FREEZE!

And we did.

Despite the cold, we went downtown yesterday to experience the art project that is FREEZE. Not much was finished. The installations were supposed to be opened to the public - which I foolishly took to mean they would be done and ready to go. And indeed some of them were.

This installation, for example, was finished, and served the purpose of making you feel coldness and winter. As we walked down the crevasse between the walls of snow, we joked that the they should have put lines marking out "January" "February" and things like "Is it ever going to be warm?" on the walls. It really did recreate the feeling of trudging through a long, cold winter.

Other installations were done, but incomprehensible. The snowball thing, for example. What snowballs are traditionally good for, of course, is throwing at people or things. Is that what we were supposed to do with these snowballs? If so, I bet the ones with the LEDs in them would really hurt. So probably not. Although a lot of people were talking about throwing them, no one did while I was there. Also, this installation. Those are ice in the form of human heads. On poles. One tries to sense the artists' intent. Winter is a cruel despot? Secretly a test to see if you are a sociopath? I understand they also light up at night, which must be quite an eerie thing to see.

I apologize in advance to the angry art fans (Hi dance belt guy!) - I am making light of what was surely a big undertaking. Visit the page here http://freezeproject.org/alaska/installations/ to see the plans and what they were really thinking.

Then there were other installations that were just not finished, like the catapult, which was a shame. Who doesn't like catapults? Also, the big block of ice with the cars in it, which appeared to be mostly finished but experiencing technical difficulties. The kids sure loved it though. For some reason, the ice was covered with little kids trying to see through to the cars.

The first thing we saw upon entering the exhibit area was the long ice table thing lined up toward where the sun was shining when Alaska became a state, or something like that. It was this installation that needed the 99 people with candles (of earlier post fame). As it turned out, I didn't need to sign up. I was shanghai'd into performance art! Well, maybe that is a strong term. We were walking by, and a sort of bossy lady held out a candle to me, and said "We need a few more people to be part of this. Here." Damn my automatic eye-contact! I said "Sure" and took the candle, then stood there. Pretty much everyone else clustered around the art was as confused as I was, except for one drunk or rowdy lady who kept yelling "Come On! " It's possible she was part of the artistic experience. In my own private world, I am pretending that she was. I think she symbolized Alaska's desire to be part of the US. Drunk and/or rowdy, yes, but generally positive and "in the moment". Anyway, at some point the crowd found out that the dark stuff in the middle of the table had ethanol in it, and we were warned not to get the candles near it when we lit them. As soon as we were told that, everyone immediately wanted to throw lit matches on the table. I am still astounded that no one did. I am sure in the planning stages this whole thing was organized and the candles got lit in a picturesque way. What actually happened was that were all extremely cold, and getting dangerously bored, so everyone started just lighting their candles. Why? Because when the candles got lit, then we could leave. Then we all looked around and tried to find someone to tell us what to do with the things. There did not appear to be anyone in charge, so we had no idea. Some people stuck their candles in nearby snow piles. Some people walked away with them. I put mine out and tried to find the artist to give it back, kind of like you find your host and thank them before leaving a party. Could not find anyone, but there was a pile of candles near the far end, so I chucked mine on the pile and went my way.

Our big complaint was that there was no place to warm up. We would have stayed longer, but it was FREEZing out, and I could no longer feel my toes in spite of vigorous layering. All in all though, a good time was had by us, and we plan to go back later and see if some of the kinks are shaken out a bit. Once again, say FREEZE!