Big Bambu

DH on the roof of The Met.
The bamboo has much tactile appeal - you can't help but touch it.


View from The Met rooftop- great space, great view.

For several months this year that supreme vessel of culture, The Metropolitan Museum in the City of New York, has accessed its inner Robinson Crusoe and put a treehouse on its roof. The wonderful structure is formally titled "Big Bambu: You Can't, You Don't and You Won't Stop", and is conceived by twin brother artists Doug and Mike Starn.

Unlike the solitary Crusoe's shelter, however, this project is the product of a community of rock climbers, who began lashing lengths of bamboo together in March and will continue their high-wire building throughout the summer and early fall; the exhibit closes October 31. Although the structure itself is improvisational the art lover must plan ahead. While every visitor to The Met may go up to the rooftop, only 10 -15 people are allowed on each tour up and into the structure. Tickets are given out at specific times, with extra tours on Friday and Saturday. Our daughter joined the queue around 11:30 am on a Saturday; there were about twenty people ahead of us in line. You must be there in person to acquire a ticket and have a photo id. Shortly after noon we snaked up to the desk, and received tickets for the 3:30 pm tour.

We form an orderly queue.

The rules of conduct and attire for the tour.


The beginning of the tour.


View from up in the sculpture.

This exhibit was the first one I've experienced with rules, an upper weight limit for visitors (400 lbs.), a release form and a dress code. Enclosed, non slip footwear only - and they mean it - a slip could be trouble, as it's a long way down. Skirts are unwise, unless you want everyone to see France, and we left our handbags in lockers provided before walking up to the rooftop. I confess I took my camera and snapped a few illicit photos while on the tour.

Bamboo is hollow - hence lightweight -
except at the node between each segment of the culm, or stem.

Bamboo lashed to make a platform.
The bamboo gently flexes slightly as one walks on it.

Bamboo matrix contrasts with traditional architecture beyond.

Our tour guide was an enthusiastic young woman who gave us some of the background and technical details of the structure; one of our fellow visitors commented that he has worked in China and this is how they do scaffolding for buildings under construction. Another museum intern brought up the rear. The tour lasts about twenty minutes; we learn that on a previous tour a young man sat down on a sort of bamboo ledge, proposed and was accepted.

Daughter and rear guard at the end of the tour.

DH and daughter at end of tour.

The intern kindly gave us extra time to snap the photo before roping off the path.

Bamboo gate at end of the tour.

This installation, which I would strongly recommend visiting, affected me on many levels. I remember an art class at MIT during the '75-76 school year (yes, there are art classes at MIT) with the late sculptor Richard Filipowski. He asked us what was the first architectural connection. We looked confused - the mortise-and-tenon joint? No, the knot. When men and women first used fiber to connect sticks, that was the beginning of architecture. You see, it really does all come down to fiber.

Untitled, by Richard Filipowski.

credit: ACME Fine Arts Gallery, Boston.

I think Professor Filipowski would have appreciated the Starn's construction. The bamboo is tied together with assorted, multi-colored nylon cords, in a variety of knots, some recognizable from a camp manual, some uncategorizable. We always felt secure, however. Bamboo has incredible tensile strength, and there's a lot of redundancy in the structure.

Bamboo lashed, tied, bound, roped, made fast, secured - the verbs rush out.

Part of the structure christened the vortex,
If I'd shot this in black and white,
it could almost be an abstract expressionist "action painting".

We were lucky with weather for our trip in July - no heat wave that weekend - and enjoyed a bright sky, against which the bamboo formed a network of dark stripes.

Stem by stem, knot by knot, the bamboo forms - well, choose your metaphor:
neural lattice, multi-nodal network, interconnected web; you name it.

It would be fun to return on a weekday,
and watch the construction.

There are several types of bamboo, and the darker, greener type is
a denser, stronger stem. The color also changes over time.

I like her skirt in contrast with the monochrome bamboo.


The tour path.


You can see another tour group up in the structure.

Raw materials, from Georgia and South Carolina.

