"ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s-1960s" at the Guggenheim

Are cold wars better than hot wars?  This question was demanded of me upon entering ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s-1960s, a historical survey of the Cold War-era international artist group now exhibiting at the Guggenheim.  
I typically am not so casual to wear earbuds while at the museum, but listening to 1980‘s “end of Cold War” music while gazing down from the top floor provided an insightful foil to the “beginning of Cold War” display light, color, and movement anticipated at each descending level. 

Zero Founder Otto Piene’s explains the name as “a zone of silence and of pure possibilities for a new beginning.”  With the stage stage cleared for artistic expression came the possibility of a literal clearing of the earth’s landscape.  Abstraction came with actual obstructed truths.  Zero’s resulting art is kinetic, colorful, and meaningfully playful.

Günther Uecker’s Light Disk, 1964 rotates, shifting shadows casted by hundreds of straight nails, illuminated by a single flood light. “The City” emerges, both beautiful and threatening in its starkness.  Yves Klein is comfortably placed into Art Pop style; a field of his patented pigment color IKB (international Klein Blue) mesmerizes and affects just the way he planned.  Numerous artists worked in painting with fire, leaving scorched canvases marked with performative gesture.

So to answer the question I began with, “No, because all wars are bad!”  But surely the fatalism of the time was constructively turned on its head by Zero, and transformed into a destiny beyond the bomb.

"ZERO TOLERENCE" at MOMA PS1

Zero Tolerance looks, predominantly through a video lens, at global people’s action and reaction towards impinging government control in the name of civic improvement.  Timely and political, what is at stake in an exhibition such as this is reflection on communal desires as they press against the possibilities afforded by the capitalizing powers that be.

The exhibition opens optimistically with a series of Lorraine O’Grady photographs, Art Is..., 1984.  Part performance and part photo-documentation, smiling attendees of the 1983 African-American Day Parade become active participants and stars via a golden picture frame that is passed around for posing.  Framing friends, fathers with daughters, and prancing afro-haired dancers together with bashful cops, O’Grady’s vein of community is in that moment, harmonious. The joy is sincere and most congruent to an ideal freedom.

Halil Altindere’s Wonderland, 2013, takes the format of a music video.  3 young Romani guys dodge through the streets of Istanbul while unleashing a tirade of hard lyrical offense directed at the gentrifying forces threatening their ancient home.  The rhymes are specific to their own community plight, but they clearly inform of a situation that has become the norm in every oppressed quarter of the globe.  Wonderland presents a hyperbolic scenario of gentrification, the city’s rich aged ruin is juxtaposed against the crumbling poverty and youth of the rappers.

I was riveted for the full 106 minutes of Andrei Ujicâ’s Videograms of a Revolution, 1992, an extensive reconstructed chronology of the the last days of mass protest that led to government overthrow in Romania, 1989.  Compiled from the only tools censorship would allow- handheld home video cameras, security cams and official news footage- the multiple angles of defining moments are never tiresome or mundane. The weight of hope and anticipation experienced 25 years ago so far from Long Island City, is felt anew, amazing and exhilarating.

The area where PS1 is located feels like the renewed, safe yet soulless non-community urban space that is warily anticipated by Zero Tolerance, begging to question if revolutionary discourses can be authentically engaged in the thick of gentrified comfort.

Nick Cave's "Made for Whites by Whites" at Jack Shainman Gallery

It's strange how many Art World literate folks (most are more literate than I) still confuse/conflate Nick Cave, the American dancer and conceptual artist with Nick Cave, the Australian rocker and writer.  Just putting it out there so you can Google it.

 The American conceptual artist Nick Cave's current show at Jack Shainman is comprised of sculpture built around black-face ephemera hand-collected by the artist at antique fairs and swap meets. Aiming to "rehabilitate the problematic, loaded object and find a place of relevance and empowerment through reuse," these objects are carefully arranged in a matter not dissimilar to the curio shops from which they were selected.  I found the overall not dissimilar, either.

Feelings of morbid curiosity, mingled with some historical confrontation and a dose of vintaged preciousness are not transformed by the elevation to art market from antique market. Instead they are amplified, aestheticized, and perhaps sanitized, sometimes to a disquieting affect.

More often than not, though, the careful curation and construction does little towards rehabilitation.  The use of such charged objects is an obvious way to generate emotive force, and the enjoyment of the show too easy.  Recontextualizing does not do the work of this show.  It is the aura objects themselves, doing what they always do- fascinate, disgust, and exploit.

Klaus Lutz: A Trip to the Moon and Further

The exhibition of “Klaus Lutz: Selected Stories” is quite a sight to behold. The under-recognized, Lutz, a Swiss-born artist who lived in a small one-bedroom East Village apartment from 1993 until his death in 2009, created an intense body of work, including a pseudo World’s Fair pavilion of scientific-looking turn of the century balloon structures and 16mm short films reminiscent of George Méliès’ early experimental movies. Even the positioning of the balloons (which are the convex screens for the films), as well as the thin-legged stands for the reel projectors, are old school and appear like early twentieth century industrial mechanization. In the pitch black installation, Lutz’s free standing objects could easily be pushed over if one were inclined, giving it a non-overproduced feel as if just placed there because people at the early World’s Fair respected newfound objects like these.

