Artist's Date #6: The Hirshhorn Modern Art Museum

One of the best perks of Washington, DC is that almost all of the museums are free! The Hirshhorn Modern Art Museum is currently running it’s first live performance exhibit, examining the question “Does the body rule the mind, or the mind rule the body?”

Since dance-based exhibits are not overly common in art museums, I was super excited to see it. The exhibit shows works from 5 different artists, but unfortunately I happened to stop in when the longest running one (over an hour and thirty minutes) was on and didn’t get to see any of the others.

I watched the three women strut around making noises that were a mix between someone retching and having a mental breakdown, but there didn’t appear to be much dancing. After 10 or so minutes I glanced around at my fellow art watchers and we all gave each other a “who knows?” shrug.

While I didn’t end up feeling inspired to create in the way I thought I would, looking at all the modern art, I felt that if these pieces could be created and displayed, my own certainly could too. So my take away was to create whatever I want without fear and leave the evaluation part of it to the audience. 

This exhibit runs through August 12th, and you can read more about it here. I’m planning on checking out more museums in the DC area, what are your favorites?