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| Straw Man Valier Blass in 2010 Contemporary Canadian Art Exhibiton |
In the past couple of years I have heard people use the phrase, it is what it is, but I didn’t know its exact meaning.
I looked at the Urban Dictionary today which gives this meaning: A phrase that seems to simply state the obvious but actually means "it will be what it is," as in "it ain't gonna change, so deal with it or don't."
I looked at the Urban Dictionary today which gives this meaning: A phrase that seems to simply state the obvious but actually means "it will be what it is," as in "it ain't gonna change, so deal with it or don't."
Maybe I didn’t really have to look that up.
Still, that phrase is the title of the 2010 Canadian Exhibition of Acquisitions of New Canadian Art: IT IS WHAT IT IS.
I put on my audio guide and listened to the explanations of all 50 of the exhibition pieces – the first one of which is seen in the foyer, before entering the exhibition. Valerie Blass’s “Straw Man” pretty well, is what it is.
That is, at least it was what it was until I went to take a copy of the picture from the exhibition website and discovered that the foot of Straw Man is resting on someone’s head – so it is what it isn’t wasn’t what it was when I saw it yesterday in a darkened space and didn’t notice the footstool is really a bust of an Egyptian. I walked by that installation 3 times and circled it twice besides, and still didn't notice the footstool.
Whoops. A political hot potato today.
If I were picking out the highlights from the exhibit, I wouldn’t have picked either of the ones chosen for the website for this event. The first installation is made of pipes, is more than 10 feet tall and 10 feet across and has construction and gurgling sounds coming out of it, which ruined the effect of the other pieces in the room for me ... but it is what it is.
The neon sign that says IT IS WHAT IT IS and IT WAS WHAT IT WAS wasn’t even a place where I rested my eyes and tried to make sense of the contemporary art. I did see it.
“Odd,” I thought, “that they have the exhibition title in neon lights”, not knowing that the piece itself is an installation.
All I have proved by writing today is that I need a docent to lead me around the museum, because I am not getting it on my own. Or if I am getting some of it, I am not getting all of it.
Arta
If I were picking out the highlights from the exhibit, I wouldn’t have picked either of the ones chosen for the website for this event. The first installation is made of pipes, is more than 10 feet tall and 10 feet across and has construction and gurgling sounds coming out of it, which ruined the effect of the other pieces in the room for me ... but it is what it is.
The neon sign that says IT IS WHAT IT IS and IT WAS WHAT IT WAS wasn’t even a place where I rested my eyes and tried to make sense of the contemporary art. I did see it.
“Odd,” I thought, “that they have the exhibition title in neon lights”, not knowing that the piece itself is an installation.
All I have proved by writing today is that I need a docent to lead me around the museum, because I am not getting it on my own. Or if I am getting some of it, I am not getting all of it.
Arta
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