I finally crossed it off my to do list– Road trip to Mass MoCA. On our warmest day of Spring so far, my husband and I set off to North Adams, Mass. After an accidental detour to Northampton and a brief pitstop to snag a downed white birch tree for the fireplace we arrived at the museum. North Adams is an old mill town and they've done an excellent job converting this space into an amazing oversized curated collection. 
Material World was the first exhibit we walked through. It featured work from 7 young artists in their 30s and 40s. In Orly Genger's "Big Boss", the artist "introduces a traditionally female-identified craft process into an artistic idiom associated with a certain muscular bravado." Our pictures don't even come close to capturing the heaviness of this installation. It's just wild to see such a typically soft stitch (which resembled a stockinette, but says its an adapted crochet stitch. Maybe she's discovered a new workout method– Orly's arms must be jacked!
I failed to get a good shot of Dan Steinhilber's Breathing Room, but that, to me, was breathtaking–literally. You felt like you were in a giant lung, of a very slow-moving whale. I was most excited to see Wade Kavanaugh and Steven B. Nguyen's White Stag made of paper and wood spanning two floors and countless rooms of the museum. These piece which resembles tree roots and "a fantastical, old growth forest…" is a really powerful statement on trees and paper. (The art critic who wrote the brochure does a much better job describing this work than I ever could. )
Lastly, Alyson Shotz installation was truly remarkable. I'm not sure if it was the sheer labor that astounded me or the visuals themselves, but it reminded us of a massive cobweb covered in dew. (I know that's not what we were supposed to get from it, but hey– we're creative too, right?)As if you need any more reasons to go, I'm going to write about You Are What You Eat! next time.
