The Arts in NYC

The Guggenheim museum, a museum known for its modern and contemporary international art, recently held a contest of YouTube submissions called “Youtube Play, a Biennial of Creative Video”. The contest was held by the Guggenheim to showcase the work of the world of online video, a constantly expanding realm of “art”. Many aspiring artists, in this age of technology, choose online video as their medium of choice, creating a shift in visual culture. The Guggenheim received over 23,000 online submissions, which they have narrowed down to 125 and will eventually limit to a 20 top choices on Oct. 21.

Among the submissions is a parody of Allen Ginsburg’s “Howl” called “Yelp”. Allen Ginsburg was a beat generation poet, who opposed the conformity of the ’50s. “Yelp”
portrays this age of technology and the 21st century and is a plea to “unplug”.

You can view the other 124 videos at youtube.com/play.

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The Museum of Modern Art is hosting an exhibit through March 14th entitled “Counter Space: Design and Modern Kitchen“, which highlights the transformation of the kitchen from the early 1900s to the modern day.

This exhibit was featured in a recent New York Times article (which can be viewed here) which describes the kitchen as a home’s “heart and brain”. To Roberta Smith, the article’s author, the kitchen and its appliances are a perfect model of efficiency and design. She continues to describe and detail the symbolic nature of the kitchen its importance “in a broad historical context”.

The kitchen is not something I would necessarily associate with art, but this article and exhibit definitely got me thinking. In my house, the kitchen definitely does have a symbolic meaning, as family meals are something that is very important in my household. My kitchen has become a main location of conversation and of bonding.

My home kitchen is also filled with family photographs and pieces of homemade artwork. Many appliances themselves often have stories to go with them. The potato peeler reminds me of the time my grandfather helped me make potato pancakes and we subsequently clogged the sink, and we have a certain mixing bowl which we always use for preparing the Passover meal.

I love how this article made me reevaluate common home items and see the beauty in the everyday. Art is truly an interpretive term, and who says a kitchen is not artwork? I certainly do not any longer.

So I found this amazing video about a graffiti artist in France who goes by the name Princess Hijab. While I didn’t necessarily love the video itself as a piece of art (I found it a little over dramatic without enough drama) I found the work of Princess Hijab very interesting. We seem to talk a lot about graffiti on this blog so I thought this would be a great addition to the dialogue.

Princess Hijab’s trademark is drawing Hijabs and Burkas on subway billboards. I found a short article on the video here

Has anybody seen a mysterious orange paint line running along the streets of Manhattan? Maybe, but you probably just dismissed it as a paint-leak, or markings for construction or something else. Actually, the line is an eight-mile graffiti tag, which spells out the name of a New York- based artist. The artist, only known as Momo (and who does not want to reveal his real name because painting messages and symbols on NYC sidewalks is illegal), completed his eight-mile signature in 2006. Momo used a bicycle with a funnel-shaped bucket of paint to create the line on two separate trips, between 3 and 6 o’ clock in the morning. Momo planned out his path on a map to make sure that the end result would spell out his name. Now, although some parts are faded and a little harder to see, Momo’s signature on the streets of New York is still there.

I find this amazing, because I can’t believe that someone actually thought of signing his name across the city. Even though you can’t see the whole signature together at one time, knowing the concept and what that orange line represents makes Momo’s work very interesting. I know that the two posts below already addressed the question of graffiti being considered as art, but I think that the size of this work takes it to a different level, because it’s not something that you can just look at and admire, but something that you can think about and even connect to as you walk along that eight-mile stretch of paint.

Momo's Signature With the Orange Paint

A part of the orange line

In regards to parent and child, many agree that the apple does not fall far from the tree. Some commonly known examples are actresses Blythe Danner and daughter Gwenyth Paltrow, as well as musician John Lennon and his son, Sean. In the realm of visual art, the VanDerBeek’s are no exception. Sarah VanDerBeek is the daughter of experimental filmmaker, Stan VanDerBeek, who was part of the New York art movement in the 1960s. Unfortunately, Stan passed away when Sarah was seven years old, which appears to be a key influence in the rest of Sarah’s lifestory.

Today, Sarah is quite experienced with all aspects of the art scene, but her biggest chapter yet is her first solo museum exhibition, “To Think of Time.” Loosely inspired by Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, each of the thirty photographs displayed seem to reflect on America “during a time of social transformation.” The pieces cary from shots of three-dimensional still life “assemblages” built in Sarah’s studio, to details of architecture from her trip to New Orleans, and other miscellaneous works discovered in her childhood home in Baltimore years after. The project also parallels the life of the poet, who constantly “reshaped and expanded on his opus throughout his life,” for Sarah continues to try to perfect each aspect of the exhibition from its start to finish, in hopes of its growth and evolution.

