Jo Baer, Untitled (Pale Blue), Dec 9, 2020. Pace Gallery

 Pace Gallery online exhibition Jo Baer Untitled (Pale Blue), on view from Dec 9-Ded 30, 2020. The exhibition mainly focuses on the period where Jo Baer returned from LA to New York. Jo Baer has her own interpretation of her work which heavily influenced by her academic background, the behavioral psychology aspect in her painting. The colors and the multiple versions of the same piece Untitled.

The exhibition focuses on details instead of the whole exhibition. If we can get to see how she gives the rule and what the inspiration for the color usage and the psychological effect behind her painting that will be better.

Jo Baer, Untitled (Pale Blue) (detail), 1964-65, oil on canvas, 48" × 48" (121.9 cm × 121.9 cm) © Jo Baer

 

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Two Birds, One Stone: Louise Nevelson's Collage Show at Pace is Also a Fundraiser

Louise Nevelson, Untitled, 1977, cardboard, foil, and paper on board, 36" x 23-3/4" (91.4 cm x 60.3 cm)

Pace Gallery is currently holding an online exhibition Louise Nevelson: Three Collages, consisting three mix media collage works made during the 1970s. The three collages showcase the attention to detail, skill of arrangement, and the mastery of mixing media of Louise Nevelson. In addition to the presentation of the collages, the show is a fundraiser online event for the Nevelson Chapel restoration project, the only existing fully-intact sculptural environment by Louise Nevelson, located in Mid-town New York City. The three collages are highly representative of Nevelson's works and aesthetics, working as a great introduction for those who are less familiar with her works and essentially an eye-grabbing store front for the restoration project.

For an online exhibition, this show is well curated that the webpage is minimally designed, and viewers shall really enjoy every detail of the artworks through the up-close shots accompanied by a few lines of description rendering the artistic contexts. The imperfection, the tear of paper, and the miraculous composition captured through the photographs help viewers to experience the works at no compromise. However, the overly spoken mission of fundraising for the Nevelson Chapel somewhat interrupts the experience. An attention-seeking "available" button is placed right under the images, unavoidably asking viewers to draw comparisons to Ebay auction pages or Zillow real-estate postings. After a curious click, the price tag of the artwork becomes fully disclosed. While the transparency could be potentially appreciated by new collectors, for most exhibition goers, the price tags ruin the otherwise immersive exhibition. For established galleries like Pace, the private ownership of the operations are often mistaken as if they are public museums. Shows like Louise Nevelson: Three Collages are quick reminders of their true functions as brokerage for artists and artworks breaking the mysteriousness of private galleries.

Despite the provocative intentions of the show, taking a look at the three Louise Nevelson collages should still be a refreshing and wonderful break from the hours of Zoom call, especially in the convenience of not having to leave your chair. 

Space Program: Europa

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

September 18, 2016 - January 15, 2016

    Tom SachsTargeting Jupiter’s icy moon. Tom Sachs has achieved to share the experience of space travel with people here on Earth. The expansive sculpture exhibition offers an unprecedented view into Sachs’ extraordinary artistic output and advances his visionary imagination to find extraterrestrial life with his sculptures. From the interpretation of idealized  space travel and the playfulness it represents. The Apollo era Landing Excursion Module, and special equipment for conducting scientific experiments introducing people in a universe of sculpture and possibilities. The emotion of traveling and exploring is shared, letting us fill the gaps with the information needed. Imagination is the engine from which the exhibition launches to space. 

    Each process that the astronauts do around their machines to complete a task could be overlapped with the tasks that we do everyday to continue living. Being present in the moment is more relevant in space and we often overlook the impact of appreciating where we are. Tom Sach has curated an experience for humanity to reflect what we are capable of and to understand the luxury of being down here on Earth. We as humanity have the power to destroy and create. 

