Event 2 | LACMA

Over the weekend, I attended LACMA and the exhibit The Inner Eye: Vision and Transcendence in African Arts. Although this is unrelated to the exhibit, I found it interesting that the first artwork I encountered at LACMA wasn’t even in the building… but rather in the parking lot elevator. 

Heartbeat Elevator


As the elevator ascended into LACMA’s main floor, I was completely surrounded by heartbeats rather than the usual elevator music in an elevator painted completely red, both inside and outside. This installation employed real life heartbeats collected through FitBit over the course of a year. Thus, it brought back memories from DESMA’s Medicine + Art unit.

Sorry his eyes are closed :( 

This exhibit connected to what I learned in both Art History AP (back in high school) and from DESMA 9. I enjoyed having both a cultural perspective (from HS) and a technical/science based view from DESMA as I walked through the exhibit. My favorite piece of work was the Chi Wara Society Antelope Headdress. These headdresses were very geometric. It employed straight lines and smooth curves. To decorate the headdress, geometric shapes such as triangles and rounded rectangles were carved into the overarching curve. Geometry was heavily used to create this headdress, a concept that I connected back to Week 2’s Math + Art lectures.


Antelope Headdress #1; very geometric


Furthermore, these headdresses also connect to science through astronomy and seasons. The long “pointing” horns were meant to represent antelopes, which were a sign of cultivation and fertility. These headdresses were only worn during the fertile farming seasons. In addition, the large curves symbolized the path of the sun as it crossed the sky from sunrise to sunset. Therefore, African Art heavily incorporated astronomy.

Ultimately, I would recommend not just this exhibit, but LACMA as a whole. There are always lively events and new exhibits going on, and the architecture of LACMA’s buildings is simply amazing. Plus, it’s free for SoCal residents!

Antelope Headdress #2; long curves and "horns" 


More masks from the exhibit; Congo idimu
For this exhibit in particular, I enjoyed how a seemingly ancient form of art was still presented with science perspectives. Though their knowledge of astronomy and math seems primitive from our modern point of view, it was intriguing to see the fundamental concepts of basic geometry and sun movement implemented into their culture in the form of headdresses and masks.

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