My co worker Amy yelled at me down the hall yesterday, asking me if I’d been to the new art show at the EMP. Of course I haven’t, even though I have been really toying with the concept of finally setting foot into one of Paul Allen’s museum’s. I told her on principle, I’d never been to the EMP because I found it insulting that it was terrifically over priced and additionally they never featured a free or reduced admission day. Being the fine coworker and fellow art enthusiast that she is, she totally agreed with me. However she said, she’d had an opportunity to go to one of the opening events for the latest venture: Double Take, and she said it was totally worth it just to see a Canaletto. I actually have no idea which Canaletto is featured in the show Double Take but Amy has me convinced it might be worth my while.
I got the full scoop, no bullshit report on how she sat through a five minute movie featuring the curatorial aspects of putting the show together (they obviously had to come up with an arching theme for the random collection to pull it all together), how she endured, for about five minutes the heinous head set lecture that accompanies the exhibit (after about five minutes she switched to the one produced for children but after two secondsof helium pitched vocals she silenced the mechanism all together. But then there wasthe Canaletto,that made the entire trip worthwhile. After she left the exhibit she was asked to participate in an exit interview, quizzing her on what she thought of the space, how the exhibit was put together, etc- which I find sincerely much more intriguing than anything else I’ve heard about the show. So yes, I will go for Canaletto and perhaps a few more amazing pieces that normally live behind closed doors normally in our fine city of Seattle.
I haven’t read much press on the show as I hate to have my brain flavored by other’s reactions (before concocting my own), however Amy’s full report has left me with enough bias and curiosity to actually make me want to go soon. And frankly it’s stupid to let my principles over admission prices keep me from seeing art that that isn’t likely to be on display in the region again any time soon. However, about those Tribbles….