Over the last week, our family has been enjoying Artprize, an unique art contest where artists install crazy, unique, fascinating, and mind blowing pieces in multiple venues all over Grand Rapids, and the public gets to experience them and then vote for the winner.
Experience is the key word here. It is one thing to say, “Yep, we checked out Artprize”, but it is a different story to see it for yourself. How else do you explain…
The mammoth made out of recycled metal shavings that my kids thought was an elephant…
The hanging sculpture that looks oddly like a hat, but is made out of ash wood and connected with tiny metal ties…the kids were impressed with this one too…
Sculptures that make a statement…literally…
The massive pencil drawing where the shadows shift as you move from one end of the piece to the other…Parker said, “That was done with pencil?!?”
The spectacle of thousands of people signing a gigantic greeting card…even two people high…
The “kitsch factor” of the horse made out of discarded purses…
The beautiful river of glass, which gave off an ethereal glow in the lobby of the GRAM…the kids really wanted to take a stone home…
The shock and awe of “Dream Big”, a mosaic made entirely out of Rubik’s Cubes…
The countless pieces that were much more than they seemed…
…and sometimes you were even able to see the magic behind the piece…
What Artprize has done for our family is reminded me that entertainment can be a walk through a sculpture park…art can be appreciated in all shapes and sizes…and how important it is to experience art. I watched my kids gaze up at the gigantic flying pig, carefully inspect the felt that was used to create a rainbow archway, and wonder at the brightly colored flowers bigger than they are, and it was pretty special.
Their mission? “Be a catalyst for collisions and connections between artists and communities, for the sake of infusing vitality and courage into culture.” Bravo, Artprize, thanks for the collision…thanks for the experience…
Okay, I guess I had better take the boys then, eh?
That Rubik’s Cube one is crazy! How neat.