Phoenix - SMoCA

"Now you're a SMoCA," said Wren (in her English accent) as I stuck the small round museum sticker to my tank-top. "By no means!" said I. "I gave up long ago."

The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art is a gem of a modern museum in Scottsdale's 'old town' (I'm resisting adding 'e's to that: there's nothing old nor town-like about the area -- in Massachusetts at least there's a semblance of the 'town' part of the Ye Olde Towne equation). The building housing the small collection is  silver-sleek, opposite the adobe-nouveau performing arts center, sun-drenched.

One of the blurbs inside recounts how an economically poor Native American neighborhood was essentially razed to make place for the new arts complex -- but now that it's in existence, it seems to be doing its best to raise consciousness of local issues and disadvantaged communities, providing artistic commentary on such things as: water and irrigation issues in Arizona; the legacy of nuclear testing; border patrols and immigration; degeneration of Juarez into anarchic criminality; romanticized portrayals of Native Americans and Cowboys. The exhibits in the five galleries change completely every few months, so we may have struck a particularly rich vein of Arizona-related hot topics -- but we were assured by the charming art grad student at the front desk that there was an ongoing environmental focus.

Sadly, the exhibit that had caught my eye on the website, "Architecture + Art: 90 Days Over 100F", which involves the Arizona sun melting some significant mass of ice over the course of the four months the exhibit is on (ok, so it's not one lump of ice; it gets replenished) was un-affecting. The architects (I was told) had gone for an 'ice-cave' effect, with water dripping down the inside walls and collecting in a pool. The ice cave was more like a graceful tunnel befitting a temple entrance; the lighting was such that the occasional and slight trickles of water were discernable only if one set one's head at an awkward angle against the light; and the pool (more like rainwater collected in a gutter) could similarly only be seen from one angle. The outside of the cave-tunnel was of elegantly carved wood -- really the most appealing thing about the installation.

Through an outdoor patio criss-crossed with shadows is another of James Turrell's Sky Spaces, Knight Rise: this one is oval where San Francisco's is circular; the wall has a tier to it which 'breaks' the circle of light cast on the wall; and it lacks a center circle on the ground impelling visitors to stand in the middle of the space.













Journal:
Spent the night at Debbie & Derrick's in the Kid's Casita coz the rain was still coming down hard at midnight. Wren was awakened at 7am by Lilith calling to find out where in the workshop was the sculpture Wren is submitting to a London show. Breakfast of fruit salad and pound cake with Barbara in the kitchen, as Brandon and Alethea tested grandma's patience by playing with the volume on the karaoke machine. Lauren still sound asleep on the mega-couch, Debbie & Derrick having a lie-in. Wren & I got organized for the day - identifying 3 museums we wanted to visit and getting directions - and left around noon. First stop was Mesa Arts Center (in Mesa, another sub-division in the Phoenix conurbation), but it turned out this was closed for renovations until September. Got a hard-shell chicken taco at a local taco stand to fortify ourselves. Second stop was the SMoCA (described above) in Scottsdale. Third stop was going to be the Heard Museum in Downtown Phoenix, but it was too late in the afternoon to make a visit worthwhile; we'll save it for Tuesday, along with the ASU Museum and Ceramics Research Center. Stopped in at Zoe's Kitchen for a salad, and picked up the latest Rough Guide to the Southwest at the Borders in the Biltmore Mall on Camelback at 24th.

Mesa Art Center

Mesa Art Center