Deconstructive aesthetic paradigm-bending blog.

Microblogging for a time -- got a vacation to get ready for, which of course means more work.

At last a string of unbroken warm days, up here in the North. Today was so fine I went out for a lunchtime stroll that took me as far as Daley Plaza, where the emblematic Chicago Picasso resides. From there I could glimpse the Chicago Gehry under construction at the as-yet unfinished Millennium Park (it will be finished sometime this millennium, unless we all die of some unknown tropical disease in the next five or so years). I got a better look at a few weeks ago, walking south on Stetson, which is directly north of the building -- sculpture -- deconstructive statement --

I'm a philistine when it comes to Frank Gehry. Or rather, I'm reflexively suspicious of his work. On the other hand, when it's completed, the Chicago Gehry will be the first one I've ever seen in person. I have not, alas, been to Spain to see his most famous work, the Guggenheim Bilbao, or for that matter been to the Hollywood Bowl in person. Of course, Hollywood Bowl sorts of structures aren't what he's known for now -- that dates back to when he was a more ordinary architect.

My introduction to Gehry was at the Guggenheim Museum. A few years ago I saw a model of a proposed new Guggenheim for New York at that museum, which was incorporated in a nice scale model of lower Manhattan. The new structure was to have been on the edge of the East River, somewhere near Brooklyn Bridge. I was astonished at how at odds it was with the rest of the waterfront. It was as if Gehry wanted a tangle of giant silvery videotape dumped on the site. It was as if he wanted to build something that would quickly become as dated as, well, the original Guggenheim.

Another thing that sets up red flags about his work is the way in which it's described. Academic cant like "deconstructive aesthetic" and "paradigm bending" clouds over Gehry like gnats. That can't be good. Maybe that's not fair, but, as I said, I'm reflexively suspicious, and make no claim to fairness.

But I will wait. The Chicago Gehry will be done by next summer, probably. Since it's in a park, it will have less surrounding context to disrupt, and it might even work well as a sculpture. We shall see.