Omaha was an immersion in visual and conceptual art. I visited the Hot Shops Art Center, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, KANEKO, Film Streams, and El Museo Latino. Though I had interesting conversations with all involved, I felt strangely disconnected by the time I left. There was an unsettling feeling that an important insight was alluding me.
I called Ree Kaneko from the road, somewhere on Route 80 heading west out of Nebraska. “Artists give people permission to do things differently,” she said. The glowing molten glass, the giant spiral head, and the ex-votos imbued with prayers of safe passage, it all began to make sense. The social purpose of art delves deep. Art interrupts our regular narratives and causes us to think differently, or at least to be reminded that different thoughts are possible.
Anne L'Ecuyer 