An Afternoon At The Museum

I went to a talk about a new "painting" at the Currier Museum this afternoon.  It's a traveling painting called The Raft. Bill Viola (the artist) created a video that basically was a modern day version of Theodore Gericault's 1819 painting The Raft of the Medusa.  It was a raft built by a shipwrecked group of 150 people whose boat ran aground and the captain and others took the life boats and left these survivors to fend for themselves.  They were rescued after 13 days. During that time all but 15 perished.  Some resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.  Some took a compassionate stance.  The modern day version was actually a video where a cross section of people are inundated with water from a fire hose and observed their reaction to it and each other.  More here.  

The main photo is of a sculpture that has been in the museum since it opened in 1929.