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Source Code

By Anthony Venditto on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

For the past five years or so there’s been a healthy artistic anarchy brewing beneath the Highline on far west 21st street.  Right under our collective nose nests a hive for,” artists, programmers, hackers, activists, technologists, kids, and adults,” to study, create, and collaborate on images that marry the sultry sexiness inherent in the world of computer programming with the sweetly misunderstood progressive neo- modern art movement. 

The result:  Eyebeam! A warehouse sized imaginarium that acts as a live studio replete with physical labs and computer work stations.   The functioning studio part of the space is a two story area separated from the rest of the building by a glass wall.  A hand painted sign on the wall, “WE FUCK HERE M- F 10-6” screams of opportunity for those brave enough and talented enough to seek it. Yet, that’s not all kids!  Under the same rood resides an open, free exhibition space.  From now until the end of August that space is home to some of the genius creations conceived by Eyebeam’s industrious, uninhibited residents.   

It’s called SOURCE CODE and it’s a 10 year retrospective of programming, Eyebeam style. I visited Eyebeam the other day, completely sober, to check out the scene.  I left the joint riding a natural high, imbibed with the exuberance that only a truly unique  New York experience can instill. 

Here’s a wee bit of what I saw: 

hogansalley_f_nesboxboxart_160w.jpg

I Shot Andy Warhol  By:  Cory Arcangel 

The basis of this piece is the classic Nintendo game Hogan’s Alley.  A game originally released in 1985 and designed to be used with the Nintendo lightgun.  The object of the game was to shoot gangsters while not shooting innocent bystanders. 

Well, this dude reprogrammed the game and titled it “Shoot Andy Warhol”.  The title screen shouts out the name at the viewer.  Then the next screen, just like the original game gives you simple instructions: 

“Shoot Andy’s Only”.  Then it shows what Andy looks like.  Don’t shoot:  the Pope, Flava Flav, or the Colonel, all followed by their images.  Trust me, it’s hysterical. 

High Seas  By:  Jennifer & Kevin McCoy 

This is an incredibly detailed model of the Titanic that’s about five feet long.  Circling the model is a track that slopes up and down like the humps of a roller coaster.  Riding this track is a camera and a spot light that flashes every few seconds. 

Behind the model is a ginormous screen projecting exactly what the camera circling the lil’ Titanic sees.  Because of the hilly shape of the track and the intermittent flashes of light it looks like we’re watching a movie of the Titanic bouncing around on the high seas in the middle of a lightning storm.  Pretty clever, no? 

There are a bunch more pieces on display, but words fail me.  This is an experience you need to see to believe and enjoy. 

Important Shit! 

 ·  The show runs until August 11!·       It’s right across from Chelsea Piers!·       For address and hours click HERE!

Posted in Art | 4 Comments » | Delicious del.icio.us | Digg Digg it |

The Quantum Eye: Deception

By Anthony Venditto on Saturday, May 12th, 2007

With his hair helmet shining, noted mentalist and super cool guy, Sam Eaton took the stage and announced: “TONIGHT THERE WILL BE NO SECRETS!” I winced as I couldn’t help but wonder if he was going to tell the audience that I wasn’t toilet trained till first grade (he didn’t).

In truth I had no clear idea as to what a mentalist was or what they did and I was a little apprehensive. I needn’t have worried. Sam Eaton was more than a mentalist; this man was a master performer.

EVERY feat of mystery he performed he used a volunteer from the Petri dish that was the audience. The night I went the soup included: smarclassiceyeball82.jpgmy suburban 10-year-old boys, the Scottish, guys in ties, blue hairs and me!

And all of us fell in love with the man as over the course of 90 painfully short minutes he won our hearts. He commanded all of our attention, weaving a rich tapestry of bad jokes and mysterious feats of mental agility.

He had the kind of charisma that people said David Koresh or Hitler used to possess, only you know in a non-genocidal Christ complex having kind of way.

