Upon entering the David Zwirner Gallery containing the Marcel Dzama exhibition, Une Danse des Bouffons, I was immediately drawn to one area. The gallery has standard white walls containing several pieces of art, but what stood out to me was a curious entryway with no indication of what it led to. It is guarded by mysterious beasts and covered by a bland curtain.
This entrance caught my eye because of the strange looking faces on the beasts, as well as the large vase acting as a sentry to the portal behind the drape. What are they guarding? The beasts and the vase are each holding an assortment of dark flowers. For some reason this is where my attention kept returning, even though it may not have been a piece that was for sale, it did seem like a focal point in the room. Each time I look at the picture of the beasts, their glaring eyes unsettle my brain and are almost hypnotic. The vase with its two sets of staring eyes appears to be keeping watch.
The blue flowers are and obnoxious addition to the piece, adding a sense of uniqueness to this installment. Dzama has two installments of this piece that are identical except for the color filter he uses, red and blue. In this case the blue represents good, rebirth, and lost love, in which the beasts and the vase appear to be protecting. These of which can be related to the film.
Before walking into the David Zwirner’s gallery today to see Jason Rhoades’s PeaRoeFoam, I attempted to mentally prepare myself to see art that would inevitably make me question: this is art? Yet even after hyping myself up, looking at the seemingly messy array of foam, glue, disks, yellow boots, chairs, peas and frankly things that just looked like garbage, I still could not help but think, “this is art?”
I have always thought the most important thing about art is the statement that the artist is trying to make. So, after Professor Eversaly explained an amazing point of view of the art, everything really came together for me.
This art was dada; it was meant to make me feel dumb. These sculptures are a thoughtful disarray of garbage, and they are being sold. If I think its crazy that one would spend money on the art being displayed, then actually, I am really getting the whole point. We purchase meaningless products all the time! Moreover, we are happy to spend a ridiculous amount of money on those products too! Jewelry is a prime example. What is a diamond? It’s a rare rock. Though its obvious to everyone that we are clearly not really paying for the rock, rather we are paying for the status and the meaning of a diamond, maybe regardless that purchase is still a little ridiculous! The dada was telling us we should feel dumb for wasting our money on meaningless things- on garbage.
I think Rhoades makes a valuable, and usually glossed over point. People do not generally consider this because nobody wants to admit that the shopping and purchases they love, are also a bit ridiculous.
In addition, I love the way the artist chose to make this statement. After understanding the backdrop, the “stuff” really does come together as art. It shouts in your face, “you think its absurd that someone would pay for garbage? Well you do it all the time.”
However, when watching the film of the art being created, something began to bother me. I watched the artists work with the tremendous amounts of supplies and having already been put in a “money” mindset, I could not help see all their supplies as a (for lack of a better expression) “waste of money!” I thought to myself, “wow, that much glue is probably expensive, look at them just pouring it everywhere!”
Thus, though I appreciate the message the artist was sending I am left a bit perplexed. If it is such a bad thing to throw away money then I wonder, was buying all that supplies the absolute most meaningful way for that money to be spent? Was there truly nothing more worthwhile to give this money to?
I was left with a new question: Wouldn’t it be ironic if the art making the statement “you waste your money” was a waste of money in and of itself?
Hours after watching Marcel Dzama’s Un Danse des Boufoons at the Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea, it still resonated with me. Sitting on a foam cube watching this peculiar (to say the least), 35-minute video projection made me question myself, what I knew, and even my surroundings. I personally did not like the video, and could not wait to get out once it was over.
Marcel Dzama is a Canadian-born artist, who has had his work represented by David Zwirner since 1998. His art is held in museum collections worldwide. As for the video itself, it is described as a “Dadaist love story”. It depicts a fictionalized account of the romantic affair between a man and woman. There are constant themes of good versus evil, death and rebirth, love gained and love lost, and very obvious tension.
It seems as though Dzama is well known and his work is held in high esteem. However, after walking through the curtains to exit the dark room, I found myself feeling oddly uncomfortable. I then realized: I did not like the video at all.
Throughout the video, there was music playing. At some points, the music was very high pitched and dissonant; I would have felt awkward listening to that without the peculiar images in front of me.
Very few characters were just regular people. Many wore masks, or even costumes, that made them seem foreign (but at the same time human and familiar). This familiarity in something so confusing and foreign is part of what rubbed me the wrong way. It was the line of characters wearing costumes that troubled me, as well. They applauded, and had mannerisms unlike many people do.
