It was already early Saturday evening. We were walking down through Hudson River Park with a destination in mind, but we had started to assume that we would arrive too late to see the posthumous [performance?] of Robert Smithson’s 1970 sculptural concept, “Floating Island”, an homage to Manhattan and Olmsted’s Central Park.
I stopped at the shore railing for a moment with my camera in order to capture a golden lining on the last clouds to witness a sun which had probably already set.
Then I caught up with Karen and Barry and we soon spotted downriver what the world had only seen as a child-like sketch until that afternoon: a little tugboat pulling a small barge along the shoreline, the barge filled with what looked like a chunk of landscape from the park itself, complete with shrubs, grass and boulders [the rocks borrowed from the park for the occasion].
The excellent skipper of the “Little Toot”-like tug had amazing control of his charges, and none of the spectators were disappointed, whether they stood on the shore or on the piers, as he passed by with his chunk of Manhattan in tow, then turned and passed again and again and again along the edges of both.
The three of us weren’t even disappointed that we had forgotten about invitations to receptions which had promised food and drink. We had lingered too long among the temptations offered by Chelsea galleries that afternoon. By the time we arrived at the scene by the piers further downtown black-garbed, white-aproned caterers were emptying lots of unused bags of ice into the Hudson.
But the chase and the catch (here, the art, a delightful late-summer gift to the people of New York) was the thing, we reminded ourselves, especially if we couldn’t picnic on the barge. It was now almost totally dark, so we crossed the highway and headed into the West Village to track down what turned out to be a fine dinner with excellent company.
One last thought: At what age did we first learn that most islands don’t float?
Category: NYC
Madison Square Garden eyes another architectural treasure
Farley Post Office Building [at the top of the front steps]
BAD HABIT
Years ago they tore down the magnificent old Pennsylvania Station and replaced it with the current monstrous obscenity which became the latest incarnation of the peripatetic Madison Square Garden. The existing arena is the fourth location of what was originally the home of an earlier, somewhat less athletic freak show assembled by P.T. Barnum in 1874. The buildings in each of the previous locations have been destroyed. As the city grew, the land on which they were located was determined to be too valuable to be devoted to popular entertainment.
The word is out today that they’re threatening to tear down another monumental building in order to move the Garden once again. Okay, it’s only half of the building, but it’s a half which would do honor to any city in the world.
When I told Barry about the story in today’s NYTimes he said they’re going to keep on moving until there aren’t any decent buildings left in New York.
Some initial and random thoughts of my own:
Ironic?
Now can we have Penn Station back?
Nah, whadaya think this is, Germany?
What’s a station?
Barnum would be proud of his heirs. Remember the sucker birth rate?
How much of a deal will they get from taxpayers this time?
Maybe they’ll name it Bloomberg Garden.
The obsession with sports stadiums is gonna kill this city dead.
NIMBY.
[image from rachelleb.com]
ArtCal now has pictures!
Robert Boyd Heaven’s Little Helper (from the series Xanadu) 2005 video still (Manson Girls)
News flash! ArtCal now has pictures as well as information. Well, it is all about the visual arts, so offering some images along with direction only seemed [more than] appropriate.
Marking the unofficial end of summer, there are gazillions of art openings this week, and most of them are on Thursday (see “Opening Soon” on the home page). The site’s convenient geographical and, in the case of Chelsea, even sub-geographical arrangement of listings will help all you fanatics find your way through the rich offerings. Press the print button and you’re halfway there.
Maye we’ll all bump into each other. Say hi.
[image of a “Featured Opening” from ArtCal]
the art of United Architects
United Architects World Trade Center Proposal Project 2002 Plexiglas [detail of installation]
It was my favorite when I saw it in a magnificent exhibition organized by and presented at Max Protetch now more than three years ago. It may have been the only proposal which looked like a work of art as much as it looked like it would actually work. I think that suggests great architecture. Apparently MoMA now agrees, since the model of the United Architects study for the site of the World Trade Center has entered the collection. [see the architects’ site for more]
Yes, I know that in recent years, because of the stupidity and the chaos which has accompanied discussions since this structural model was first shown, and the banal or junky designs which have been advanced in its stead, I have argued for a big green lawn or, more recently, a grand pedestrian plaza.
