"What's Up" at The Dallas Museum of Art: Sculpture Imitates Life?

Not having visited or ever seen photos of the Dallas Art Museum, I hope I can be excused for my confusion over this photo that had quite a ride this week. If you could, hold off on reading further or looking at the caption for a moment and just study what you see….

Of course, the proximity of the truck and the crane to the red steel sculpture (its by Mark di Suvero) struck me as odd in their juxtaposition. Focusing more closely on details, the apparent damage to the building at the roof line and at the point two squares down from the cutout in the exterior wall was even more convincing of mayhem. But then I thought, with the savvy and outscale capacity of art, architecture and sculpture these days to evoke and comment on the world’s increasing chaos and environmental disruption, what a brilliant installation! And how bold the industrial implements would not only counterbalance but actually deform the temple’s face.

Of course, the write up at DallasNews.com quickly verified that the scene above was a mis-happenstance. Before moving on, though, I started clicking through their slide show and found myself having to further wrap my head around this:

With everything in our increasingly technological, innovative and cataclysmic world as fodder for the camera, tell me it’s not getting harder to make sense of what’s sticking out anymore.

(photos: G.J. McCarthy/Staff Photographer – DallasNews.com caption 1 (via AP): A collapsed truck-mounted crane rests near a sculpture outside the Dallas Museum of Art as workers study the scene on Friday. caption 2: Riders on a Segway tour stop to view the collapsed crane in front of the Dallas Museum of Art.)