    If in one generation we went to the stars and on the next one we almost killed our Earth,  I believe that in this generation we have the responsibility of saving our home. These reminders of what we are working for creates a perspective for us to become better and achieve things that just humans can. Humanity is here for the trip not for the destination, it could be true that we were born too early to explore the universe. But we have to work on the first step of this adventure, humanity was born on Earth but will not perish on Earth, we will forever evolve on to the stars

        

Mending the Sky: Closing the Holes in Our Disastrous Reality

 

Diedrick Brackens, If you feed a river, 2019, Museum purchase, Carmen Donaldson Fund, 2019.61 © Diedrick Brackens

Mending the Sky is an exhibition currently on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art, which focuses on responded to the disaster of 2020 in a restorative way and imagining a better future in the process. Art within this exhibition "recognizes that we must address past problems and remedy present issues in order to forge a new path forward." (NOMA) This exhibition is put on physically, but the NOMA website provides images and descriptions of the show. The physical space of the show is the height of exclusivity, given the precautions that need to be taken because of COVID-19, but from all the images and footage of the show, the space itself seems to function as a restorative haven for its viewers, with cool colors and areas of low light. I am personally fascinated with the focus on the elements, specifically the air and water. 

One of the pieces that stood out to me was If you feed a river by Diedrick Brackens. This tapestry depicts two black half figures on either side of the image, connected by a blue field of color that reads as a river, with fish swimming through it. There is a blue figure wrapping its arms around one of the black half figures. Based on the description of the piece the website provides, this piece is split down the middle, with the two black half figures represent two sides of a whole person, separated across a river, and the blue figure can be seen as the river itself coaxing the figure back to wholeness.

This focus on the bridging of a gap, and the therapeutic properties of bodies of water, lends me to an introspective take on the meaning of the piece, and by extension the meaning of the show. In order to bridge the disasters in our world, and "Mend the Sky," we first have to mend the shortcomings within ourselves.

The Guggenheim Circular：Of-Also

Jessica Dickinson

Of-Also (2012) Artwork Type: Painting

Medium: Oil on limestone polymer panel

Dimensions sight: 50 x 48 inches (127 x 121.9 cm)

Credit Line: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council, 2013

The online exhibition “Time” is from the collection of the Guggenheim Museum. The works in the “Time” show all focus on the relationship between time and life. In this exhibition, many artists are trying to explore and creating special ways of recording time, keeping time and suspending time. Jessica Dickinson is one of the artist. Most of her works are abstract painting. She always can get inspiration form light, some pattern. For her works, the shifting in time are the mean theme. Typically, she will paint on a wood panel to create a sculptural surface first. After adding oil paint, she will distress and chip away at the coated layers. Her painting can show decay by exposing and a process of the impact of the time. The work in this exhibition is Of-Also. An abstract painting on the limestone polymer panel by Oil. She used the similar way to create this work. When people first see this work, the  work gives people a feeling that it is not finished. However, this is a finished work and experienced a lot of exposing and decay. Dickinson said “events of marking, scraping, covering, cutting into, and revealing are worked through as indexical time, illumination, and change become inscribed in the work over several months.” The repetition of the decay on the surface let the work becomes a record of time. In another way to say that this work is also one of the time’s work. Dickinson and “time” create this work together and Dickinson just let the impact of time shows faster. Like any creature in the world, this painting can get old. The dots randomly distributed on the sculptural surface. Scratch and traces of corrosion surrounding around the dots. 

Time can change any surface of painting and sculpture. A lot of artists try to protect art works as long as possible but this Of-Also is trying to show the changes. Any changes on the work is part of the work because time is one of the artist foe this work. 

