three stills from the installation for the screening of Bruce High Quality’s “L’eau De Vie”
Barry and I had seen the film several years ago, through the good offices of Filip Noterdaeme, but last Thursday we both jumped at the chance of seeing “L’eau De Vie Un Film De Jean Luc Godard” again, especially since it meant lounging about on the roof of the X Initiative with other fans of The Bruce High Quality Foundation on a beautiful summer evening above the Hudson River.
It was even better than I had expected – both the film and the ambiance we found on the roof of the former Dia space on West 22nd Street. I think “L’eau” is a small masterpiece; well, maybe not so small. The soundtrack was really, really brilliant, and I think I noticed just how brilliant for the first time, thanks to the terrific rooftop sound system. I also appreciated the additional edge provided by the wavy, “silver screen” on which it was projected. No, really!
The video was shot in December, 2005 on location in Miami during the annual Art Basel tradeshow, on sound-synched black and white super 8. It’s an homage to Jean-Luc Godard, a cri de coeur for real community, and a paean to a simpler world before the invention of art fairs.
urban drive-in
Category: Culture
Jacques Vidal and Noel Anderson at the “Blood Drive”
Most of the art and the clinic equipment had been removed or pushed aside last Wednesday evening at Zach Feuer Gallery when Jacques Vidal and Noel Anderson began their performance in the now-darkened space of the show, “Blood Drive“; It was the end of the first day of a real two-day blood drive which the curator, the artist Kate Levant, had included as a part of the installation which was closing later that week.
The performance seemed to delight in its serious component of improvisation and it’s unpredictability managed to briefly frighten both the audience and at least one of the players/creators. Its oddness, and its odd power, seemed to have come out of the artists’ profoundly metaphysical understanding of love, friendship or community, so it wasn’t unrelated to Levant’s fundamental concept for the gallery show itself.
Vidal certainly hasn’t lost his edge, and Anderson was clearly a match for him in what appears to be the artist’s ongoing pursuit of a splendid new and perverse artistic form.
the “Room Tones” of the Convent of St. Cecilia
Nathan Dilworth‘s monster-size cut-out photo prints address the architecture
Molly Lowe‘s video of compulsive consumption, “K-mart shopping”, is in the former chapel
Julio Cesar Gonzalez‘s thin cables of light are strung between ceiling laths
Aaron Frank sculpts found windshield glass into fluid forms
Brian Kain‘s room installation includes an abstract video on a vintage TV (seen in reflection)
There’s no need to go to the islands this weekend for some fresh air, as Barry and I learned on a sunny afternoon last weekend. We arrived in the big-sky country of middling-far Greenpoint when we emerged from the Graham Ave. station of the L line and we found fresh art after we made our way to “Room Tones” installed inside the four floors of the now-emptied rooms which once described Saint Cecilia Convent.
The participating artists are Rebecca Adams, Paolo Arao, Jason Bartell, Nathan Dilworth, Brock Enright, Aaron Frank, Chris Georges, Julio Cesar Gonzalez, Colt Hausman, Adam Henry, Colin Hunt, Brian Kain, William Latta, Qing Liu, Molly Lowe, Owen McAuley, Susan Sabiston, William Sabiston, Mike Schreiber, Emily Mae Smith, Nathan Spondike, Ryan Sullivan, Kristina Williamson, Leah Wolff and Katherine Wolkoff.
The website describes the environment of the temporary space which hosts the show:
An exhibition reflective of our contemporary atmosphere, Room Tones is also a return to an early and influential site of western art. The Catholic convent of St. Cecilia in Greenpoint was once a robust institution, home to a steady then slowly decreasing number of nuns until it was closed and vacated in 2008. Like many empty storefronts throughout New York City, the situation of this particular convent is a barometer of the complex social and economic changes taking place in Greenpoint and its neighboring L train enclaves. Spiritual views and orientations aside, Father Krische, pastor of St. Cecilia, has generously worked with organizer Nathan Spondike and his team making Room Tones an event that will reinvigorate this unique 97-year-old building into a testament of the new thoughts and ideas emerging from artists around it.