Perhaps her artistic aims echoes the sentiment of her actual life. Considering her father’s death, Ms. VanDerBeek’s photos seem to be muted, contemplating on the various aspects of life. Parents are a defining factor of a child’s development, but with her father’s absence, Sarah seems to achieve her maturity by digging through her past, and her father’s past as well. Although Sarah is now an adult, her work seems to transcend time with a sense of yearning, paralleling to her life. Despite the abstract nature of the photographs, one thing is clear,- Sarah VanDerBeek is closer on her path to self-discovery and is the apple that is close to the tree trunk. “To Think of Time” is presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art from September 17 to December 5.

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“Earth (The Book)” is the newest mock textbook released by the writers of the popular Comedy Central news show “The Daily Show”. This book is modeled as a fake textbook meant to teach extra terrestrials the basics of living on our planet. This satirical look at our society and history is not the first of it’s kind. “America (The Book)” came out in 2004 as a “guide” to American history and life. “Earth (The Book)” pokes fun at things like the changes in society, trends of the time, etc. The book also makes use of what is known as “proofiness”. This is when a number or statistic is attached to a “fact” to give it credibility. While “Earth (The Book)” uses this in a fun way that is clearly a joke, many people believe “proofiness” is a dangerous new trend that will eventually spread like an uncontrollable fire. I personally agree. I think people are all too willing to believe anything that seems to have a slight scientific air surrounding it. It’s the scientific and political equivalent to a high school rumor and worse it works on people. The Aliens may not know better but I think people should be a little smarter about how they formulate opinions.

The N.Y. TImes Article can be seen here

If you think that graffiti is simply a form of vandalism, think again. Graffiti is currently experiencing a renaissance in New York City. The New York Times reported that Details magazine is commissioning four graffiti artist to paint murals on city walls. This is part of the magazine’s mission to recognize a more diverse conglomeration of different fields within the arts. On Monday, the first of the four artists,Blek le Rat, was seen on West 13th Street painting a mural across the street from the Standard Hotel. Interestingly, this mural differed from other graffiti that Mr. le Rat has done in the past because he wasn’t in a hurry to flee the scene of the crime. Therefore, he did not make use of stencils in his graffiti, which he is acclaimed for.

I found the discussion of graffiti, as well as the larger issue of public art, in this article particularly intriguing because it directly related to what we have been reading in my English 110H class with Professor Davison. While all of the english classes are focusing on topics regarding New York City, our class has been focusing and the influence public art has on residents of the city, and specifically graffiti. In fact, we had an essay due yesterday about an article titled, “Graffiti: Tunnel Notes of a New Yorker.” The writer of that article, Leonard Kriegel, would be extremely offended by Details magazine’s new graffiti project. In fact, he argues that “the spread of graffiti is as accurate a barometer of the decline of urban civility as anything else one can think of.” The fact that Detail believes publicly displaying graffiti is a way to bring a more cultured atmosphere to the streets is exactly the opposite of Kriegel’s assertion that graffiti is a representation of the hopeless deterioration of urban society. This is a perfect example of the timeless controversy over the merits of artwork, which has been extensively discussed throughout our class blog.

The New York Times article

Leonard Kriegel’s “Graffiti: Tunnel Notes of a New Yorker”

Being that we all live in and around New York City, I’m assuming that everyone has seen graffiti many times. The question is, have you ever passed what is technically vandalism and considered it artwork? Today, I discovered an artist by the name of Blek le Rat, who creates graffiti art–specifically, stencil graffiti. The difference between Mr. le Rat and most of the graffiti artists who leave tags along the city’s bridges and walls is that he does graffiti legally. He has been appointed the job of making a mural for Details magazine, which has been trying to find innovative works of art to feature.

Blek le Rat (whose real name is Xavier Prou) is not just any street artist, which there are plenty of in NYC. He is considered the founder of stencil graffiti. He is originally from Paris and got the idea to do stencil graffiti while visiting New York City in 1981. He saw American graffiti and interestingly decided to create his own twist on the artwork–by using stencils. Le Rat’s first works were of rats that he chose to depict because they are the “only wild living animals in cities [that] will survive when the human race will have disappeared and died out.” This statement of his, along with a wealth of information about Le Rat, can be found on his website here.

Check out the NY Times article about him here.

Below is one of his works of art called Lady Diana.

Two nights ago, a friend of mine invited me to the Highline Park, a place I have never heard of before but regardless I was still excited to venture out and see this attraction. I got the feeling of being like a tourist in my own city.