Just as I thought the video could not get weirder, in trots a human cow. It was majestic in its movement, but at the same time did not resemble a cow in the slightest besides its unconvincing plastic head. A particular character that stuck with me was the one wearing the flippable mask that went form happy to sad. This made me think about human emotions, and what they show about a person.
One of the only characters that did not have a mask, was a man with eyes painted on his face. He wore make-up and had an oddly shaped smile that reminded me somewhat of The Joker. Regardless, this character was equally as creepy as the rest.
As the movie concluded, the oddest thing of all occurred. This reborn man-cow opens its cloak to reveal an enormous vagina on its chest. Out comes one of the characters from earlier in the video. What disturbed me most about this, was that a full grown man was being born. Not only that, but this man was coming out of the birth canal fully clothed with facial hair.
Basically, everything was wrong about “Une Danse des Bouffons.” Nothing made complete sense, and there was no time during the video in which I felt content about what was happening. The short film kept me on my toes, and didn’t allow me to relax and guess what was coming next.
It was this combination of the atmosphere with the video in itself that made me feel very uneasy. The purpose of the video was to make me question traditional beliefs, and to make me feel as though there were things I did not know (or even that things I did know were just wrong); it definitely succeeded in doing just that.
For further reading, you can go to the press review here
All pictures were taken from a preview of the video here
In some regions of Ghana, it is typical for coffins to be shaped and styled to make a personal statement about the traits and interests of the deceased. However, I was unaware of this fact when I first came across this coffin during our night at the Brooklyn Museum. I simply saw it as this extremely small coffin in the shape of a Nike sneaker.
I became especially confused when finding out that this piece of art was in the Arts of Africa collection. As a result, when I first came across it, I tended to focus more on the aesthetic traits of the piece. I was immediately captivated by the amount of detail put into this object made out of wood, metal, and pigment. Perhaps the only two things separating this coffin from an actual shoe from Nike was the size of the coffin and the actual texture of the piece, which seemed to look more like plaster.
The piece caught my eye not necessarily because it was large but because it was not large enough. The coffin seemed to be less than four feet long and three feet wide (and definitely had less space than that inside of it). That pretty much indicated that this coffin probably was not intended to actually serve its original purpose but be more of a piece of art.
In terms of what the coffin itself represented, the sculptor, Paa Joe, said that it stands as a symbol of status and modernity in the late twentieth century. According to Ghanian beliefs, the coffin represents an object of interest to the deceased so that it can serve as comfort for the deceased to pass on to the next world. However, for me, the coffin is more of an aesthetically pleasing piece rather than an object that serves as a bridge to the next world.
The part that seemed most interesting to me from today’s trip was the PeaRoeFoam, by Jason Rhoades. When I first walked in, I have to admit feeling a little confusion as to how such inexpensive material was, and how it was just nonchalantly mixed together and then called “art.” However, as I tried to understand the deeper meaning of the art and what type of work was put into it, it helped me understand it a bit more.
The art featured peas, fish eggs, and foam, all combined with glue. At first glance you might think just how different this art is. The purpose of the art was never specified. I think the reason for this is that it gives us the liberty to develop our own opinions and inferences from the art. As I tried to understand and find meaning in the art, I noticed that all the materials in the art are only of use to us when we use it, but once it’s used it up, it’s worthless. I think the message may have been for us to realize the amount of non-biodegradable things we throw out, and how it’s detrimental to the environment. I especially got this message from the boots filled with old bottles. I think it also helps us understand and recognize how much we take for granted such as a pea; in spite of the food shortages in others parts of the world, we waste so much.
Another interesting part about the art was the fact the artist makes everything look all sealed, manufactured, and official by using the “Not for retail sale” cardboard boxes, shrink wrap, and pallets. This is all in spite of the fact, that the objects used in the art are all valueless in there own right. This was where I began to wonder how this could be sold for such expensive prices! It wasn’t until I saw the video about the art, that I began to understand the value of the art. So many laborers were getting paid to make the installation. This is what a buyer is also paying for when purchasing a piece.
Lastly, I found it extremely clever by the artist to be able to create such valuable art that sells for exorbitant prices all from cheap, useless materials. What I also found different about the art was the fact that when I think of art, I usually think of one artist, but here, their were so many people who worked together to create the art!
