It is weird being in a huge (and quite stunning downtown and by the lake) North American city so far from home, but at the same time spending all day, off and on, meeting people you know. The whole city, around Michigan Avenue, is becoming a nomadic 'Qualitative Inquiry' village - so -
en route to the Art Institute we came across Bronwyn Davies and her colleagues including Constance Ellwood from Melbourne and Sheridan Linnell from Sydney [Sheridan's recent work has just come out as an e-book with Bentham press - Art Psychotherapy & Narrative Therapy: An Account Of Practitioner Research - I have ordered it for the UoB Education library, but for any practitioner-researchers (or others!) interested in artful post-structural inquiry ( quite a few of the readers of this blog) it is a great read!]
At the Art Institute we met up with Tami Spry (by design) and our very own Sue and Glen (by accident) which was lovely - just bumping into people, like you do in your own village. The Latin American pictures we went to see (below, see previous post) were lovely, but were downstairs, in the basement next to the Gent's.
The work I was most struck by, as ever, we happened upon by accident - this was by a North American photographer/visual artist Uta Barth. I have come across her work before somewhere, but this time she has produced work especially for this exhibition, playing and drawing with white light as it moves across/is moved across thin gauze curtains in her home. The line of light moves, expands, plays and waves across a series of huge photographs mounted around two rooms. We visited this exhibit twice. I found it extraordinary moving...but this (below) doesn't do it justice ... if you get a chance to go and see this...go!
... and to draw a bright white line with light (Untitled 11.3), 2011. Inkjet print, 37 x 56 in. Courtesy of the Artist; 1301 PE, Los Angeles; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. © Uta Barth, Courtesy Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, and 1301PE, Los Angeles.
We did also go to the Russian tea rooms, but I did not get my writing done, we chatted, caught up with each other's lives a bit ... and later met up with Elyse (great to see her, she drove all the way up and it took her seven hours...blimey!!) and went out for a stunning meal at Gioco's restaurant - during which we did some serious plotting about forthcoming research visits and exchanges and also about a series of bids. We did. We also drank some lovely Martinis ( I don't usually like these kinds of 'prohibition' drinks - but wow!) and got quite silly. The odd thing is that alcohol is supposed to be bad for jet lag, but I feel great this morning - much better than yesterday. Maybe the Martinis just haven't worn off yet....
Today I'm going to finish my writing ( I'm in a turmoil about my two different and quite critical presentations on auto-ethnography. I had a clear idea about what I was going to say.... and now I think it might be rubbish or at least maybe its all been said before, or..or....... does anybody else do this? ) and then I'm off on the little plane to Urbana/Champaign from O'Hare (Chicago airport). The others are all here for another day and night so maybe somebody else will take over the Chicago end of the blog (hint hint!!). And thanks for all the comments from yesterday - I only just posted them.
Would love to hear/read your two different takes on autoethnography - I certainly feel a bit ambivalent/undecided about it, and also often feel that what I write 'might be rubbish'! Hope you had a lovely flight on the little plane.
ReplyDeleteJust remembering our lovely train man on the 'City of New Orleans' last year, and his very fine hat. You should really post a picture! xxx