exploded views

SF MOMA with Sarah the other day as part of our expedition in the city (complete with salted caramel and brown sugar double scoop at Bi-Rite, Croque Monsieur at Tartine, thrifting around, and singing Christmas songs while stuck in traffic). This is pretty much the only picture from the day. That's Exploded Views by Jim Campbell--it's the first thing you see when you walk into the atrium and the first impression you get is that it's just strings of suspended, arbitrarily flickering lights that look really pretty (I know I immediately added them to my "To Have" list for my wedding). And sadly, that might be the only impression that remains with most--but ife you walk up the flight of stairs and actually stop to look, you can see from the second floor that it's much more--images are being projected (exploded) via all those tiny lights. It's a "flickering grid of light that is part sculpture, part cinematic screen" that creates "the illusion of fleeting shadowlike figures that dissolve and resolve as one moves around and beneath the suspended, chandierlike matrix." Or at least that's how SF MOMA describes it on their website. Campbell's also done a version of this in NY, but outdoorsy and urbany.

It reminded me about how art is so much about perspective--in this case, from looking from the ground up, seeing pretty but seemingly random lights, to being able to level your gaze and be presented with figures, movement, and the beauty of the former two. I think I'm stuck with my feet planted on the ground, craning my neck around while above there are people dancing and leaping and moving. Perhaps this is in part how God is operating in my life--I think the pretty flickering lights are all there is but up above He's creating and forming something brilliant and astounding, and maybe someday I'll be able to appreciate it all.

Until then...I still want those lights at my wedding.