Now, I’m not saying I have a “mancrush” on the dude, but, well, my girlfriend said it best when she told me she found him, “kinda dreamy in a Gabe Kaplan/ Egon Spangler kind of way.”(I love my girlfriend.)

I won’t tell you exactly what his act consisted of, first off because it would rob you of the wonderment of the experience. But also because I don’t think I’m a good enough writer to capture the uniqueness of the evening.

I will however tell you that he completely blew my fragile lil’ mind by just knowing things that he couldn’t possibly know. In closing: this was one of the few experiences in my life that I was glad I was sober for. See it, trust me.

DIG IT!

 

• The Jewel Box Theater is on the 10th floor of a building whose ONLY elevator fits 7 people at a time: arrive early
• For future show times and general informational type shit click here!
• Sam produces a show called, “Paul Carpenter’s: The Psychic”
• Paul is a super cool guy who holds a world record for the fastest escape from a straight jacket

• The Jewel Box Theater is also the home of the Guilty Pleasures Burlesque and Vaudeville Show.

Posted in Theatre, Science | 9 Comments » | Delicious del.icio.us | Digg Digg it |

Comic Abstraction: Image Breaking, Image Making

By Anthony Venditto on Saturday, May 5th, 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 11th 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 innocmargenaked.jpgence, 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!)

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Teen Movie High

By Anthony Venditto on Saturday, April 28th, 2007

“If pain is comedy than high school was hilarious”- So states the tagline for this improvised homage to everything for which John Hughes stood.  Teen Movie High is an hour long improvised tour de force of ridiculousness.  And for anyone whoanthonymhall.jpg considers Sixteen Candles and Weird Science timeless classics- this show will blow your fragile little mind!

The evening started out with director, Karen Herr, greeting the audience.  Then the cast brought out the Wheel of Sub Genres.  They picked an audience member to come up and spin the wheel to determine what sub genre the evening’s performance would be based on. 

Bonus:  they actually picked my girlfriend to spin the wheel!  As a special treat they gave her a six pack of Budweiser tall boys to enjoy during the show. It was like Christmas and my birthday all rolled up in one beery package! 

The sub genre we were treated to was, ”A day in the Life.”  Think:  Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Can’t Hardly Wait, etc…  The show started out as the valedictorian, who for 4 years had been crushing on the hot, Big Man On Campus, declares that at tonight’s graduation party she’ll finally get her man! 

From there it was a carousel of clichés reinvented on the spot to side splitting effect:  There was an “accidental” lesbian moment; stoners getting’ lit up and crying as they watch The Land Before Time; a streaking scene that ended badly in a corn field; much beer drinking and light vomiting. 

Each of the six performers were obviously skilled improvisers.  Even though they occasionally cracked each other up, none of them ever broke character. 

They kept the action moving forward even while incorporating the unexpected, like working performer, Mark Lampert’s, constant stream of sweat into a makeout scene.  Trust me it was gross, but it totally worked. 

Period perfect music cues, like “Don’t You Forget About Me” and “Afternoon Delight” added an extra layer to the surreal hilarity of the performance.   

In the end the girl got the boy, the boy grew as a person and I got to drink free beers.  It was a happy ending for all. 

For $10 (3$ for students) you can’t go wrong.  It shows every Friday at Gotham City Improv,on 21st street, at 8:30pm.  It’s perfectly timed between happy hour and a late night supper.  AND… they’ve just been extended through June!  So go check ‘em out. 

For tickets call- 646.258.6727 or click here. 

Posted in Comedy, Theatre | 9 Comments » | Delicious del.icio.us | Digg Digg it |

Buffy Sing - A - Long

By Anthony Venditto on Saturday, April 21st, 2007

I never realized what true devotion was until I experienced the Buffy Sing- a- Long at the IFC Center. For those of you who don’t know: this is a staged screening of the all singing Buffy episode: “Once More With Feeling”.

