The Oculus, New York's multi-billion dollar station/shopping mall, was featuring a show of large size reproductions of the paintings from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. I was curious to see what these reproductions would look like in the context of Calatrava's large white space. When I arrived, I discovered that you had to pay $20 to look at them. So the proprietors of the multi-billion dollar mall want you to pay? Forget it. So I wandered around the perimeter, and became fascinated by watching the viewers who paid. So I ended up with a lot of photographs.
The Oculus has become a major tourist attraction, though I don't know if all those tourists will be buying things at all the stores in the mall. There are lots of people milling around, many, of course, gazing at their cell phones. I was intrigued by both the juxtaposition of Michelangelo's figures with their viewers, and the juxtapositions that occurred in the way these images were arranged in the hall.
Oh, and are we now getting trigger warnings for "subject matter of a religious nature" along with nudity?
I suppose readers of this blog should be warned, as well, though perhaps I could add a warning to watch out for people clutching cell phones.
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