I did things!

[owlectomy]

Meaghan was going to check out the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum on the very last day. "You can come if you want," she said, "But I'm getting there at 8:00 and the crowds are going to be intense."

I came.

We actually got there at 8:30. By this time the crowd had snaked four times in front of the museum and was making a steady trail into Central Park. It was early enough to be quite cool, still, but it was also humid and clammy. The museum did not open till 9:30. The museum staff helpfully informed us that we would be waiting three hours outside and three hours inside.

Actually, we made it inside the building two hours later, and Meaghan picked up a little brochure the museum had made. "LINE TREK: THE TAMING OF THE QUEUE." It was a little scavenger hunt of things you would see as your line wound its way through the Middle Eastern art and the 19th century paintings. The line was sufficiently long that we didn't even make it up to the beginning of LINE TREK for another hour (though once we did, the line moved so fast we didn't get a real chance to play.)

But I have to say -- as someone who has zero interest in fashion -- that it was a really impressive exhibit. The crowds were awful* but the clothes were amazing -- a combination of wild originality and meticulous craftsmanship. You get the feeling of a person with a very individual and passionate aesthetic sense that managed to pull a huge variety of influences -- Scotland, tailored suits, victorian gothic, fetish wear -- into something distinct and coherent.

*At first I typed "The crows were awful." Which I came back to edit, but the one outfit that was a person wrapped up entirely in black duck feathers -- she looked as if she had been swallowed by a crow -- was awful in the old sense of the word, full of awe.

So, that was my art show for the year. My next mission will be to find art nobody cares about and see it on a day everybody is at work. I am pretty sure that the best way to appreciate art is not while being jostled and shoved on all sides. Eesh.

Comments

[trouble]

That sounds aweosme, but yes. Going to uncrowded exhibits rocks.

[opinion_rush]

Oooh cool! Also, Hi! I'm here on a tip from sasha_feather and have just subscribed.

[owlectomy]

Hi!

[owlectomy]

My anxiety around crowds has come down a LOT since the last time I saw a crowded exhibit, at least. I was considering skipping it purely because I go "Can't breathe, get me out of here!" when I go to Trader Joe's on the weekend, but... less bad than that.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Go you for having got in. paleaswater said last night that she wished the Met would sell separate tickets for its big exhibitions the way everyone else does. Then at least the lines wouldn't get in everyone else's way. Done properly, you'd actually know when your admission time was, like the terracotta warriors exhibit here last year, and time your appearance accordingly.

(She also said the East Asian galleries and exhibits are still relatively uncrowded.)

[lordameth.livejournal.com]

Wow. Congrats on getting to see it, and having such an adventure of it. Hope you kept that Line Trek brochure - it could be quite the souvenier.

I was lucky that when I went to see the exhibit, the line was no more than 2 hours long. The end of the line when I got there was in the upstairs area of the main lobby.

Looking forward to see where this exhibit falls in the worldwide "most attended temporary exhibits of the year" tally. The top two or three slots almost always go to national museums in Japan, and the Louvre is usually somewhere around #5 if I remember. But if the lines are like this, then surely the Met must be pretty high up there this year, no?