Momentum 09 was last night, and I was really surprised by the quality and scope and size and attendance of the show. It was packed, the work was 75% good, all stuff I’m not used to seeing in this town, and it filled a freaking warehouse. <br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0005.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br />There were a lot of big open installations, a lof of big cool paintings, some shit photos (sorry everyone, but the photo showing this year just wasn’t that great, with a few notable exceptions). Hving these clouds right by the entrance set the mood for the place: it was as if someone took a piece of a real art scene out of the air of New York or Santa Fe and stuck it here in oak city, improbably and strangely. So it seemed natural to see a crib full of beer bongs and a whole room of homoerotic black fraternity induction paintings. <br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0006.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0007.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br />Then there was my friend Bobby’s band, playing a pretty rad live set. If they’d had a cd available, I’d have bought one, and that’s not something I do a lot. These kids know how to rock. <br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0008.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0009.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0010.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0011.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0012.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0013.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br />Then there was this womblike installation in what used to be a woman’s restroom. It was completely transformed and amazing; all it needed was some giant pillows on the floor and some mild hallucinogenic gas in the air and it would have been perfect. <br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0014.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br />I didn’t know what to think of the deer. But I like the photo, so sue me. <br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0015.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br />Some MC, not all that great. Nobody’s perfect, maybe he was havin’ an off night. <br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0016.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br />Then there was the after after after party, which was really about four people in Jim’s apartment eating cheese and drinking french wine. I’d like to say it was a nice end to the night, but there were a couple fights on the lawn that complicated things. So instead it was kind of a haggard exhausted end to the evening, but at least it was in good company. <br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/momentum_artshow/1231/0017.jpg” alt=”Photos” />

Posted by matt on 2009-03-08T00:00:00Z GMT