Loose Leaf Notes

My favorite room in the exhibit on WONDER at the Renwick Gallery in D.C. is one by Boston artist Janet Echelman. Her installation creation draws from the maps of energy released during the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and features a woven sculpture and changing lights that, together, create a  fantasy sail boating effect.

Even the wave-like carpet used in the installation adds to the moving experience.

There are couches and other seating so that visitors can become engulfed.

How would you like wallpaper like this? The ultimate girl’s pink room?

Maybe not because the bugs are real. They’re plentiful in Malaysia, Thailand and Papua New Guinea, says the artist statement by Jennifer Angus.  The pink wash comes from cochineal insects that live on cacti in Mexico.

Tara Donavan uses an overwhelming accumulation of everyday materials to create landscapes that make you wonder what you’re looking at.

In this case, millions of paper squares made for a winter Narnia in the woods look.

This rainbow weaving by Gabriel Dawe was wonderfully disorienting because the scaled fabric could easily be mistaken for rays of light that could be walked through.

The architecture of the gallery is an art in itself and even the hallways leading into the wonder full rooms are photo ops.

The Renwick gallery was saved from demolition by First Lady Jackie O during the Kennedy administration. The Gallery – once referred to as the American Louvre – recently re-opened after an major renovation. It was built in the late 1800’s by James Renwick Jr., who also designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and was inspired by a trip to Paris.  See another exhibit room HERE.

_________Our World Tuesday