Even though I hardly watch Sex and the City, I half-expected to run into one of its illustrious characters while walking around the Meatpacking District.  Prior to our class visit to the area, all I had heard about it was that it one of New York’s newest “hot spots,” this was told to me by my mother a few years back, and that she was excited to be going to a popular restaurant in the area, which, incidentally, we passed on our gallery tour.  Being a vegetarian, I wasn’t too enthralled by the name of the area, but upon actually walking around I found it surprisingly cute.  Not only is the area full of art galleries, but there are also numerous clothing boutiques, many of which an easily be mistaken for galleries at first glance.
            The day’s expedition started at the Heller Gallery, where I was quite intrigued by Susan Taylor Glasgow’s exhibition.  Much like the many works in Threads of Memory, Glasgow continues to use traditional sewing in new and creative ways, and, as the case may be, to make a very powerful statement.  Though I found the work to be rather aesthetically pleasing, its sole purpose was surely not to look pretty; it was making a statement.  Even today, when we have come such a long way from a time when women couldn’t even vote, we still have quite a ways to go, and I feel that Glasgow is doing her part to expedite that process as much as possible.  Women are not meant to be objectified, solely to stand around looking pretty or cook and clean.  They can go out into the world and do all of the things men can do too, just not in the tiny aprons and corsets Glasgow has mockingly created for them.
            The other show at the Heller Gallery was The Danes, a collection of glasswork by Danish artists.  There were many pieces which were quite beautiful, but what piqued my interest the most, and seemed to capture the attention of most of the class as well, were Steffen Dam’s fossils.  This series featured several “fossils” suspended within glass casing.  No one seemed to be really sure what any of them were, but they were fascinating nonetheless.  Because of the way they had been suspended, they provided for several different viewpoints, allowing one to exam a particular fossil from different angles and depths to gain a better understanding of each piece.  The work of Stig Persson also caught my eye.  He created several different versions of a piece entitled “Holes in the Sky,” which were beautifully colored pieces of glass with circles cut out of them.  It was interesting to look at these pieces as a set, because though they all have minor variations, they hold together very well as an entity.
            At Sperone Westwater, I was intrigued by William Wegmen’s exhibition New & Improved.  Everyone knows him for his photography of dogs, but I found some of his other work to be even more noteworthy.  I loved his postcard collages and the way he seamlessly integrated a wide variety of postcards into one cohesive mural.  I am a big postcard collector, so I always have a bunch lying around, but never once have I thought of creating something remotely along the lines of what Wegman created.  Each of his murals tells a unique story that is made up of distinct images which somehow still manage to all connect together so well.  These works are truly phenomenal.