This structure has the exuberance and spontaneity to which Frank Gehry aspires. However, his buildings are functional, permanent structures that only posture improvisation - every odd-shaped window, every eccentrically loaded column, every bit of titanium sheathing of his costly designs is calculated, fabricated and modelled by sophisticated computer-aided software. The Met, that stolid, solid piece of neo-classical architecture, knows its place, but provides the perfect foil for these temporary installations. In much the same manner, Central Park provided the perfect backdrop for 2005 The Gates installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. I wouldn't want The Gates to be permanent - it was special partly because it was fleeting- and Central Park shone again for its mutability.

The fact that Big Bambu is temporary and ephemeral makes it all the more special. Historically, there used to be a lot more temporary construction than today; this may help explain the appeal of Gehry's buildings - we crave the novel but have lost the tradition that built jousting lists and coronation stands, so we allow the latest fashion into our permanent landscape and then wonder why our landscape lacks coherence. Today, the term "temporary architecture" means little more than emergency shelter; it used to encompass structures for celebrations and events.

Ever-changing shadow and light - as the artists say,
the only constant is change.

Phoebe Ann Erb collage exhibit

Handmade book by Phoebe Ann Erb.

Proving once again that not all the good art is in museums or commercial galleries, the Brookline Public Library mounted a small but choice exhibit of collages and handmade books by area resident Phoebe Ann Erb, who has also published several wonderful design source books.

Whatever collage.

The exhibit, entitled Scraps and Snibbles, for the bits and pieces Phoebe utilizes, runs from July 7 until August 17. The artwork is in two cases in the main lobby (hence the glare in the photos) and in a large display case in the entry to the right as one faces the circulation desk - just ask, as the library is being renovated, so that entry is blocked from the outside but accessible from the interior.

Although layering of images is a common feature of contemporary collage, Phoebe's images do not necessarily overlap; like the vintage dictionaries and primers which are often her source and inspiration, images are visible in their entirety, thus retaining some of the didactic quality of the sources. Yet her compositions are lively and engaging, as the juxtaposition of images frees them from the rationality of the reference source.

Close-up of Whatever.

The quote in the close-up reads "Whatever interests, is interesting -William Hazlett" and captures succinctly the spirit of the artwork.

Tranquil Lake daylilies

Clockwise from upper right: Jay in field of daylilies,
a very fancy variety, wall of cut daylilies, another fancy variety.

On Saturday, July 17, we journeyed to Rehoboth for the annual open house at Tranquil Lake Nursery. From 10am to 4pm, despite the 90+ degree heat, plant-lovers listened to informal lectures, viewed the gardens and, of course, shopped for day-lilies and perennials.

"Countess Carrots" - with over 60,000+ named varieties,
it must be difficult to find new names.

Most of the daylilies are field grown - shoppers wander the fields or plan ahead, using the online catalog. Price lists are available - the daylilies are mostly in the $8-12 range, but some very fancy ones cost much more. The eager gardener places an order, pays, and then the plants are dug by nursery staff, to be picked up by the shopper at a field-side booth. The daylilies are sold bare-root, but with clear planting instructions which I found very comprehensive. I wish Tranquil Lake would post this planting guide on its website, which is otherwise very helpful: http://www.tranquil-lake.com/index.htm In addition to being bare-root, the tips of the leaves are cropped, so the stressed plant doesn't have to try and push water to the ends of lengthy foliage. This is a good tip for moving daylilies in the garden.

Here's one of those fancy, expensive daylilies, but it is gorgeous.

Suzanne Mahler, holding a crocosmia, and answering questions.

We attended a terrific one-hour lecture by Suzanne Mahler entitled Favorite Perennials to Complement Daylilies in the Summer Border. Ms. Mahler is an engaging and knowledgable speaker and past president of a regional daylily association. She's been bitten by the daylily bug, all right- 800 types in her Hanover garden - and had lots of good ideas for color combinations. For example, pairing a violet daylily such as "Blueberry Breakfast" (don't you love that name?) with purple liatris, also a top choice to entice butterflies.

Back at my nursery, newly planted
daylilies with the Knock-out roses.

