Aluminium Inflatables!?!!

I visited the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) on Target's free Tuesday this week to check out the Jeff Koons exhibit - it only lasts until the 21, so go see it while you still can!! - and wow, awesomely bizarre. Incredibly so. Mind-blowing!

#1- I'm going back next week, because apparently I can get a one-tracked mind and totally block a huge hanging metallic heart out of eyesight. So, I want to see that. Also, I was tired, so I only walked through the 2 rooms on the first floor and didn't go upstairs to see the Jeff Koons Chicago Experience rooms.

#2- Jeff Koons. You're something else, sir.

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#3- I'm not a huge contemporary art fan, but I can appreciate what they're doing(?) sometimes. I don't like being confused. I think that's my foremost qualm with it. And I don't like thinking to myself, "This is art? Really?" Occasionally I "get" it, but sometimes I just say, "hmph!" and move on to early to mid-20th century painters - not so much an option at the MCA.

Alright, so look at this:These seemingly "inflatable" objects are actually aluminium (say it like an English person, "ah-loo-min-ee-um" - hilarious!)!! I know, right?! I had to do everything to restrain myself from reaching out for a touch. And I still can't believe about this one: I mean, really? My mind was - is - blown. The whole exhibit was a wonder! So many different styles of art through use of various mediums. I wasn't a huge fan of the "PreNew" and "New" collections, or the "Elvis" either, but I did really like the "Statuary" installation and the "Banality" wood statues, like this Buster Keaton one, or the Stacked one, too.
And look at this insane Play-Doh painting!!! Yeah, a painting!! It looks like a photograph, but it's not. Let your eyes be not deceived:

Alright, so it's awesome, and you should go check it out if you have not. FREE Tuesday!! How 'bout that?!?! But yes, I digress.

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Why I write is because in addition to all the family-friendly fun art there was a pornographic Adult section. I was warned about this from a friend before entering the exhibit, and I had a slight idea of what to expect, but it was still... breath-taking? Hmm. Yes. In a perplexing sort of way. And I was lucky enough to get to experience it the same time as this old couple that had been going through the exhibit at about the same pace as me. They were real cute. The woman was small and slightly hunched; her brown-toned librarian-esque skirt, jacket and ruffled cream shirt complemented her snow white hair, and she had large rose-framed glasses on as well. She pushed her husband in his wheelchair. The weight of the years beared down on his shoulders, too. Through most of the exhibit his hands were complacent in his lap. I imagined him as a retired scientist. He also wore glasses [Glasses make everyone look smarter! 'Tis true.] and a green-beige suit with a light button-down shirt, topped off with gray-white thinning hair. Again, adorable. Their comments matched them well. A lot of "hmm"s and "ah-ha"s, "Oh, well, that's interesting." Now, upon entering this pornographic partition, "Oh. My! This is pornographic. This is very illicit." - that was the woman. The man replied with contemplative silence, and then, pointed to the painting(?) with Jeff inside Ilona, "What's this one called?" My eyes darted to the placard - I imagined it in a movie, starting with the shot of me on the left of the large sexual engaging position image and the couple on the right, all looking small in comparison to the lovers, with a stark white background behind it all, then the camera panned from the couple slowing moving closer to get a good read of the small letters to a staggering Hitchcockian zoom-in of the placard reading, "Ilona's Asshole" and back to my look of excited/slightly embarrassed anticipation.

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"Ilona's Asshole." Said the woman, "hmm." She pulled the wheelchair out from the wall so they could get a better look. "Well, yeah. That's what it is."

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"Hmm!" Replied the man, nodding slowly and thoughtfully.

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"Okay." And they moved on.

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I caught the glance of a little family composed of a twenty something daughter and her parents. (I thought I caught some European language, maybe Dutch, sprinkled in their conversation, or maybe they were mumblers, but we'll go with Dutch because that makes the story better in my mind because humor and art have no language barrier.) We chuckled to each other about the old couples' response to the works, and smiled lovingly at their backs as the shuffled back into the main show. The other two pictures included a close up on Jeff orally pleasuring Ilona and the other one was a wide zoom of ecstasy.

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Fun times at the MCA!