NYC Day 3 (Part II)- Dead Bodies, Naked Bodies & Deep Fried Pickles

Garret was on a mission to find the famous Wall Street Charging Bull Statue, we found it. It didn’t take Matt long to strike another ridiculous pose.

After finding the bull we decided to go down to the South Street Seaport to catch an exhibition of real dead bodies titled “Bodies”. Garret and Matthew brushed up on their anatomy on the cadavers in poses shooting a basketball, throwing a foot ball, and so on. Our favourite was the circulatory system of blood vessels with everything else removed… very cool.

We got out of the bodies exhibit and realized that we didn’t have much time before the free line at MoMa opened (every Friday at 4:00PM). We had our first taste of New York Street Food by the Seaport then caught the subway to the Modern Museum of Art vowing to come back and spend more time on the South Street Seaport later in our trip.

The free line at MoMa almost wrapped around the whole building but surprisingly at 4:00PM they let everyone inside. When we got in we understood why- this was an very big gallery.

The art gallery is amazing there is definitely something for everyone. We saw Picassos, Renorirs, Whorhals, Gauguins, one of the most beautiful Cezannes we have ever seen, even the famous Stary Night by Monet. The exhibition of William Kentridge titled Five Themes, whom none of us have ever hear of, had awesome charcoal stop motion movies that touched on difficult themes. The Tim Burton exhibition was very cool and displayed costumes, prototypes, and story boards from all of his famous films.

There was much buzz around town about Marina Abramovic’s exhibition: the Artist is Present. Rightly so. Behind the veil of seemingly lewd displays of self-mutilation and uncensored nudity, her exhibition is a shimmer of brilliant light and clarity that pushes the viewer into the present moment only to transcend the experience of viewing art from the outside by jolting them into the present, to be apart of it. In her pieces Abramovic delves deep into the human psyche like a Zen monk in unwavering mediation. The longest performance piece attempted by Abramovic was taking place live. Those in the audience were allowed to sit on a chair across from Abramovic and quietly stare at her (click on this link to go live to the performance during daily museum hours).

The ability to be apart of her art rather than just observe it was especially apparent in the piece where a naked woman and man stood facing each other and you had to squeeze between them. Inevitably forced to choose to face either the naked man or woman and incidentally rubbing up against them. Or the piece where a naked woman is suspended from the wall on the seat of a bicycle and is trying to hold her hands up in the air for as long as possible. Her eyes search the room focusing on those viewing, trying to absorb the energy from the audience members, making eye contact with those who silently transmit their energy to her cause.

Hands down the most brilliant work we’ve ever seen. Period.

After the exhibition we went to Manhattan’s top rated brewpub, Heartland Brewery for beer and appys. The beer was good but not as interesting as the deep fired pickles!