"Existed Existing": Sam Gilliam's exploration of color and materiality in a new exhibition at the PACE gallery

  

Sam Gilliam, TBD, 2020, acrylic on washi, 79" × 79" (200.7 cm × 200.7 cm), paper 83" × 83" × 3" (210.8 cm × 210.8 cm × 7.6 cm) © Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 

Sam Gilliam's exhibition "Existed Existing" is currently on view at the PACE gallery, and offers an exploration into color, space, and materiality for those who are currently privileged to see it in person. For those who can't view the exhibition in person, PACE has resources including the press release, an interview with Gilliam, and a video about the show, which is what I am basing my critique on. I want to focus on his washi papers, which are a series of large fields of paper utterly saturated with vibrant color. Gilliam says, "The physical presence is not that important as is the color." He also describes the process of making the paper to render the object "so that that materiality disappears." I can only imagine the experience in person, given that electronic means often represent color inaccurately.  I'm fascinated with the idea that you could render an object so saturated with color, at its core an idea, that you could take away its materiality. If I've known anything to be more experiential than factual, it is experiencing artwork, and experiencing color. I wonder about the idea of an object being less material, because when I experience these washi pieces I almost view them as more so, an embodiment, an objective example of pure hue. It makes me yearn to be able to have that in person experience that so many of us have missed, in a fervent way, that I have to view the object to be able to truly verify its existence. Sam Gilliam, as a master of color, has certainly proven that mastery yet again in encouraging me (and other viewers) to think so deeply and introspectively about color and materiality. Being separated from the experience of the in person show is only deepening that need for the experience of color.

 What do you think the world is like after death? Cuban artist Alejandro Aguilera gave his comprehension, the painting "Aurelio (Life After Death)", created in 2009.  This is an abstract painting. It uses blue as the background and some white spots.  This creates the tone of a mysterious atmosphere.  White and yellow horizontal lines traverse the entire image, while red triangles hang on some horizontal lines.  The composition of the picture is very full. In the center of the picture, many bright orange and yellow brushstrokes are projected downward like a beam of light.  This shows that what the author thinks of the world after death is not gray and monotonous, but colorful.  The pale white letters at the bottom right corner of the image read "born after death."

The picture is basically composed of simple geometry, so there will be a lot of room for the audience to understand it.  On the other hand, the whole painting presents geometric inversion, which may imply another world after death. For the author, death means a new beginning, the beginning of another way of life.

Cuban artists are good at using various media and methods to draw inspiration from the environment, whether from literature, culture or politics.  The rich and diverse visual vocabulary used by the artist reflects the diverse culture and ethnicity of the Cuban population. Cultural diversity provides more possibilities for Cuban artists. Their openness and tolerance will be reflected in their works. The collision of different elements and the interweaving of different ideas are a process of seeking common ground while reserving differences. What the world looks like after death is a topic that is often discussed. When people still exist in this world, it is meaningful, and when people die, whether there is meaning, especially those who have made outstanding contributions today, or for those who still exist, will their meaning not disappear? This is also the meaning of the world after death.

A Futuristic Experience Of The Mid-90s: An Exhibition Review of "The Theresa Duncan CD-ROMs"

Rhizome.org is an online platform focusing on the digital and internet presence of the contemporary art, especially of those that are born-digital. The conservation exhibition co-presented with the New Museum, The Theresa Duncan CD-ROMs is among the numerous exhibitions that are currently on-view. The exhibition presents three CD-ROM games that were created by Theresa Duncan, a photographer and illustrator, under the employment of Magnet Interactive during the mid-90s CD-ROM boom. The three CD-ROMs were narrative-based audio books with playful visuals and intriguing music aimed to give children a glimpse into the complex lives of urban adulthood. The games offer an uniquely romantic and sensational experience that may seem antique for contemporary viewers who are accustomed to the technological advancement over the past decades; it is nevertheless very easy to appreciate the sheer creativity of early digital artists that pushed the boundary of the technological medium. Quite exceptionally, the exhibition is said to be one of the first to utilize the cloud servers to emulate the historic operation systems that these CD-ROMs were created for. Relying on fast internet connection, viewers today can finally enjoy these early computer software on their own modern devices, enabling a never-before achievable experience that would inspire the coming generations interested in arts in digital medium. Many galleries are having difficult time this year adjusting to the online medium, and this exhibition might as well be an excellent example of how artists and curators can navigate through this time while connecting the past and the future. 

Chop Suey (Magnet Interactive, 1995, co-created with Monica Gesue). Lily and June Bugg embark on a strange, hallucinatory adventure through the small town of Cortland, Ohio.

