Firelei Báez exhibit

[asakiyume]

Today was the day we chose to go to the Firelei Báez exhibit! Nothing like a sunny, mild, first-of-August day to venture into Boston for the first time in, oh, a very long time.

Everything was enchanting and exciting, but I will try to space things out over posts so as not to be gushing in too many different directions at once. Today I will gush mainly about the exhibit. ... Actually, the gushing will mainly take the form of photos because, having read Siddhartha Mitter's New York Times article, I didn't then actually take the time to look at the accompanying information that went with the installation. I just whirled around going, "This is great, this is so great! Listen to that recording--they're talking in so many languages! Feel these barnacles! Look at these details!" and so on.

So it's meant to suggest Haiti's Sans-Souci palace, beneath the waves. Here is a photo of the actual Sans-Souci ruins (you can click through to see it larger):



And here is your first view into the installation. The waves above, the arches aslant, like you are swimming any which way, like they shifted in an earthquake before drowning.





Closer...



Closer still....



The tattered waves casting a mackerel sky upon the walls....



Barnacles and cultural imprints....







At the front of the exhibit, Firelei Báez has a large mural of a mythical form superimposed over a map of the Atlantic and Caribbean, with textual comments on various waterways and features. I picked out a few:










I'm going to save murals for another post, but I just have to include this one, which is on the Watershed building itself. Cut off by my inferior photo taking is a magnificent fish sculpture. Instead, willy-nilly, you get that bright white pickup truck.




Okay, I found a photo of the fish online. It's from a WBUR article from 2018--before the mural, clearly!

Comments

[sovay]

Barnacles and cultural imprints....

Thank you for these photographs. The exhibit looks astonishing.

[asakiyume]

It was!

... And we have only just touched the tip of the photo iceberg. Now is the time is to back away smoothly with a fixed smile on your face ....

[sonia]

I love seeing the before and after on that mural. Amazing how Silvia Lopez Chavez fit it perfectly and gorgeously to that odd shaped building. Well worth zooming in and seeing the goddess petting the whale!

Thanks for sharing your field trip with us!

[asakiyume]

Thank you for enjoying it with me! Stick around for the next X-many entries, as I enthuse some more ;-)

(And yes, agreed: re the mural)

[cmcmck]

There's something like that fish in Oxford:

[asakiyume]

Hahaha, the crashing-into aspect of that one reminds me of a scene in an episode of The Simpsons in which a sturgeon falls out of the air (I think IIRC it was destined originally for the Russians aboard the International Space Station) and lands on Homer Simpson's car. "Well there's your problem," says the mechanic laconically, lifting up the tail of the sturgeon, when Homer takes it in.

[amaebi]

:D

[shewhomust]

Oh, my!

[asakiyume]

It was wonderful to be in that space!

[amaebi]

Wow.

That exhibit looks fabulous. That fish is magnificent. Also the mural.

Thank you for sharing them.

[asakiyume]

You are very welcome! It was a lovely, perfect day, and it really is an amazing exhibit.

[mallorys_camera]

Whoa! That exhibit looks amazing!!!! 😊

[asakiyume]

You would have loved the whole experience of yesterday--maybe minus the falling-down parking garage at Alewife station; that was alarming, and depending on your appetite for driving, I highly recommend it. The neighborhood is Latino and there is SO MUCH GOOD FOOD nearby, plus murals, plus a park with kids playing in it, plus community gardens--and oh yeah, a really stunning exhibit.

[wayfaringwordhack]

I thought I commented on this the other day; I must have navigated away after showing the kids the photos, including the one of the "shark through the roof" by CMCMCK in the comments, which they got a great kick out of.

Anyhow, I am so happy you got to go and shared the exhibit with us. Beautiful! I feel as if I am traveling with you in this season of little travel.

[asakiyume]

I really appreciate the ability to travel through friends' posts, so I'm glad to be able to offer the experience, myself!

[wayfaringwordhack]

You always do a wonderful job as a virtual tour guide :D

[asakiyume]

As do you--I learn from the best ;-)