So, I soaked my six bare-root "Happy Returns," so-called because they rebloom, for the recommended one hour, dug holes just to the depth of my spade, and planted the lilies to a depth of one inch above the crown. Interestingly, daylilies have contractile roots and can pull themselves down to the right depth. I replaced the mulch and watered well. I'll water no more than 3 times the next week, as per instructions, to prevent rot, and not worry about the outer leaves dying (transplant shock, not lack of water). In 2 to 4 weeks, if all goes well, we'll see new green leaves. "Happy Returns" is a lovely light yellow which should meld well with the pink roses and the blue catmint spikes. The traditional cottage garden color scheme of pink, yellow and blue still works well.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich at the Quilt Museum

Title slide of Prof. Ulrich's presentation.

On June 19, DH and I took in a lecture presented by Harvard professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. She presented her work-in-progress for her next book, an in-depth study of an album quilt made in 1857 by women in a Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) community in Utah territory. This object could easily be dismissed as just another another example of the decorative output of women with no other artistic outlet. However, Prof. Ulrich finds linkages between this object and many aspects of American history, including issues of community self-governance, religion and faith, as well as marriage and sexuality.

The women who contributed to the quilt are profiled in Carol Holindrake Nielson's book The Salt Lake City 14th Ward Album Quilt, 1857, which provided Ulrich with invaluable background material for her own research.

The lecture was excellent and I can't wait to read the finished book. I first became aware of Ulrich when she spoke at my town library shortly after the publication of her book The Age of Homespun, a seminal work in the field of object-centered cultural history. Through impeccable research, Ulrich largely debunks the early American mythology established by such sentimentalists as Wallace Nutting.

Prof. Ulrich speaking.


Prof. Ulrich's book.

This scholarly but engaging presentation is just the kind of activity I look for from the quilt museum. The lecture tied in nicely to the museum's current exhibit, Women's Writes: Signature Quilts and Stories, which presents quilts, often community projects and fund-raisers, featuring the names of contributors inscribed in the quilt blocks. While it's long been assumed that "anonymous was a woman," in these quilts women were encouraged to record their autograph for posterity. Having one's name so visibly recorded, and, indeed celebrated, must have been empowering.

Quilt with inked signatures and partially embroidered signatures.

Redwork signatures.

Mariner's compass with names, barely visible, in the compass center.

This show, which ends July 11, is very well conceived and curated - kudos to the museum!

Recommended reading

Indian Textiles in the East, by John Guy.

I recently finished two enjoyable books, Indian Textiles in the East: From Southeast Asia to Japan and Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England.

The Indian Textiles book is a profusely-illustrated scholarly cultural study. Before the European East India Companies muscled their way into Asian commerce, colorfast Indian cloth was traded in a regional exchange system, with merchants also sailing from Muslim Arabia. This engagingly-written book documents this trade of textiles for spices from the time period, roughly, of 1600 - 1858. Maps, primary documents, contemporary images and, of course, color photos of stunning historic textiles all serve to explain the fabrication and origin of regional textiles, how the printed cottons and silk ikats were made, and the degree to which products were adapted to the requirements of each market, whether in Malaysia, Sulawesi (Indonesia) or Japan.

The author, John Guy, was formerly Senior Curator of the Asian Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum and is now Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art in the Department of Asian Art at the Met.

Process of creating a mordanted cotton print.

Illustration from the book of a Palampore
(large bedcover or curtain panel).

An engaging cultural study by Amanda Vickery.

The other book is Behind Closed Doors: at Home in Georgian England, by British history professor Amanda Vickery. The cover image and book title suggests a focus on salacious behavior or outlandish dress; there is neither, although one discussion of an aristocratic divorce begins to read like a People magazine of the 18th century. A good review can be accessed at this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/books/review/Wulf-t.html

For me, the most important chapter was entitled "What Women Made," a discussion of "amateur" crafting and female accomplishments. Art history hasn't known what to do with regard to the production of embroidery, cut paper work, shellwork, decorated boxes, fire screens, etc. Is it art, occupational therapy or make-work? Were women just decorating their own cages? As Ms. Vickery states, "The domestic context of female decorative work has guaranteed its low prestige. A founding legend of women's history narrates the withdrawal of middling and privileged women from productive work and relegation to a separate sphere of home as a consequence of industrial capitalism." Somehow, objects made in one's "leisure time", i.e. by women not in the work force, became ripe for parody and disparagement.