Hunter College 2020 MFA Thesis Spotlight

    

The amazing ability to forget

Matt Jones,2020, Colored pencil on Stonehenge natural paper, 55.88 x 76.20 cm / 22 x 30 in

   The Hunter College 2020 MFA Thesis Spotlight is an online exhibition hosted by Hauser and Wirth presenting work by nineteen MFA candidates from Hunter College.  The exhibition had originally been planned as a gallery exhibition in the spring, but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The online platform provides an opportunity for these emerging artists to display their work in a manner conducive to social distancing.  

The exhibition is divided into four thematic sections: ‘Gravity Spell’, ‘Interstices’, ‘Thresholds’ and ‘Save the Last Dance’.  ‘Part I: Gravity Spell’ includes work by Matt Jones. Inspired by medieval illuminations, rococo art, and global warming, Jones’ colored pencil drawings and paintings explore themes of intimacy, domesticity and community.  As he explains “The onset of the pandemic necessarily changed my practice…The references in these drawings have become simultaneously more local…and more mythical”.  He references the collective experience of limited mobility and the desire to escape during these uncertain times.  The amazing ability to forget is a colored pencil drawing of a bright environment scattered with tree stumps holding objects like hand sanitizer, a pile of books and two human skulls.  Repeated gestural shapes filling the space resemble an overgrown garden or a field in flames, emanating chaos and suggesting destruction, disaster and loss.  The isolated objects amidst the upset seem to symbolize the isolated experiences of individuals surrounded by turmoil.

The exhibit presents the artists’ work in an easy to navigate manner.  It would be beneficial to understand why each section of the show is labeled with an opening and closing date even though portions are still up past the closing date.  If these dates are informed by an additional gallery exhibit that coincides with the online show, this should be explained more explicitly.

The Risen / Originals (Jo Baer) - PACE NYC

 

The Rod Reversed (Mixing Memory and Desire) (1985)  

The Risen / Originals is an exhibition presented by the PACE Gallery NYC which features the work of American artist Jo Baer. The Risen is a collection of five paintings, originally dating back to 1960-61, before they were subsequently destroyed  and recreated, and serves as a display of Baer’s prolific experimentation in minimalism. In juxtaposition, The Originals is  a collection of Baer’s work dating from 1975 to present day. This leg of the exhibitions shows off the artist’s departure from minimalism and her progression towards a more “image-based aesthetic”.

The Risen remembers the pioneering that Baer achieved as a female artist in the 1960s. At a time when many other artists were experimenting with abstraction and minimalism, Baer was able to stand out amidst her male peers. Her vivid colors and bold shapes remain impactful to this day, as can be seen through the selection on display at PACE. Works like Wink (1960-61/2019) prove Baer’s mastery of form and color; its vibrant orange orange triangles quite literally winking at its onlooker, as the title suggests, amidst a dynamic collection of black and white forms.  

The second collection, Originals, serves as a lovely counterpart to The Risen. This collection gives visitors a chance to travel through Baer’s artistic journey, as she departs from abstract minimalism and delves into image based work, declaring herself to “no longer be an abstract artist”. Throughout Originals Baer explores a middle ground between abstraction and figuration, pulling inspiration from prehistoric art, as well as her homes throughout Europe. In works such as The Rod Reversed (Mixing Memory and Desire) Baer plays with human and animal form while maintaining a surreal and minimal landscapes, sparking curiosity and intrigue.

The Risen / Originals serves as  a commendatory dedication to Baer’s life and body of work, and proves to be a refreshing exhibition.  Visitors become able to physically witness Baer’s evolution as not only an artist, but as a person. The exhibition is an intimate and flattering window into Baer’s life and mind. 

Embrace - Guggenheim Circular

 

“Embrace” is a collection of photographs curated by the Guggenheim Circular serving as a response to the deprivation of intimacy which the coronavirus pandemic, and subsequent lockdown, brought onto many. Exhibited online during June of 2020, a month which hosted not only pride month but a series of protests across the world demanding racial justice, “Embrace” is a series which investigates race, sexuality, and gender. 

