Archive for May, 2007

This exhibit, on display at the Museum of Modern Art, is a collection of works harvested from fifteen different modern artists with abstract sensibilities. It ends June 11^th and I highly recommend a viewing. If you can’t go or are too lazy to put the remote down and get off your hedonistic ass, check out this review.

First off, the whole concept behind the exhibit is kinda nifty. It explores how the artists,” have culled from slapstick, comic strips, film, caricature, cartoons and animation as springboards for abstraction, not to withdraw from reality but to address perplexing questions about war and global conflicts, the loss of innocence, and racial stereotyping.” Deep, huh?

Here’s a list of some of my favorite pieces to give you a glimpse of the kind of coolness on display:

Inka Essenhigh

Cheerleaders and Sky

Like a fresco you might see painted on the ceiling of a cathedral in Bizarro World, this is a gorgeous rendering of cheerleaders floating through the sky like retarded lil’ angels.

In the artists own words: “The cheerleaders must be divine if they come from the heavens, but they drop like fat turkeys while trying to maintain their composure.”

Juan Munoz

Waiting for Jerry

This is an empty white painted room. The only thing in the room is a mouse hole cut in the middle of one the floorboards with light poring out of it. There is also manic Tom and Jerry- like chase music playing in the background. Simple, but mind blowing.

Philippe Parreno

Speech Bubbles

Dozens of helium filled white balloons clinging to the ceiling. All in the shape of speech bubbles, the kinds we see in cartoon strips. Trippy.

Gary Simmons

Boom!

What this guy does is sketches in chalk on blackboards or dark canvas. Then, he puts on golf gloves and by applying different levels of pressure in different areas, erases and blends and stretches the image. It’s a lot sweeter than I make it sound.

This one piece is an image of a cartoonish pluming explosion done on a canvas with more square footage than my apartment.

According to the artist: “Cartoons are the first and earliest form of getting pleasure from a violent act.”

Those are just my personal favorites, but there are a bunch of other truly unique and thought provoking pieces there as well. Like I said earlier, it’s worth the trip.

A Valuable Lesson: I also learned that MoMA, which normally charges $20 to go into, has FREE admission every Friday night from 4pm till 8pm. This is provided as a service from the evil overlords of the Target Corporation. (Thank you, Satan!)

After mentally checking my outfit for red carpet worthiness (fail) I shrugged and headed to the Tribeca film fest to mingle with the stars and, as it turns out, cringe at everything but the sight of a very naked Lucy Liu for a couple hours.  Upon arriving to film fest central I was directed to the wrong theater.  Two cabs, 20 bucks, and a stick of bbq’d street meat later, I finally made it to the eerily remote Battery Park Regal Cinemas Theater.  A single cardboard sign directed me to the “festival.”  No red carpet, no stars, just a lot of dorky white dudes coming out to stare at (did I mention?) a very naked Lucy Liu.

 Check out the preview…it’ll save some time.

Anyways…  Wow.  So bad.  SO SO SO bad.  And did I mention that Lucy Liu, and at least half a dozen other really hot women are all sorts of naked?  And yet, still, bad.  To be fair, it was stylishly bad for the first hour or so, but for the entire last hour of the film you could actually see the actors reading their lines off the page. 

BISHOP:  No, stop.

SADIE: (Naked back flip, lots of odd camera angles, shoots vampire in throat) I’ll stop when I’m dead.

BISHOP:  Oh!  The irony!  A vampire!  Dead!  Oh man, the audience will NEVER pick up on that one!

Yeah.  Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t see it.  Just don’t pay any money to see it.  Marilyn Manson has a cameo as a bartender sans makeup, which is almost worth paying for, and the copious nudity is really pretty amazing.  The action is even pretty good.  It’s just the writing…whoa.  It’s that bad. 

Most everyone I passed on the street today looked at me kinda funny, which I suppose had something to do with the HUGE backwards henna tattoo on my forehead: “EVERYTHING WILL BE TAKEN AWAY”.