Although the two books feature very different subject matter, what is clear in the Guy book is that in historical Asian cultures textiles represented status and wealth in the way that precious metal jewelry and objects function in other societies. Traditional Asian culture, as I understand it, did not establish a dichotomy between "high" and "low" arts; textiles were not relegated to "decorative art" status, as opposed to "fine art" status. Indeed, textile designs even influenced architectural detail and decoration.

Guy's research and analysis has reinforced the status of these textiles as art. Those of us who value needle arts can only hope that more research on objects made by women in past centuries will undoubtedly lead to a reassessment of these products as well.

Hanging the 2010 QC quilt show

Why is this brave woman up a ladder?

When my youngest child graduated from high school, my family did not quite grasp why I was so estatically happy. Was I really surprised that my youngest, always academically capable, received his high school diploma? What they didn't understand is that the event signaled another transition - an end, or so I thought, to what seemed like a lifetime of volunteering. In America, civil society cannot be supported, evidently, without hours of unpaid labor, in the public school system, at museums, senior centers, etc. Is it like this in other countries? Are French mamans creating les cupcakes for le bake sale? Are Australians mums spending hours decorating gyms so that they resemble an unholy union between a Caribbean resort and Madison Square Garden? I was so happy to be leaving that life behind, or so I thought.

Alas, I celebrated too soon, as the volunteer life continues, and this morning found me assisting with the installation of my quilt guild's annual quilt show extravaganza.

Hanging the beautiful raffle quilt.

After a year of planning, things got off to an early start at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, in Watertown. First, members exhibiting quilt(s) drop them off between 8 and 9.

Are we organized or what?

A patient volunteer checking in a quilt.

Each exhibitor receives a blue index card for each quilt, and this must be presented after the show ends, to retrieve the quilt. The artist can assign pick-up to someone else, but that person must present the all-important blue card. This all ensures that quilts are matched with owners - if you'd spent 100 or more hours on a work of art, you'd want it back too.

Rolls of quilts are delivered to their assigned areas,
and kept clean on sheets.

The Arsenal Center is a tricky space to hang, in curator parlance, as it's not a series of exhibition rooms, but a collection of spaces enveloping a large performance theater. So, there are quilts displayed in the Black Box, the window-less area under the raked seating and stage, as well as quilts on the lobby landings, quilts in the entrance lobby, and quilts in the theater itself and even on the stage.

Each quilt has a rod pocket sewn on the back and each quilter provides a metal or wood rod to go through the pocket. The ends of the rods are hung using monofilament fishing line.

Some of the tools of the trade.

There are also few of the usual display systems or supports - no picture rails, etc. Quilters are very resourceful, and we use clips attached to the ceiling structure, as well as special hooks for suspended ceiling systems. The Arts Center staff helps and we all pitch in to trouble-shoot.

Quilts arranged on the floor,
in front of the wall on which they will be hung.


Hey presto! Quilts on the wall.

My team of four spent a good deal of time arranging the quilts assigned to our area, to make pleasing compositions of quilts that would complement each other, and not clash on the wall. We moved the quilts around on floor sheets and managed to reach a consensus.

One volunteer, teetering on a stool,
suspends the quilt while another checks placement.

My assigned area was the classroom space, which featured the smaller quilts. Once the room was organized overall, I worked with Nancy, the intrepid woman in the first image in this post, and hung over a dozen quilts. Total time: about three hours. Nancy was a pleasure to work with - a winning combination of good sense, a good eye, no pretensions, but plenty of patience.

Guild members ready the boutique.

Our guild show does not feature vendors, but we do have a great boutique. Quilters are often experts in other craft areas, and the boutique features knitwear, jewelry and other items reflecting a professional level of design and execution.

The stage, with quilts.

The Black Box. That's my quilt, at the left end of the row.

More about this year's show can be found at: http://www.quiltersconnection.org/quiltshow.html
As you can see, it's a lot of effort, but even this reluctant volunteer considers it time well spent.