This is actually the first time I have been to the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in all the time that I have lived in New York City, all my life. It is a lot different from the other museums that I have been to. The MoMA is probably the only museum I have been to have so many people visit the exhibits at noon in the middle of the week. I didn’t get to go through the whole museum because I was limited on time, since I went during club hours so I only had about an hour to see the art works.
The piece of art that really caught my eye was the Bleeding Takari II created by El Anatsui. Walking around MoMA, I wanted to find an artwork that I felt I understood before having read the description. When I saw the Bleeding Takari II I immediately thought that it is used to focus on money or currency and the fact that people bleed over something so superficial. I noticed that the pool of “blood” (which was constructed with the use of bottle caps) formed little hearts on the floor. This to me meant that not only do we waste our blood and sweat for money but basically our lives. I thought that this work is focused mainly on money and currency because of the bottle caps and the silver tiles that the piece is formed with. The silver tiles resembled the currency used in the ancient times of China and the bottle caps reminded me of shows in the past where kids used bottle caps to trade for things.
After reading the description of the work I found out that I was pretty close. The only flaw in my interpretation exists in the fact that bottle caps weren’t used as currency but alcohol was used to trade between Europe and Africa. The bottle caps were simply a symbol for the work.
