Art Hag

TWA Flight Center | Open House New York

Hopefully you were among the thousands who made it out to JFK Airport yesterday for a last look into the iconic TWA Flight Center before construction begins to convert it into a 500+ room hotel.  Built in 1962 by the legendary Finnish architect, Eero Saarinen, the terminal is a mid-century masterpiece and a symbol of the exciting Jet Age.  The dynamic exterior of the terminal suggests wings in flight while the interior boasts soaring, arched ceilings slashed with skylights.  Touches of bold red, marble, and light fixtures of multiple exposed, round bulbs give the terminal a sleek, glamorous vibe.  The TWA Flight Center was one of the first terminals to offer electronic schedule displays, closed circuit television, and baggage carousels.  Declared a New York City Landmark in 1994, the terminal closed in 2001 when Trans World Airlines went out of business. 

The forthcoming hotel will be set back from the terminal and Saarinen's structure will receive a full rehabilitation to restore it to its original splendor.  A museum is also planned for the site which will showcase the history of TWA, the Jet Age, and mid-century modern design.  Learn more at ohny.org, reuters.com, and wired.com.  Check out pics at ny.curbed.com and see my 2010 post on the Eero Saarinen exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York here.

 

 

PS1

This past Saturday, I headed up to Queens to check out MoMA PS1 before the party crowds converge for the kickoff for the popular Warm Up music series starting its 14th(!) season on July 2nd.  There's a whole lot of video art currently on view at PS1. In the first floor galleries is Ryan Trecartin: Any Ever, the artist's first large-scale exhibition in New York.  Trecartin created seven immersive environments filled with household and office furniture, gymnasium bleachers, gym equipment, airline seats, and more, to screen his series of seven films.  Each darkened room features a large screen projecting his films with ample seating and puffy headsets scattered about.  The films deal with tweens, identity, and "transumerism"—"consumerism driven by experience," (from the exhibit's notes).  The colorful, psychedelic films were shot in Miami and cast with friends, artists, young actors, and Trecartin himself. The actors voices are altered to sound like the high-pitched, squeaks of Alvin and the Chipmunks - magnifying the young age of many of the actors and emphasizing their vacuous tween jabber.  Watching Any Ever feels like a trippy, bad dream one might have after a long, hot night of consuming way too many sugary, alcoholic drinks.  Learn more at ps1.org.  Through September 3rd.

Up on the second floor is Laurel Nakadate's Only The Lonely, which reminded me of that girl in school who tried to be rebellious by flirting with older men and getting herself into some bad situations.  Nakadate meets male strangers and asks them to take her to their home to make a video.  The first of these works, Happy Birthday (2000) features three separate, ordinary, older, mostly non-creepy-looking men whom take Nakadate to their respective homes in Connecticut to have a pretend birthday celebration with her.  Nakadate's only instruction to the men is to sing Happy Birthday to her as she lights up candles on a birthday cake.  She then cuts into the cake and sits awkwardly with each man as they eat it.  Her second video piece involving strange men she picks up is titled Oops... I Did It Again (2000).  Nakadate again finds three men in Connecticut to go home with—this time to reenact the dance from the Britney Spears' video of the same name.  Equipped with a Hello Kitty boombox (of course) to blast the annoying pop tune (which will be stuck in your head the rest of your time at PS1), Nakadate dances around the men in their cramped homes.  Two gamely dance along with her while one stands stiffly and uncomfortably motionless.  In one of her Exorcism pieces, Exorcism 3 (Dancing in the Desert for Britney) (2009), Nakadate dances suggestively in a bikini top and cut-off shorts in Salt Flats, Utah in an "attempt to exorcise Britney Spears' sadness."  365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears, is a year-long (started on January 1, 2010) photographic series in which Nakadate shoots herself in various states of undress, crying.  Trouble Ahead, Trouble Behind features five large-scale shots of Nakadate's panties flying out a train window taken while she traveled across the U.S. to Canada on an Amtrak train.  In Good Morning, Sunshine (2009), Nakadate shoots three young women in their bedrooms as she instructs them to undress.  Only The Lonely looks like the sexually-charged shenanigans of a young girl trying really hard to be provocative.  It also feels like it exploits its older, male participants—the ones who may actually be lonely.  Learn more here.  Through August 8th.