I just found out the show has been extended through Thursday, Friday and Saturday of next week (and can also be seen by appointment), so if your feet are already buried in the sand miles away from the City you’ll still have a chance to tune in to this fresh, scrappy show in one of the neatest neighborhoods of Brooklyn.
Check the site for days and exact times.
NOTE: The convent continues to function on at least one level: We noted the presence of a neighborhood “emergency food pantry” inside, and now I learn here that “Gifts of Love” had recently been opened by volunteers from St. Cecilia’s parish “as a means of offering a few days sustenance to those who are unable to stretch their funds”.
I almost forgot to upload one more image. It was taken from within a room formerly occupied by one of the nuns. It may be a part of the work installed inside there now, or it may just be a casually-placed window prop.
UPDATE: I’ve learned that the image is of “7 of hearts”, a part of a much larger installation by Kristina Williamson.
Christina Williamson‘s installation included these seven hearts
high above 23rd Street, a tape intervention (no eruv)
This time it wasn’t an eruv, for the line enclosed nothing and went nowhere – nowhere, that is, but diagonally across 23rd Street. It started high up the lamppost in front of the Gotham Comedy Club and ended, at that same height, on the one standing outside the Muhlenberg Branch Library. There was a slight downward bow all along the way, but even the tallest trucks managed to avoid it while I was there.
It was only an inch or so wide, but it was a very bright day-glow orange-pink color. I spotted it as soon as I started to cross the street a couple hundred feet west. At first I thought some fool had stung an electrical cord across the street, and then I noticed it was just tape.
I still don’t know who did it (or how). I see a part of Sam Bassett‘s work on the sidewalk shed across the street in the first photo above and there may be some correspondence in the lines of the work he designates on his site as sculpture and the single line of tape linking the two sides of the street, but I’ve not usually excited by the former and I’m much taken by the latter. I think it’s pretty cool, for its extraordinary minimalism, although it occupies and addresses a very large public space. It’s also (almost) intrusive and (almost) invisible at the same time. Is it a nod or a bow to community?
While I was looking into the identity of the artist, Vartanian wrote back that for him part of the appeal of the image I showed him is that it is “location conscious”.
sorta loving it, next to the Union Square Greenmarket
Elbow-Toe Divine Hammer 2009
I spotted this curious image on my way to the Union Square Greenmarket this afternoon. It appears to be a monkish hare coupling with another (boy?) hare in the middle of some scattered groceries. It’s about two feet wide and the medium is that of a tinted b&w sticker attached to the concrete base of a lamp pole at the northwest corner of the square. I know I should recognize the indecorous artist, but I don’t.
UPDATE: Hrag Vartanian infoms me the artist is Elbow-Toe, and that the Wooster Collective has a post about the piece here, indicating that its inspiration is Rembrandt’s “The Monk in the Cornfield” (with farmer or milkmaid?)
An image of another, more sylvan, installation, this one in Brooklyn, appears on myloveforyou.
Klaus von Nichtssagend: The Musical
“SOLD” OUT
Klaus von Nichtssagend is putting on a show tonight, three in fact. Actually the show is being mounted by Ryan McNamara and “his accomplished troupe of actors, singers and dancers”, in the gallery’s description. They will be describing the story behind the legendary Klaus von Nichtssagend, answering the questions, “Why did he open this space? And why are we all singing?”, in “Klaus von Nichtssagend: The Musical“.
But all three performances, at 7, 8 and 9 tonight in Williamsburg, are already sold out (actually, they are free), so unless you’ve already reserved, you’re out of luck. For fans of the growing phenomenon of arts performance, Jacques Vidal and Noel Anderson offer an alternative in Chelsea. Unfortunately it’s going to be impossible to make both.
We’re definitely in the midst of a period of transition in the visual arts, and it’s only partly related to the economy going belly up. Plenty of institutions have survived, and there probably aren’t a lot more people creating things this year than the last, but artists aren’t waiting for galleries, museums or curators to find them and let them in.
