The Arts in New York City

New York City with its Broadway productions, art galleries and tireless inhabitants, is the cultural hotspot for tourists. Yet, most leave without ever reaching the core of the art movement in New York City. Art in NYC is about expression and what better way to live the art of NYC than to experience graffiti, the living breathing words and dreams of actual New Yorkers? While most people believe that graffiti is an act of vandalism, the 5 Pointz building, a yellow painted building covered in graffiti, treats it as a work of art. The building is iconic and a familiar of 7-train riders; my first encounter with the building was upon looking out the windows of the train and coming face to face with it. While those who have seen it have always wondered about it, I am sure few have actually visited it. Unfortunately, I too only stumbled upon the neighborhood on a trip to P.S. 1, a popular contemporary arts museum, which is ironically just across from 5 Pointz. Rather than waiting on line at P.S. 1, I took a bit of a detour to view the building up close. The view is fantastic. According to sources, the building is a haven for graffiti artists who decorated the former “fun-house.” Today, those who want to paint in the area have to first attain a permit. Impressively covered from head to toe, the building is covered with tags and all kinds of illustrations. While I was not comfortable going inside on my own, those who have been there say that the inside is just as decorated. While some people may have seen it from a distance, I have to say that nothing compares to seeing it up close and whether or not you believe it is art, it is truly a sight to behold.

            The small woman wearing purple puffy short-sleeves stroked the strings of her small violin with the slender red hairs of her bow.  She reached onto the tips of her toes as she smoothly elongated a high A.  Her wrist shook with vibrato and slowed as the note dwindled into softness and she rested steadily on her feet.  Her face was the image of satisfaction and serenity as she continued among the orchestra that played from her squat little radio.  Again, she rose like she was breathing for the first time.  Her eyes were shut, remembering an enchanting dream, and again she settled onto her feet, swaying with her notes.  The silky voice of the violin was striking against the ceaseless grumble of trains and the robotic female overhead that cautioned travelers about safety.  The small woman with her small violin stood out as a tiny persistent ray in a bustling underground world.

We are most likely to associate subway stations of Manhattan with stifling heat and disgusting stench.  Personally, I dislike the subway stations of Manhattan because of the unbearable heat, especially in the summer.  Recently, at Union Square Subway Station, I was in a hurry and saw a quite unexpected display: a light blue underwater-like picture was projected on the wall, approximately one foot in length and width.  When I looked at it the first time, I thought to myself, “It is weird to put up such a display at subway station; and no one really stop by and appreciate it.”  The second time I slowed down my pace and looked at it again.  The wavy shapes and ocean-blue colors reminded me of the ocean and breeze and relaxed me a bit.  From then on I have felt the relaxation when I walk by and look at it.  It is a piece of artwork to me because it relaxes me by creating a peaceful and pleasant scene of nature. 

Kara Walker, a receiver of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant came onto the art scene in 1994 with “Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart.” Like her earliest work, her latest exhibition  “My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love” also focuses on the theme of race. Her medium of art is quite interesting – black-paper silhouette cutouts that adorned white walls, other smaller notebook drawings, collages, and film animations starring shadow-puppets. The film animations are the highlights of the exhibition and provide a sort of background for the silhouette pieces. One of the animations shows the origins of slaves. Cast out at sea after being capture and thrown overboard during a storm, slaves are swallowed by a “giant mouth” and then spewed out into cotton fields to face abuses. What is fascinating is Walker’s range of depiction of stereotyped images of black Southern history. There are graphic depictions of rapes and lynchings. Then there are caricatures of sorts where certain features are emphasized such as fat lips, oversize genitals, and other exaggerations. Her art compels you to come to conclusions of race in the past and Southern America. Whatever these conclusions may be, Kara Walker’s exhibition definitely makes you think.

Listening to the rumbling of the 7 train, I was suddenly hit by a loud and intrusive noise. No, it was not the mumbling of the conductor over the loud speaker. This noise was far more excruciating. I turned to my left and standing there holding an accordion was a short, Hispanic man in a sombrero. This performance was unlike other subway performances that I have heard throughout my daily musings on the train. I am usually amused and pleased with the playing styles of subway performers but this guy was horrible. The only knowledge I had of the accordion was how it sounded when Steve Urkel played it, but after listening to Joseph Petric’s performance on the accordion, I realized that the sounds that are produced by accordions are rather pleasing to the ear. The accordion sounds played by the person on the 7 train were not pleasing to the ear and I could not understand a word he said. He sang and spoke in Spanish and everyone seemed to ignore him. I didn’t mind the fact that he sang in Spanish. Actually, his singing was more like screeching and shouting. I just did not enjoy his performance. He walked up and down the cart, but no money was placed in the sombrero. This didn’t seem to faze him. He calmly put the sombrero back on his hat, picked up his accordion, waited for the train to stop and moved on to the next cart. There was never a finer moment where I was glad to only hear the rumbling of the train and the mumbling of the train conductor.

