The Art of Fashion

Since our weekend so far has been spent pulling the house apart and filling boxes ready to move next week, it is not very photogenic.

So, back to Atlanta and an exhibition at the High Museum of Art of the work of Iris Van Herpen (b.1984) called 'Transforming Fashion'

The outfits - mainly dresses - in this extraordinary exhibition were mostly created from plastic - cut, moulded, or - in the case of the second dress, above - 3D printed.

Quite an unusual and slightly surreal exhibit!

Iris in the Garden

There was quite a variety of different irises in bloom in the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

After some high temperatures and heavy rain they were not all looking their best, but it was interesting to see all the different colours, shapes and sizes..

High Museum of Art, Atlanta

At the museum on Tuesday I visited a temporary exhibition of the work of a Brazilian American artist called Vik Muniz.

These large art works are photographs of individual items laid out to create a specific image.  The first work, above, is an image of Lewis Carroll's drawing of Alice Liddell, created using plastic toys and novelties.

The three images are created using toy soldiers..

The works are often representations of well known images but created in different media..  The artist's interest is in the point where a complete and familiar image is broken down into small parts which have an identity in their own right but don't necessarily bear any resemblance to the whole picture.

These Mona Lisa images were created in peanut butter and jelly (jam) and then photographed.

Some of the works such as this representation of 'Narcissus' by Caravaggio were created on a factory floor using full sized pieces of furniture and discarded items - then photographed from a height of 40 feet.

Other works recreated well known paintings or landscapes using collages magazine images or, in the case of this picture of Paris, old postcards..

It was certainly an interesting exhibition!

So many orchids..

The orchid house at the Atlanta Botanical Garden contains orchids of all shapes, colours and sizes.

Here are just a few of them...

Paul Simon at the Fox Theatre

Last year when we were in Atlanta I did a tour of the extraordinary Fox Theatre.  

Built in 1929 in the atmospheric theatre tradition and used as a movie theatre and then a Shriner temple, it was saved from demolition and has now been fully restored as a busy venue for theatre and concerts.

I had thought that it would be good to see it in action and full of people and checked what was on this week. 

Hence this evening I found myself at the Fox Theatre with 4,500 others (mostly of similar age to me) for a concert by Paul Simon, the first one on his extensive tour of North America.

The venue has a bright blue ceiling complete with moving clouds and twinkling stars so that you could almost believe that you were outside.

It was difficult to photograph the stage when Paul Simon and his band were playing - it was a little way away!

Once the audience in the stalls were on their feet and the lights were on them it was easier to take a picture - although they did look like the images of the terracotta warriors in China.

It was a great concert featuring many old favourite numbers as well as newer material and it was a very appreciative audience and a truly magical place.