Winter Museums

As the first quarter of the year ends this week (hello, April!) I want to celebrate some museum-going that I did during the winter. For me, part of welcoming a new year and envisioning a fresh new self involves a natural desire to see new things. To "get new things in my eyes." I like to do this by visiting museums. This winter I went to 3 museums with various family members. Here's a recap with some photos!

Museum 1: Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (BMAC), end of January 

I took a Friday lunchtime to visit this local treasure with a special & artsy family member. The museum is small enough to see in an hour (it is inside what used to be a train station, if that helps to picture the size). Here are some photos of 3 of the exhibits.

"Evolving Traditions: Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers" 

Professional regional woodworkers combine artistic inspiration with their significant furniture-making skills.

This is one of Charles Shackleton's "Chairs of Enlightenment." It's a bit hard to tell, but the upright areas on this chair-back are actually lit up. Shackleton's wall-label tells us that in the time of Chippendale (18th century), the back of the chair was where the artisan really got to show off ornate work.


Jason Breen created this remarkable piece (with paintings by Margaret Shipman) and calls it "Cephalopod." He explains on the wall label that it is an "altar to the Earth" and made of wood from a beloved fallen apple tree. The dome is Spalted Maple (a sugar maple that has started to rot). Fun fact: I blogged a bit about Jason Breen's woodworking shop back in 2011.


Painting with Paper: Natalie Frank

Natalie Frank uses pigmented cotton and linen paper pulp to create feminist portraits that are literally painted WITH paper. Frank explains that she was inspired by "the roles of women in tales of the Brothers Grimm, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and the 17th-century feminist tales of Madame d’Aulnoy."

"Woman with Fox," Natalie Frank. I love how the fox's little paw breaks through the bottom edge of the piece. The paper medium looks so fluid and bold.


Woman with Crow, Natalie Frank. What an arresting face and expression!!


Inspired by the Past: Vermont Glass Guild

We LOVED this exhibit. The museum had received some ancient pieces that spanned 4,000 years and came from places all around the world, like Korea, Iran, Costa Rica, and China. Of course, the BMAC is a non-collecting museum of contemporary art... so the plan is to use this as a study collection. The Vermont Glass Guild took on the challenge first and created new works inspired by these ancient items. The pairings were really cool! You can take this virtual tour if you want to see more of the show.

This archeological-dig piece was created by local glass artist Robert Burch and called "Brattlebeach 2121." It's inspired by the large storage jar up in the corner (Iran, 5000-3500 BCE) as well as other ceramics from the collection. It's kind of fun and irreverent to see the items just jumbled together with sand (and even glass hermit grabs mixed in). It helps to set the scene of jumping around in time.


We loved these glass pull-toys (a manatee, an owl, a cow, and birds) made by Marta Bernbaum and inspired by the "bull-shaped vessel" (Iran, 1000-700 BCE) that's raised up in the center.


Close-up of the manatee pull toy.




Museum 2: Southern Vermont Arts Center, mid-February

A few weeks later, this same family member and I made the drive out to Manchester, Vermont, to the Southern Vermont Arts Center. The museum campus is nestled on a wooded hillside a little outside of the town Manchester, where it has been located since 1950 (the Southern Vermont artists group itself has apparently been around since 1922). There were two main exhibition buildings on the former estate--and when we visited they were showing Hiroshige in one building, and contemporary woodblock prints in the other.

Hiroshige and the Changing Japanese Landscape

First we went to the Elizabeth de C. Wilson Museum, where a BUNCH of Hiroshige woodblock prints were on display. Utagawa Hiroshige is the 19th century Japanese woodblock master (1797-1858). The museum signs did a good job of explaining a bit about his life and his art. I learned (or was reminded) about ukiyo-e, which means "pictures of the floating world" and refers to the imagery in the prints that reflects life's enjoyments like theater, sumo wrestlers, beautiful women, animals, landscapes, and teahouses. One room was full of prints of the 53 Stations of the Tokaido, which was the 300-mile long road between Edo (now Tokyo) and Kyoto (the imperial capital). The combination of the mundane (women dragging customers into a teahouse, as seen in the second image below) and majestic (views of Mount Fuji!) made these prints hot sellers at the time. It was remarkable to see so many all in one place--all from the collection of a Vermont artist.





