This weekend my friend Becca came in town for a couple days in honor of spring break. As a result, we did some cool things. Yesterday we ventured over to the Guggenheim since there was supposed to be a pretty cool exhibit. There were actually two of them, and one more I saw a while ago that I still want to talk about.

Pierre Huyghe
His exhibit was the smaller of the two, but I preferred it. He had two installations -- a "stagelike sculpture" filled with smoke and pulsing lights accompanied by the sounds of Erik Satie reorchestrated by Claude Debussy and a film of two French housing projects. The light sculpture was very cool, but the film was amazing. It is called Les Grands Ensembles and is described as "a pair of bleak buildings, models based on 1970s French housing projects, enact[ing] a subtle inanimate drama. Enveloped in fog, the uninhabited scene is both romantic and alienating." Both of the pieces "address alternative modes of representation and communication." Muy interesante.

Matthew Barney
This talented dude created the Cremaster cycle, which is "five feature-length films that explore processes of creation." They are all completel surreal and use amazing prosthetics. The exhibit, in addition to showing portions of the films (you can view the films in their entirity at specified times), allows you to see costumes used and photographs taken during the making of the films. I'm still not sure what to make of it all, but it is certainly unique.

Bill Viola
This remains to be my favorite exhibit I've seen at the Guggenheim. It is entitled Going Forth by Day. "For this work, Viola references fresco painting to create a powerful five-part projection-based installation that examines cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. Each "panel"—a projection seen directly on the walls of a space—is approximately 35 minutes long and was recorded in state-of-the-art High Definition Video." When you sit in a room with 5 screens spewing high definition video all around you, it becomes very surreal. I would love to sit through the whole thing again. If this ever comes to a museum near you, please see it. (Speaking of which, he will be back in NYC at the James Cohan Gallery starting April 5th.)