kat o'leary dot com

Radcliffe Bailey and Modern by Design @ High Museum of Art

Today I ventured downtown to visit the High Museum of Art.  I was particularly interested in Modern by Design, offered through a collaboration with the MoMA, but I had also spent a little time researching the subject of another exhibition -- Radcliffe Bailey: Memory as Medicine -- and planned to include this as part of my introduction to the High, which from what I could tell was pretty high (pun really not intended) on the list of great U.S. museums.  I used to live in New York, where I was a member of the MoMA (and big fan of its restaurant, The Modern, but that's another story, and one I can't afford on a student budget!), and it's easy to forgot sometimes that culture is alive and well in other cities, because NYC is kind of a scene-stealer.

Anyway, I just learned that Memory as Medicine is Bailey's first solo exhibition.  It's fitting that it's happening in Atlanta, where he's based, and I think it'll be a compelling introduction to his work for anyone who, like me, hadn't heard his name before I stumbled upon it on the High's website.

(No photography allowed in the exhibit, so I borrowed this image from All Art News -- meaning this isn't the exact installation I saw today.)

Above is an installation piece that is sort of the cornerstone of the exhibition.  It's called Windward Coast, created from a sea of piano keys, with a plaster bust coated in glitter, and representing the Middle Passage.

Anything else I'd like to say about the exhibition can best be understood by viewing the collection yourself, but the description on the High's website is as follows: "Atlanta-based, internationally known artist Radcliffe Bailey explores American history and memory to encourage healing and transcendence through art. The exhibition features 37 works ranging from heroic to intimate scale, including installations, paintings, sculptures, mixed media, photos on metal, and works on paper."  I wish I had the tools to write about art, but I had strong visceral reactions to several of the pieces, which are, incongruously, both haunting and soothing.

Meanwhile, Modern by Design:

Hello!

I am Kat.  I sometimes dress like this.

I am a current MBA candidate at a highly-ranked program you've probably never heard of and spending the summer outside Atlanta interning at a startup.  Before school I lived in NYC for six years, and I will probably return there after graduation.

I've been blogging for six years, sometimes under my own name, sometimes not.  I haven't written a long-form blog in a while, so I started this one to give myself an outlet for my writing (if you can call it that) and, in some ways, to motivate myself to be more interesting by writing about my life (sort of an extension of "Pics or it didn't happen;" I apparently need to have a means of broadcasting that I did something in order to actually, you know, do it).

I will probably update this post when I have more time.  In the meantime, here are some things about me:

Likes: fashion, Led Zeppelin, food and wine, Hello Kitty, volunteer work, corporate social responsibility, design, sustainability, small tuxedo cats, Barbie, Japan, looseleaf tea.

Dislikes: lima beans, systemic oppression.