Essay # 3 : My Visit to the Noguchi Museum

New York City is known for the best museums in the world. Living in the Big Apple is a blessing from God. After living in Staten Island, Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem my last stop was Long Island City. I never imagined that in a place where I lived 5 years there is a museum exactly the Noguchi Museum in front of the place where my wife works. I passed through this place many times and even thought it was some factory or some government office but never thought an excellent museum.

From the reception we were treated with the respect and consideration by workers at the site. We were divided into two groups; I was part of the quieter group in the place.

Noguchi's duality USA vs Japan

First, we started our tour on the second floor where the person in charge gave us a small biography of Noguchi and his work. We did the analysis of one of his piece of art. It was very interesting to see the perspective of each individual in the group regarding this sculpture that was a combination of two periods. The era of the stone and the modern era.  That sculpture for me was very symbolic because it represents the duality that we have in the United States since many people come from other countries. The concept that gave the sculpture was that the metal part was our physically body represented in United States. The stone part for me was the head that represents the thoughts and ideas in other part of the world like in the artist’s case Japan.

My duality USA vs Ecuador

After analyzing the person in charge asked to take some materials and make a sculpture. A very interesting activity, I try to keep the same concept of the artist and that is the way in which I felt identified with Noguchi. As we can see in the picture the metal part is my body, my physical part that is in this great country but the star of the ocean is my head, my thoughts, my dreams are on the coast of Ecuador specifically Salinas that is one of the Ecuador best beaches in the land of my parents. Wood chips representing the three principles of my life that are my God, my country and my home. After a final synthesis work in group we saw Noguchi’s work more personally. Another very important detail of the museum is the participation of contemporary artist Tom Sachs.

Tom Sachs's Samurai Helmet

Tom Sachs's work

 His work is the complement to the work of Noguchi. How to integrate parts of normal life in art is his subject. Tom Sachs has an extraordinary work in the Noguchi museum. One of the pieces that really caught my attention was one of the last sculptures of Noguchi, it was two blocks of stone that had no way not make sense to me but after analyzing well come to the conclusion of his life was actually governed and bound with Japan and this stone was the way to summarize his life.

Noguchi's final art

 After the visit to the  Noguchi museum we finished our meeting at the Socrates sculpture park near Costco. This park is a place of very important recreation in Long Island City as we can see interesting films in the summer, while in Saturdays we can buy organic food part from the New Healthy York program. Moreover, young artists use this park to display their work of art.

Me and my babygirl in Socrates Park excelent place for relaxation and thinking

In a nutshell, New York never ceases to impress me by its modernism with its old composite. If I were a community leader I would introduce to all the people in my community  places like this to increase  culture and education of our youth and as a place of meditation and camaraderie for our seniors. Noguchi museum is part of my life.
PS I want to apologize to Prof. Dahlia and my classmates for posting late but I had some technical and personal difficulties . Thank You