A Walk on the National Mall

Two days before the 2017 Inauguration I took a walk on the Mall 

to see the preparations that were begun and are necessary.

As I came out of the Smithsonian Stop of the Metro, 

the first things I saw were the thousands of portable potties.

 They seems to increase all the time as does the kind fencing. 

Walking toward the castle building there were layers of black fences.

 Outside the Freer Museum so much technical paraphernalia was 

behind its own fence, kind of blocking the entrance.

You see this kind of technical apparatus everywhere.

  In front of the Castle Building and looking across the Mall at the 

Natural History Museum you see a field of white.

 

I knew it was not snow as it has not snowed recently.

So walking over to, what used to be grass, I had to check it out.

 It appears like miles of white tiles. 

They were spongy to walk on (2 to 3 inches thick) and 

much easier than the muddy gravelly walk. 

 Walking on to the Hirschhorn Museum and looking 

in to the Sculpture Garden, everything looked familiar.

 So I turned around and went into the Hirschhorn. 

I had intended to do this for a month now, 

to see the drawings on all of the inside ring of the 

second floor by Linn Meyers,

titled: Our View From Here.

 Going up to the 3rd floor to the window overlooking the Mall

I took this picture, above, looking back toward the Washington Monument.

It was cut it off by the curve of the window.

Then looking the other direction toward the Capitol 

you have a distant view of the National Gallery of Art

with the Capitol hidden by a glass panel.

 Outside the Hirschhorn is Yayoi Kusama's Pumpkin sculpture.

The outer ring of the second floor is now being reorganized 

for the coming exhibition of her Polka Dot art. 

Yahoo Kusama will fill every room with her Infinity Mirrors

and colorful dots when this exhibition opens in February.

 Crossing 7th Street NW I ran into a couple of signs 

that must be everywhere.

Another sign, that got to my thumb in the way, 

as I was debating crossing this line.

 But no problem as I walked on over the spongy tiles and 

down the middle of them to 4th Street, NW toward the Capitol.

Actually I loved walking on this surface and could go everywhere on it. 

 You can see fences to walk between, 

but no one was stopping me from going anyplace, yet.

 Loud speakers and huge screens are up in many places 

for viewers to see what is going on at the Capitol steps.

 From there I cut over to the East Wing.....more portable potties everywhere.

Across the street from the East Wing, surrounding the glass pyramids 

of the National Gallery was more black fencing.

 I do not understand why it is in some places but there is a lot of it. 

 It has always fascinated me the number of white tents 

on top of the buildings along Pennsylvania Blvd, NW.

Many of them are actually for protection of the parade, not just media.

The all glass building is the Newseum and 

the white one with the Maple Leaf flag is the Canadian Embassy. 

I took this picture while standing beside the glass pyramids at the NGA.

I chose to go home on the bus that goes along Pennsylvania Blvd, 

which would be the parade route and saw many of 

these platforms that look like cages. 

There were also several spots with stadium seating being erected.

 Going back to art, at the NGA, is this sculpture called 

a Greek Slave by Hiram Power.

She has chains around her hands.

And at the Hirschhorn, Big Man by Ron Mueck.

Just something to think about.