A Little Sun and a Whole Lot of Light

What would you do with your very own little sun? Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesen created this solar-powered LED lamp in an effort to get affordable and reliable light to areas across the globe without electricity. Five hours of charging yields three hours of bright light. Learn more at Phillips after 5 on Feb. 6, where we’ll be screening a short film on the Little Sun Project, and join in on some Twitter trivia for a chance to win one!

The February Phillips after 5 celebrates all things light with the Nordic embassies, from innovative Nordic lamp design to gallery talks on how artists use light in their work to an aurora borealis-inspired light show outside of the museum and in the Music Room. Follow the Phillips on Twitter that evening and answer #NordicLights trivia questions for a chance to win one of five Little Sun lamps (and other fun prizes).

I Challenge You to a Kelly Haiku

Even as a museum educator and art historian, I struggle sometimes with understanding abstract works of art. A lack of subject matter, figures, and rational forms can be intimidating and at times even overwhelming. So, recently I challenged myself during my noon Spotlight Talk to discuss some of the most abstract works on view at the Phillips right now in Ellsworth Kelly: Panel Paintings 2004–2009.  I was inspired by a quote of Kelly’s: “Time is important in art, and sometimes art takes time to reveal itself.” I figured if I took time to engage with works I hardly understood, perhaps they would reveal themselves to me.

I posed this challenge to my tour group and they obliged by looking closely, sharing their observations, and finally drafting a haiku based on their favorite painting in the exhibition. Haiku are a traditional Japanese 17 syllable poem. Our haiku used the following format and Post-It notes to create simple yet powerful explanations of Kelly’s works.

Ellsworth Kelly,Yellow Relief over Red, 2004. Private collection. Photo: Jerry L. Thompson, courtesy the artist. © Ellsworth Kelly

Title: One word describing the mood
Line 1: 5 syllables describing the color
Line 2: 7 syllables describing the shape
Line 3: 5 syllables describing the lines

Here are some of our haiku’s.

Tangy
Electric yellow
Those rectangles overlap
Tight and neat, so crisp
By: Margaret Collerd

 

Difference
It’s orange or red
Is it rectangle or square?
connected as one
By: Amy Truong

 

Ellsworth Kelly, Purple Curve in Relief, 2009 Private collection. Photo: Jerry L. Thompson, courtesy the artist. © Ellsworth Kelly

Vortex
Red black blue green train
Squared rectangles even
Horizons kiltered
By: Anonymous

 

Indigo
Strong purple and white
Oblong with a subtle curve
That should be a line
By: Marvin

 

Propulsion
Movement to the right
Rectangle on rectangle
Angles on angles
By: Karen

 

Interested in writing your own Kelly inspired haiku? Join us Thursday, Sept. 5 at Kelly’s Colors Phillips after 5 and create your own Post-It poetry to share or tweet your haiku as a tweetku and tag it #tweetku and #kellyscolors!

Margaret Collerd, Public Programs and In-Gallery Interpretation Coordinator