See the Yokohama Triennale, but not on the weekend

Have I mentioned I don't like crowds much? I don't, and I'm sure I have. So I took advantage of my easy-living lifestyle to see the Yokohama Triennale in its final days on a weekday, the way god intended. The show is in four venues spread out over a fairly wide area. I followed my friend's advice and went through the main venue first, at the Yokohama Museum of Art, and then I took the free shuttle bus to the NYK Waterfront Warehouse. Then I walked to Sakuragicho Station, which is not the fastest way to get back to Tokyo, but it is the best way to get a slice of delicious apple pie.

I guess a lot of the art I didn't 'get.' Like, the audio guide said that this piece below "looks like a wall covered in pure gold, but it's actually 60,000 individual thumbtacks." As if therein lies the amazement. But it looked like a lot of thumbtacks to me. I mean, it looks neat. The foreground is, I believe, 28,000,000 Fake Diamonds and One Real Diamond, which is intriguing and fun to look at. The museum guard leaned over the pile to straighten the Do Not Touch sign or to shoo some wayward gems back into place and her pen fell into the pile. I wondered how much of a breach that was. It's her job to keep people from chucking stuff into the art and there she goes dropping her pen in.

28000000 fake diamonds... and no people

I liked a few pieces. Damien Hirst's stained glass windows made of butterfly wings were gorgeous and, up close, macabre. Far and away the most amazing thing there for me was Christian Marclay's 24-hour-long film The Clock. Here's 00:04 - 00:07. (For best results, watch it at that time.) I went back a second time on a weekend to see it and it was still worth seeing another thirty minutes of it, even after waiting 20 minutes in line to get in. (Seriously. Don't go places on the weekend.)
The show is only on through November 6. If you won't make it, Tokyo Art Beat has a great photo report of many of the highlights. MTokyoblog has a nice overview of the Triennale and great pictures of the critters outside the museum.