Playing Hooky

I took a half day last week to hit the Hero, Hawk and Open Hand exhibit at the Art Institute days before it closed. Again, I wish I’d seen it earlier in the run, so that I could talk it up and encourage others to see it, but alas, true to form, I squeezed it in just under the wire. Certainly glad I did–it was outstanding.

I was very interested to see this display of “American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South”; many of the artifacts came from the Cahokia Mounds in downstate Illinois, which I’d visited a number of years ago. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the artwork in the exhibit. A lot of bird and animal imagery, but what I liked most about it was the simplicity of the forms and designs, some of which you can see here.

Afterward, I stopped downstairs to see an installation of photos by Tokihiro Sato; large format black and white images, printed on Mylar and displayed using florescent lights shining through from behind. Sato used a light pen or mirror reflecting sunlight to create points and streaks of light in the long exposure images. Rather than capturing a moment in time, these photos, each one taken over a period of hours, are described as capturing a collection of moments.

The exhibit is up through May 8th. You can see his photos here, not all of which are on display at the AI.