The collection includes works such as “Melissa & Lake, Durham, North Carolina” from a series by artist Catherine Opie titled “Domestic (1995-1998)”. Opie’s series featured a collection of portraits taken across the country of lesbian couples or them and their families. In “Melissa & Lake” two women hold each other in a bedroom while staring with intense solemnity into the camera lens. Despite the image itself being quite docile, a sense of melancholy seems to wash across it. This same melancholy is then embedded into the viewers, as it projected through both the women’s sad stares. The intent of Opie’s collection was to put an emphasis on the plight of an underrepresented and misunderstood community. Through seeing the faces of those who find love and intimacy in ways unfamiliar to the majority of the population, one may reconsider their idea of what intimacy and love is. 

This is the exact sentiment which “Embrace” is intended to instill in its viewers. It braves the question: “What does intimacy look like?” Although a small collection of photographs may not be able to answer that question alone,  “Embrace” serves as a lovely reminder that love is just as diverse as we are. 

Melissa and Lake, Durham, North Carolina (1998)

Nina Katchadourian: Monument to the Unelected

 

New York — Nina Katchadourian, Monument to the Unelected, Sep 18–Dec 12, 2020; Pace Gallery 

          New York City-based Pace Gallery has recently organized an exhibition by the artist Nina Katchadourian titled “Monument to the Unelected.” The artist began the work in 2008 as an ongoing project that features lawn signs created by Katchadourian that represent the names of all the United States’ presidential candidates that have lost elections. The signs mimic actual political lawn signs by using corrugated vinyl. This series is being exhibited before and after the 2020 Presidential election, and was updated accordingly after the winner was declared. The work has also been replicated in three other locations across the United States.

This work was initiated after the loss of John McCain to Barack Obama, when Katchadourian began to look closer at the exhibition of political signage. The artist described the work as being triggered due to the onslaught of lawn signs she noticed in each election that seemed to be a very American phenomenon worthy of closer inspection. Katchadourian plays on the irony of forgetting candidates that were once so prominently featured on lawn signs across the country forever memorializing them in her work. The impermanence of the traveling exhibition also echoes the nature of these forgotten names. Katchadourian also reinvents the idea of “monument,” as monuments are typically erected to feature one prominent figure, whereas this “monument” actually washes away the idea of the “one” to compartmentalize all the names of the as “those forgotten.” By placing these once distinguished names as a part of the same artwork, Katchadourian dooms the figures to forever be a part of the ignored whole. 

 Performance-in-Place: 
From the Personal Collection of Eileen Myles

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

8 to 9pm EST

This event was held on Zoom

Poet and novelist Irene Myers used her home in Marfa, Texas as a small art gallery, and led other artists to visit and discuss various works from their extensive art collection, including Robin Blue，Xylor Jane，etc.  Each artist elaborated on personal memories and connections related to objects and artworks in their home.

Exterior of Myles’ home. Work by Glen Hanson.

This event will explore the artistic potential and reflect the adaptability of the artist, when the artist's behavior is replaced by isolation and action on a global scale. Irene Myers first introduce the unique orange widow outside of her house, which become a remarkable symbolic of her house.  Then, she started her tour inside her house,  she wanted to frame herself as a counter institution by owing art, but borrow art. The first painting is sort of a fugitive piece with a black shape which is kind of an owl by artist Charline. She believes that the placement of the painting would influence the balance of the room.  Eileen explain why she own the pig’s simple paintings by D. Ellen, she consider the pig is the most slaughtered, most intelligent animal.