THE HIGHLINE PARK

What is so unique about The Highline Park? The Highline is a park built on what used to be an elevated freight railway called the West Side Line. It begins on Gansevoort Street near West 12^th Street, in the so-called “meatpacking district” and then stretches up to 34th^th Street into the Chelsea neighborhood. CHECK OUT HISTORY OF HIGHLINE HERE. It wasn’t until recently of June 2009 that the first section of this park was opened. Almost all the meat packing industries are gone but the buildings are still there and now instead of housing meat, these buildings  house many luxurious brands for people to shop. There were also many restaurants and nightclubs.

In my eyes, the park alone is a work of art in itself because I would never have thought a pair of railroad tracks could be transformed into a public park. Besides the view of the NYC skyline, streets of Manhattan, and the nature scenery, there were also actual pieces of work created by artists present all around the park. Unfortunately, after arriving at the park for about ten minutes, Mother Nature decided to pour and thunder, so I wasn’t able to venture the entire park to see these artworks. As a result, we spent our time sitting in a sheltered area that had a system of different bells that rang a different sound each minute. We soon discovered that each bell sound represented bells that were located all around New York City. I found this to be very interesting because bells ranged from the United Nations Japanese bell to the New York Stock Exchange bell. After some research, I discovered that this project is called “A Bell For Every Minute” created by Stephen Vitiello.

Lastly, as we were leaving the park, we found some very creative “artwork” while looking down to the ground. We saw large writing conveying different messages. The one that caught my eye the most were the words I saw on top of what looked to be three trailers. BELIEF +. DOUBT =. SANITY, was split up and written on top of these three trailers. There were much more messages like these, on the floor, sides of a building, on the fence enclosing this area, and on a billboard. Sadly, I was not able to determine the artist for this artwork since there was no indication of a name.

I will definitely make another trip to this attraction on a day when it doesn’t rain. For those of you who have not been to The Highline before, it is a definitely a trip to make. You can find some of the pictures I took of this along with some parts of the park below. I have also included a video of one of the large messages I saw placed all along a side fence.

Here are the photos.
Here is the video. Enjoy!

I came across this NY Times article and was intrigued as to why people would want to go see a “show” which involves so little movement and seems to mess with your mind.  This is the the basic concept in “Selective Memory”, which opened recently at the Chocolate Factory.  Selective Memory is a “real-time video performance” about things that never happened.  During Selective Memory, a performer stands on a “film-set” in front of a bland dioramic background while cameras show extreme close-ups, pan the area slowly, and make very minuscule movements.  This establishes a very unclear relationship between the performer and the audience.  The performer often appears to be staring into the cameras, but depending on their angle, the intention behind the stare changes.  By having no set narrative, the performance essentially provides a ‘blank canvas’ to the audience, allowing and endless number of narratives to be present.

To read more about “Selective Memory”, click here.

In the article from the New York Times, a woman named Madeline Best serves as the both one of the principal creators of the work and the performer.  The work is a study about perception, and is a close-up study of her face in particular.  Through various camera angles and lighting effects, the audience perceives Madeline’s face in completely different ways.  In one instant she may look angry, or as if she is glaring at the audience, but in the next, the audience sees that she is not angry, she in fact resembles a model.  The slow moving camera allows the audience to appreciate the many different aspects of Madeline’s face, seeing things in a new way than they first noticed.

Here is the NY Times article.

At one point in our lives, we have taken a picture with a camera. It is not a difficult task, and for the most part, it does not require significant premeditation. We may not completely value the image at the time it is taken, but we may be grateful later that we caught the moment in time forever. Our lives can be documented with images. This is what Allen Ginsberg, a well-known poet, discovered with age.

Ginsberg had interests similar to many other people in the world: love, drugs, and fame. He was always motivated to achieve the things he wanted most in life; thus, picking up new activities to expand his imagination and experience was a regular routine. As a young man in his late 20’s, he began to informally take photos of friends as personal mementos. His comrades from Columbia University would pose half naked for his photo-shoots. After encountering his male life partner in San Francisco, the couple went to India so Ginsberg could visually capture cultural sculptures and settings. These early photographs ignited the Beat generation of 1953. He was living his life to the fullest.

After losing cameras and resetting priorities, he forgot about his new-found hobby for twenty years. He broke his hiatus in 1983 when rediscovering the photos he took in the 50’s. It finally occurred to him that his history was present in the tangible form of art, and he wanted to continue to preserve the passing of time. He resumed the activity seriously; he purchased a new camera, researched ways to enhance his skill, and added annotations to his earlier works. Photographing the same people as before, Ginsberg’s approach was more artistically formal now that his friends were weathered by time. He wanted to show his audience how powerfully time and life affect us.

By picking up our own cameras, we can learn a similar lesson about time like Allen Ginsberg did. Hopefully, however, we can learn from his experience early so that we can appreciate our time now before it’s too late.

Some of Ginsberg’s photography can be seen here.

Want to read the rest of the article? Of course you do! Click here.