The World Between the Block and the Paper

The other main building of the SVAC, Yester House, was devoted to a contemporary showing of mokuhanga. This new-to-me word means "wood block print." I learned here that the tradition of woodblock printing is alive and well in the world today! There is a vibrant group of women that call themselves the Mokuhanga Sisters. Not only was their work displayed in this show, but each artist invited another mokuhanga artist to show their work as well.

"Two times two," by April Vollmer, author of the book Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop.

"Delirious birds and bees," by April Vollmer. You can see how she uses several individual blocks to repeat patterns in each quarter for a kind of mandala effect.

These are "Apple Tree" and "Fir Tree" by Mariko Jesse.

"Two Bears in the Woods" by Ayao Shiokawa.

 
 "Water from Heaven" and "Linden Falls" by Terry McKenna.

 

"Fold Mokuhanga Luminous Magenta," by Mia O.

I love the story of these four prints by Katsutoshi Yuasa. During the pandemic, he found online a live webcam that had a view of Mount Fuji from the same angle as one of Hiroshige's Stations of the Tokaido. He created this 4-seasons approach called "VR Tokaido 1-4" both inspired by Hiroshige as well as the accessibility of the view. The web cam during the pandemic let the artist see Mt Fuji similar to how those who bought Hiroshige's prints could enjoy this view. (He explained this in a Zoom artist's talk given later in February--you can see the replay here.)
 

"Queering Space-Time" by Matthew Willie Garcia. I love this.


"Avo" by Brendan Reilly. I'm really inspired by the two steps shown here. I want to come up with my own simple progression like this. Good art doesn't have to be all complicated.



Museum #3: MASS MoCA, end of February

During winter break (end of February) we followed our tradition of heading to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, MA. We love it there! This was at least our third family trip and they have quite a few permanent installations that we know well. (You can also read my blog about our 2018 visit.)

I enjoyed the art as usual, but this time I decided to photograph some of the in-between spaces at the museum. Since it's an old factory that's been renovated and converted to galleries, I enjoy finding little nooks where I can revel in the factory-ness that still clings.

The doorway to the big "Building 5" exhibit. This is always an amazing place because it's just HUGE and artists can go wild filling the space with whatever their imaginations can limn. Glenn Kaino's "In the Light of a Shadow" was there this time. It was a moving and revelatory 30-minute shadow and sound experience that brought me to tears with its simple yet powerful messages about humanity's place in the universe. Wow.

This stairwell has floating shelves covered with figurines (dolls and action figures of all kinds).


The French version of a "don't touch the walls" sign in the permanent 3-floor Sol LeWitt section.



I realized if I looked out a window I could see over to the "Cosmic Latte" room by Spencer Finch--that's the light installation on the second floor of this brick building. (See also the closed ice cream shop below, and a lone crow in the tree above.)


Table and chairs in a stairwell.


Look at THIS stairwell! I love its feeling of being slightly off limits... like you're not supposed to be there, like you've sneaked behind a scrim and are seeing the real workings of things.


A kind of artistic cul-de-sac. Where even am I?



 Goodbye MASS MoCA! Goodbye winter 2022! Here's to a warm, flourishing, beautiful Spring ahead.

H Mart Gadgets

For my birthday this year I planned a big shopping trip to H Mart, the Korean American chain that specializes in authentic Asian groceries. You should know that I watch a lot of YouTube content about Japanese and Korean grocery shopping and cooking, so I had a lot of ideas about what I wanted at H Mart. You can get stuff there that is impossible to find where I live. Of course, you have to go pretty close to a big city to find an H Mart, so that is what we did. Two family members and I made the trip on a cloudy Saturday at the dawn of 2022.


H Mart in Burlington, Massachusetts. Sorry this is not a good shot


The closest H Marts in our part of New England are in the Boston area--there are two, and we spontaneously decided to go to both of them. Above is a picture of the second one, which is in Burlington, Massachusetts and is a gigantic, stand-alone store the size of, say, a Whole Foods. It was incredible.

But first, we went to the H Mart in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is in Central Square. We used to live near Central Square and this H Mart location has taken over the space that used to be the Harvest Co-op, a natural foods store right on Mass Ave. There is a very small food court there (a ramen counter, a curry counter, and a bakery). Ramen counter seen above.



