The year 2010 is the beginning of a new decade, and dawn of an untold future. Reflection on the early 2000's is only a natural step in forging the way for the future.
On the last day of 2009, New York Times writer Roberta Smith published an interesting article on how new beginnings can be as uneasy as they are exciting, and finding comfort in art as a way of reflecting on our past.
She relates visual art to the passing of time - that it is the ultimate visual representation of history. Time is something that has no physical structure or shape, and therefore difficult to describe and visualize. In Smith's article, she describes how art and photography are essentially time machines, transporting the viewer by capturing a specific place and time through historical reference, emotion, style, atmosphere, opinion and culture. In short, that art, sculpture and photography can give you a visual picture of the non-linear thing that is time.
Smith cites specific works in the New York Metropolitan Museum's collection as examples of how they act as instruments of time travel. She describes how viewing art can be comforting when reflecting on the passage of time..."And yet art is loaded and layered with different forms of time and complexly linked to the past and the present and even the future. The longer they exist the more onionlike and synaptic they become."
As we welcome 2010, "...take refuge in art. There may be no better place — no place more stimulating or ultimately more comforting — to contemplate life’s forward motion than a large museum, especially the great time machine that is the Metropolitan Museum of Art."
To read the rest of the article click the link below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/arts/design/01time.html?pagewanted=1