As the show unspools on the big screen, actors lip synch and pantomime the action on stage. Much audience participation, glitter and bubble blowing ensues.

I was shocked as I approached the theater and saw a line stretching up sixth ave. I was even more taken aback by the crowd. It was a surreal mix of middle aged, overweight mbuffy-the-comic.jpgen with goatees and ponytails; little Lisa Loeb clones; college kids; business people and of course the ubiquitous Japanese party girls that seem to spring up where you least expect them.

This was a whole new experience for me and I was stoked. Unfortunately, the showing was at midnight and by the time I got to the theater I was exhausted (read: drunk).

So instead of a straightforward, coherent review of this event, I am going to just transcribe for you the notes I found scrawled on cocktail napkins in my pocket when I woke up this morning.

-I’ve never seen so many people be so happy to be standing in a line.

-UNCOOL COOL TIP: Order tickets early, then go and drink in the Waverly bar- conveniently connected to the theater. The drinks are moderately priced, and you don’t have to wait on the line with the increasingly disturbing shiny happy people. Oh, and they let you into the theater first.

-A dude with an eye patch just gave me a goodie bag. Inside are many treats including plastic vampire teeth. I am happy.

-A chick just handed my girlfriend a pair of granny panties and told us,”You’ll know when to throw them.” I am confused.

-Buffy trivia contest. Seven contestants play to get a chance to perform a scene in front of the throng. Everybody but me knows the answers. If you know who killed vampire Willow and how, get off your ass right now and go to this show.

-I think contestant #3 is cocky and I don’t care for his prima donna attitude.

-There are several video montages, one to a song titled, “Coin Operated Boy”. My girlfriend loves it, I think its sexist.

-The positive energy in the crowd is infectious. These people are ready to ROCK!

-Giles (our host for the evening) takes the mike, reviews the contents of our goodie bags, and refers us to a card that let’s us know when to do stuff. There’s a kazoo, but we’re not allowed to use it yet- Giles is mean.

-The show starts and the crowd takes on a quiet reverence. It doesn’t last. People are soon shouting back at the screen, singing lovingly and cackling.

-This is very reminiscent of the Rocky Horror shows I used to go to in the early 90’s- only without all the blow and drag queens.

-The show is over. Buffy gets over her sense of ennui, and makes out with Spike.

-Giles tells us there’s a short break, then anybody who wants can hang around and they’ll watch another episode together. It’s almost 2:15 AM so I have to go home.

-Despite knowing next to nothing about the Buffyverse I genuinely dug this experience.

-P.S.- They were right, I totally knew when to throw the panties.

For upcoming shows click HERE!

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Sideshow By the Seashore

By Anthony Venditto on Friday, April 20th, 2007

The Freak show is alive and well in Brooklyn, really. At Sideshow by the Seashore lives the last bastion of the vaudeville scene that once defined Coney Island. It’s a classic venue offering mentalists, magicians, burly’q and an old fashioned 10 in 1 show.


lc_freaks_3_6.jpgI went for a visit on a Friday afternoon when they were holding an open casting call for anybody to come out and break world records. I was immediately won over by the congenial, good humored, fuck all attitude of the salt of the earth people who showed up.

Paul Nardizzi: A stand up comic and soccer player he holds two world records. The first is doing a standup routine that lasts 8 minutes and has 73 punch lines in it. The second is juggling a football with his feet, getting upwards of 40 bounces. Today he attempted to break his juggling record. He didn’t succeed, but was still met with warm applause and encouragement.

 

Paddy Doyle, “The World’s Fittest Endurance Athlete”: This dude holds over a hundred world records. Last week he broke ten records in an hour. Today he strapped a backpack filled with 40 pounds of sand to his back then did step ups using two cider blocks stacked up as his step. He did this for an hour! He beat his old record, of 716, by doing it 911 times. A true gentleman, he thanked everybody for coming and shook all our hands.

