I have been to the BYU Museum of Art before but not in a while to actually take part of the exhibitions. So, when I got the invite for the opening of three new exhibits, I decided to go. It was wonderful. As I said three exhibits opened the evening I was there but I checked out two others too.
As the Rose: Sculpture by Adam Bateman
This is an awesome set of sculptures. There are three large pieces outside on the lawn between the MOA and HFAC and two smaller ones just inside the museum. The sculptures are made of farm irrigation equipment such as sprinkler heads, pipes and the wheel things that the sprinklers go on to rotate around a field.
Adam Bateman, the artist, created the pieces to explore the Brigham Young prophecy that the desert would blossom as a rose. 
He explores the use of irrigation with a sense of modernism and, according to the MOA Website, conservation.
From the museum’s Website: ”Working with irrigation equipment I explore my roots, as a pipe-mover during high school (and now), and as a descendant of Mormon Pioneers who built the first modern irrigation system in North America when they arrived in Utah. The Mormons sought transcendence through irrigation—they saw God’s power in making the desert ‘blossom as the rose.”
Bill Owens: Suburbia
This exhibition, found on the lower level of the museum, is an interesting look into suburban life in the early 1970s. Bill Owens documented through photographs many different people living the suburban lifestyle. The images were originally published in a book called Suburbia. The exhibition helps rid us of the notion that suburban life is what we see in the movies or on TV. The suburban environment can be just as diverse as an urban neighborhood and has its accompanying problems. 
I also enjoyed looking into the lives of these people and see how things have or haven’t changed.
The favorite image of my little group is one of a little boy riding a big wheel carrying a toy gun. The caption is the mother’s words telling about how him playing with the toy gun will keep him from being a cop killer and that her neighbors who are offended by the toy gun have husbands who are first to go out hunting with guns.
More to come from my everyday adventure to the MOA.
