What to do on a cold February day?  That was our question earlier this week as we strategized about our next Date Day.  It was going to be too cold to stay outside and we had recently been to a couple of the larger museums in Chicago.  Putting our heads together, we decided to have a Museum of Contemporary Art Date Day.  It has been a while since we were there, so we figured they would have some new and exciting things for us to try to wrap our heads around.

Since it was so cold outside, we decided to pay a few extra dollars and park at the museum’s garage.  It’s not a bad garage, but we still had to walk about a block to get to the actual museum entrance – we could have used ParkWhiz and walked about 2-blocks for half the price.  Upon entering the museum, we paid our entry fee, took advantage of the free coat check and reacquainted ourselves with the museum’s layout.

Knit Magic

We started our experience with an in-depth look at a four-story yarn piece that looked straight out of a 70’s Knit Magic machine.  One of us was brave enough to voyage into the abyss for a picture, but the other stayed far away.

Backstroke of the West

Our next stop was Michael Rakowitz: Backstroke of the West.  This large exhibition by Iraqi-American artist explores “recent contested social, political and cultural histories”.  We learned the history of dates (the fruit) and saw how the Beatles, the World Wrestling Federation and Stars Wars all influenced us, Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people in general.  Truth be told, it was an interesting, if hard to grasp, exhibit, but having to read the artists’ poor handwriting on many of the pieces was frustrating and overly time consuming.

We Are Here

Taking a deep breath, we headed to our next stop, We Are Here.  This exhibit, in honor of the MCA’s 50^th anniversary, was put together by three of the museum’s curators and is based on themes that “resonate with our time and relate to our inner, outer, and social lives”.  What exactly that means we have no idea.  It was a nice collection of different pieces.  If you visit the museum’s website though, you will believe it is a ground-breaking examination of how artists and their viewers interact over time.  Why does everything at this place need to have a deep inner meaning?

Finishing the second-floor, we stopped to enjoy Felix, as we girded our loins for the third and fourth floors.  Felix is an interesting sculpture, by Maurizio Cattelan, that is somewhat of a cross between a T-Rex and a cat.  We actually thought it was real dinosaur bones until we got close!

Heaven and Earth

The third and fourth floors contain an ever-changing set of smaller exhibits that we usually enjoy very much.  Heaven and Earth, is a fascinating collection of sculptures and mobiles by Alexander Calder that represent the “heaven” side of things.  They are complimented by Jeff Koon’s interactions with mundane items and concrete that represent “earth”.

We also saw a small set of works by Chicago artist, Paul Heyer.  His first solo museum exhibition creates, “a multisensory, dream-like realm that combines his ethereal paintings and sculptures, which are rooted in his experiences and memories of being an active participant of rave and club culture”.  We’re not sure that we got that, but the paintings are certainly interesting and colorful.

Endless Summer

Our penultimate stop, Endless Summer, took its name from the 1966 surf movie, and highlights works that were influenced by the surf industry, custom car culture and Southern California life in general.  It is an interesting mix of pieces constructed in resin, plastic, metal and high gloss paint.

When you have a penultimate stop, you must have a final stop.  We wish we didn’t.  Its note even worth describing, but if you visit the far end of the forth floor before May 20, 2018 you will find it.  We made a quick stop at the MCA store, found an interesting book on Chicago architecture and decided it was time for lunch.

Due to the temperature, we decided to head to a place we love, where we know they have a valet.  Next stop Carmine’s!

We did all of this are were still home in time for a quick stop at Jewel, for milk, before picking up Nate from school.  It was a little expensive, but not a bad date!