TIM BURTON - MUSEUM OBSERVATION*

This must be one of the most crowded exhibitions in history! I went to the museum in the beginning of January for a film and didn't even think to check out this show then because the museum was such a madhouse. This time I made sure to go during the day on a Thursday. Perhaps it was spring break, but I'm not sure. The rest of the museum wasn't as crowded as the Tim Burton show, and when I went inside it was completely justified.

Outside the exhibit there is a wall that documents Tim Burton's milestone accomplishment and they can fill the wall. Inside, you can see so many of his sketches, drawings and paintings. There were sculptures, props and fashion displayed as well. Of course, there was video too. There is just about every visual art medium exhibited. His work is completely mind blowing and I really loved the show.

The sculptures were my favorite and I was so impressed to see the credit given to the artist who created them. Of course, at this point in his career, Tim Burton cannot be creating everything he does and it's impressive if he's still doing a decent amount of it. Anyway, these sculptures were mostly made out of Sculpey, which surprised me. I normally think of small sculptures when I think of Sculpey, but these were pretty big. They were all in his usual style of fantasy creatures. There was one wooden house with a window that you could bend down and look in to see one of his human-like creatures next to a Christmas tree with a bright red light. It had that touch of goth that his art usually possesses.

I thought about how often very successful contemporary artists often show work in more than one medium. Saturday night I went to see an aerialist performance. It was the dj, the aerial performance and the costume design that came together to create the experience. All elements were equally important. My last post talked about Siouxsie Sioux and referenced Lady Gaga. Musicians that use visuals to enhance their concerts really seem to stand out. Fischerspooner is another example of musicians using visual performance art as part of their work. I guess this is natural in film. In film, there needs to be attention paid to fashion, dialogue, sound and image manipulation. Tim Burton has really perfected the art he creates and can communicate his ideas in a variety of media consistently.