Up on the third floor is Nancy Grossman: Heads, leather-wrapped sculptures of heads created by the artist from the 1960s - 1980s.  Carved of wood and covered in scraps of leather from clothing, boxing gloves, or equestrian gear, the heads are said to be self-portraits though they do not resemble the artist.  Inspired by the 60's, Grossman's heads were a response to the "violence and upheaval of the era and address the anxiety and turmoil in contemporary society."  The 14 fascinating, carefully crafted pieces are very masculine and look like S&M masks.  An old, unsexy visitor tried impressing his young, female companion by telling her he had a similar mask.  Haha, ew...  Learn more here.  Through August 15th.

And out in the PS1 courtyard is the twelth annual Young Architect's Program winner, Interboro Partners of Brooklyn.  For this summer's project, Interboro Partners created Holding Pattern, featuring rope and sails forming a white canopy fluttering above a collection of picnic tables, chaise lounges, ping pong tables, a foosball table, a sandbox, wading pools, a lifeguard chair, chess tables, trees, and more.  While these items will undoubtedly get much use over the summer months, they will all be recycled after the Warm Up series wraps up.  The objects will be donated to the community to various local businesses and organizations including a taxi cab company, elder and day care centers, high schools, a ballet school, a library, a greenmarket, and the local YMCA.  Learn more here.  Through September 26th.

A scene from Ryan Trecartin's film K-CorealNC.K

A scene from Ryan Trecartin's film K-CorealNC.K

Scene from Ryan Trecartin's film Temp Stop

Interboro Partner's Holding Pattern

Interboro Partner's Holding Pattern

Interboro Partner's Holding Pattern (wading pools)

Interboro Partner's Holding Pattern

Interboro Partner's Holding Pattern (life guard chair and chess tables)

Interboro Partner's Holding Pattern (life guard chair and mist platform)

Interboro Partner's Holding Pattern (sandbox)

Interboro Partner's Holding Pattern (entrance to "urban wood" in side courtyard)

Interboro Partner's Holding Pattern ("urban wood" in side courtyard)

Interboro Partner's Holding Pattern ("urban wood" in side courtyard)

Objets d'Art | News

Not a whole lot going on these days — summer shows are winding down and galleries and museums are prepping for their big Fall shows.  There's practically tumbleweed blowing around the streets of West Chelsea!  Here are a few things to tide you over in the meantime...

~More ART (Art Reality Television) - The Ovation cable network (channel 83 for those with Time Warner) has 11 art-oriented programs on offer for those who are suffering from Work of Art withdrawal.  While the shows mainly focus on art theft and heists this week, one show last week titled Money Money Money dished on the "commercialization of contemporary art" and another called Art Race featured two struggling artists racing across America in 40 days using only their talent and artwork to pay for all their needs and essentials (hopefully they'll repeat these in the near future).  Alas, it seems doubtful there will be any over-the-top outfits to ogle like the ones worn by WOA's China Chow and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn.  Read the full story at artinfo.com.

~Labor Day Weekend in the City - If you aren't joining the mass exodus heading out of the city for the long holiday weekend, you might want to take advantage of the thinner crowds at the 1st Thursdays DUMBO Gallery Walk (September 2nd) and/or the third annual Governors Island Art Fair.  Organized by The 4heads Collective, the 2010 Governors Island Art Fair will occur every Saturday and Sunday from 11am-6pm throughout the month of September (from the 4th-26th).  And though I don't think the crowds will be any smaller, there's PS.1's final Warm Up line-up of the summer.  DFA's Holy Ghost! will perform.  I guess this means summer is officially over :(

~Nick Cave's Soundsuits in Vogue - I didn't want to shell out the cash or break my back hauling around the September issue of US Vogue, but while flipping through someone else's issue I noticed an eight-page accessories spread featuring some bright and furry Soundsuits by the artist Nick Cave.  The editorial is called Monsters, Inc and was shot by Raymond Meier.  You can check out the images at thefashionspot.com.  They look like awesome, psychedelic Muppets with a taste for designer handbags and shoes.

