I have been doing a lot of research on tapestry and the practice of weaving. I wanted to share a contemporary approach to weaving through the video of the performance piece Wind Up: Walking the Warp by contemporary artist Anne Wilson.
Category Archives: Kris Derek
Catch Up- Week 6
First week of solo tours. I was nervous about preparing an entire hour worth of a tour by myself but I was excited because the first tour I had to give was with a group of high school photography student. This was a fun tour to design; I centered the tour on the idea of Identity and showed work that dealt with photography in one way or another. Out tour discussions varied from smiling on cue for snap shots, family portraits and face book profiles.
The tour line up was:
A couple of works of Degas (looking at someone who is responding to photography
An exhibition of photographs by Meatyard
Gerhard Richter’s Woman Descending a Staircase (a discussion on the fallacy of truth that is often given to a photograph)
Meatyard's Family Portrait
Eleanor Antin’s Carving a Traditional Sculpture (photograph as documentation of a performance of a woman forcing herself to lose weight to carve herself into the image of an ideal woman
A look of photographs by Uta Barthe (conversation lead by my fellow intern Danielle Schulz)
My other tours this week were not as engaged, or cooperative as this one. I had a tour with a group of preschoolers who were not particularly interested in following my directions. This was until I showed them the color dance, and they were all excited to lead the group through the movements of the work of art Drawing on the Edge.
I was also able to meet and converse with members of Crescendo Cultural, a group of young Latino arts professionals that were gathered by the National Museum of Mexican Art. It was nice to be able to take part in discussions related to what it meant to be a Latinos working in a cultural institution along with issues of representation and community development. Here is an excerpt from their mission:
The United States is a country in transition. According to recent studies, Latinos comprise 15% of the nation’s population and this percentage is expected to double by 2050. In this nascent context of dramatically changing demographics, it is of utmost importance to understand how culture is also shifting. Young Latino professionals in all fields are re-examining their relationships to the workforce, their families, and U.S. culture in general. These questions are especially relevant to art professionals, who operate in the plane of cultural production.
The week ended on Saturday with Kaleidoscope, a free day for families. I had the job to greet people at the doors of the Modern wing and let them know that families were getting in free that day and the museum had a slew of art activities for youngsters. Even though I was not able to help with the hands on projects it was great to see how excited families were to be able to participate and many stopped by me on the way out to thank me.
Catchup- Week Five
No more Dream Team Tours
I entered week five pretty intimidated. I had a lot on my plate and I did not feel prepared. But it ended up going surprisingly smoothly. The first situation that I was nervous about was giving my first solo family tour. I signed up on the same day in hopes that I would get to give another tour with my amazing partner Clara Fecht. Unfortunately this day had two separate slots because it was a FREE DAY and many people were anticipated to be in the museum. And there were. I am not sure how many people ended up on my tour but at some point I counted about 40 something people. I remember standing on the stairwell while they looked at Sky Above Clouds and I could see was a mass of people. It reminded me of a herd of zebra, I was not sure where one patron ended and the other began.
I began the tour looking at the Scott Burton’s Low Piece (bench). I had the families enter the gallery and try to guess which work we were going to talk about. As I had hoped people had pointed to every piece in the gallery except for this one. This lead to a really great discussion about how we view things, what we choose to value 
and look at and the way we may disregard certain things too easily. I really enjoyed talking about this work with the families, and was very careful to avoid discussing the S&M implications of the work. The tour also included Felix Gonzalez Torres’ Untitled (Strange Music), Verdure Tapestry, a look at the knights and armor collection with a quick stop at O’Keefe’s Sky Above Clouds. This tour was fun and left me EXHAUSTED
This was also the day Clara and I gave our last student tour together. (Our high school group for Friday never showed up) But we were happy that we got to go out with a bang because we got to talk about some of favorite works and the students were really responsive.
