Before you barrage me with hatred for breaking quarantine protocol, let me explain a few things. No, I didn’t leave my house and somehow spread coronavirus throughout my city (even though I don’t have it.) Yes, I managed to go to an art exhibition by the great graffiti artists known as Shepard Fairey. He has exhibitions in Los Angeles and in New York City. His latest show is called Damage. Its a display of his work and the history behind it.
Shepard Fairey is an incredible artist and very inspirational to an artist like myself. There was no way I was going to miss this. So, no quarantine can hold me back.
Let Me Back Up a Bit
Since everything is closed, several organizations are getting creative. Their attempt at staying alive, or serving the public is fueling the creativity of these organizations, and we are benefiting from it. Many museums throughout the world are now open to the public even though they’re actually closed. Makes sense yet?
Well, as it turns out, many museums are offering online tours of their exhibitions. Some artists like Shepard Fairey is offering a virtual reality audio tour of his latest exhibition, Damage.
So let the museums help us get around quarantine by taking a walkthrough tour of your favorite museum or watching a video tour of an exhibition from afar.
A Few Museums with Virtual Tours You Will Love
The ever so haunted and gigantic Winchester Mystery House in San Jose California, is also closed due to coronavirus. Still, if you go to their website, they are now streaming a video tour of the house with some key historical facts thrown in. In other words, if you want to get your fill of mystery and beauty, check out their website at winchestermysteryhouse.com.
The British Museum in London is also closed. Still, if you head to their website, they are offering assistance on how to view their exhibitions virtually.
If you have an Oculus Virtual Reality headset, you can do this tour virtually. This means it will feel like you’re actually there.
I’ve done this tour myself on my Oculus. It’s a fun audio tour of any or all floors of the museum.
If you don’t have an Oculus check out their website so you can do the walkthrough online from your computer.
This specific part of the website talks about the closure. However, if you scroll down to a section called Across The Web, it will tell you how to view their exhibitions using google street view. It’s pretty neat.
Coronavirus, you ain’t stopping us art lovers!
Other Museums You Might Be Interested in Virtually Visiting
Its no surprise that many other museums are now doing this. In fact, Google has partnered up with about 2500 museums across the world to give you a beautiful walkthrough, virtual tour of these museums.
In other words, it’s done through Google maps street view. With that said, the experience is pretty amazing.
Some of these museums include:
The Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Discover the works of art as you climb the spiral staircase. Check out their street view here.
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
This brilliant museum holds the most extensive collection of Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh. Now you can view his works of art from your living room. Here is their landing page.
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles
The only thing about this walkthrough tour is that it’s mostly a walkthrough of the art. The architecture of The Getty Museum in Los Angeles is a work of art itself.
They have many gardens, mazes, beautiful fountains, and architecture that you will not be able to experience through this walkthrough.
However, if you’re only interested in the 1800’s century artwork enclosed within the walls of this museum, then head on over, virtually!
MASP in Sao Paulo Brazil
If you’ve never been to Brazil before, now is your chance. So, no need to leave your living room if you’re concerned about flights canceling daily, 14 day quarantine time frames, or your own city’s lockdown.
The cool thing about MASP in Sao Paulo is how the images are displayed. They’re in the middle of the room, suspended in clear perspex frames. This gives each painting a floating and futuristic look.
So, now that you know I didn’t actually break protocol and ventured into the land outside the walls of my house, you can see how fun this activity really is.
So Which Exhibition Did I Do?
I love art. In fact, I’m somewhat of an artist myself. But, one of my favorite type of art is street and graffiti art. So when I heard that Shepard Fairey had a virtual reality exhibition only for people with VR headsets, I needed to experience this.
In all seriousness, it was amazing! Dictated by none other than Shepard Fairey himself, this large three-room warehouse is a collection of many, if not all, works of art from this master of street art.
Within all of these rooms, Fairey shares some personal information on his individual works of art. He talks about the ideas behind them. The message he tries to portray within each piece is explained. But also, the history behind his artistic road and how most works of art came about.
My Favorite Work of Art Within Damage
I love Fairey’s art. It’s distinctive, bright, and it pushes buttons. But my favorite piece is not a painting or an illustration. It’s an installation.
To give you a little history, Fairey’s most well-known work of art, the OBEY sticker, was inspired by a scary movie called They Live by John Carpenter.
It’s the story of Rowdy Roddy Piper (a Canadian-born wrestler) who finds a pair of sunglasses that totally destroy what the American Dream is supposed to be. When he puts them on, he can see the hidden message behind each advertisement. Magazines become government messages to OBEY. And he soon realizes that America is shit! We are being manipulated by large companies and the government to participate in a rat race.Â
This inspired the OBEY sticker as well as this installation, which is technically a newspaper stand without any articles.
He has magazines and other paper propaganda that, like the movie They Live, only shows you the hidden message of corporate greed and manipulation. Words like Greed is Your Religion and Watch TV, or Doubt Humanity and Don’t Think are on full display.
This horror movie inspired this installation and many, if not all, of Fairey’s work of art.
Considering I am an art lover and a horror lover, this exhibition almost made me cry. I know it sounds lame, but sometimes when the world has gone to shit, you need to feel like others like you are out there and that you are not alone.
That’s precisely what Shepard Fairey’s exhibition did for me. I am not alone. We are all in this together. Things will get better. But most importantly, it made me proud to be a gay travel blogging, horror-loving artist.
Other Works of art in Damage
Damage has an entire wall dedicated to the struggle of people of color. Considering I’m a person of color, I really appreciate the topic.
He tears into the Kardashians with one of his works of art. Calling them meaningless by providing nothing other than greed to the general public.
He goes into his history and digs into the Trump administration as only an artist can.
Fairey displays his earlier works of art and talks about his struggles as a starving artist.
He talks about how some of his works have no meaning, but since he began as a street artist, the people who were offended gave it meaning. In other words, it was just art, and the “offended” gave it viral knowledge in a world before things went viral.
So, Let me break it down for you
If you’re starting to go stir crazy and you have a love for art. Or if you’re simply looking for inspiration, find a virtual tour online that you can fall in love with.
It will inspire you during these times. Art speaks to us on many levels even if it’s simply nice to look at. At least you’re getting out of your stressed-out thoughts and living life on different means.
For the travelers out there. If you have a virtual reality headset, use them. It honestly makes me feel like I’m not home.
If you don’t have any VR headsets, I purchased my Oculus Go on Amazon for cheap right before we went in lockdown, and I don’t regret it one bit!
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