Last Friday afternoon, the GA Interns went out to explore the city and stopped by the Hirshhorn Museum to check out the current exhibits. We started off by taking in the iconic Barbara Kruger: Belief and Doubt installation that occupies the Lower Lobby. Visitors are immediately immersed in the language on the escalators, walls, floor, and ceiling of the space. Kruger introduces doubt with open ended questions like “who is free to choose” and “who is silent.”
We also explored the new Laurie Anderson: The Weather exhibit. Not being familiar with Anderson, I found myself learning a lot about who she was and how important the practice of storytelling is to her work. Similar to Kruger’s exhibit in the lower lobby, Four Talks is a highlight of Anderson’s exhibit that allows Anderson to have a conversation with the viewers. With so much writing on the walls, one can spend hours in that room if they wanted to read everything over. Another highlight of The Weather exhibit is Habeas Corpus: the story of Mohammed el Gharani who was accused of being a terrorist and was captured by the US as a child. This part of the exhibit features a large projection of Mohammed who told his story directly to those in the room.
At last we explored the Marcel Duchamp exhibit. Duchamp’s opinions about what constitutes art was the biggest takeaway for me. Experimenting with the use of different objects, like combs or hat racks, was something Duchamp championed. We also had some fun at the end of the exhibit playing chess and drawing each other. It was a fun Friday afternoon!