Privilege Blog

Falling Digital Flowers, Or, Saturday Morning at 10:37am

Way back in 1960 my family moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts to the San Francisco Bay Area. Although I spent my college, grad school and early career years in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, and my family’s from the Northeast, I feel quite rooted here.

Over the past 6 decades my home, now often known as “Silicon Valley,” has changed almost beyond recognition. Mostly I would rather it were otherwise. I miss our open spaces, a small town feel, the departed general shabbiness. Mostly. Last weekend, however, I was reminded again to stay open to growth.

Fairly recently PACE Gallery opened an outpost on the former site of a used car lot. They focus, appropriately, on digital art. Last weekend, my sister and I stopped in. I thought you guys might like to see some of this exhibit by TeamLAB, just a little something beautiful for a Saturday morning.

The PACE space consists of a series of dark rooms – necessarily, the art is all light-based. One room of panels featured hopping crows and falling branches.

But this was my favorite. Look at how the little figures move.

Spectacular.

And finally my sister and I found ourselves in a room covered in illuminations of moving flowers. Yes, we were covered too. The seasons were supposed to shift. We sat on the floor and watched for 20 minutes. Not sure that we saw autumn per se, but children turned light flower-covered cartwheels, a young man took pictures of a young woman, also flower-covered, and I was reminded of both planetariums and Liberty of London.

Not shabby.

I’d never say that the digital will replace paint and canvas, but I suppose I have to concede that the world, as we know when we pay attention, is not going to hell in a handbasket. Thank goodness for art.

Have a wonderful weekend.

18 Responses

  1. Some things are really magnificent!
    It was quite an experience-yes,I resonate with gratitude!
    Dottoressa

  2. Oh, that’s wonderful!

    Having also grown up in Silicon Valley before it carried that moniker, I remember walking a couple of blocks from my house and being in apricot orchards. I remember the pervasive smell of drying apricots on pallets in the sun. I still love to visit, and as you’ve shown it still has much to offer.

  3. I can just picture the children turning flower covered cartwheels, but would love to hear more about what you remember about your area from the early 1960s-early 1970s.

    1. @Susan D., I can try. Most of my memories from those days are actually school or home, we were a fairly insular family. My memories of Silicon Valley in the 80s and 90s are far more detailed.

  4. What a brilliant move on the part of Pace Gallery to open a space devoted to digital art. I know there’re always mixed feelings about gentrification, but as long as it’s happening, so pleased that so much of it is devoted to art.

    1. @Kathy, Me too. And I’m happy that you approve of the digital art – I imagine some painters shudder and I want it all embraced.

  5. That is really cool! I remember going to a gallery where there was a digital exhibit of trees coming into leaf and bloom and then dropping their leaves and gong dormant only to start again. I felt like I was in the middle of something magical and the memory still makes me feel a little giddy.

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