Photo: Christy PessagnoSherry gains your confidence and trust, makes you believe that she really might like you, like you really might be the one person in the audience that she feels like being easy on, like she'll really listen to your problems and then ask you for advice on her own problems as Ann Liv Young after the show, and then she'll throw a bag of pee at you.
During this 4 hour long performance, "Sherry tries on Cinderella," at 177 Livingston (also known as Triple Canopy and Light Industry), Sherry gave us advice, brought audience members together both physically and emotionally, sold samples of her own shit, held a fan photo booth, reconciled a couple's sexual frustration, made me sing a TI song with her, gave out free pink lattes to special winners, showed us her dance moves, and topped it all off by throwing tampons at our faces.
Sure, she can give a pretty radical performance and throw out some 'wild moves' that are really just groaner performance art acts (i.e. piss, shit, nudity, obscenities), but what she is really good at is just plain entertainment. I would rather attend a Sherry seminar than attending any live Oprah taping. I didn't see anybody leave the show early; although they were probably just scared of Sherry's verbal persecutions, I think it's because she hosted a great talk show that held my attention every minute.
2. Slummer Nights at CANADA
Once again, CANADA has programmed a fantastic 4-night series of summer events, forcing me to trek down Chyrstie Street and face the roaring stench of Chinatown in the middle of a record-breaking New York heat wave. This year's "Slummer Nights: In Search of the Perfect Haze," brought video screenings, live performances, and even live comedy routines.
3. Furniture at Neue Galerie
My visit to see the Otto Dix (add link) exhibition this summer was the first time I had ever visited the Neue Galerie. I remember the warmth and character of the building, the charm of the cafe, and the small details that make the galleries just as much of a destination visit that the artwork on view. The furniture especially caught my eye, as I have always felt a strong affinity towards the personal, symbolic ideas that chairs and tables carry.
Edouard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill, "Drawing cabinet for Kunstchau Wien" (1908)
This cabinet's drawers are stacked in an ascending, chubby pyramid, almost Aztec in shape (and probably in inspiration). The inlaid mother-of-pearl adds an iridescent elegance and accentuates the cabinet's irregular outlines.
Koloman Moser "Armchair" (1903)
The checkerboard seat woven from cane invites objects to rest on rather than a bottom to sit upon. The strict, cage structure that is traditionally meant to act as arm and back supports actually attracts optical interest rather than warming, physical comfort.
4. Brian O'Connell at PS1
Brian O'Connell
"Structural, Uncontrolled, Hollywood, Political, Auteur, Cosmic, Happy, Sad, and Ordinary" 2010
16mm film projector onto a painted patch of wall
Aside from a unclear title, this piece is one of the most thoughtful, elegant works of art I've ever seen. I would call it jaw-droppingly beautiful if it didn't feel as if to carry the weight of a feather. Towards the gallery wall, a 16mm projector casts a bright light onto a painted rectangle, approximately 2'x3'. Rather than a blinding, white patch on the wall, the light seems to hover between the lines of darkness and lightness. In a way, the light seems to float in a patch just in front of the wall, rather than actually ever hitting the beige patch. However, in physical reality, the darker beige cancels out the bright light, making this patch of wall appear to be the same color and luminosity as the rest of the walls in the galleries illuminated by ambient and daylight. All that is left is a soft glow around the edge of the rectangular patch. "Structural, Uncontrolled..." is romantic, delicate, and has captured my heart.
5. PREHISTORIC Arts and Music Festival Outlaw Gallery
Once again, Weston Ulfig's Outlaw Gallery has made it into my Top 10, because everything he does there (the art, the music, the screenings, the crowd, the vibe, the weather) is just so damn fantastic! During the weekend of August 20-21, Ulfig organized the PREHISTORIC Arts and Music Festival which included an indoor/outdoor art exhibition featuring over 25 artists, an evening of video art and experimental film screenings, the presentation of his artist(designer)-in-residence, Brian Stanziale, and a final night featuring the music and performances of four artists/bands.
Sadly, this was the last event at Outlaw Gallery at the 191 Skillman location, but I hope it continues in a new location with more backyard fun!
6. The Man Who Fell To Earth
Okay, so I finally saw this movie. Now I finally understand why everybody finds Bowie attractive and now I can't stop drinking Beefeater's.
7. Brion Nuda Rosch at DCKT
DCKT, you own my aesthetic heart! I have never been disappointed with a show at DCKT, and this summer they introduced me to the work of Brion Nuda Rosch. The individual works in the exhibition are documentary in the way that they carry the quality of an altered historical artifact. Even though there is a range of collages, photographs. and small sculptures, they seem categorical and itemized. Though the objects are demure and mostly sepia-toned, an overwhelming Turquoise strong-arms its way through the exhibition. I use a capital "T" because this Turquoise is a dominate theme which takes over both the works in the exhibition and even the gallery walls.
8. Rafael Ferrer at Museo del Bario
See previous post.
9. Eric Ginsburg
I've been collecting these palm-size paintings that Eric Ginsburg distributes as promotional materials for his work. How ingenious to give out mini paintings as business cards! I think the paintings of dogs are humble works, yet delightfully unique, and full of artistic zeal. If anybody needs an idea of a gift for me, here's a not-so-subtle hint:
http://www.zazzle.com/dogs_by_eric_ginsburg_tshirt-235778219606518424
or
http://www.zazzle.com/art_by_eric_ginsburg_mousepad-144944725129891806
10. Knight's Move at Sculpture Center
In a way, "Knight's Move," was a lot like PS1's Greater New York show in that the curators seemed to have used the same process: find everything that was good about solo shows in New York over the past 12 months and re-install them with other works in a group exhibition in Queens. All cynicism aside about lazy curating* aside, this show was still great, and brought together a lot of my favorite artists, making it worth a trip out to LIC. Artists of note include Erin Shirreff photographs, Alex Hubbards slow-moving vertical videos, Cassie Raihl's fragile sculptures and Esther Klaus' chunky ones, and Tom Thayer's hidden basement videos.
*I must note that I do not actually believe that the curatorial process of this show was lazy, but I can bet that the majority of the artists in this show live in New York and had shows at galleries in town in the past 9 months. There is already one gigantic exhibition in Queens about the "New York Contemporary," and I think that Knight's Move could have deviated from this a little bit more creatively.