They are creating art which is not just composed of objects – or even mere concepts. I don’t know what to call it but it’s not just “performance art”, because while it owes much to the breakthrough phenomenon associated with the 1960s, it often goes much further. It’s definitely not minimal; it loves props; it’s virtually a given that recycling of some kind is involved; it will go almost anywhere to put on a show; it sometimes involves large numbers of people who may not be aware of their participation; it doesn’t mind leaving behind some objects which, yes, can treated as commodities (product); and it almost always incorporates real humor, even riotous fun. This time around the younger artists are also a much larger genuine community, and they have killer communication tools.
Most lovely for all of us, as in the 60s, this art is free – in every respect.
I love it. I love the energy, the intelligence, the courage, and the infectious wit. I love the community. We may only be passing through a cultural corridor; what will follow is unimaginable to us today, but in the meantime we have these shows – and their enigmatic constructions and relics, the remnants, (and their documentation on gazillions of tiny cameras) to guide us.
[image from Klaus]
Kate Levant’s “Blood Drive” at Zach Feuer
Michael E. Smith Untitled 2009 digital print on paper with latex and television screen 8.75″ x 11.5″ [installation view]
Jacques Vidal FORCED FRIENDSHIP, WITH COLLABORATIVE BASE WITH KATE 2009 wood, plastic, pipe, black caulking 61″ x 53″ x 50″ [installation view]
Elaine Stocki Nelson platinum print 22″ x 22″
Brian Faucette Blood Drive Flyers inkjet print on paper 11″ x 8.5″ each [detail of installation]
Kate Levant Waiting Area 2009 mixed media, dimensions variable [installation view]
CORRECTION: The blood collection is today (Wednesday) and Thursday, not Thursday and Friday. The show comes down at the end of the day on Friday.
Kate Levant appears to have pulled off a pretty amazing stunt at Zach Feuer with her exhibition, and performance, “Blood Drive“, what the artist describes as the product of “an open platform invitation towards a commission to produce promotional material for a blood donation drive.”
Not your usual late summer art show.
The visuals have already been assembled in the gallery for some time, but the art all comes together over the next three days, beginning with a performance tomorrow night at eight by Jacques Vidal and Noel Anderson, “a glue that will stick anything together forever”. A real-time community blood drive will follow from 1:30 until 7 on both Wednesday and Thursday, with the show wrapping at the end of the day on Friday, September 4. You can sign up by emailing the gallery at info@zachfeuer.com. I have no idea how it’s going to go off, but this last act will be as interactive as the crowd wants it to be, and I trust these artists to make it more than interesting.
The artists “commissioned” for the installation itself are Noel Anderson, BOBO, Brian Faucette, Michael E. Smith, Elaine Stocki and Jacques Vidal.
Levant already has an auspicious triumph, but this is hardly a surprise to anyone who has had the privilege of encountering her before.
We first met Levant in October, 2006, when she arrived to help Vidal install his large light box, “The Holy Art Project“, while we were installing the show we curated at Dam, Stuhltrager, “Dangling Between The Real Thing And The Sign In The Window“. Just two months later we were delighted to learn that her art was as impressive as her ability to pitch in for a friend and charm the pants off two strangers. We saw her work in a wonderful installation, “Attic“, inside Anton Kern’s 21st street annex for a couple of weeks in the middle of December. That show, which was curated by Erin Somerville, also included work by Smith, who is represented in “Blood Drive”. Barry put together a small slide show of images from “Attic” on Bloggy.
There are more images of this show on 16 miles of string, and documention of other work by Levant and Smith at Detroit Arts and tryharder.
Jason Eisner on 24th Street, and around town
Jason Eisner installation
closeup
Barry spotted it first: We had just left “Blood Drive” the excellent installation curated by Kate Levant at Zach Feuer (more on that in my next post) when we saw this plywood piece attached to a plywood section of a construction fence outside of what is arguably Chelsea’s baddest monument to pure excess, 200 Eleventh Avenue condo project, which includes “En-Suite Sky Garages“*.
