What Does MSI’s Model Train Exhibit Say About Chicago? A Lot, Actually...
By JoshMogerman in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 26, 2011 9:00PM
As the Occupy movement continues to branch out and expand, we could not help but notice a little protest going on in the Museum of Science and Industry---and we mean, very little, just an inch or two in height. A holiday visit to the MSI’s “Great Train Story” exhibited yielded a surprising bit of small-scale political lobbying in the form of cows and a farmer with an unfurled “Hi-Speed Rail Now!” banner. That teeny-tiny advocacy message to Springfield and DC got us wondering what other little nuggets were hiding in the model train exhibit and what they say about Chicago. A close inspection of the 1400 feet of track with one of the museum’s interpreters did not disappoint.
The museum prides itself on the “distinctively Chicago” nature of the exhibit’s design. We agree, especially as it relates to the Chicago River. In the Museum’s model, a truck seems to be illegally dumping into the waterway and a police crime scene seems to be investigating a body in the water (honestly, we did not see the floater, but took the docent’s word that it was there). Even at a Museum celebrating this city, the Chicago River gets disssed!
And what does it say about our town when a scale model of the Sears…err…Wesley Willis Tower looms high over the Rocky Mountains? Sure, those two things might be built at different scale, but that probably still says a thing or two about architectural pride in this city (especially since our tallest building is actually a tad short in the exhibit to prevent it from bumping the plane hanging from the roof above).
Protesters, murders, pollution, big heads... We love that the Museum kept it just a little gritty by capturing some of the City's sadly enduring stories.