I tried a Calpico soda for lunch. It was a little like a slightly creamy, non-fizzy Sprite. Not bad!

 


Here's the ramen bowl that one family member ordered.
 

 

While at the two H Marts, I managed to get a LOT of Asian groceries. I was so excited! I found some rambutan (or lychees, which are the prickly-looking fruits that I'd had when visiting Costa Rica).

Rambutan (lychee)

 

I also got fermented mustard greens, shakers of perilla seeds and rice seasonings, prepared kimchi, pickled mustard greens, lotus root, crushed garlic, spicy condiments, Jasmine tea, fish cakes (eomuk), rice cakes (tteok), Japanese Okonomiyaki pancake mix and sauce, soft tofu, beef stew and kimchi soup kits, packets of ramyun and other noodles, laver flakes (seaweed), tempura mix, and bao mix (the fluffy steamed pork buns).


Sichuan pepper noodles (5 pack)

Pickled cabbage soup kit (after using--it was delicious)


We also picked up some interesting gadgets and I'd love to show them to you! All four of these items have become important parts of our kitchen tools.


Kimchi container

First up is my kimchi container, by Easy Film. It's constructed with a nice folding handle for carrying or moving around in the fridge. Then there's an inner gasket-type lid that also has a handle and a venting spot so you can really seal it in, or open it to let the juices or bubbles out. I made my first batch of non-easy kimchi following Maangchi's recipe. (Her recipe calls for 6 pounds of napa cabbages; I halved it and used 3 napa cabbages.) (If you enjoyed the book Crying in H Mart, which I loved last year, I think this is the same recipe Michelle Zauner used.)
 


 

My kimchi is percolating nicely!



Before we peeled off the stickers we used Google Translate on them, but something got lost in translation as it says "Reproduce the taste of kimchi poison." NOT accurate.


Rice Roll Frame

It is COMPLETELY POSSIBLE to make nice triangular rice rolls just using your hands. But I love a gadget sometimes, so I grabbed this plastic rice roll frame to try out. It's pretty satisfying.



Rice roll frame just has two parts

Step 1: Fill with rice

Step 2: Put on lid and squeeze

Step 3: Press on the back of lid and pop out rice roll


Here's how you can serve the rice rolls. I put on some sesame seeds and Nori seaweed wrapper on one to make it kind of Onigiri style. I've also made them with tuna salad inside and fake crab inside, and they're good with furikake (rice seasoning) sprinkled on top.

Are you wondering where that beautiful rectangular plate came from? ALSO H MART.


Noodle Pot

One of our party got excited about this noodle pot by Hello!. It is super cool. He bought it for himself as he likes to make ramen packets for an easy lunch or snack. This noodle pot can do it all!

The pot has a handle and lid (and metal straining/steaming rack, see lower right). Just put your water in and set to boil to start.

Once boiling, add noodles.

There is a "Noodle" setting that is a bit below a full rolling boil, so adjust as needed.

This is the plug-in base that the pot goes on.


Depending on your recipe you can add your mixes and packets to the soup in the pot and pour out, or drain your noodles and THEN add the mixes. That's what I did here (this is the same Kiki sichuan noodle soup shown above as a 5-pack).
 

Omelette Pan

I learned about rolled omelettes from my Asian youtube watching. We were on the lookout for a rectangular or square pan to try this out, and we found this one. My fellow shopper bought this for himself to make satisfying rolled egg dishes.

Here's the rather wide non-stick omelette pan we got, along with a special wide spatula we thought would help with effective rolling.

The idea is that you put in only enough egg to coat the bottom of the pan, let it cook, put in a filling if you want (I added cheese here), then roll it up.

Then scoot that first roll to the end of the pan and pour another batch of egg. Repeat as often as you like.

Here's my rolled omelette, seasoned with some Nanami Togarashi (a spicy Japanese condiment I picked up at, you guessed it, H Mart)

Rolling in action


 

So we went to H Mart in January and have been gradually working through everything we bought. The soup kits, the noodles, the condiments, the pancake and tempura and bao mixes. I've been enjoying our cool gadgets and our new-to-me ingredients (lotus root stuffed with shrimp and fried is yummy!). I'm hoping to go back to H Mart in the spring. I'll keep you posted!