For this week’s art event I attended the Filarmonica Della Scala at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, October 13. The Filharmonica Della Scala is the resident orchestra of Milan’s celebrated opera house, an orchestra established 25 years ago this year, and as a celebration took part in a North American tour, the first time it has ever done so. I happened to receive these tickets from a friend at the UN who had heard about my search for a cultural event. I accepted these tickets hesitantly; I had never before been to an orchestra performance and was not too sure if I would like it. But lately I have been in the mood to try out new things, so I took the tickets, dressed up in suit and tie and made my way for the historic Carnegie Hall. (more…)

Do not be daunted by the small size of Sadie Benning’s “Form of a Waterfall” exhibition; it has many hidden meanings behind the seemingly simple works of art on display. Fortunately, the artist herself was there to explain them, otherwise I never would have guessed the ideas behind the creations. Using audio and visual mediums, Benning depicted the concept of contact in her video and colored-pencil drawings. For example, an eerie black and white video, which reminded me of the movie The Ring at first, showed a pen scribbling lines across and making contact with a surface. Many of the symmetrical figures in the drawings represented a sense of balance and a back-to-basics notion. What looked like basic shapes and colors also symbolized different aspects of genders. They looked like the images one would see when meditating. My favorite part of the exhibition, however, had to be the vinyl record playing in the center of the room. Music accompaniment made viewing more enjoyable and relaxing, going back to the idea of art as meditation. Besides acting as a soundtrack, the reasoning behind choosing a vinyl record over a cassette was also for aesthetic and physicality purposes. I had never actually seen an old record player before, so it gave an interesting vintage feel. While the exhibition was not exactly exciting, it did raise my curiosity. Anyone who enjoys deciphering abstract drawings would appreciate Benning’s work.

After viewing the Mishkin Gallery last week, I felt the urge to view photography. Not really knowing where to go, I was lucky to see a series of photographs in the lunch room at Baruch. It was really a surprise that one can see art at a place where you only expect food and talking. It felt kind of awkward maneuvering around the the hoards of people eating while I was appreciating and observing the pictures. The theme of the pictures was to capture the history and heritage of African-Americans during the early 19th century. It was a bleak time in American history where segregation was de faco. The pictures are in black and white and symbolic of segregation between the blacks and white during that time. Overall, my time in our IDC class has really broadened my expectations and views of art.

As I was sitting on the E train with my friend on Sunday morning, an advertisement for the “Mythic Creatures Exhibition” which is currently held at the American Museum of Natural History, suddenly caught my eye. I honestly knew nothing about mythic creatures at the time but it seemed like an interesting exhibition to attend and I was sure I would learn many new things from it. The exhibition itself was interesting and unusual, but in a good way. The mythic creatures were divided into categories of land, water, and air, as well as dragons. I found the Chinese water dragon to be very interesting because it was able to dwell on the land and water as well as fly. There was a very intricately designed shadow puppet representation of this dragon in the exhibition which I found to be very unique and artistic. Most of the representations of the mythic creatures in the museum were either statues or two dimensional drawings, however this piece really stood out as a beautiful work of art. I also learned that dragons were highly prevalent in Chinese mythology, and thus are a part of their culture today. This exhibition not only informs visitors about the mythic creatures themselves, but also looks at the origins and cultures of these creatures which is very helpful in understanding them. I would definitely visit this exhibition again, especially because of the extraordinary statues and vivid representations of the creatures.

We have all seen artworks in subway stations all throughout the city. People usually do not pause for a split second to admire these pieces of art in the midst of their busy commuting lives. This weekend, however, I actually stopped to take a closer look at a sculpture strategically placed right under the platform label, “Columbia University,” in the 1 train station at 116^th St, Manhattan. The sculpture was a steel chair labeled “Rail Rider’s Throne” that was molded into the ground, located about two feet away from a subway bench. Since the bench seats were filled, people all stopped to take a look at the chair, contemplating whether or not to sit on it. I did some research on that chair and found that its creator, Michelle Greene, built a series of artworks for the MTA that were all aimed at testing how people will interact with them. “Rail Rider’s Throne” is a must-see piece of public art because it does indeed attract attention and wonder. I would have sat on it myself if it was not old and rusty.