 It is cross between performance art and art writing, Walk the room over and over again and record your thoughts about different artworks. Repeatedly shuttle between the room and different artworks every day, giving new ideas and feelings

Sam Gilliam: Existed Existing

    

Sam Gilliam, a renowned American Abstract Expressionist, debuted new works artist-led retrospective “Existed Existing” at Pace Gallery in New York City. Among these works are a series of stacked wood and aluminum objects cut into geometric forms and drenched in colorful pigments. Pyramids, concentric circles, and parallelograms represent urban change and new wave African influences he observed in Basel, Switzerland’s diverse community. The pyramids seem to float above the floor like a musical experience. The works celebrate color and diversity in the ever changing city atmosphere. Their materiality is challenged by the color and the shape, transforming humble pieces of wood and metals into sleek and harmonious sculptures. 

The second series of new works included in this exhibition are large-scale paintings that further explore color. In these works, he approaches color in a layered approach. Mixed with sawdust and other filaments from his studio, the paint is built up into thick layers of scrapped, dripped, swiped, and dropped paint. A third series contains monochromatic paintings on washi paper. Similar to the sculptural works, this series also manipulates the material sense of the paper by building up the layers of paint. The paper no longer holds paint, but is smothered in color. 

As Gilliam’s second retrospective in the United States, the exhibition explores the minimal, but joyful aesthetic that is key to his work. The collection brings together older works from previous decades with his current paintings and sculptures to showcase the changing approaches to color and context. 

Installation view, Sam Gilliam: Existed Existing, Pace Gallery, New York, Nov 6 – Dec 19, 2020 © Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pace Gallery Geneva: Ocean Abstractions by Nigel Cooke

    Oceans, an exhibition on view at Pace Gallery’s Geneva location, features recent work—paintings and drawings in tones of blue—by Nigel Cooke. Primarily made of oil and acrylic on linen, these works are meditations of the sea as well as a nod to Homer’s Odyssey. Reflecting on the current pandemic and social-distancing circumstances, the artist describes “thinking again about the ideas of separation from family, inner resourcefulness, and transformation, what we’re going through now, as well as adventure.” Although the exhibition is intended to be seen in person rather than solely online, Pace Gallery provides a compelling online experience nonetheless, which bodes well not only for viewers who aren’t based in Geneva but also sidesteps the art-viewing restrictions created by the pandemic. 
    Oceans represents a drastic stylistic shift in Cooke’s work, as the abstracted blue brush strokes are performative and kinetic, nodding towards the gestural qualities of Abstract Expressionism. Cooke’s mark-making blurs the lines between multiple styles of painting like abstraction and figuration, and genres such as landscape and still life. Painted on the brownish ground of raw canvas, the hues of blue take on a sculptural quality that seems to exist in a purely organic environment. In paintings such as Athena and Telemachus, Cooke incorporates blue and brown washes, which mediate between the natural linen and the vibrant pigments. Although they are oceanic, the paintings feel as if they could extend themselves into various other forms of movement. For this reason the abstraction feels figurative, as if the water’s trajectory could be mistaken for a dancer’s rhythmic movement, resulting in strokes of blue that breathe life. Cooke’s aquatic observations become something other than a body of water, yet they capture the feeling of confronting an ocean—the sensation of standing before something far more significant than oneself.

Nigel Cooke, Athena, 2020, oil and acrylic on linen, 225 cm × 164 cm (88-9/16" × 64-9/16") © Nigel Cooke

Art at a time like this. Ministry of Truth: 1984/2020

 

This public art exhibition presents 20 artists on 20 billboards located in the 5 boroughs of New York City. Ministry of Truth: 1984/2020 is a reference to George Orwell’s dystopian novel in which a Ministry of Truth announces WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH, horrifyingly relevant in 2020. Inspired by this scenario, artists submitted an outpouring of ideas, ranging from bleak outlook on democracy to concerns about divisiveness in political rhetoric today.

The piece of Dread Scott is as powerful as the words of Georfe Orwell’s. He is showing to the word what systematic racism has done to America. Few words “there is a white male running” creates no scenario to understand racism but when we analyze the whole picture the story is different. The amount of phone calls that “citizens” make to the police office because they feel in danger are highly related to discontent in equal rights. If we change one word in Scott’s billboard we would find a police officer coming to the scene to put the runner in handcuffs.