A couple of Nick Cave's Soundsuits featured in the September 2010 Vogue

Greater New York and Pole Dance | PS 1

PS 1 presents its third installment of Greater New York, a comprehensive survey of emerging artists based in New York that takes place every five years.  Taking over the whole building and focusing on the "creative process" as well as "the final artistic product," selected artists have been invited to "use spaces as studios to shoot photographs and video, create books and catalogues, rehearse performances, and experiment in various media to test the boundaries of art and its making" (from show's notes).

It was nice to see works by a few familiar names like Tauba Auerbach, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Tamar Halpern, Rashaad Newsome, and Zak Prekop and learn a bunch of new ones too.  Of the 68 participating artists, ones that stood out include: David Adamo, David Brooks, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Zipora Fried, Tala Madani, Hank Willis Thomas, Naama Tsabar, and Conrad Ventur. 

Adamo's Untitled (the rite of spring), 2008 is a carefully and meticulously laid out installation of hundreds of wooden baseball bats covering a small gallery's entire floor, mimicking a tatami-like floor that visitors can gingerly tread across.  Brooks created a two-story, decaying Preserved Forest, 2010 using nursery grown trees, earth and concrete to protest deforestation.  Frazier presents a series of haunting, oddly retro-looking documentary photographs.  Fried stabbed Armoire, 2008 in the back with hundreds of assorted knives and attached hundreds of glass bottles to the underside of a table creating the "udderly" Chere Maman, 2008.  Madani screens her Accident Series, three darkly humored and mesmerizing painted animations.  Thomas' Unbranded Reflections in Black Corporate America, 2005-2008, a series of actual adverts targeting African-Americans from 1968-2008 with their original text and logos digitally removed is a clever and fascinating examination of how the advertising industry "reinforces generalizations surrounding race, gender, and cultural identity" (from show's notes).  For Untitled (speaker-wall) Tsabar used rows and rows of bookshelf speakers to create two massive, playable bass guitars that produce deep sounds and core-rattling vibrations.  And Ventur's This Is My Life (Shirley Bassey), 2009 is a hypnotic 3 channel video piece using rotating crystal pendants dangling in front of the video projectors' lenses creating multiple, ghostly, spinning images of Bassey as she emotionally belts out the tune This Is My Life.  Greater New York is a great introduction to a number of up-and-comers whom we'll surely be seeing a lot more from in the future.  Learn more at ps1.org.  Read Roberta Smith's review and see pics at nytimes.com.  Through October 18th.

Architecture firm Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu is the winner of MoMA and PS1's eleventh annual Young Architects Program.  Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu's urban landscape titled Pole Dance was installed in PS1's spacious courtyard June 25th, just in time for the kickoff to PS1's 2010 Warm Up outdoor concert/party series on July 3rd.  The interactive environment is composed of an "interconnected system" of "25-foot-tall [fiberglass] poles on 12 x 12-foot grids connected by bungee cords whose elasticity cause the poles to gently sway..." (from ps1.org).  "Each grid contains a number of playful activators, such as hammocks, pulls, misters, and rain collecting plants."  Eight of the poles hold an audio device "that measures the motion" of its poles and "converts it [the motion] to sound."  A net is draped over the entire structure to stabilize the poles' movement and hold giant colorful balls.  A small wading pool and a sandpit complete the environment.  Learn more about Pole Dance, the Young Architects Program and Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu at ps1.org and see my pics below.  Through September 6th.  Check out the full Warm Up schedule here.

David Brooks, Preserved Forest, 2010

Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu, Pole Dance

Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu, Pole Dance

Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu, Pole Dance

Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu, Pole Dance

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

For my first outer-borough foray post, I dusted off my old Metrocard and headed up to P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, Queens.  The torturous wait for the V train on the hot-as-Hades platform was counteracted by the quick and easy-breezy subway ride there (though unfortunately the ride home was UN-air-conditioned!  Darn you, MTA!).  P.S.1, an extension of MoMA, shows oftentimes quirky, sometimes daring, contemporary art by many young, up-and-comers and/or older though less mainstream artists.  The big, open space, which used to be a public school, hence its name, is always worth checking out, and is a good venue for housing and displaying the works on view.

