Category: Barreling thru Belgium

At the FENIX, items must be carefully cleaned. 

When it comes to migration there is always a fantasy of the final trip. The Ghanaian artist Paa Joe (Joseph Tetteh Ashong) is known for his elaborate coffins shaped like objects connected to a person’s life. The one on exhibit at the FENIX seems like a signature Albuquerque goodbye box.  Functional as well as an…

One of the themes throughout the Migration exhibit at the FENIX was the fortification of borders and the closing of frontiers. We’re talking a very contemporary museum. Shilpa Gupta’s “Gate” got a lot of attention. This heavy metal gate mounted beside a wall suddenly swings shut and slams against the wall every thirty minutes. When…

Rotterdam. At the FENIX, a spiraling staircase encased in a shiny, wavy, silvery tube gives the feeling of being swirled up into the eye of a storm. 

Last night after our not-so-great Surinamese dinner, we wandered a bit. Here are some photos. Above: Maybe the “grands” live here?

In one of the convention center size rooms making up the Migrant exhibit at the FENIX is a bus made out of fabric that visitors can walk into. The Bus is the work of an American artist named Red Grooms. Red is from Nashville. He’s estimated that he has traveled by bus twenty-four times to…

Rotterdam, according to some sources, is one of the best places in the world for Surinamese food. Outside of Suriname I suppose. Surinamese food reflects a mix of North African, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, and a hint of Dutch (Suriname was a Dutch colony at one time). Grubb had a yen to try. We tracked down…

Ella’s already given you an introduction to the FENIX and the exhibit on the first floor of luggage that has traveled through Rotterdam in the last hundred years. The narrative that went with a suitcase that I enjoyed was the one where a gay guy from Rotterdam in the the 1920s made it a habit…

Inside the SS Rotterdam there were tipsy ghosts in full-skirted flower-patterned gowns serenaded by Frank Sinatra.  They sat on squat chairs designed for bustles to be draped over the back. Outside, on the deck, the promenading ghosts seemed to have been whisked away by the chill weather, but the stiff breeze offered an opportunity to get…

Our time at the FENIX was so poignant that it will take a few posts to describe. And by the way, gratitude to our friend Esther for telling us about the museum. The FENIX opened just one year ago. It was inaugurated by the queen of the Netherlands, Queen Máxima. FENIX is an art museum…

Back before there were cruise ships to luxuriate on while crossing the Atlantic, there were Ocean Liners. Like we saw in “The Titanic” or “The Poseidon Adventure.” Primitive compared to the wedding cake cities that tour the globe nowadays offering Broadway musicals and topical lectures, but still impressive if you think of the parties that…

Today (Monday), a slow day, a chilly day with a bit of rain.

Last night (Sunday)…A fish place with a different concept” is how they bill themselves.  The maître d’ handed us an oval tin of sardines with our table number written in sharpie on the top. “Would you like to start with a glass of cava?” she asked. “Well sure” I said as Grubb shook his head…

On the edge of Eendrachtsplein in Rotterdam is a sculpture made by Paul McCarthy in 2001. He called it Santa Claus. Since then it has been popularly nicknamed “Kabouter Buttplug” or the “Buttplug Gnome.” McCarthy said the object is officially a stylized Christmas tree and meant to be a comment on consumer culture. Maybe if…