My Trip to the Beall Center

My trip to UC Irvine’s Beall Center was on Saturday, April 2^nd in the evening time. Before planning my trip I made sure I knew the hours of operation. Perhaps they weren’t expecting visitors around the time I arrived or they just need to update the hours of operation. I arrived just before an hour before the actual closing time posted on the website, but with my luck, everything but the inflatable bodies exhibition was open.

 

 I wasn’t impressed by the piece itself until I took a photo. It looked more interesting in the picture I took than actually being there and seeing the piece slowly inflate and deflate. I thought it took away from the essence that the picture captured. I’m not sure if it’s the angle and lighting in the picture but the piece seemed more alive, almost like giant insects frozen in time. In person, I guess you could say the sound of the machine doing the inflation took away from the art itself and all I could really pay attention to was the materials the pieces were made of.

I managed to walk through the exhibit for the minute that I did and captured a short video of the piece. To my surprise, nothing else was open after I walked out of the exhibit. I was very upset, that I had driven all that way, by myself and paid seven dollars for parking.

I attempted walking around the center and tried my best to follow signs to the different parts of the gallery, but had no luck.

 

I made my way upstairs in hopes of getting a glimpse of the photo labs and apparently some students were lounging around waiting for a small play called “The Job”, that would be showing in about two hours. They thought I was there for the show and I was a bit embarrassed to say that I was just trying to explore the galleries.

Here’s a picture of one of the many closed entrances I came across.

Next to some staircases, on my way back from my disappointment, I came across some pieces of art and I was impressed by the precision and quality of both images. I especially like the creativity in the piece on the left. It’s cool how the artist has brick walls coming out of a wooden door.

 

On my way back to my car I enjoyed the view of the on campus apartments and looked into my future and hoped that maybe soon I’ll be in one of the dorms.