By Doug MacCash, the Times-Picayune
The “Dario Robleto: The Prelives of the Blues” exhibit that opens at The New Orleans Museum of Art from 5:30 to 8:30 tonight, is like a cross between The Da Vinci Code and The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. Robleto, a brainy Texas-based conceptual artist, embeds his sculptures with buried symbolic clues so obscure that there’s no way we’d figure things out without being tipped off.
How could you possibly know that the authentic male and female pelvises in the show were sculpted from pulverized rock n roll record albums, thereby implying the importance of pop music in romance?
How could you possibly know that the silvery drumstick was fashioned from glass produced during atomic bomb tests, thereby symbolizing the brief, explosive life of rocker Keith Moon?
How could you know that the black thread on the spools in the canning jars was really stretched-out audio tape recordings of minor chords, meant to capture a sublime sense of melancholy?
How could you know that those tiny pink seashells had been exposed to hours and hours of Muddy Waters music, meant to … , well, truth is, I forgot to ask Robleto exactly how the delta blues and the seashells add up.
Here come the details.
The “Dario Robleto: The Prelives of the Blues,” an exhibit of music-inspired works by the San Antonio-born conceptual artist opens with a “Where Y’Art” reception from 5 to 9 Friday at The New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, in City Park.
Marc Stone of Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. and the Zydeco Twisters will provide a musical background for Robleto’s exhibit from 5:30 to 8:30.
The evening also includes satirical museum tours by the comedy improve group The New Movement at 6:30 and 8 and a film titled “Mr. Dial Has Something to Say” about artist Thornton Dial, whose exhibition “Hard Truths” is also on display at NOMA, at 7. The Robleto exhibit continues through Sept. 16.
Admission: Adults, $10; seniors, students and active military $8; children 6 to 17, $6; younger children, free.
Visit noma.org or call 658.4100.
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