Rice Gallery

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

It seems that Tuesdays are my blogging days  haha.  It's completely unintentional, but I guess Tuesday afternoons tend to be my freer afternoons!

Last week, David and I visited the Rice Gallery for their grand opening for the year!  The work is by the artist Gaia, and the installation is named 'Mashland', after the Rice University's founder William Marsh Rice. The work is a reflection of Gaia's perceptions of the Rice and Houston communities, and Rice University's relationship to the city.

The work consists of 3 floor-to-ceiling mural walls that reflect Gaia's views and perceptions of Houston, and a structure in the middle that mimics the architectural style of Rice (arches and bricks!) that has paintings of different administrators, faculty, and students.

It was so interesting to walk around the installation and to learn about how he went about working on this project through different video clips that were playing in the foyer.

We also had fun trying to see if we recognized anyone among the paintings.  =)

It was a neat little installation, and we recommend visiting (and mosey on out of Shepherd once in awhile if you are a Shepherd student  haha) if you are around Rice!  It's a good study/practice break, and also a nice relief from the heat... because yes, it is still soo hot in Houston!  hello?! it's October!  where's my fall weather!!

Another funny thing about my experience with the installation was that I automatically knew that the structure in the middle with all of the arches and brick was about Rice even before reading that the work was about Rice.  How did I know, you ask?  That is because all I see all day, every day at Rice is exactly that kind of architecture.  Like this one!   =)

We're so blessed to have such a beautiful campus, and I absolutely love, LOVE this type of architecture. David, on the other hand, Mr. Berkeley hippie, (=p) feels that the architectures seem all too similar and old fashioned.  I guess every person's entitled to his/her opinions!  haha

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful rest of the week!
--Janny