So last time I had us in the bowels of the Chamberlain Building, formerly the Marfa Wool and Mohair Building, and now the site of an art museum devoted to the art of, obviously, John Chamberlain. We had just finished looking at his works (mostly abstract sculptures in steel, and mostly steel from car parts) and I was confessing sadly that they freaked me out a little bit. Too much the feel of roadway accidents, you see. But that was my problem, not the artist’s.(1)
After that, we headed off for one more little arts crawl. Specifically, we went to the Ballroom Marfa, which is yet another art museum, but this one not owned by the Chinati Foundation. Instead, or so it notes on its webpage, it is “an internationally recognized non-collecting contemporary art museum...housed in a 1920s-era ballroom and is free and open to the public.” (2)
Actually, I rather enjoyed it. I felt that the artists represented, and their works, spoke to me a bit more. I’ll flatter myself and pretend that that was because the art seemed a little more contemporary, less rooted in the 1960s and 1970s. Probably not true, but I’ll say it anyway. Yessir. That’s me. Still keeping up with the college kids. The Peter Pan of intellectual tastes. You betcha.
About the photos: First, two pictures of some of the outbuildings at the Chinati Foundation. And, yes, if you look on the right side of the first photo, you’ll see the rest of the Tucker clan marching on. Second, and for my obligatory just-cause-I-like-it shot, a photo of Martha on our visit to the LBJ Library and Museum back in 2022.
Actually, we all of us (and especially the grandkids) really enjoyed one particular installation. This was “Mariposa Relámpago” (“Lightning Butterfly”) by the artist Guadalupe Maravilla.(3) This is a great, shining metal bus, which looks a bit like an enormous grasshopper crossed with a merry-go-round. It is playful, and fun, and far more complicated than it sounds. It is linked, or so we learn from the webpage, to the artist’s own life, including his extraordinary traumas, such as his perilous escape from El Salvador (while still a minor) during that country’s brutal civil war...and, then, after that, his equally perilous escape from colon cancer as an adult. That he is able to take such experiences and make something wonderful and childlike from them is, well, amazing.
After that, we finished up our art adventures for the day, and we were off to supper. The plan was to go back to Para Llevar, the restaurant we’d tried to get into before, but they’d been sold out of food. (Yikes.) So, a few minutes later we were parked in front of the restaurant.
This time, they still had food left, and we trotted in happily. We were also fortunate in that just then a large party left, and we were able to grab their table. The original plan had been for us to order take-out, but here we were, and here was some space (it isn’t a huge place and that was a rare bit of good luck), so why not?
The pizza came and it wasn’t bad at all. In fact, it made me wonder what the rest of the items on the menu were like. It might be worth exploring some day.(4)
I have forgotten what we talked about at dinner. We discussed the pizza, I recall that much. But, I think, mostly we just talked to the grandchildren. Adult conversations are rare when young people are at the table. And that’s how it should be. Being seen and not heard didn’t work for the Victorians, and it sure as heck isn’t going to work for us.
Then we were off to the AirB&B and an early evening. We put the grandchildren to bed and then we had a long talk about Marfa, and what its future might be. I must confess, mostly I just listened to what they had to say. I honestly don’t understand towns like Marfa. I don’t understand their economics, or their social systems. I don’t understand, I guess, “museum towns.” I don’t understand how they work. How they survive.
Or *if* they survive.
Anyway, after a bit, we fought with the heater in a futile attempt to bring the temperature up to something comfortable, and then we bowed to the inevitable and just put extra blankets on our respective beds, and then all headed off to sleep.
The next morning, we all work up early, or at least early-ish. It was Sunday. Ah ha! We thought. This was going to be very cool, we thought. Today, we thought, we would celebrate Christmas and the grandkids would open their presents. What could be better? we asked.
Answer: Quite a lot, actually.
Stay tuned, for next time we get to the insane bouncing rubber cow, the crying fest that rattled the windows, the smoke alarm, the still-no-heat, and...of course...
Lunch at Dairy Queen.
Not to be missed.
More to come.
Footnotes:
1. Still...still...does it make me terribly, terribly bourgeois and boorish to feel that, on some level, being a Wool and Mohair building is a more interesting, more organic, and maybe healthier thing to be than an art museum? Yeah. Probably. It does. Okay, just skip it.
2. Ballroom Marfa, https://www.ballroommarfa.org/
3. Programs, EventsVisual Art, Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago, 4 Nov 2023 – 16 Mar 2024, https://www.ballroommarfa.org/program/guadalupe-maravilla-mariposa-relampago/
4. You’ll recall it has its webpage here: https://www.marfaparallevar.com/menus/
Copyright©2024 Michael Jay Tucker
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