Saatchi Galleries

This museum certainly has a different feel than others, and part of that is the possibility for different sight lines of pieces. For example, some rooms have sculptures and paintings. Obviously sculptures are three dimensional and can be seen from many ways, but taking in the entire room as a piece of art, as a design, is very interesting with this hybrid setup. The piece that comes to mind is the Latin American burial wall. It took up the entire wall, about 20 feet high and at least 40 feet long. It was a massive piece. Looking at one specific grave is one sightline, looking at an area is another, and looking at the entire piece is another. And it took effort to see all the graves. There were ones at my feet and way above my head. A similar feeling was with the spam ads wall. It taught me to look at a piece both in a detailed way and in a large picture manner. 

I feel like it is an interesting approach to have small text templates away from the paintings. The tour guide spoke of it like it was ridding the painting of a predetermined message. While it may not be that extreme, I do realize that when I approach a piece, I immediately look at the artist, the date, and I read the description. Here, because I am lazy, I did not go all the way  to the other side of the room and I just studied the painting. To the tour guide's credit, I think she is right. I took much more away from the pieces making my own judgements before I found out the truth. Honestly, not knowing the name of the piece enhanced my experience with the paintings. 

I thought the material in the Saatchi Galleries was challenging, and I had never felt that way in a museum before (besides being challenged not to cry when in the Baseball Hall of Fame). I truly thought of the pieces as puzzles to understand. At times it was vulgar or maybe even juvenile, but I was attracted to these pieces. The oil room was incredible. I smelled it from down the hall, making it almost defy its own location as a piece of art. The spam ads were great. It was funny and a bit terrifying at the same time. I would have bought that one. But above all, the weirdest and funniest was... Penis Face: