Last week I drove to North Adams, MA (the furtherest northwestern corner of Massachusetts for those unfamiliar with our great state) for work. My job usually entails a whole lotta sitting in a messy cubicle, writing IRB amendments, reconciling grant financials. So getting paid to drive 3+ hours, set up recording equipment and tent cards for a focus group and stay in a posh hotel room with a fireplace was an incredibly welcome change. As a bonus, I was invited to take Friday off to enjoy the Berkshires.

North Adams is also the home of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). Awesome. MASS MoCA is currently exhibiting Jenny Holzer’s Projections (through Fall 2008) and a very large collection of Spencer Finch’s work entitled “What Time is it on the Sun?” (through Spring 2008). Doubly awesome. Honestly, I know very little about fine art. I do know that both of these exhibits are top notch.

Projections… what can I say? She’s fucking Jenny Holzer! This is her first interior light projection installation in the US. And it’s a doozy. Luckily there’s a video of the installation and a webcam broadcasting live when the museum is open. I have to say, it’s a poor replacement for seeing it in person. I also scored a few of her “truisms” pencils, which I’ll post pictures of when I get home.

Then there was Spencer Finch exhibit, including a few installations created specifically for MASS MoCA. It blew. my. fucking. mind. Finch’s work deals heavily with color, memory, perception, and the passage of time. My favorites were Trying to Remember the Color of Jackie Kennedy’s Pillbox Hat (1994), 102 Colors from My Dreams, Night Sky (Over the Painted Desert, Arizona, January 11, 2004) (2004), CIE 529/418 (CANDLELIGHT) (2007), West (Sunset in my motel room, Monument Valley, February 26, 2007, 5:36 - 6:06 pm) (2007) and Abecedary (Nabokov’s Theory of a colored Alphabet applied to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle) (2004).

The only problem with seeing such a amazing exhibit is that I couldn’t take every piece home with me. But then it turned out I could because MASS MoCA was selling a beautifully put-together monograph of the whole show.