One’s eyes take a while to adjust when entering the dark and cavernous space as the projected light and noisy reels disorient. I was disappointed at the short amount of time fellow viewers spent in this large arena – an arena of moving images of moonwalks, rocket discoveries, a semi-autobiographical white clothed character maneuvering through a constructed universe of scientific drawings and dry-point etchings, all edited on reel film with analog techniques. Perhaps viewers are turned off by these seemingly old technologies, but one should be astonished by the ingenuity involved, and the hand crafted special effects Lutz spent hours creating in a small and restricted environment.

Photo: Klaus Lutz, Film still from “Field of Powder”, c. 1993. Photographed by the artist from 16mm film projection. Color photograph.

"Francesco Vezzoli: Teatro Romano" at MoMA PS1

Describing itself as a “catalyst and an advocate for new ideas”, MoMA PS1 is not the first place one would expect to find antiquities. Nevertheless, a cavernous gallery on the museum’s second floor is presently home to several Roman sculptures, dating to the first- and second-century AD. These five works – Roman busts – have been painted and assembled by Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli.

The busts are installed atop thin, minimalist pedestals, each spot lit in an otherwise near pitch-black gallery. Each brightly lit work is brilliantly life-like, bearing flesh-tone skin, brightly colored eyes, and other animating details. Vezzoli, in coordination with Clemente Marconi – a historian of Roman art – has painted each to closely resemble how it would have originally appeared during the Roman Empire.

Though it is easy now to envision the ancient Western world as a paradise of glistening white – a world of bright white temples filled with gleaming white sculpture – it is known in academic circles that polychrome was the norm. In truth, the polished marbles the public now knows are the results of over-zealous post-excavation cleaning efforts common in prior centuries.

By painting these busts ­– an immensely interpretive act – Vezzoli hugely alters the appearance of the sculptures, and subsequently their reception by the public. Further, positioning the busts in an unapologetically modern setting alters their reception still more. In lieu of lifeless, marble sculptures presented in the staid setting of an encyclopedic museum, Vezzoli presents polychrome busts in a quasi-theatrical setting, turning their usual presentation on its head.

At the same time Vezzoli’s painting of the busts is a restorative act, bringing them closer to their original appearance. Vezzoli’s painting of them closely mirrors what would have been done in Roman times. Normally made in workshops, busts of this sort would have had multiple authors. After the work of the sculptor was done, the turn of the painter would come; the painter’s work altering the sculptor’s.

Vezzoli’s alteration of these busts, as simple an action as it is, successfully problematizes myriad forgotten issues about the way these busts are treated, displayed and understood.

Arcangel Leaves Much to be Desired

36-year old contemporary digital Art veteran Cory Arcangel’s latest show at Team Gallery titled “TL;DR” (an internet acronym that stands for too long; didn’t read) was comprised of a series of digitally manipulated images playing on monitors that were hung from the wall like paintings. Most, but not all, images on the monitors featured pop culture references from the past 5 years. Images of icons like Beyonce and Jay-z, Britney spears, Larry David, and Skrillex were among the subjects. The ground of the gallery was carpeted with a bright red carpet, possibly as a reference to pop cultures’ famous red carpet.

Arcangel used a java applet created in the 90’s called “Lakes” to manipulate the images. Lakes’ algorithms took the images and manipulated them so they had a soft, rippling effect towards the bottom. The movement that Lakes created in the images was soothing and somewhat familiar.

While the images were aesthetically pleasing, there was much left to be desired on a deeper conceptual level. The idea of using “older” technology to create digital works is interesting, but there is no apparent direct tie between the technology he used and the subject matter. Why did Arcangel choose to use “Lakes” on these images and not different subject matter? There was a missing link between the technology and the subjects.

Additionally, there were some pieces that seemed to be wild cards, or not really fit in with the majority of the other pieces. For example, in the back of the gallery there was one piece that was just geometry, and had hardly any manipulation. Unlike the rest of the pieces, it was not a photograph, and did not have the digital manipulation. While it was a nice piece, it really did not fit in with the rest of the show, and stuck out as something that wasn’t really needed.

Overall, Arcangel’s show was visually pleasing and a fun experience. Contextually, it was a progressive show for the art world, however not his strongest due to lack of underlying concepts, and did not leave much to think about prior to exiting the gallery.

The Drawing Center, Anne Wilson's To Cross(Walking New York)

         

          Anne Wilson’s To Cross(Walking New York), 2014 at the Drawing Center is a durational and site-specific performance that weaved five different colored threads around the main gallery’s four columns. Her piece shows the stripe patterns through repetitive movements in the weaving process. It consists of black, white, sky-blue and small hints of pink in the beginning section. After those colors, bright neon yellow occupies the whole body of section with a little empty space. Four participants carry a spool of thread and construct the warp threads in order by walking across a 12-foot distance by layering from the bottom toward the top.

