The State University of New York at Albany, or UAlbany for short, hosted an exhibit entitled "Courier". The building is not hard to find as there is a huge sign on the side of it saying "Art Museum". Once you enter the building there is a sign stating the name of the Exhibit in a tiny foyer type of room that of course is host to a donations box. The room you walk into afterwards has barely anything on the floor. It is a tall, white room that has a staircase in the middle of it. It may have been because I went on the last day but the place was empty. There were two workers, one sitting at a desk with a computer in front of him and the other talking to the only other two patrons there. The majority of the art was along the walls, with the exception of a T-shaped structure that was home to a projected image and a computer. The project image was a number of symbols with words underneath them. I suppose you were supposed to look at the symbols first before reading the words but I didn't. The words and symbols told a story of a Mr. Gray and a Mr. Black, two men who were seated next to each other on an airplane. The story makes sense at first, telling and showing the interaction between the two but towards the end gets confusing and strange. I found the part with the illustration amusing because it reminded me of a flip-book that would show you a man slowly falling.
After seeing this I moved onto the walls. There were cases that held typed works. The typed works were typed on a typewriter, going with the theme of the exhibit, and were printed on hand-made paper. Some were just indents with the words but featured no ink. Moving on to the next wall, the wall opposite from me when I walked in, were more papers with ink on them. These were different however because they did not feature words but things that looked like doodles. Upon further research I have found that "Paraclete" is often used to refer to the Holy Spirit or a helper or advocate. This simply confused me more so I moved on further down the wall.
After I had seen all of the letters I moved on to the wall that had been on my right when I had first entered the room. This side was much like that of its opposite wall, there were more works in a glass case that had been written by typewriter on handmade paper. There was however something that I understood to be art. There was a simple picture in a simple frame, depicting obsolete technology. This was about the only thing in the room that made any sense to me.
Last, but certainly not least I went to the wall that was on the side that I had entered. Sure enough, true to the things we have seen in class, there was a video. This video, all 13 minutes and 25 seconds, was spent with a finger simply wiping off the letters "A, B, C" of a glass with a tiny bit of water on their finger. The question I found myself asked was "Why?". Why would someone do this? Why would someone even think of it? Why would someone make this last 13 minutes long? And why would someone stand here for that long to watch it?
Over all the exhibit was strange. There was no one there, which again could be because it was the last day. The workers did not communicate with you unless you asked them a question, in my case to ask if I could take pictures. The art, while some might appreciate, confused me and I did not really enjoy it, except for the obsolete technology photo.
(Posted by Sarah)
