Nice day for a white wedding‘Wedded Bliss’ at the Peabody Essex, Toys and Games at the Revolving Museum, and Chad Walker at Space 242 April 15,
2008 4:18:43 PM
Christian Lacroix, Wedding Cake Dress
|
In the song, love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage, but who knows what that’s supposed to mean. Over the past three centuries, around the world, marriage has represented many things, from a negotiated contractual agreement to a cementing of interfamilial power relationships to an ideal of soul mates finding common bliss. But the wedding ceremony itself stands alone — a fascinating, complex ritual that reflects the hopes of each culture for its future. Opening April 26 at the Peabody Essex Museum, “WEDDED BLISS: THE MARRIAGE OF ART AND CEREMONY” explores the subject with paintings, sculpture, textiles, jewelry, and more from the US, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. It’s organized under five headings: “Wedding in White” (symbolism and history of the Princess Bride look, including Christian Lacroix’s groovy dress in which the bride can double as the cake); “Artful Negotiations” (images of the transactional aspects of marriage); “Color and Symbolism in Wedding Attire” (alternatives to the modern Western tradition); “Art and Ceremony” (including a full-size wedding chuppah or canopy); and “Remembrance” (including a Civil War–era anniversary gift from Tiffany’s). Work from William Hogarth to Jacob Lawrence to Lesley Dill will be on view alongside such objects as a jewel-encrusted, late-19th-century Russian “nuptial crown” and colorful silk Chinese wedding gown.
Recent research recognizing the significance of play in our lives has raised concern about the diminishing amount of it these days. “TOYS AND GAMES: MORE THAN AMUSEMENT,” which opened at the Revolving Museum on Valentine’s Day with artwork examining the æsthetics of playful genres like video and computer games, dolls, puzzles, and TV game shows, holds a second opening on May 1 to showcase art by the Museum’s Artbotics Program, a youth after-school affair run in partnership with UMass-Lowell’s computer-science and robotics departments. Innovative, interactive work by the young creators joins Chelmsford-based Laura Mayotte’s “Quilt Memory Game” and a series of images titled “Buy Me Something” produced during photographer Nat Ward’s recent workshop at a Toys “R” Us in Nashua.
Chad Walker describes his charming drawings as having been inspired by favorite comics and stories including Archie, Peanuts, and the books of Shel Silverstein, as well as by Japanese poets Kobayashi Issa and Yosa Buson. The spiritually optimistic Connecticut-based artist will show new work in “DEVOTED BEE: DRAWINGS TO BRING US TOGETHER,” which opens at SPACE 242 on April 25.
“Wedded Bliss: The Marriage Of Art And Ceremony” at Peabody Essex Museum, East India Square, Salem | April 26–September 14 | 866.745.1876 | “Toys And Games: More Than Amusement” at Revolving Museum, 22 Shattuck St, Lowell | May 1–December 31 | 978.937.2787 | “Devoted Bee: Drawings To Bring Us Together” at SPACE 242, 242 East Berkeley St [second floor], Boston | April 25–May 23 | 617.426.8942 x 225
On the Web
www.pem.org
www.revolvingmuseum.org
www.space242.com
|
 |
|
- Some Things at Trinity
- Ramon Martinez, Bill Harley, Ren Whitaker, and Bob Fusaro
- Never mind its tough-girl alt-porn feminism: SuicideGirls has already moved on to a new generation
- Massachusetts may be beyond reform, but couldn’t Governor Patrick try a little harder?
- If you want to lose the ‘fright wig,’ try ditching your shampoo
- The Independent Film Festival of Boston fights for freedom of the screens
- Valerie goes Down Under
- How Stepford politics rule Beacon Hill
- Brahms from Levine and Kissin, Emmanuel’s Bach B-minor Mass, the Cantata Singers’ Kurt Weill cabaret
- Goodbye, Friend
- Massachusetts may be beyond reform, but couldn’t Governor Patrick try a little harder?
- Our correspondent takes a walk on the Wildlife-Removal side.
|
-
‘El Greco to Velázquez’ at the MFA, ‘Artadia Boston’ at the Mills Gallery, Harmonious Noise on the Roof at Tufts, and Animal Estates at MIT’s CAVS
-
Frank Gohlke at the Addison, ‘Pulp Function’ at the Worcester Center for Crafts, and ‘Expanded Sculpture 2’ at 119 Gallery
-
‘On Drawing’ at the New Art Center, Gateway Arts at Simmons, Jeff Koons at Harvard, and Jenny Saville at BU
-
“New England Survey” at the PRC, American Mobility at Gasp, 18th-Century Porcelain at the Busch-Reisinger, and Viktor Schreckengost in Attleboro
-
Spring Arts Preview: Landscape, road trips, weddings, and Spain
-
Monumental Prints and Small Ponds at the Davis Museum, ‘Art and Math’ at Axiom, Glass Sea Creatures at Harvard, and New Rationalists at Proof
-
‘Impermanence’ at the Essex Art Center, ‘Two Chinas’ at WAM, Renée Green at the Carpenter Center, and Feminism at the MFA
-
Moyra Davey at the Fogg, ‘Two or Three Things I Know about Her’ at the Carpenter Center, and Arno Rafael Minkkinen at BU
-
‘Maori Tattoo’ at the Peabody Essex, Jim Henderson and Ann Torke at Boston Sculptors, and Student Shows at the MFA and SMFA
|
- Compelling new work by Neal T. Walsh and William Schaff
- ‘El Greco to Velázquez’ at the MFA
- The mature art of longtime Maine artists
- Malcolm Grear at RIC; plus, Roger Mayer’s ‘Soundless’
- A local collective subverts with the tiny
- ‘El Greco to Velázquez’ at the MFA, ‘Artadia Boston’ at the Mills Gallery, Harmonious Noise on the Roof at Tufts, and Animal Estates at MIT’s CAVS
- Frank Gohlke at the Addison, ‘Pulp Function’ at the Worcester Center for Crafts, and ‘Expanded Sculpture 2’ at 119 Gallery
- Floating in the world of Japanese prints
- The RISD Museum showcases ‘Stryrofoam’
|
|