Andrew Lampert VARETIES OF SLOW at the Whitney this weekend

VARIETIES OF SLOW has one more week to go at The Whitney Museum as part of the exhibit BETWEEN THE STILL AND MOVING IMAGE. You can find it running in the Film and Video Gallery from next Wednesday Oct 29th through Sunday, November 2. Andrew will be there Friday night (which is free, and Halloween), Saturday and Sunday performing with it.

Posted by Esa | Thursday, October 30th, 2008 | 0 comments

Clifford Owens at On Stellar Rays opens Sun. 11/2

Clifford Owens
November 2 - December 14, 2008
Opening reception:
Sunday, November 2, 3 - 6 pm

On Stellar Rays
33 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002
T: (212) 598 . 3012

From the press release…
Owens plays with the history of conceptual text-based work in Text Piece, which presents a grid of 47 photographs of white text against black. Though the stark formalism might initially suggest more distanced work (Owens’ often-present body is conspicuously absent), closer inspection reveals 47 intimate and personal phrases. The viewer is confronted with “She likes to finger my feelings,” “Mother Baltimore,” and “I thought you were gay.” Here, the conversation is more literal, though it is unclear whether the words are directed at us, the artist, or whether the conversation is happening within the piece.

In Owens’ most recent body of color photographs, the artist explores the uniquely African-Ecuadorian community of the Esmeralda Province, Ecuador. There continues to be a thoughtful exploration of self in the work (Owens’ young son is half Ecuadorian). This is visible though the eyes of the young men Owens encountered in the Esmeraldas, who are looking intensely at Owens in each work. Prelingual, an intimate family portrait taken before his son’s birth, will also be on view.

Clifford Owens Studio Visitis: Skowhegan (William Pope.L), 2004 (detail)

Posted by Esa | Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 | 0 comments

Works and Process: NY. 2022 at the Guggenheim

NY. 2022
This looks like it could be, as the kids say, “totally rad”

NEW COMMISSION
Fri & Sat, Oct 24 & Oct 25, 8 pm
Visual artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and composer Ari Benjamin Meyers create an original performance installation for the Peter B. Lewis Theater. Inspired by the iconic science-fiction movie Soylent Green (1974) depicting a disturbing vision of New York City in 2022, this “musical drama about endings” will be performed by Staten Island’s Richmond County Orchestra (musical director Alan Aurelia). Photographs by Alex S. Maclean and costumes by Balenciaga complete the work.

Presented in conjunction with theanyspacewhatever exhibition, on view Oct 29–Jan 5, 2009. The exhibition galleries will open at 7 p.m.

Click here for info about Works and Process

Posted by Esa | Monday, October 13th, 2008 | 0 comments

Ohio Theatre: “Chekhov Lizardbrain”.

In Chekhov Lizardbrain, Pig Iron Theatre Company takes inspiration from the writing of playwright Anton Chekhov and autistic writer Temple Grandin to explore the mind of the seemingly schizophrenic and autistic Dmitri/Chekhov Lizardbrain. The result is at once puzzling and provocative. While Chekhov Lizardbrain often moves into apparently irrational juxtapositions, the surrealist elements of the play never become too abstract: Pig Iron elegantly walks the line between abstraction and representation, balancing conceptual experimentation with more traditional theatrical form. Their success also stems from the strong physical element of their theatre, which always keeps their acting grounded in the body. Through the puzzling window into Dmitri’s mind, Pig Iron creates a world that is at times scary, moving, funny, and entertaining. As we watch Dmitri’s memories and language break down, we are drawn into the comic and tragic aspects of this mind’s workings, sometimes recognizing glimpses of our selves in it and at other times feeling like he indeed belongs to a different species.

Posted by Beatrice B | Friday, October 10th, 2008 | 0 comments

October 3rd, 08: Kalup Linzy and Dynasty Handbag

Just a quick must-see: Kalup Linzy and Dynasty Handbag are performing tomorrow, Friday October 3rd at 7.30pm in the New Museum. Surely very passionate and definetly worth going! More information here

Posted by Georg | Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 | 0 comments

Kiosk

Japan Society supplies you with the US Debut of a very appealing Performance by the Arica Performance Company. In their piece Kiosk, they tell the everyday-life of a woman working in - a kiosk. Surrounded by very strong visual set (1200 empty water plastic bottles!) and supported by a electronic live music, the solo performance explores the feelings of a live trapped between subway stations.

Be quick, the Performance is only running for two more days. Today and tomorrow at 7.30pm, Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street New York, NY 10017 More information

Posted by Georg | Friday, September 19th, 2008 | 0 comments

PS122: “The Passion Project”

Photo by Paula Court.

