Tidbits #4

And a book giveaway

Earlier this month, I went to the Park Avenue Armory to see the clinamen installation by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. The cavernous armory space is filled with the installation itself—three crystalline blue, recessed pools filled with pottery, always in motion by virtue of unseen jets moving the thousands of gallons of water in each pool. Around the pools, a wooden platform, and long benches that also serve as borders for the installation.

When you walk into the space, it is hushed but for the soft tones of people talking quietly and the music of the pottery in motion. In some ways, it feels like being in a vast sound bath, the clay bowls clinking against each other sonorously. Sitting in the space is a very immersive experience. I found it quite relaxing, taking some time out of the day to just sit and contemplate. But what was also interesting was observing how other people interacted with the space. There were all kinds of people there—couples, families with young children, friends taking in some art together. They sat on the benches around the edges of the space or directly on the floor next to the pools, talking quietly, and that sound itself, that human murmuration, was an interesting accompaniment to the sounds of the pottery clinking.