But if build we must (this is still New York) my heart would still be with this gorgeous proposal, in spite of its size. It somehow remains the least monstrous, on account of its elegance and its irregularity. It may be the safest structure, because of its structural connectors and its multiple exits; and, oddly, it comes off as the most humanist, for its anthropomorphic shapes and the suggestion of an organic community within.
Every one of the extras which have been suggested or promised for the site since this model was built could fit within its mass. At this point I’m even willing to do without those two holy holes, although the United Architects design actually does contemplate keeping those areas clear and the combined segments of the building actually embrace them.
Also because this is New York however, this great proposal is likely to stay just where it is – a work of art.
fiores stravagantes
in the Channel Gardens, Rockefeller Center, on Thursday
miniature Manhattan wildlife II
up the wall
He’s back! I’d seen nothing since last July, but there were two sightings of our roof garden lizard this morning, both on the wall above the planters. Barry thinks we actually saw two separate little creatures, one a bit larger than the other. Hmm. When do we get to see the kids? And are they going to want to come inside when it gets colder?
Sorry for the quality of the image, but she or he’s really tiny, and I didn’t want to frighten the little guy away by getting too close.
de Menezes in light jacket, walked casually, used transit card
British newspapers front pages, August 17, 2005 carry pictures of the body of Jean Charles…
Jean Charles de Menezes walked at a normal pace into the subway station on July 22, used his card to pass through the turnstile, and was sitting inside the car in his light, short denim jacket when he was shot several times in the side of the head by plainclothes police officers in front of horrified passengers. These events were captured on closed circuit television cameras. Yesterday it was reported in London that an official police investigation had determined the facts I describe above. They directly contradict earlier police accounts of de Menezes’s death. [see the Guardian site for more coverage]
But of course this could never happen here in the U.S., so the report, about the lies and incompetence of government antiterrorism agencies given extraordinary powers, a report which dominates the news across Britain and the rest of Europe today, appears on page three in our NYTimes this morning. In fact, the only thing that would likely never happen here is a report of official lies and incompetence. Our regime would never allow it. For security, don’t you know.
Vince [see the comment on my previous post] and many other readers already know that I have no illusions about either the comprehensiveness or the liberalism of the NYTimes, in spite of the frequency with which I cite my local rag on this blog, but I think I should make myself more clear on this point right now.
While I get most of my international news on line, I still like sitting at the table during my extended mid-day breakfast, listening to the birds and leafing through the Times‘s huge stash of hard-copy serendipity. It is my local paper, it is bigger than the others (thank the gods there still are others, especially Newsday), its extensive features do manage to entertain readers who might think they’ve seen everything, and sometimes it’s just so much fun to see the more obvious evidences of its biases and its agendae, and to broadcast them to a world which is persuaded it’s actually a Lefty newspaper.
[image and caption are from Agence France-Presse]
finally, a VJ Day which liberates the queers too?
exactly 60 years later: the kiss watched ’round the world, its original models, and some contemporary enthusiasts
Although there is at least one same-sex couple in the group* kissing in the image above, they didn’t make it into the NYTimes photo caption today, and there’s nothing queer in the story which accompanies it. Does that suggest that we’re no longer remarkable, or still just unmentionable?
Well, at least we have our fabulous advertising ghetto.
*
click on the photo when you open the link
[image by Mario Tama from Getty Images via the NYTimes]
one for the revolution
This revolutionary [paint on panel] was spotted attached to the same wall as the arrow and the penis. The paving stone she’s hurling in anger would have made a better weapon than the large granite blocks of Wooster Street below her.
Real revolutions have been made in France, not here; I don’t suppose we can blame that on the size of our paving blocks however.
art on and off the street in Soho
it starts with the realistic electrical box (complete with pull-switch) in the lower right corner, and it points toward a pudgy paper penis person pasted above it by another artist
The building walls across from Deitch Projects on Wooster Street must be among the most coveted (canvases?) in the city for street art, even rivaling what Williamsburg can throw into the competition. They’re very busy, with a changing exhibition of work in many materials and on almost every scale, but there are even more major diversions inside this summer.
This afternoon after I photographed this wall we visited first the Barry McGee installation down the street and then that of Swoon around the corner.
Soho can still look street smart, even off the street. Of course it helps if you’re able to drag a good chunk of the street into the gallery, as Jeffrey Deitch and his artists do in both spaces [including a pile of a dozen or so wrecked vehicles inside the gallery on Wooster].
Hey, is that Playdough outlining the mortar near the top of the pic?