A ten-by-ten-foot cube in the middle of a dark room acts as the stage for Reid Farrington’s The Passion Project, a half hour long installation which will run through September 20 at PS122. The cube is defined by hanging ropes (these are tied into loops along the perimeter and across the top of the space), several frames holding parchment screens (leaning on the perimeter of the space), and an intermittent square of white light projected onto the floor that appears at the beginning of the performance. The stage awaits dormant, its audience encouraged to walk around it before and during the performance by Mr. Farrington himself. It is reminiscent of a cage, of a room, of a place at once distant and intimate. At times, I felt compelled to enter the stage and experience being inside, rather than outside the cube. But that is the job of Shelley Kay, the live performer who eventually enters the cube, as she said in an interview with Gia Kourlas, “walking into the throngs like a boxer”.

What ensues is an extremely physical half hour, in which Kay lifts, hangs, moves and unhooks the parchment frames from and onto different locations all around the cube. Her challenge is to catch projected images from Carl Th. Dreyer’s 1928 “The Passion of Joan of Arc”, a classic black and white silent film on the story of Joan of Arc’s condemnation and eventual death as a martyr. The film has been cut and edited by Farrington, so that for the most part what appears on the screens are close ups of different characters: Joan of Arc, of course, as well as various representatives of the orthodox clergy that broke her with long interrogations and finally had her burned. Kay moves frantically around the cube, catching an image of Joan of Arc, and letting her hang onto a loop, then running in a diagonal for the close up of a clergy man—this only lasts a few moments, than Kay kneels, puts down the frame she’s holding, and grabs another to run onto the next projection. The effect is powerful: the frames become windows, shields, tools, all necessary to piece together Joan of Arc’s story. As the performance builds up, Kay begins to sweat, her physical presence conrasting the mediated presence of the actors all around her. While we watch Kay catching images and working hard on keeping up with her cues, Farrington also stands on the side, watching. Like the men in the film, and like us spectators, he only witnesses Kay’s efforts and physical challenges. An interesting echo to the projections of the clergymen on the screen.

The powerful visuals of The Passion Project are enhanced by Farrington’s sound design, a multi-layered mixture of church chants, the sound of the film’s reel being projected, the voices of people editing the film, as well as some less recognizable voices and noises. The volume of the sound sometimes reaches almost unbearable loudness, creating a physical and emotional experience for the audience. The parchment screens themselves create loud snaps every time Kay reaches out to catch an image. Like the projections on the screens, the sound is not continuous, but has a repetitive quality to it. The overall effect is a three dimensional puzzle coming together, a puzzle with many layers and not definitive form.

Farrington’s piece successfully brings the audience into the nightmare of Joan of Arc, while taking a step back from film as a medium of representation. Through Kay’s performance, Farrington breaks down and exposes the different frames from the film: Kay is literally piecing the film together. By the end of the installation, the film has become at once more and less than itself, a combination of live performance, sound art, and clips of the original film. There were moments when I wished for more distance, more ambiguity towards the inevitably tragic nature of the story. My desire might have been encouraged by almost unidentifiable moments of humor within the installation (for instance, when Joan of Arc is being burned and on one of the screens there appears: “Jesus!”). Kay’s performance, although based on cues and tasks, sometimes overly amplified the evident suffering already on display in the projections of Joan of Arc. Yet overall the piece opened up the original film in unexpected ways, the installation offering a perfect medium through which to present the work. Anyone interested in video, dance, or installation performance should not miss Farrington’s latest work.

Posted by Beatrice B | Monday, September 15th, 2008 | 0 comments

MORE IN NYC

A few things to check out:

From Performa Alum Cian McConn
TURF //// work by 4 Irish artists
Installation / performance / drawing / video / beer / wine / freckily Irish artists
work by Kevin Flanagan, Cian McConn, Eve Vaughan and Stephanie Hough
Friday, September 12th, 7:30
266 West 37th Street, Between 7th & 8th Avenues

Cabinet Magazine for a party to celebrate the release of “The Book of Stamps”
Saturday, September 13, 6:30-8:30
Postmasters Gallery, 459 West 19th Street, New York

From Performa Curatorial Associate Tairone Bastien
A Seer Out of Season
An exhibition at On Stellar Rays
Opening reception Sunday, September 14th from 3-6 pm
Curated by Candice Madey and Tairone Bastien
Presenting works by Danny Jauregui, Dave McDermott, Elizabeth Neel, Alessandro Pessoli, Tia Pulitzer and Georgia Sagri

Fluxconcert
September 26 & 27, 2008 | 8PM
Abrons Arts Center (directions)
466 Grand St., New York, NY (map)
$10

Performances at Lisa Cooley Gallery
City Center
Sunday, September 28, 6 pm

Stefan Tcherepnin and Amir Mogharabi
Sunday, October 5, 6 pm

Photo by Maki Kaoru

Posted by Esa | Thursday, September 11th, 2008 | 0 comments

Art and Music Fall Picks

My gallery picks for the fall – shamefully they are all men!