 

Pete Tino, “The Human Floor”: For this one the entire crowd had to go out to the street where Pete took off his shirt and lay down on his back. Then 15 people, collectively weighing 2,313 lbs, stood on him for ten seconds. Pete told me he’s very big in the S&M and B&D scenes. I totally want to party with this guy.

 

Jared: He is a Blockhead. A Blockhead is somebody who hammers long pointy items into their sinuses. He also dresses like a vampire. Jared took a tootsie roll pop, with a scary long stick, jammed the handle in his left nostril then touched the pop with his tongue.

 

Thomas Blacke: A magician looking to break his own world record of being the fastest man on the planet to tie a balloon into a poodle. Victory was his as he performed this feat in 4.18 seconds blowing the minds and winning the hearts of all in attendance.

 

The Great Throwdini: Attempted to break his own record of catching 25 knives thrown at him by International Knife Throwing Hall of Famer Dick Haines. Long story short: The ENTIRE audience fled the theater as Throwdini took a shot to the palm and disappeared backstage in a spray of blood. Good times!

 

Paul Carpenter: Attempted to regain his world record for the quickest escape from a strait jacket. It took him three attempts, but in the end he triumphed, setting a new record of 10.94 seconds.

Take the trip out to Coney Island and check this place out. It’s a chance to catch a rare glimpse at artistry that most people will never be lucky enough to experience. Also, it’s a blast.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Posted in Theatre, Know Your City | 2 Comments » | Delicious del.icio.us | Digg Digg it |

FREE ICE CREAM CONE DAY

By Anthony Venditto on Wednesday, April 18th, 2007

On April 7th the Lord smiled down upon the Earth for Ben & Jerry’s declared it Free Ice Cream Cone Day for all! I set out on a holy pilgrimage that day out of respect, religious fervor and a gluttony for sweets that stands unparalleled throughout the land. The following is a recap of that glorious ice creamtastic day.

Noon

3rd ave by 10th street

I head out to hit all the Ben & Jerry’s in Manhattan (Brooklyn scares me.) This first location has little to no line. I figure it’s because the pot smokin’ hippies of the east village don’t get their wake and bake munchies till later in the day.

I order a chocolate fudge brownie cone and donate $2 to the store’s pet charity: Breast Cancer Action Coalition. At long last I get to combine my twin loves of fudgy ice cream and boobies.

 

12:40pm

23rd street and 8th ave

After a ten minute wait I finally get my Half Baked cone. I don’t know what’s in it, but I love it. This store is collecting money for Break the Cycle: an aids awareness bike ride through NYC. I think it’s very cool that as the stores give out free cones they are also collecting for various local charities.

Next door to the shop is one of my favorite places on the planet. A bar called Trailer Park. I decide to stop in for some tater tots. Turns out this decision would almost be my undoing.

1:45pm

Macy’s Herald Square, 4th floor

Filled with tater tots, my stomach starts to churn as I head through the fourth floor of Macy’s to reach my next target. In order to get to the Ben & Jerry’s in Macy’s one has to walk through a football sized shoe department.

By the time I got to the counter all I could smell was old shoe, and my tounge was actually covered in a fine film that tasted of foot.

Fortunately, there was no line here and I dug into my Creme Brulee cone banishing the foot flavor from my tastebuds and replacing it with golden deliciousity.

2:15pm

Rockerfeller Center- underground

This was by far the longest wait of the day. I stood for 45 minutes with slack jawed cubicle zombies as they waited for a brief taste of happiness in their otherwise meaningless 9 to 5 lives.

I had the Cherry Garcia and felt altruistic as I donated to their pet charity: The St. Stanislaus Losta Church. It was also around this time I began to cramp up.

3:30pm

43rd street and 8th ave

I haven’t had a brain freeze all day, but I started getting milk blindness at about this point. My insides were soupy, my bowels were declaring a state of emergency and my arteries were begging me to quit. But dammit, my journalistic integrity wouldn’t allow it.

