A Day Like Any Other is a mid-career survey of Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander currently on view at The New Museum. Born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1967, Neuenschwander works in painting, photography, film, sculpture, installation, as well as spearheads a number of collaborative projects focusing on themes relating to "nature, language, temporality, and the poetry of the quotidian" (from New Museum's website).
A Day Like Any Other covers ten years of the artist's career and features new paintings including her series After the Storm (2010) made with maps of New York left out in the rain, as well as the film The Tenant (2010) which follows a bubble floating around the interior of a house. Involuntary Sculptures (Speech Acts) (2001-10) is a series a tiny, found-object sculptures made by people the artist met at bars and restaurants and the installation A Day Like Any Other (2008) features a number of flip clocks hanging in various areas of the museum.
The highlights of the exhibition are Neuenschwander's installations. In Rain Rains (2002) the artist set up a series of leaky silver buckets "that are controlled from flooding by a Sisyphean recirculation tended to by museum staff in four-hour cycles." The work reminds me a bit of Tim Hawkinson's Drip that was recently on display at Pace Gallery. The Conversation (2010) was inspired by the 1974 Francis Ford Coppola film of the same name. The film and the installation examine "invasion of privacy in an era of dangerously purposed technology." Neuenschwander had an area of the museum carpeted and wallpapered and then bugged with surveillance equipment. The artist then tore apart the carpet and the wall coverings revealing the equipment, recording the audio of the process and playing the sounds back in the ravaged area.
My two favorite works are First Love (2010) and I Wish Your Wish (2003). In First Love, a police sketch artist has been enlisted to listen to visitors' descriptions of their "first loves" and draw portraits based on the information discussed. The portraits are then hung up on a wall and included in the exhibition. It's a fun way to contribute to the exhibit and pay tribute to loved ones and/or former flames. I Wish Your Wish emulates the practice of a Brazilian church where "the faithful tie silk ribbons to their wrists and to the gates of the church, and, according to tradition, their wishes are granted when the ribbons wear away and fall off." For her installation, Neuenschwander created thousands of these ribbons with the wishes of visitors from past projects printed onto them. Some of the wishes include: "I wish for peace in the Middle East," "I wish Obama would be re-elected," "I wish I could tell my parents I am gay," "I wish it was benign," and "I wish I had the strength to divorce my husband," (see some of my faves below). The ribbons are hung on the walls of the museum's ground-floor gallery and visitors are invited to take a ribbon, tie it to their wrist, and write a wish of their own on a scrap of paper and add it to the wall replacing the ribbon. New ribbons with new wishes will continue to be produced for the project. The rainbow colored ribbons lining the gallery walls exude a charm, whimsy, and hopefulness while delivering a positive, interactive experience. Learn more about Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other at newmuseum.org. Through September 19th.
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