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Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Visual Art Dark days for Santa
Posted By Barbara Schreiber on Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 11:01 AM
When the art world tucks itself in for its annual holiday nap and there is nary an opening in sight, what better way is there to get your aesthetic fix than to pack the family into the car and head out to look at Christmas lights? No, I don’t mean those coordinated, well-publicized efforts. I mean the big honkin’ stuff, the work of visionaries who festoon their houses with unsynchronized flashing colored lights, build gigantic plywood cards that read “Happy Birthday Jesus” and, when they run out of our space on the front of the house, string lights in the back yard, up utility poles and across the lawn.
This week, I was going to provide a brief list of spectacular holiday displays, but alas, I have little to report. Charlotte’s relentless tastefulness, coupled with a battered economy, has resulted in a muted Christmas. Even the Harris Land Company building on Fairview Road, which normally sports encrustations unbecoming of a business enterprise, is dark this year, with only a small “For Lease” sign on the lawn.
While driving around in search of lights this week I did find two yards in—of all places—Dilworth, that while not totally bewildering and excessive, do merit a mention, perhaps even an honorable one. Despite my distaste for inflatables, I have to admire the incongruous assortment at the house on the corner of Worthington and Euclid, which also includes a decent supply of flashing lights. And over on Magnolia, between Park and West Dilworth, is a house that features nearly 40 illuminated plastic Santas of varying sizes and a walkway lined with eight illuminated plastic nutcrackers; but what really gives this display that extra zing is the disturbing little plastic Santa head hanging from the gutter.
If you know of a worthy display, please reply and make my holiday just a little brighter. Or better yet, drag out those colored lights and start something in your own yard.
Have yourself an arty little Christmas.
Looking for something to do with those holiday guests? Check out the Juan Logan, Radcliffe Bailey and Hewitt Collection exhibitions at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, “Decade” at McColl Center for Visual Art, “On the Edge: Homeless and Working Among Us” at the Levine Museum of the New South, “Group f.64 and the Modernist Vision” at The Light Factory or “Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color” at the Mint Museum of Art. And start the New Year with a visit to the gorgeous new Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, which opens to the public with on January 2 with a ribbon cutting and free admission all day.
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