This week also marked my first Adult tour with Margaret Farr. Our tour was titles Curious Creatures and it was a really different and enjoyable experience leading adults. I lead a discussion on two Tang dynasty guardian figures as well as the Verdure Tapestry that I had been obsessing over. Margaret told me that a lot of the regulars came up to her to share how pleased they were that I choose that piece since they come to these tour often and apparently Textile Arts are not often stops on tours.
Talking about MY tapestry
On the Saturday of the fifth week (that
marked the first of 3 weekends that I would be spending in the museum) I got to give another family
gallery walk. This was much smaller then the Wednesday tour and had some really fun and chatty kids. We stopped at Brancusi and they really enjoyed The Golden Bird. They were also very happy with the sequential narrative of the Lautrec tambourine and circus painting. This was followed by look at the monkey band in which a young girl stated the funniest, things I have heard on a tour:
4-year-old girl: It’s funny when animals do people things. People should be funny and do animal things I am going to poop on the floor.
Around the Gallery: Verdure Tapestry
Large Leaf Verdure and Proscenium, Animals, and Birds 1525
I choose this work to discuss on my Curious Creatures tour. I was interested in bringing in a tapestry and I was really into the griffin and dragon in the center of the work. But as I was attempting to find information on it I was struggling to find anything about it specifically so I spent some time in the gallery staring at it and taking notes. This work is crazy. So rich with details and the curious creatures extend beyond the central mythical figures. All the animals are pretty curious. When I got back to the Docent room I began to look up symbols of the time and began to be able create someone of a narrative or significance of the work.
These are some of the symbols as they relate to the tapestry:
- Dragon: Valiant defender of treasure; valour and protection:
- Griffin: Valour and death-defying bravery; vigilance; Guardian of treasure
- Leopard: Valiant and hardy warrior who enterprises hazardous things by force and courage
- Goat: One who wins through politics rather than war
- Fruit: Felicity and peace
- Pear: Felicity and peace
- Pomegranate: Fertility and abundance; prosperity
- Pheasant: person of many resources
- Vulture: Purification and maternity; also, virginity (in Christianity)
- Stork: Filial duty; close parental bond;
- Snake: Wisdom
- Dog: Courage, vigilance, and loyalty
- Otter: One who lives life to the fullest (STEALING)
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- Large Leaf Verdure and Proscenium, Animals, and Birds 1525
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- Griffin v Dragon
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- Dog barking at the monkey/mongoose/otter
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- Cheetah attacking the happy goat
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- Stork eating snake
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- Pheasent and Vulture carrying a snail
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- Cat Attack
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- Guard dog?
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- First attempt to dissect tapestry
Great Video
Featuring the AIC and my favorite Talking Heads song.
Week 4
This was an odd week in my touring schedule. I only had two students tours, and one family tour with Shannon.
On Wednesday I was thrust back into touring with an ABC tour, a group of pre-schoolers. I like little kids, one is cute and two are funny. I did not feel prepared to lead 9 children around but the more that Clara and I prepped the more excited I got.
The kids were precious and had so much energy, chatting away about anything and everything. We decided to take the students to see the Carl Andre floor piece where I got to read to them the 
HILARIOUS book (at least they thought so) Hello Kitty, Hello Shapes.(Which was fun and difficult since I forgot my glasses and had trouble seeing the words) This was followed by an exercise in which the children got to walk across the Andre piece stepping on the opposite color to get around. I was laughing and enjoying myself until a kid ran at full speed and did a two palmed a painting. (As i could tell it was all right.)
We moved on to the piece Cronopios: Drawing on the Edge to discuss color. I came up with the color dance (they choose a color on the wall and moved as it did along the wall.) Then they used pieces of yarn to replicate the shapes that they saw in the work.
The other student tour that we had were a group of high schoolers who were less energetic and chatty then the young ones. I had a hard time talking about one of my favorite pieces, Hang Up, but I think I was able to get some of the major points that I was interested in across.
*Privileging of painting over sculpture and the politics of space in a museum
*Notions of Painting being dead
*How difficult women and people of color have entering the Art world
My discussion on Jackson Pollock was much more successful. I discussed the phony nature of painting, always trying to be something it is not, while Pollock’s work was very aware of it’s materiality. It is paint acting as paint.
