Us? Do the culture thing? Why not?

Yesterday the Kaye's went to the National Gallery of Canada downtown. Or as Henry with great awe calls it: "De Seeedy". It shouldn't be such a big deal since downtown is only 10 minutes away. We just never get there. Anyway, there was a really cool exhibition there by Australian artist Ron Mueck.

Now this is the kind of art I like and love exposing the kids too. Not to disparage modern art (okay, I am) but I prefer my art to look like something. I understand that art like "Voice Of Fire" is meant to evoke an emotion in people but for me that emotion is boredom. I quite simply don't get why if I go down to Home Depot, buy a snow removal tool and hang it up in my car hole it's just a shovel in a garage but when it's hanging in the art gallery it's art. I swear, this was really an "installation" at the Gallery. Oh brother.

So this Mueck has some amazing pieces. He does people with incredible reality and plays with their sizes. Some huge and some tiny. I've never seen anything so cool in my entire life. I loved the expressions on the faces, the translucency of the skin and my fave in any sculpture, hands and feet. Incredible.

Now the "problem" was that most of the sculptures were nude. Lots of penises and bums. It made for lots of immature giggling on the parts of Audrey and Henry (grow up kids, after all you are 7 and 8 for goodness sake. Sheesh!) and a visible shudder from Elliott as he walked around to the business end of a sculpture of a mother who's just given birth and the umbilical cord still attached to both.

My favourite part was asking the kids about the facial expressions. There are some really good ones especially in "Wild Man" and "Big Man". For "Big Man" I asked Audrey what she thought he was thinking and she replied "He wants everyone to stop looking at him".

So, so cool. If these sculptures ever stop by your "Seeeedy" you need to have a look. But careful. Some of the sculptures look back.

kxx