I was embarrassed that I couldn’t identify the artist and had to ask for help from an authority. Our friend Hrag came through with the answer: It’s Jason Eisner. Eisner collaborated with Jason Balicki in the exciting installation, “Back & Forth”, at English Kills earlier this summer, and the two of them (as “J & J”) are a part of the group show at P.P.O.W. which closes today.
And there’s still more, much more, of Eisner on Flickr.
Oops. Looking for the links I’m using in this post I just discovered the identity of the artists who created the bench in Ascenzi Square. I don’t know why it took me so long, when the English Kills site makes it pretty clear: It was Jason Eisner & Jason Balicki.
*
Here there appears to be more than one message in the almost-painted-out posters underneath Eisner’s piece. They read, “i’m hatin’ what I see“, the text of PETA’s anti-McDonald’s campaign against McDonald’s chicken-slaughtering practices (which play on the corporation’s familiar “i’m lovin’ it”).
Scott Reeder at Daniel Reich
Scott Reeder Nickel & Dime (End of the Road) 2009 oil on linen 26″ x 30″
This is another excellent show closing this week, although in this case there are two days left. Scott Reeder’s “Painter, now at Daniel Reich, is scheduled to remain up through Saturday.
It’s worth a trip. If there are any doubts, a skim through the press release might dispel at least some of them, especially for those not already familiar with Reeder’s work:
Reeder’s virtuoso mixture of functional humor, painterly skeins and readily encyclopedic vocabulary gleans from art history to articulate something resolute and wonderfully “out-of-style” in this exhibition.
Or not:
Reeder conveys real fear and the anxiety of somehow failing the airport baggage check. Reeder’s bread and butter paintings pertain to need, an instinct further emphasized by the nourishing materiality of his brushwork.
In any event, once the work has been seen this extravagant prose may seem to have been both a draw and a suitable complement to Reeder’s (illusion?) of rough simplicity, or just plain irrelevant to the enjoyment of some very good pictures.
You don’t have to be a history nut, although you’ll have even more fun if you are.
Scott Reeder Cubist Cokehead (Woman with Purse) 2009 oil on canvas 24″ x 20″
Scott Reeder Cops Ascending Staircase 2009 oil on canvas 50″ x 34″
“Young Curators, New Ideas II” at P.P.O.W.
“Low Museum”, curated by Karen Archey, including a work by Jason Lazarus and Archey’s collaborations with Daniel Chew and Tara White [installation view]
“Young Curators, New Ideas II” is an exhibition featuring the creations of 21 artists, installed in seven parts or “rooms”, the parts corresponding to the work selected by seven young curators, or collaborating curators, and in one instance “work” by curators which one group of these curators collectively admire or respect. The curatorial responsibility for the entire concept was shared between amani olu projects and P.P.O.W. Gallery itself.
It sounds like the show’s about the art of curating, and it is, but don’t let the concepts get too much in the way of your enjoyment of some dynamite pieces.
The show closes tomorrow, Friday, at six.
The curators are Karen Archey, Cecilia Jurado, Megha Ralapati, Jose Ruiz, Nico Wheadon, Cleopatra’s (Bridget Donahue, Bridget Finn, Kate McNamara & Erin Somerville), and Women in Photography (Amy Elkins & Cara Phillips).
The artists, working alone or in collaboration, are Karen Archey, Daniel Chew, Jason Lazarus, Tara White, Tom Fruin, Norma Markley, Jaret Vadera, Alejandro Diaz, Las Hermanas Iglesias, J&J, Jessica Ann Peavy, Bryan Zanisnik, Taylor Baldwin, Boyd Holbrook, Dawit L. Petros, Segtram, Noelle Lorraine Williams, [selected working curators], Michele Abeles, Tierney Gearon, Els Vanden Meersch, and Victoria Sambunaris.