 9-1-1 there is a black male running down the street, is a sentence that represents racism between americans just because two persons look different. We as a society have to be better and artist like Georfe Orwell shouldn't be here showing us how to be better humans.

The Guggenheim Circular：Two shakes, a tick and a jiffy

 

Julieta Aranda

Two shakes, a tick and a jiffy（2009）

Medium：Computer-operated mechanical clock, acrylic, paint, and 24 hours of electrocardiography data

Dimensions：diameter: 47 3/8 inches (120.3 cm); depth: 8 1/16 inches (20.5 cm)

Credit Line：Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council, 2009

The online exhibition “Time” is from the collection of the Guggenheim Museum. The works in the “Time” show all focus on the relationship between time and life. Especially during this pandemic, people are all waiting for the “time” to solve problems. Such as finish the quarantine and back to home, recover from the virus. Artist Julieta Aranda’s work Two shakes, a tick and a jiffy (2009) is in this collection. This work is a computer-operated mechanical clock, however, artist divided this clock in to ten hours with 100 minutes of 100 seconds each. During French Revolution, this system was short-lived appeared. The most interesting part is that the second hand’ move is not even. The move of the second hand connect with the artist’ fluctuating heart rate. When artist is exciting the second hand move faster. When artist is relaxing the 100 second will be long. People first see this work, they may cannot realized the changes on the clock. But when they see it carefully, they will find that this is a clock that record a day for the artist or the person who connect with this clock. The concept of the time become different and complicated. Time for one day is no longer a constant number but it depends on the experience of a person. This is a clock for emotion and a grapher for a person’ day.

"The Sculptor and the Ashtray" from the Noguchi Museum

    The exhibition "The Sculptor and the Ashtray" from February 12,2020 -May 30, 2021, from the Noguchi Museum feature Noguchi's 1944 design of ashtrays. The concept was inspired by an unpublished article around 1944 by Mary Mix. 

Noguchi designed two concepts of the ashtrays, both have different meanings behind it, the first design was intended to make it more art, sculpture feeling, so the tray has a complicated design and process to make. The second one was intended to be cheaply made and manufactured in a factory. 

    The second idea what Noguchi wants was to embrace the power of American’s large manufacturing power to create a large quantity of the ashtray he designed. The ashtray never manufactured and sold, due to the still too complex design and make for the standard of an ashtray on the market, the title makes a point to separate two words sculpture and Ashtray, two totally different words but strangely connected through Noguchi’s idea on making the Ashtray with unique and easy to clean design, what is he thinking at that moment, is what I have the question of. What’s the intention for him to design this complex Ashtray and expect people to buy it or make it? 

  

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Questioning Healthcare from The 8th Floor: In the Power of Your Care

Presented by The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation at The 8th Floor Gallery in 2016, In the Power of Your Care explored the shortcomings, limitations, and political issues surrounding healthcare. The exhibition addresses the identities of those experiencing different forms of health crises such as cancer, HIV, the ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, institutionalized care and more. Artists Jo Spence and Terry Denne’s collaboration, Picture of Health: How Do I Begin?, from 1982-83 portrays Spence wrapped in a white sheer cloth with a single ‘X’ over her left breast, marking her future mastectomy. The color photograph reclaims her body from illness. In Arena, a painting by Frank Moore from 1992, the artist depicts the surreal, other-worldly, and circus-like quality. Set within a circular maze-like construction, skeletons of people and animals, doctors, patients, diagrams, spiritual deities and observers. The image connotes a cynical view of medicine in which the patient is at the mercy of the doctors and on display for others. The exhibition drew attention to the experiences of individuals currently or previously going through medical crises, injustices, or life shifts. The exhibition points out the ways healthcare shapes our society and calls for changes in the policies that block us from humane care for all.

Picture of Health: How Do I Begin? by Jo Spence and Terry Denne. 1982-83. Image courtesy of Artsy.

Arena by Frank Moore. 1992. Oil on canvas. Image courtesy of Artstor. 

