So let me back up just a little to explain. We have a freshman-level Humanities class at our college called Humanities-on-the-Go, where we meet once a week and take a trip into Houston. Jealous yet? This particular Friday we were taking our walking tour of public art, an interesting collection of sculptures, landscaping, parks, and..well, a bubble. I'll explain the bubble later.
After our driver, Kay, did her usual skillful job of manuevering the bus into a suitable parking place, we piled out and started our trip. We began with Sam Houston park, the oldest public park in Houston, and a very tranquil one indeed. Among other objects in the park, we were welcomed by an old fountain, green with age:
And as we walked on, we were befriended by this handsome beast:
When we finally walked out of the park, we left behind more than some fountains and dogs, we left behind an older vision of what art is and walked straight into the strange and new. For example, look back at the dog, then feast your eyes on a mouse, specifically Claus Oldenberg's Geometric Maus X:
Note that Giovanni and Ezekial aren't part of the sculpture--they're students. The amazing thing is that, as odd as it sems at first, Oldenberg's work does look like a mouse, and it's a lot of fun as well! The students loved walking around it, taking photos, and gazing upwards at all of the skyscrapers surrounding us. Walking around the downtown of a large city is always energizing and exciting. And Geometric Maus X certainly wasn;t the end of this new world of abstract art--a couple of blocks down we stopped to ponder Tong Cragg's In Minds, a work that seems to suggest faces--noses, chins, mouths--in every curve and bulge:
Several blocks further north, we came upon Buffalo Bayou, the central waterway of Houston, and where the city of Houston was originally founded. This corner of the downtown has a nice "chill" feel to it, and perhaps my favorite part is Mel Chin's series of steel towers entitled Seven Wonders. Each tower has children's drawings etched into it, and they line the bayou like guards at attention.
Where Seven Wonders ends, the Preston Street bridge over the bayou begins, and before we got to the bridge, I mysteriously told my students that Dean Rusk, an artist, had installed a button somewhere on the bridge. He left the button, which was bright red, unlabeled, almost as an experiment. When people saw the button, would they push it? Even if the had no idea what would happen? I told my students that if they found it, they were free the press it, but I wouldn't tell them what might happen! Now who can resist that? Not these students--they quickly found the red button and pressed it without hesitation. To our delight, a huge air bubble appeared in the bayou below the bridge:
You'll have to take my word for it--the bubble is much cooler than this picture indicates. Of course, it brings up an interesting question: can a bubble be art? I'm not sure I can explain why, but I have to say yes. If art is intended to get our attention and make us look, then the bubble works. If art is supposed to make us think, then maybe the bubble qualifies again because it certainly made me think, evn if I was thinking, "What?!"On our walk back, we made a couple of small detours. For one, we stopped to relax by the waterfall next to the Wortham Center. Some students walked out on the platforms over the water, while others climbed around on the walls around it. Plenty of photo ops resulted:
Our second detour occured when Ezekial, our resident horse-lover, saw a couple of policemen on horseback and waved them down. The police were friendly, and the horses were even friendlier. One even ate an acorn out of a student's hand.
Finally, we ended up in Tranquility Park, a city park dedicated to the Moon Landing. Water is also a feature here, flowing under steel walkways and cascading down huge cylinders. Something I was not expecting in a park devoted to the Moon was a community garden, especially one that featured okra. Although, we probably should have picked some okra--I bet it would have made great gumbo.
By this point, we were ready to call it a day and to ride the bus back to Baytown. Everyone enjoyed the trip, and everyone got some cool pictures too. Before we left, we gathered in Sam Houston Park, at the Spirit of the Confederacy statue by the duck pond, and took a picture. Can't wait until next Friday!