Shaun El C. Leonardo & Clifford Owens
September 5 through October 6, 2008
Reception: Friday, September 5, 7-9 pm (but make sure you go on September 20th)
Momenta Art

Monsters
Curated by Robert Longo
September 7 - October 5, 2008
Rental Gallery

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Demonstration Drawings
September 12 – November 6, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 11, 6-8 pm
Drawing Center

Christian Marclay
September 4 - October 11, 2008
Paula Cooper (521 West 21st)

Chris Johanson, Totalities
September 4 - October 18, 2008
Deitch Projects (18 Wooster St) Soho

WHITE BOX’S NEW SPACE!
Opens election season a big show called Sedition curated by the feistiest duo since Batman and Robin – Dread Scott and Kyle Goen with Hajarah Abdus-Sabur
October - November, 2008
Check their website for details

Another political show and series of performances Political HQ curated by Larry Litt and Eleanor Heartney at Pratt opens September 26th and goes through the election.

Some outer borough stuff

Martin Boyce and Ugo Rondinone
We Burn, We Shiver.
September 7–November 30, 2008
SculptureCenter

A Performance
Mattin + Bernard Gal
Thursday September 25th
Issue Project Room

A New Biennial!
RSDI Alumni Biennial
The Old American Can Factory
September 11 - September 28, 2008
http://www.xoprojects.com/risd.html

I am still waiting for something really monumental to happen that will change DUMBO from being a sleepy little mini-Dayton Ohio into the raging cultural scene. In the meantime we have the Annual DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival from Sept. 26 to 28 which is often not too terrible AND the newly minty and waterier Galapagos Arts Space.

Galapagos has teamed up with The Field, which I find to be an interesting development because they are actually presenting something that looks and smells like arts advocacy.
The Field Panel Discussion
Starving Artist: Fact or Fiction: Non-Profit Doesn’t = No Money
Tuesday, September 16th, 7:30pm, reception to follow
Galapagos Art Space

New Venues to check out for music and performance – all run by reputable and interesting folks.
Le Poussin Rouge
Santo’s Party House
Light Industry in Brooklyn

If you are in London
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
5 September - 12 October 2008
Kate MacGarry Gallery

If you are in Shanghai
Christian Marclay: Screen Play
e-arts Festival
Featuring performances by Elliott Sharp with Wu Na, Wang Li Chuan, Ben Houge with Yan Jun and Bruce Gremo and Top Floor Circus

If you are a kind and wonderful soul who want to help Performa
THE METAL BALL
A Performa Benefit
November 15th
7pm – Midnight
Tickets and Information call us or click here!

If you are not at the Metal Ball in NYC with us then you want to be in New Haven:
Yvonne Rainer: RoS Indexical (2007) & Spiraling Down (2008)
Yale International Dance Festival
November 14th – November 15th

Posted by Esa | Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 | 2 comments

Upcoming at Light Industry - good stuff!

Now there are two great reasons to trek to Sunset Park Brooklyn Light Industry and Diapason Gallery - stop whining about how far away it is- take the N or D train express - just a few stops from Union Square.

Cory Archangel
Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 8pm
Content Producer

At long last Cory has finally learned all of the glockenspiel parts from the entire Born to Run album by Bruce Springsteen and will perform it LIVE on a real live instrument. One will have to see it to believe it but be there to cheer him on. Performa was fortunate to present a section of this ongoing musical at the Hudson theater last February - it was a private party so we forgive Cory for not mentioning this.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 8pm
PUBLIC OPINION LABORATORY presents:
All Magic Sands: Reels 1 + 2
Featuring the return of LAMP/LICHT: Andrew Lampert and Alan Licht

You can’t go wrong with these two - or maybe you can but I bet that you won’t be able to tell. Hopefully Light Industry was able to secure Belgian Trappist ale, the projectionist from England and raise the $4,300 that LAMP/LICHT need to do this show… oh wait - I think they decided to do something simpler. Go anyway.

Light Industry
Events take place in Industry City
55 33rd Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenue), 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11232
http://www.lightindustry.org/

Posted by Esa | Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 | 0 comments