I spent a lot of time this week planning for my adult and family tours. Shannon and I came up with a tour revolving around music. We gathered a bag full of instruments and were ready to make some music next tot he Monkey band . Only one family came along in our tour with an awesome 3 year old but we made the best of it and had a really fun tour. Even if he thought the silver bedpan was much more interesting then the monkey band I had chosen, and he was not afraid to tell me how much cooler everything else was.
Next week I get to run the touring gamut. I have my first adult tour, Curious Creatures, as well as another pre-school tour.
Around the Gallery: FGT
Being in the museum 5 days a week I have noticed myself becoming almost desensitized to all these great works of art. There have been certain points during this internship in which a work would grab my attention or I may have noticed in a different way.
In one week I was able to have two amazing and emotional experiences with the works of one of my favorite artists, Felix Gonzalez Torres.
His piece Untitled (Strange Music) has been on display since I have been coming to the modern wing (2 years now) and I always make it a point to pass by. The work uses light bulbs to discuss the how at some point all comes to an end, and shall be replaced. This was the first time that I have ever seen any of the light bulbs go out, and it was very emotional.
On another day after I presented to a group of high schoolers Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA) we were able to witness the replenishing of the Fruit Flashers candy. After the discussion I lead with the students we all shared a solemn yet joyous interaction with the piece that many museum visitors are not able to experience.
Kris Derek: Week 3
Clara's Last Minute Preparations
This was our first week of student tours and of course there was no way to really be prepared for it. Clara Fecht and I ,AKA the dream team, really got to get to know each other while we created a new tour each day of the week.
Tuesday:
Marissa discussing the innovative John Marin
I was really excited about this tour entitles What is that? Clara and I developed this tour when we realized just how many things existed in the museum that we had no idea what they were. It was fun to plan wondering about asking, “
Mikey's Demonstration
What is that?” Our thoughts were that this would encourage the act of questioning that it was ok to not know what everything it, because even we as educators were still asking questions. The whirligig was not only fun to say but a big hit, especially when the students had a chance to stand up, spin around while rotating their arms as a whirligig would. We should them the Jackson Pollock Grayed Rainbow(“scribble scrabble” as a student called it) to prepare them for their innovations watercolor workshop taught by Mickey and Marrissa, which lead to many great pieces.
Everyone loves a WHIRLIGIG
Wednesday:
I was really excited about Wed. because they were high school seniors and I really enjoyed my time teaching High School. The lead chaperone gave us the parameters of working with Geometric shapes, architecture and mood. These seemed like an odd selection of topics but it lead us to the tour we developed entitled Oppositions. Each of these works either opposed the space, accepted ideas, or art.
Looking closely at the Pollock
While showing the students Greyed Rainbow they seemed really responsive to the idea that this painting is about paint. While most of the history of painting is concerned with trying to become something else, Pollock was showing the viewer paint as paint.
I was also excite because I was able to discuss two of my favorite works in the collection Eva Hesse’ Hang Up and Felix Gonzalez Torres’ Untitled Portrait of Ross. I was not sure of how the students were feeling about my discussion of Portrait of Ross. When I told them that they are acting as the AIDS virus eating his body many of the students spit out the piece of candy they were enjoying. It is a very difficult and emotional work that I am closely attached to so I was excited to hear that some of the students talked to them about Portrait of Ross and how much it affected them.
Looking at Shade from across Griffin Court
Thursday:
On this day we had a group of student from a United Nations leadership group and they were so engaged with the work and even taught me a few things. Our tour Around the World focused on the different nations and cultures they had bee studying. While showing the students a ceramic works form the Tang dynasty that dealt with the silk road, I was informed about how dangerous this trade route was and how it is where the IOU originated.
