Art to Heart

Flea markets and cheeseburgers and Genghis Khan. Oh my! Nope,
this isn’t Kansas anymore, Dorothy. Welcome to another Daily
Bruin blind date.

This week, our daters went into the heart of Los Angeles, where
they visited the Genghis Khan art exhibit at the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art. But not before they went to the Fairfax High School
weekly flea market.

Ross Harold and Christina Dikas, two second-year Rieber Hall
residents, embarked on their journey to love this Mother’s
Day. And by the looks of things, mothers weren’t the only
ones with something to celebrate on Sunday.

Harold, an American literature and communication studies
student, describes himself as a party in your pants. Dikas, a
sociology and museum studies student, is most known for her
kindness and fondness of architecture.

“When I first met Christina, I thought, “˜What a
stone fox’; (I) was taken aback by her stunning look and her
exuding kindness,” said Harold. “She was the type of
person who I seemed to know for a long time ““ we just clicked
automatically.”

The two first went to discover buried treasures at the flea
market. Looking at everything from busts with neon blue hair to
belt buckles and vintage posters, they began to see how much they
had in common.

“When we were at the flea market, we both kept looking at
the same items while we were quizzing each other on “˜Saved By
the Bell’ trivia,” said Dikas. “I felt like I
could talk to him about anything and he’d know what I
meant.”

After digging through the golden nuggets of flea market goods,
the two proceeded to LACMA to look at art of a different type: the
Art of Genghis Khan.

The exhibit examines the artwork of the Iranian world in the
aftermath of Mongol invasion. With the fusion of Eastern and
Western Asian art in the Iranian world, the exhibit aims to show
the artistic diversity apparent during this time. “The art
exhibit was definitely not something that was entertaining or
enriching to me: Genghis Khan ““ more like “˜Genghis
Yawn!'” said Harold. “It was organized well, but
the architecture of the exhibit itself was more interesting to me
than the pieces were.”

Both daters agreed the exhibit wasn’t as exciting as the
artwork they saw at the flea market. In fact, they felt that the
exhibit wasn’t organized well enough to know what the art
reflected.

“I liked the inclusion of traditional Iranian architecture
into the exhibit,” said Dikas. “It made the artwork
more authentic in that respect but still didn’t catch my
attention enough to actually (make me) want to know more about the
art.”

The exhibit combined various types of artwork, from textiles to
silk paintings. According to Harold, the most interesting part of
the exhibition was a room where the door was integrated into the
wall ““ set up in a very traditional “˜orientalist’
manner.

“While the exhibition was educational, it seemed very
confined ““ not open and well lit like other
exhibitions,” sad Dikas. “The warm lighting on the
exhibit created a sleepier environment, rather than a more
mysterious and intriguing one.”

Though neither of them enjoyed the artwork, they found the
exhibit room with a Mongol-style tent on the wall fascinating.

“The tent was definitely the high point of the
exhibit,” said Dikas. “It might be because I
don’t know Arabic nor am familiar with this art period that I
couldn’t fully appreciate the exhibit.”

From their flea market escapade to LACMA cheeseburger snack, the
two created the foundation for a budding relationship.

“When I saw the equal love for the flea market and the
exhibit, I knew we could appreciate high and low art
together” said Harold. “I knew she was a
keeper!”