Arts Inquiries

We know what you did last summer

I was in the Prado in Madrid, Spain, where museum visitors can look at Jesus Christ's death as it unfolds on about one thousand different canvasses. My friend and I were backpacking around Europe for the summer trying to avoid such art. Hope flickered for a moment as we rounded a corner, but we were inevitably faced with another lifeless Jesus. Imagine my surprise upon entering a cool and nondescript room in the lowest level of the museum. I stood before "The Garden of Earthly Delights," by Hieronymous Bosch. I'm not an art critic but even I in my wretched state of ignorance could see that this painter, and specifically this painting was different. His colorful and complex depiction of sin and the after life stood in marked contrast to the portrait collection. Action unfolds throughout the canvas as many figures act out humans' propensity toward sin. Although Bosch's work enjoys relative anonymity in the Prado, it was a focal point for my friend and I, in contrast to many other museums. - Chris Morrocco, Class of 2003

I spent a week in Boston at a contemporary piano festival and every night one-upped the previous. Probably the best from this festival was a gigantic Korean lesbian named Jung Hee Shin who played Stockhausen's Klavierstucke XI. She wore long gloves up to the elbows for the glissandos, and produced a gorgeous sound in a very rigid, mathematical structure. It was a really contradictory aesthetic and she really got it- and made us all hot and bothered in the meantime. - Emily Manzo, Class of 2002

This summer I went to "Cows in Chicago." The cows are life-size plaster casts in sitting and standing positions given to local artists and sponsored by Chicago companies. The artists were allowed to decorate the cows however they wanted. There were approximately 300 cows placed throughout the Loop in Chicago. Each cow is unique and crazy and they range in interpretations from an upright waiter cow decked out in the finest waiter attire with a platter holding a fish in front of the John Hancock Building to a cow covered in one man's lifetime stamp collection. Each cow is completely different and you might think it's tiresome but it's not, it's a lot of fun. Oberlin students would eat this exhibit up because each cow ranges from a completely simple topic like Wrigley Gum cow in front of the Wrigley Building to deeper interpretations of what it means to be a part of society or a herd. - Shelley Goldman, Class of 2003

Great artistic moments in the twentieth century are found in unexpected places. While it might be argued that Lorain county can't compete with the cultural refinement of a summer in the Hamptons, it is mistake to think that Oberlin is the end-all of Northeastern Ohio's art scene. Every Wednesday night the Sandbar on Route 6 outside of Vermillion showcases artists representing the most progressive movements of twentieth-century expressionist performance in the free world. Wednesday night is Karaoke night.

Starting at 10 o'clock and going strong until 1 a.m., the Sandbar brings a cross-section of performers who live out the duel identities of construction workers or lawyers or bankers by day and timeless young country icons by night. Though the tunes usually represent the cusp of top 40 hot country the occasional strains of a G'nR or Ozzy Osbourne thrasher are common place.

With Robin behind the bar serving up ice cold bottles Budweiser for $1.60 and Val singing the latest Trisha Yearwood heartbreaker, even the staunchest art critic would feel a moment of artistic clarity that has become far too rare, even in the halls of our beloved conservatory. In an age of growing controversy surrounding what is and what is not artistically legitimate, the stage at the Sandbar relies on the most basic of artistic principles: that of emotionally relevant human communication through creation. - Nate Calvalieri, Class of 2000