Yesterday afternoon I was walking down 59th street when I stumbled upon beautiful, simple, spontaneous art. Outside of what seemed to be an apartment building were two pillars decorated with spray paint. The images were presented so effortlessly, it seemed like a random passerby impulsively decided to spray paint.
However, the two pillars had two different auras. The first to catch my eye was the bright and colorful geometric patterns. The solid colored rectangles contrasted the black graffiti backdrop. The second pillar had a gloomier persona. A red cloud appeared to be swallowing a twisted black figure. Again, a gold geometric pattern contrasted this dark scene.
The images are free to interpretation; in this way, they leave onlookers wondering. I liked how the art seemed so spur-of-the-moment, yet each piece could be analyzed for hours. The art in the streets of New York is easy to miss, but rewarding when noticed and appreciated.
One afternoon, I was wandering around Washington Square Park enjoying a beautiful weather, only to discover a statue of Miguel de Cervantes, one of the most influential and well known writers of all times. The fact is that this statue is located in a garden called Willy’s Garden on the campus of NYU, which seems to be dedicated strictly for this statue. Being a fan of Cervantes’s Don Quixote, I took a closer look.
The statue was relatively big, and its metallic structure made a strong impact, as if to represent the influence of Cervantes’s work all over the world. As seen in the picture, his left hand is holding a sword, and his right hand is holding a roll of paper. These elements definitely created a perfect representation of the man- who has a reputation of an excellent writer and a great fighter as well.
This statue, though being a form of stationary art, enables to bring Cervantes’s personality to life. It allows us to almost experience his presence by being able to approach it closely and observe it from different directions.
I know this is a bit late, but I wanted to devote one of my posts to Marina Abramović who we saw in “Picasso Baby” by Jay-Z. I know a lot of people didn’t know she was a famous artist at the time, but I wanted to show everyone her art since each piece is really powerful in my perspective.
One of my favorite pieces by her was actually in 1974 called “Rhythm 0”. In this piece, she made herself the art object for 6 hours (8pm-2am) and put 72 objects on a table that the audience could use on her. The objects ranged from an apple and lipstick to a loaded gun and box of razors. I though this piece was really powerful because she literally risked her life to show how the audience treats an artist. It also has to do a lot with sociopsychology since when one person decided to act violently and didn’t get in trouble for it, everyone else started acting that way.
“What I learned was that… if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you.” … “I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation.”
You should definitely check out her other work, I especially liked “Rhythm 5”, “Breathing In/Breathing Out”, and “The Artist is Present”.
On Saturday, September 27th at 3:17PM I left my 97th street dorm and headed for the downtown 6 train. I was heading to Baruch, not for class, but to attend TEDxGramercy which was being held at Mason Hall in the 23rd Street building. With my Business 1000 textbook in hand to study for Monday’s exam, I waited anxiously on line, only looking up to take a few steps forward.
The topic of the night was grit, but what is grit?
“Life takes grit. From the smallest organisms surviving in the void of space to the bravest children growing up in abject poverty… from the boxing ring to the surgical table and back, the tenacity of life is unassailable!”
There were a total of 7 speakers: Caroline Adams Miller, The Moments that Make Champions; Harriet Taub, Creative Reuse; Harvey Rubin, Keeping Inoculations Cool; Nir Barzilai, How to Die Young at a Very Old Age; Michael Crouch, The Cost of Courage: We Need to Pay Attention; David Ginspoon, Terra Sapiens: Planetary Challenges of the Fourth Kind; and Amikaeyla Gaston, Dare to Be Dauntless!. Each speaker told a different story and with each story came a different emotion, a different feeling, and a different definition of how to live the “gritty life”. A summary of these stories wold do them no justice, but to put it in the words of the speakers:
Grit is Why not me? Grit is art. Grit is saving lives. Grit is courage. Grit is music
Grit is being limitlessness.
Check out the list of speakers at tedxgramercy.com/grit and keep an eye out for the recorded talks at ted.com
This was a really hands on project that allowed anyone to pick up a piece of chalk and just write down what they wanted to e. Some people wrote cute messages, others wrote down funny things, fantasies and aspirations. It was just a way to share with the world what you wanted to be. I contributed to it myself but it was really hard to make up something to write that wasn’t already taken.
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