            The thread lines crossing at the center points create a one-sided continuous surface. The optical illusion of intersections of the plane seems to be a Mobius strip by showing endless lines. The never-ending 12-foot long surface with harmonious color schemes fascinates my eyes as I look into the structural beauty and curiosity.

            Contrary to her previous walking series that used metallic bars or wooden bars, she chooses the physical structure of the gallery space as a loom in this show. In her methodological aspect to use architectural elements in the gallery, this work convinces me that her actions are a site-specific performance in New York. The accumulation of neon colored threads creates blurry outlines of viewers when they walk across the gallery’s space. It reminds me of the bustling activity of passengers on a busy street.

Neo-Rauch Surrealism at David Zwirner

David Zwirner presents an impressive new show of paintings by Neo Rauch. In the show, “At The Well”, Rauch continues to remix tropes of history painting with surreal narratives and to seduce the viewer with graphic use of color.

The storytelling element in these paintings is ripe for investigation, like the bizarre and uncanny scene in “Der Blaue Fisch”, where a women is being rescued out of a spliced open tuna-shark fish. Villagers chime in and the stormy clouds create a dreary atmosphere. This and other works remind me of fairly tales in which a lesson is about to be learned (after the drama concludes).

Equally impressive is Rauch's bold use of color. There are a handful of monochromatic works that are punctuated by complimentary and accented colors. The overall color in “Das Horn” is maroon with highlights of bleached green and a little bright yellow. Other works such as: “Am Brunnen”, “Der Felsenwirt” and “Über den Dächern” skillfully employ limited palettes with about three main colors.

Overall, the thinly painted works operate illustratively and subconsciously- even though they have a certain rough and perhaps German-Expressiveness quality to them. Especially evident in the smaller paintings, as in “Paddler”, the surface is treated with a raw energy and speed which seems very loose in execution. With the larger works, those details of surface quality are sacrificed slightly for the sake of creating a relatively smooth and flat surface.  This fits well into the type of illusion created by monumental, history paintings which Rauch most definitely alludes to.

Mira Friedlaender "Half of What's There"

Mira Friedlaender’s residency at Recess, “Half of What’s There”, is an ambitious and performative project involving the artwork of her late mother, the Turkish artist Bilge Civelekoglu Friedlaender. After her artist mother’s death, Friedlaender was left to deal with a lifetime of her parent’s work, which she has kept in storage until now. Through this project, Friedlaender intends to unpack, document, and hang each of her mother’s pieces. This becomes a challenge in the small Recess gallery; the boxes and crates containing the artwork occupy the majority of the standing room in the space. The seven-week residency is a test of Mira Friedlaender’s endurance, as the excavation of her mother’s art, some of which she has never seen before, is both physically and emotionally strenuous.

While gallery hoppers are welcome to come and watch her work, the project is deeply personal and seems to operate in a semi-private way. It shifts to a less private performance when gallery attendees enter the space. Friedlander is unsure of what direction the project will take after the Recess residency, but “Half of What’s There” is on one hand a testament to a daughter’s love and respect for her mother, on the other an artist paying tribute to a fellow artist, and in total is a beautiful reminder of the material burdens we will all leave behind for others to deal with.

Willie Doherty - Amnesiac Photos and Contemporary Videos

In the gallery’s front room are Doherty’s black and white photographs mounted on aluminum. These nearly square compositions depict street detritus, corner spaces, abandoned sites, industrial fences, and objects that have had long human manipulated histories all set in his Derry hometown in Ireland, which has a bleak history of sectarian violence and division. The city of Derry was the location of much civil unrest during the era of Troubles in the 70’s into the late 80’s, and IRA and Union/Ulster violence and militarization made the area a warzone.

Doherty’s themes of isolation, repressed memories, misinterpreted histories, and severe political violence are elegantly encapsulated in the form of a new 10 minute video entitled, The Amnesiac 2014, coupled with the 15 minute Remains video from 2013. Doherty’s work intimates something macabre or evil that’s below the surface aspects of the two-dimensional visual.  With titles of photos such as Future Fear I-V or Damage I-X, his work suggests that ghosts of the past haunting modern locations, and intimates for the viewer the need to forensically scan the texture, surfaces, details, isolated spaces in his compositions to reveal the historical, emotional and political truths of his subject matter. His films' moods are much based upon acts of meandering, say, through forests, or abandoned residential sites, and one gets the impression that Doherty channels a subtle, ear to the ground listening in order to transcribe the near Lynchian ambiance of the sites he captures into video or photography. Lynchian – as a juxtaposition of the macabre with the mundane.

In The Amensiac, the protagonist drives his vehicle down a country road  (in a stunning hypnotic hood mounted camera shot with tree shadows scraping the surface of the reflective windshield) only to stop the car in a far off location of the woods in order to revisit a repressed memory of binding a victim and leaving him to die in the forest. True to the ironies of Lynchian moving pictures, the man continues back in his car and proceeds down the road in nearly the same rhythm and way the film started.

The Amnesiac, 2014, Willie Doherty - Single Channel Video Installation