy, nightmare, and hallucination, which this piece really seemed to capture. The lighter areas that capture your attention immediately would be the body of this witch and then you see the darker pieces in the back of men overlooking her. It really captured the mystery and darkness of the time, which was 1948 when Communism was spreading and creating paranoia.

The last piece to catch my attention was William Wegman’s series of photos of his dog, Man Ray. I have a huge soft spot for dogs so I was immediately drawn to these images. It was kind of like an evolution of the dog’s life and you got to witness it through photos. It was a wonderful way of telling a story through still images.