The rest of the "Dark Matters" exhibit finally opened again. I'd been back a couple times and been confronted with the same barrier to the show. I asked at the information desk what was going on, and it turns out there was water damage. Perfectly reasonable that they would need to close part of the show, but why couldn't they put up a sign? Why was there no announcement on the web site? Why not have an idea of when it might reopen and communicate that to people? Oh well, it's the Hirshhorn - what exactly was I expecting?
Now the show is open again (good thing, as it closes in just a couple of weeks), and I can offer my views on the entire exhibit. Frankly, my first thought was, "that's it?" In addition to the two offerings in the first room (that I reviewed in an earlier post), there was only one other room. It had maybe six items in it. I find it difficult to believe that there are so few items in their entire collection that deal with darkness, but why go to the trouble of setting this up if you're not going to use all the resources at your disposal? Baffling.
The items I liked best were a series of photographs called "Some Thames - Group M." I like the idea of seeing "some" river; I assuming there are other groups as well. The colors change from shot to shot, which is interesting. Roni Horn is the artist. It was also good to see "Untitled (Big Man)" by Ron Mueck. I've always referred to this piece as naked fat man, which I think gives you an excellent idea of what you'll be seeing if you stop in. He's not dark in the sense of swarthy; in fact, he's pretty pasty white, but he does look distinctly unhappy, so his darkness is one of mood.
Verdict: If you're at the Hirshhorn already and you've got a few minutes to kill, have a look. Otherwise, if you miss this, you're not missing much.
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