Art at P.S. 1

My day started at the MoMa, where I had originally planned to visit Van Gogh’s works, mainly because I wanted to be able to one day say at cocktail parties that I had actually seen Starry Night in the flesh. While waiting on line behind a group of jabbering tourists to get into the exhibit, I was distracted by a rather colorful display on the side. Entitled Young Architects Program 2008, the installation occupied only one wall and was a simple photographic display of five different works made by architects who had competed to build a structure that would be placed in the center courtyard of P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, an offshoot of MoMa. The contest is held every year, and the top proposal is actually built over the summer and placed in front of the building.

The varying structures each had their own individual characteristics, but were all testaments to the power of modern architecture. They were either suspended, gravity-defying works, or huge sculptures modeled after organic forms like lobster exoskeletons. The winning piece was entitled Public Farm, and consisted of huge groups of suspended cardboard cylinders that each contained a different type of plant. Curious to see the installation for myself, I hopped onto the train and hauled myself over to P.S. 1 (after checking out Starry Night and being appropriately impressed).
P.S. 1 is quiet and unassuming, a modest brick building located in the heart of the industrial wasteland that is Long Island City. Public Farm more or less looked the way it did in the photo, just considerably dirtier and more worn out.

Things started getting interesting when I entered the art center itself. Quaint and mild on the outside, the inside was reminiscent of an old abandoned school, complete with dimly lit halls and closed doors. The fact that half the building was under renovation only added to the derelict atmosphere. In addition, I counted a total of maybe three visitors, and the curators themselves could very well have been stony-faced statues for all the communicating they did.

Sufficiently spooked, I made my way to the main gallery, pushing past a door that was curiously inscribed with the phrase: “A bit of matter and a little more”. The first exhibit was a video presentation entitled Conspiracy Theory, by Robert Boyd. Only ten minutes in length, it was nevertheless riveting, a collection of archival footage about modern conspiracy theory, set to a backdrop of edgy dance music. The video covered topics like the 9/11 attacks, the supposed human invention of AIDS, the existence of aliens, and time travel. It included bits from talk show hosts and fanatical conspiracy theorists. The video was provocative and exciting, successful in its aim to make one wonder: “Is all really as it seems?”

I moved on to the next exhibit, entitled The Salt Cycle, by Michael Joo, an eight-minute long video that essentially documented the path of salt from nature to man, and then back to nature. A series of clips portrayed the artist first swimming nude in a pile of MSG, then running through a salt desert, and finally acting as a human salt lick for a deer. In all honesty, I had no idea what was going on in the video when I was watching it, and only made sense of it after I went home and researched the artist. In retrospect, the video piece was intense and eye-catching, though a little strange.

With that done, I finally made my way out of the building after getting lost twice and panicking in a dark stairwell. My visit to P.S. 1 was definitely educational, even though I couldn’t exactly relate to anything I saw. The works were stimulating and provocative, and I found myself reviewing them quite a few times in my head over the course of the weekend. I definitely hope to return to the art center next month when all the fall exhibitions open to the public.