If you’re wondering what possessed me to do this (and the other 60 - 100 or so other NYC folks out there walking around with the same message emblazoned on their heads)… it’s all in the name of art.

Adrian Piper, an extremely educated conceptual artist and philosopher based in Berlin who rumor has it avoids traveling to America due to being on a creepy security list that apparently involves all sorts of fun airport searches, is putting her latest art piece on people’s bodies.

Everything #10 is art turned social experiment and was made possible through Creative Time- an organization that brings art to the community. Producer Gavin and Intern Tess were onsite for the project and really cool people in general. Henna artist and musician, Mollie King, painted everyone during the 2 day project. I personally want to know how she can write backwards! Oh and it’s backwards because that way it is legible to each individual when they look in the mirror.

King, who admits she was at first a bit skeptical about the project, came to truly appreciate the significance of it all as she literally painted the mendhi/henna onto people’s heads over and over again. It became her mantra- the meaning deepening with each new subject that trickled in.

HOMEWORK:
All participants will be keeping a journal of their experience 3 times a day until the henna fades completely in approximately 4- 10 days. Then, on the 1 year anniversary they are asked to review their journals and share their thoughts on the project.

MY EXPERIENCE SO FAR:
Today it just means that I have backwards letters stuck on my head. By the time the message fades I think it will mean much more. I’m looking forward to this.

So far, many stares have come my way on the subway, in stores and restaurants and on the street. The 1st person to actually acknowledge it directly was a very nice homeless man. When I saw him approaching I started gathering the change in my pocket, but he only wanted an answer to his query: “What them words on yo head say?” When I told him, he just looked at me with knowing eyes, nodded and walked on.

A child on the subway finally asked what everyone else on the train was wondering- Is that a tattoo? Why’s it on your head? Does it come off? Why did you get it? Does it hurt? Some people smiled, some rolled their eyes, some pretended to ignore me completely.

I have a date tonight- he wants to stay in instead of hanging out with the mantra-headed artsy-lookin chick- HA! I think not- I want to wander the streets to see what the reactions will be.

Overall: This is a crazy way to spend a few days. I’m looking at people through different eyes through this process- learning a bit about people and society. I’ll be interested to follow this project to see others reactions, as well as my own. Would you wear art on your head??

The Williamsburg art gallery Like the Spice (224 Roebling St.) fearlessly tackles the sensitive topic of Organized Religion. Originally scheduled to close this week, the exhibit is so popular it has been extended till June 8.

Organized Religion. The phrase alone conjures up strong feelings. For some, they may be positive. For others, negative.

In today’s hot political climate, people are searching for hope. Although many believe there’s something bigger out there than themselves, they do not trust organized religion. After all, the media would have us believe that we’ve got the Islamic Fundamentalists to blame for 9-11, the Right-wing Protestants to blame for the War on Terrorism, the Mormons to blame for immigration issues, the Catholics to blame for child molestation, so on and so forth.

No religion is left unturned as the (lucky number) thirteen artists tackle issues of holiness, the apocalypse, possession, and divine healing. The exhibit is wide ranging not just in the different religions addressed, but in its media. There are paintings, photographs, collages, plaster sculptures, and even a digital video.

