Going to an art exhibit and finding a bonus ticket...

Somehow lately I have been finding this blog overwhelming and it doesn't get done!  When I look back at this blog I notice that my first blogs were much shorter which probably helped.  Also when I was teaching I always had too much to write about and I  could even share projects and lessons, what we did in class etc.  I am still volunteering at my old school and there are things I could write about but it is different.  Also one would think that since I am retired I would have more time for blogging but I just end up doing other things it seems.

Yesterday I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery with a friend who being an accredited volunteer with Tourism Vancouver is able to get in free and take a friend, and yesterday, that was me.  We ran into someone I knew who told us that we had to see the exhibit on the third floor and due to that, after checking out the main exhibit on the first floor, about famous Haida artist,Charles Edenshaw, which was very good and which we both enjoyed (and this was my friend's second trip to see this exhibit, and having been to Haida Gwaii etc it was very interesting to me as well ) we went up to see the photograph exhibit on the third floor.  But on our way up to the third floor, we were stopped dead by the glimpse of colour on the second floor.  Now the Edenshaw exhibit was really kind of black (argilite) and grey and with muted light to protect the totems etc. so the burst of colour on the second floor really caught our attention.

This was an exhibit by a Korean artist who is Paris based, Kimsooja.  There is a very good video on this website that I would recommend watching.
The Vancouver Art Gallery is a small gallery so each of the three exhibits takes up one floor.  Our attention was first caught by the hanging over the stairwell at the beginning of this blog.  A bigger version hangs in a gallery in Brussels.  Then we went into this room and walked through the beautiful hangings shown.  I love experiential exhibits like this-plus I love colourful fabrics...

Now about now a guard told me I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures so I basically did stop as we went into the other galleries.  We were fascinated by her use of bottaris, which are beautiful cloth bundles in which Korean women kept their valuables or what they needed to carry.
We also liked the exhibit which is videos of her in busy world cities just standing observing, as she says like a needle...We also liked the installation where a screen changed colours with what sounded like heavy breathing to make it happen and then became beautiful buddhist type chants.
I did steal another picture though.

This is a truck carrying bottaris.  And there was a video showing the journey across high mountains. Anyway she also has a website that looks absolutely fascinating so check it out!

Thinking about this exhibit, I was reminded of going to an exhibit here of drawings by Toulouse-Lautrec.   There was also an exhibit of Japanese prints that influenced the Impressionists greatly.  I loved that exhibit far more than the main exhibit . I love going to something for one reason but discovering something totally different.  It is such a bonus.  Such a great surprise!  I keep thinking that this retirement thing is a chance to discover...