Upon entering the center's courtyard, you are greeted by Afterparty, this summer's winner of the Young Architects Project, created by architectural firm MOS.  For the past 10 years, P.S.1 has selected a fledgling architect or young architectural firm to design an urban landscape for their courtyard (and venue for their hugely popular summer Saturday party/concert series, Warm Up) using no more than $70,000 and incorporating shade, water, seating, and bar areas.  MOS' tall, conical huts made of what looks like horse hair or maybe Snuffleupagus fur (see pics below), act as a cooling shelter for visitors and Warm Up revelers.  Through September 28th.  Learn more about Afterparty and MOS here.  Visit the MOS website here.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Young Architects Project, in the first floor painting gallery is a review of the history of YAP including info, plans, and photos of past contributors.  Through September 14th.  Learn more about YAP here.

Also on view on the first floor (and below) is Argentine artist Leandro Erlich's Swimming Pool.  Walking up a couple of steps to a wooden deck you see what appears to be a normal swimming pool, complete with water and ladder.  If you're lucky, you'll see regular people walking around and hanging out underneath the water!  Follow more wooden deck stairs down to the lower level and you'll see that the pool is not actually filled with water (a clear piece of acrylic contains the water up above) and visitors are allowed to explore the empty bottom of the pool.  It's a fun visual and spacial trick.  It made me want to put on my Swimmies and hop in!  Through October 24th.  Read more about Swimming Pool and Erlich here and visit the artist's website here.

Across from Swimming Pool is New York artist Jonathan Horowitz's exhibition And/Or.  Horowitz uses various media to create pieces commenting on politics and pop culture.  He touches on gay rights, celebrities, celebrity activism (ie: Elizabeth Taylor and her AIDs activism, Jane Fonda and her stance against the Vietnam War, Doris Day and her animal rights campaigns...), and has a wall of computer printouts of photos he found online of 200 celebrity vegetarians (including Miley Cyrus, Morrissey, Albert Einstein...).  He comically and disturbingly juxtaposed a photo of the professionally dressed top-half of the annoyingly perky and wholesome newscaster, Katie Couric, above the bottom-half of a paparazzi crotch-shot of a panty-less, Britney Spears.  His minimalist sculptures, ie: Tofu on Pedestal in Gallery, which is a block of tofu soaking in a bowl of water on a pedestal, were perhaps too minimal.  Through September 14th.  Read more here. And learn more about Horowitz at Artnet.

Upstairs is Berkeley, California artist Lutz Bacher's drawings, paintings, photos, and videos presented in My Secret Life.  I liked Bacher's use of celebrity stills of notable figures like Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, and Jackie Kennedy with her captions added on, as well as her cheeky, Vargas-esque pin-up girl pieces.  I could not watch her shaky or slow-moving video works.  Through September 14th.  More about Bacher and My Secret Life here. 

Finally, the main reason why I made the trip out to Queens was to see P.S.1's survey of pioneer film-maker, Kenneth Anger.  In a sparsely-lit, red vinyl-covered gallery, the survey focuses on Anger's early works.  I was excited to learn more about Anger and see his films because I'd never seen any before.  Unfortunately, this exhibition didn't really remedy that.  The films are shown either on projection screens scattered throughout the room which play loudly, one-at-a-time, or on small monitors on the floor that play concurrently with headphones.  There are also two small, separate screening rooms in the back of the gallery showing films.  The layout of the exhibition was disconcerting and not conducive to watching the films comfortably.  I was hoping to sack out and watch a few films consecutively, but found the room inhospitable.  Maybe it was just me, but I did notice other visitors quickly come and go as well.  I caught glimpses of Puce Moment, Scorpio Rising, and one other black-and-white short whose name I did not catch playing on one of the monitors on the floor .  From what I saw, these were richly shot and included some great soundtracks.  I guess I'll have to visit my library or check out NetFlix to see Anger's work. 

On the plus side, the exhibit reminded me to pick up Hollywood Babylon, Anger's 1959 tell-all book that was formerly banned in America.  In it, Anger dishes the dirt on major figures from Hollywood's golden era.  Read more about the Kenneth Anger survey here and visit his website here.

TIP:  If you hold on to your MoMA ticket you can use it for free entry at P.S.1 within 30 days.  Otherwise, admission to P.S.1 is 5 bux :)

Afterparty by MOS

Afterparty by MOS 

Swimming Pool by Leandro Erlich 

Punk Helen Keller by Jonathan Horowitz 

Hillary Clinton is a Person Too by Jonathan Horwitz