Historically, religion and art have gone hand in hand. Art has been both a way to encourage faith and a way to challenge existing belief systems. Since imagery stands on its own for the viewer to interpret, visual art is a non-confrontational form of communicating one’s beliefs. The art included in Organized Religion is as hit or miss as church coffee. A lot of it is watered down and lukewarm, but there are some meditative pieces. Yoshio Itagaki’s work stands out the most for its design and message. In “Cloning Jesus,” he depicts a woman wearing a white lab coat stitched with the words “The Second Coming Project.” She is holding a baby with a halo around it. In Santa Cross he depicts a Japanese display window that shows Santa Clause nailed to a cross. (Dana Carvey’s Church Lady SNL character rearranging the letters of “Santa” to spell out “Satan” springs to mind.) On a Mac in the back of Like the Spice is Heather Boaz’s “True Miracle,” a digital video that tells the story of possession and faith. It’s very This American Life. It’s scary, incredible, and funny—and autobiographical. At one point Boaz recalls a family member putting holy oil on trolls in a toy store.Robert Guillie and Tatiana Kronberg each have a series of thought-provoking prints worth scrutiny. Tom Billings’ “Missionary Position” sculpture points out the use of a religious term in the act of sex.It’s not that the other artwork on display is without merit—some of in fact have better craftsmanship and style, and are actually quite beautiful—but the other works aren’t as memorable within the context of the exhibit. With such a dynamic topic as religion, Like the Spice could have selected images that really pushed boundaries and made one think.

What a week to be a PANELGEEK in New York!

I hit Midtown Comics this wednesday to check the latest releases and was elated to see that the latest Astonishing X-men was on the shelves. Astonishing X-men is, as far as I’m concerned the only X-men comic worth reading these days, turning away from the depressing M-Day phenomenom (in which most of the mutant universe woke up one morning with no powers, making mutants an endagered species) and follows up on the staggeringly brilliant run on “New X-Men” written by the incomparable Grant Morrison (whom I worship as one of the greatest writers of the Modern Comic Age)

The Astonishing team is made up of Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Emma Frost, Shadowcat, Collosus, and a handful of “Xavier Institute” students, some of which are on their way toward graduating into bona fide X-men.

The main selling point on Astonishing X-men is it’s new writer: Joss Whedon, of Buffy fame (a demi-god of geekdom in his own, very earned rite.) Drawn by the very realistic and emotionally expressive John Cassaday,

Whedon applies his snarky dialouge we’ve of course seen in his TV work to characters we already have known and loved for years. Also, in traditional Buffy fashion he juxtaposes awkward romantic and sexual situations alongside life-and-death situations with blissful hillarity.

The current AXM storyline is a little weak. It involves an off-world trip to a warrior planet and the issue this weak seemed mostly like filler leading up to the grand finale. Whedon’s tenure at AXM was from the beginning, understood to be temporary, and so grabbing one (0r all!) of his AXM TPBs (Gifted, Dangerous and Torn) would be a good buy. Dangerous was my favorite.

In other news, it’s Spider-Man in New York Week! Of course with the premier of the 3rd instalment of the phenomenally successful Spider-Man franchise hitting theaters tomorrow, NYC & Company, the city’s tourism bureau has all sorts of special promotions related in some way (and in some cases very loosely) to the ultimate Web-head of New York.

Spider-man has always been an essentially New York character for a number of reasons, the most obvious of which being his webslinging between buildings. Spidey thrives on skyscrapers, and in many ways, I believe he derives much of his spiritual energy from the ambitious vibe that exudes from the man-made towers of glass and steel all over our fine city. Come on, can you imagine trying to web-sling across Montana?

Combine that with his perpetual level of stress, and the endless wisecracks coming from behind that mask, and you get the ultimate New York Super-Hero. Too bad Tobey Maguire has that perpetual head-in-the-clouds doofus/douche-bag look on his face, and couldn’t wise-crack with a Queen’s accent if his life depended on it! (which Spidey’s often does.). . . Sorry, I never thought Maguire made a good Peter Parker. I lke the movies, but hate Maguire.

Next week I’ll write a little something about some of the SM in NY stuff, but in the meantime, be SURE to hit the comic shops this upcoming Saturday for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!! The first Saturday in May you can load up on free comics! PERFECT for someone who wants to get into the wonderful word of comics.

This is all leading up to the first PANELGEEK meeting and discussion group at the Bowery Poetry Club downstairs room (retitled: The PanelCave) This upcoming Thurday May 10th at 5pm.

See you there! And bring your favorite books!