Friday:
On the final day of our student tours we had a group that had been focusing on Chicago History and Civic values so we gave our tour The Chic in Chicago. I had a hard time getting the students to access Ellsworth Kelly’s Chicago panels. They did seem to really enjoy Public Notice 3 and Clara did a great job with Albrights Portrait of Dorian Gray. This was a bit of a rushed tour, but it was a great way to end the week
Next week we have our first ABC Tours (REALLY LITTLE CHILDREN) that I am both excited and petrified about.
Kris Derek’s First Two Weeks
Week One:
I entered this internship with only a vague sense of what I would be doing. As the days approached people kept asking what I would be doing and I would say something to the effect of, “Tours and stuff.” I have heard many people’s experiences with internships involving filing and making copies, not doing much to advance them personally. I did not realize how extensive, educative and exhausting this experience was going to be.
The first week was an extensive look at the museum. I have been living in the city for the past two years and I just completed my first year at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I assumed I had a firm grasp of the museum. I was wrong. This is how I tend to imagine the museum. While I hate to sound cheesy but this is a pretty great museum. We had opportunities to explore the spaces and the vastness of the collection. I feel like everyday there is a new space I have never been to or work I have never seen.
We utilized a variety of gallery activities to get to know the space, collection and each other. In one activity we had to wander the American wing and pick a work that fit with one of the prompts we were given. I was tasked with finding a work that represented my personality. I chose Ellsworth Kelly’s Chicago Panels. I have seen this work many times but I never fully considered it. I like, and related to, the fact that this work was a visual attack on the neoclassical gallery space and no matter what you do in the space it always seems to infiltrate your visual range.
During this first week our MEMs (Museum educator mentors) each demonstrated their areas of specialty and gave us demonstrations on how they would conduct a tour on different objects within the museum. While at first this was a fun experience either pretending to be members of a family or 6th graders, reality and intimidation struck when I realized that this is not merely being shown to me. It is what is soon to be expected of me. The introductory/honeymoon phase of the internship quickly faded, as we had to begin prepping for our mock tours that were take place on week two.
Week Two:
This week has been one of the most stressful and anxiety ridden weeks I have experienced in a long time. The amount of mental and emotional exhaustion was astronomical. This was the week of the mock tour. I liken a mock tour to something between an oral presentation, improvisation and being on trial. I have taught before and I did not have as much of an issue with it. But knowing that my MEMs and peers would be there not only listening to what I have to say, as a normal tour would, but they were there to analyze my every movement, “UMMM” and objective. A normal tour would not call me out on the use of a close-ended question. There was no way to get out of it. So I had to prepare an example of a student tour, family and adult tour.
Student Tour:
For my student tour I choose Saint George Killing the Dragon by Bernat Martorell. I assumed this was going to be a simple work to present on. It’s an awesome image with a dragon being slain by a blasé knight. My overly confident nature in my research practice and awkward presentation tactics taught me a lot about being better prepared and the importance of thinking on your feet. I also learned that people’s interpretation of a sixth grader is either overly intellectual or a parody of youth.
Family Tour:
It was difficult for me to consider how to think in terms of entertaining and educating a family. The age range of 6 and up is pretty daunting. For this mock tour I choose to present on two Kimonos in the temporary textile exhibition: Japanese Kimono, 1915-1940: From tradition to ready to wear. Although I was interested in different types of weave structures and the use of advances in technology to create ready to wear Kimonos, my discussion focused on it being an item of clothing, analyzing colors and shapes and thinking in terms of occasion.
Adult Tour
My final tour, which closed out the week of anxiety, gave me an opportunity to discuss my favorite work in the AIC collection, Hang Up by Eva Hesse. The theme for this mock tour was Art about Art, and I believe if it was my best presentation. I came into this tour with a different mindset. I was not acting as a museum educator leading a group; I was myself talking to my peers about a work that I assumed some might not know much about and I wanted to discuss it. This helped with my nerves and I think lead to a great conversation about this work. After this experience along with a great pep talk and vocal exercises from our MEMs I felt confident and ready to give tours to “real” people.
*My next tattoo
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