Net Art Anthology: Transborder Immigrant Tool

   

         Transborder Immigration Tool, Electronic Disturbance Theater, Net Art Anthology

     Devised by the art group Electric Disturbance Theater, the "Transborder Immigrant Tool" began in 2007 with the intention of distributing low cost cell phones equipped with the Transborder immigration Took (TIT) app. As a part of Net Art Anthology, the project was exhibited on the website as a performance intervention. The app itself aimed to aid immigrants in their dangerous passages, through the deserts of Mexico to the US. The app features a GPS tool that guides users to water stations deployed by nonprofit organizations. TIT also showcased poetry inspired by from the beauty of the surrounding desert to ease the stress of immigrants on their journey. As a performative piece, the work spurred debates and faced backlash from conservative critics and the U.S. government, which conducted an investigation of the legality of the app. Due to this investigation, the tool was never distributed to its intended audience. The aftermath of this work magnifies the country’s lack of morals through the rejection of a tool aimed at supporting survival. Created back in 2007, this work carries the sentiment of a lack governmental ethics as the border has only been strengthened in its “Zero Tolerance policy” for Mexicans seeking asylum. Although the app never fully came to fruition, it questioned what is more important: enforcing border control or upholding basic human rights to survival?

The Guggenheim Circular: Community

       

Woman on a Bridge #1 of 5: Tar Beach, Faith Ringgold

Acrylic paint, canvas, printed fabric, ink, and thread

74 5/8 x 68 1/2 inches

    The Guggenheim Circular is an online exhibition in which works were drawn from the Museum collection using themes of time, home, embrace and community, all aspects of life during the Covid-19 pandemic.  The theme of community was curated by Megan Fontanella, Nat Trotman and Xiaoyu Weng in May of this year.  The works are separated into two sections, those from the museum’s modern collection and those from the contemporary collection.  The pieces chosen portray expressions of human interpersonal relations and the shared desire for connection with others.  One piece from the contemporary collection is Faith Ringgold’s Woman on a Bridge #1 of 5.  Tar Beach, a story quilt which is a traditional craft rooted in African American culture and associated with women’s communal work.  The image depicted on the quilt is of Cassie Louise Lightfoot, a character created by Ringgold to relay a narrative of culture and connection in Harlem.  This piece embodies the connections and hopes of communities worldwide during this time of uncertainty. The curators’ choice to separate modern and contemporary works seems significant.  It would be helpful to viewers if they better explained their intention in doing so.  It seems strange that when addressing the theme of community there is such a segregation within the presentation.  Overall the exhibit is successfully engages the viewer while remaining loyal to the theme.

The 8th Floor Review: In the Power of Your Care

In the Power of Your Care, an exhibition presented via The 8th Floor’s website, explores health as a human right and a cultural construct imbued by expectations of what health and sickness should visually manifest. Works within the exhibition highlight not only the shortcomings of healthcare policy but also how health is defined both physically and mentally. In her performalist self-portrait Untitled (1992), Hannah Wilke challenges the eroticization of femininity in conventional society while waging war against disease. The suite of three images were taken during her lymphoma treatment. Mimicking mugshots—views of the front, back, and side of her shaved head—the triptych shows Wilke smiling defiantly, navigating the internal and external identity shifts induced by disease. Another work by Wilke—a sculptural piece called Why Not Sneeze (1992), a homage to Marcel Duchamp’s Why not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? (1921)—consists of a birdcage filled with empty prescription medicine bottles, syringes, and other medical paraphernalia. While the work represents Wilke’s body as a vessel of illness during her treatment, it can also be seen as a tally of medical consumption in relation to the economic systems of healthcare policies, in which drug treatments are more important than the prevention of illness. Because of works such as Wilke’s, In the Power of Your Care posits art as a tool for social change, taking steps to dismantle our culture’s biased perception of health.

Hannah Wilke, Why Not Sneeze, 1992, wire birdcage, medicine bottles, syringes, https://www.artsy.net/artwork/hannah-wilke-why-not-sneeze