Unfortunately, I was unable to join the class on their trip to Chaco Canyon.
I ended up taking a field trip to the UMOCA in Salt Lake City.
Unfortunatley, all of my photos were on my phone, which then died, and had to be replaced.
Fortunately, I brought my old camera along.
Unfortunately, I haven't developed the film yet.
The art piece that stood out the most to me was the mural in the center of the museum. The wall was completely covered in portraits fo famous women. I recognized a handful of these faces and to my dismay, did not recognize a large percentage of them.
There was a stack of papers, on a single chair, facing the mural, in the center of the room. It seemed to call for me to sit on and take the time to study the faces of the women on the wall. The papers on the chair were a combined list of the women's faces and what they had accomplished, what the had contributed to the world. There were over 100 women, many of which I had no idea had such an impact on the things I take for granted: cinema, teaching, politics, civil rights, boating, etc. I was overwhelmed by the fact that I had no idea who these people were. I was confused as to why these people weren't mentioned in any of my classes as a student in high school or college, and I slowly began to grow frustrated. Why was there a big focus on a small handful of noteworthy men and little or no focus on the impact of these women?
The exhibits that filled the other rooms were focused on the individual. Photographics portraits of people covered the walls of one room. No descriptions accompanied the photographs and I absolutely loved the freedom that I had to interpret each individual face. Why were these people on the walls? What impact have they had on one person, or many people? How talks about them?
I felt that these two pieces really tied together because of their focus on the impact that people have, and the sad fact that sometimes that impact is not presented or discussed enough.
