In the summer, Thursday nights at MOMA are dedicated to listening
to music in the Sculpture Garden. Last Thursday the featured group was OSHUN,
two young women, who create Afro-futuristic music that combines hip hop,
R&B, acoustic harmonizing, heavy drum and bass, and EDM. (If you listen
carefully, you might just hear woven-in samples from 90’s conscious hip hop groups,
like Tribe Called Quest).
The garden was abuzz with Afropunk aficionados, the
after-work crowd, beautiful people with big afros, MOMA members---and random
people like us, who love MOMA and enjoy drinking coffee when we’re there.
Thandiwe and Niambi Sala are recent NYU graduates, who chose
the name OSHUN for its multifaceted meaning. Oshun is a West African deity---a goddess,
also known as an orisha, who is the deity of fresh water, luxury, love,
destiny, divination, pleasure, and sexuality. She is revered as the goddess of
the Osun River in Nigeria. Their goal is to channel “the spirit of their
ancestors in order to manifest a sweeter tomorrow for us all.”
Check out “Parts” released earlier this year.
I don't often come just for music. In fact, when I come to MOMA, I come mainly for art. For me, the Sculpture Garden, with its sculptures and landscaping, is magical. One of
my favorites is Picasso’s “She-Goat.” Picasso created She-goat (she may be
pregnant) from discarded materials---scraps of metal, palm fronds,
ceramic shards, and more. The goat's belly and rib cage were created from a
wicker basket, while her udders were fashioned from two ceramic jugs.
There are several compelling exhibits at MOMA now, including
one focused on Yugoslavian architecture from 1948 to 1980---a
period in which brutalism in architecture was all the rage. Brutalism is
derived from the word “raw” which in French translates as “brute.”
If you’ve
ever seen large concrete, multi-storied buildings that at first glance seem
artless and oversized, you’ve seen brutalist architecture. Contrary to this
reaction, brutalism was used by architects to create transformative housing,
with gardens in the back, and functional space for lots of people---a
democratizing force.
If you’re interested, you can learn more here.
In the meantime, I’ll be traveling and trying to get in a
few more beach days. Keep drinking coffee...and make sure to check out that exhibit you've been wanting to see--summer is almost over.
