I'm Pretty Tricky

Every time, lately, I suggest a trip to the Kemper or the Nelson, the girls hound me to go to Moon Marble instead.



They're on spring break, and I took a couple days off to hang out with them. We were just at Moon Marble, again, on Saturday, so I decided to sidestep the argument and trick them.



Who could go for a doughnut, I asked. That got them in the car. I wasn't being purely deceptive, I stopped at QT for sodas and doughnuts on the way to what I told them would be a surprise.



"What's the surprise?" If I told you that, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it? "Do you have a girlfriend you're taking us to meet?" What a bizarre and way-off guess. "Is it in Olathe or Kansas City?" Kansas City.



The question and evasive answers went on until I heard, from the back seat, "No, I don't want to go to the Kemper." This as I pulled into the parking lot.




Why not? "They only have five paintings and we've seen them." What are you fourteen or something? I bet they have some stuff that wasn't on display last time we were here.



Fourteen and of little faith, Em flirted with resisting on a scale that would have caused her a lot more grief than a 'boring' trip to a modern art gallery.



Once inside, she gradually realized that while this gallery is small compared to the Nelson Atkins, it's more than five paintings.



And one had a date of 2009, which I pointed out meant it probably was not on display last time we were here, in February of that year.



She gradually warmed up to the whole scene, and I even caught her digging some of the art.



I got a kick out of this piece: each stack of paper is a loose ream of plain white paper. The top sheet of each has been cut to form a minimalist origami-ish sculpture.



I think the part I got a kick out of is when someone else's kid acted like he was going to kick it or step onto the skid of paper. I've seen a lot of museum guards in my day, but never one as animated as the one who all but tackled this pint sized vandal.



I bet they put a fence up around it soon.



I really like Miss Mao, this disturbing (in more ways that one) red sculpture. The Cultural Revolution mixed with Disney and given a boob job? It's the Gao Brothers, but it reminded me so much of Chen Wenling's Valiant Struggle in Millenium Park in Chicago I was amazed to discover it wasn't by the same artist.



Cool sculpture made in part of old bicycle tires.



And of course we had to visit the spiders.

Double Poke in the Eye from Chixulub on Vimeo.

Loved this little globe puppy. It's titled Ethanol, so I'm guessing the puppy is also a molecule of booze.



I asked Emily if she knew what this painting was, and she thought about it for a minute and said, "JFK, right?" Any idea what Jackie-O is 'reaching' for? "Nope." Part of her husband's head. In the moment, the instinct was to grab it like it might be reattached and he'd make a full recovery. She wasn't an idiot, it's just an instinctive reaction. Wait! He needs that!





This is a neat one, called Poem Spill. I didn't notice at first that what was coming out of this disembodied pair of legs were letters.





We get to the car and Em pronounces that we should come back to the Kemper every few months. This after having to be dragged, kicking and screaming, through the front door. She said it's because she didn't know there'd be anything she hadn't seen before, which shows how much she was listening to her old man.