I brave a ten minute line and donate a few dollars to The Dwelling Place, a shelter for homeless women. Then another cone: Strawberry Cheese.

4:15pm

104th street and Broadway

The line here’s about twenty minutes, mostly because the local grade school just let out and the children are swarming. I yell at two little punks and a homeless man who all tried to cut in line ahead of me.

I get my last cone of the day: Sweet Cream and Cookies. This store isn’t collecting for charity, but they have a face painter. I ask her if she could make me look like Gene Simmons from Kiss. She gives me a dirty look. All in all a very successful day!

 

Plan For Next Year:

  • Best Location: Macy’s- No line and they offer every flavor

  • Worst Location: Roc Center- The line’s too long and the people are like depressed prisoners in a white collar hell

  • Best Flavor: Creme Brulee (available exclusively at Macy’s)

  • Worst Flavor: Foot (available exclusively at Macy’s)

All jokes aside, it’s a wonderful thing when companies use promotions like this to raise money and awareness for charities. It’s a lesson from which we can all learn.

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The View From K Street Steak

By Anthony Venditto on Wednesday, April 18th, 2007

A Letter of Appeal to Walt Stepp and Tom Herman (writer and director of The View Form K Street Steak, respectively):

Oh boy! Another scathing, satirical look at politics written and directed by ex- flower children who have become disenchanted with the results of their hippie revolution and now feel the need to spread the message that our government is fucked up beyond all belief.

Well thanks fellas, but let’s not forget it’s old acid freaks andant.jpg coke heads like you, and good ol’ boy President Bush himself, that have made politics in this nation the horribly corrupt system that it is today.

Now, I appreciate a socio- political satire as much as the next guy. Hell, I love Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and that movie is drier than the eczema in my Grandma’s ear.

But Gentlemen: political ideology, and comic taste aside you way over the hill potheads were so busy taking yourselves seriously that you forgot the Golden Rule of the entertainment industry: BE ENTERTAINING!

Granted, the concept is a sweet one: Revealing the seedy underside of the relationship between congress, the media and the stranglehold lobbyists have on both: nice! Sure, it’s been done before, most notably in the films Wag the Dog and Thank You for Smoking.

Yet, staging it all in the form of vignettes presented by a venrtiloquist and his dummy: very nice! Honestly, kudos on the concept gentlemen.

But then you had to go and ruin it all by trying to be so preachy and highbrow that you simply forgot the funny. Not a joke in the entire show garnered a laugh. Not even the one’s you boys cued with rim shots!

Okay, so I didn’t enjoy the show. Granted, it may be my fault: Afterall the promotional materials led me to believe it was a puppet show. (Yes, I am a moron… And a jackass.) Still, I know funny and this show weren’t it.

I wouldn’t be so bitter if it wasn’t for what I experienced during the intermission.

I stood in the lobby of the Altered Stages theater and drank my complimentary wine (thanks fellas) while Mr. Stepp hung out with a bunch of his geriatric cronies congratulating himself. His fellow retirees surrounded him and all confirmed what a genius he was.

He soaked up their syncophantic praise and reasserted to his nearly dead ex- Deadhead pals how funny he and his play are. He wallowed in their praise like a pig in shit.

They smiled and congratulated him, kissing his ass with their denture filled lips. But believe me kids, not one of these life hogs cracked so much as a smile during the performance.

In short, it was this little scene combined with the uninspired staging and script that now leave me in the unenvious position of declaring your show, the false idealism behind the script, the entire failed free love experiment of the 60’s and the absurd pomposity of your very existence: BULLSHIT!

Then again this is just one humble kid from New Jersey’s opinion.

Best of luck in the future,

Objectively yours,

-Venditto

for those of you out there who can’t wait to run out and catch this show before it closes, click here for more info.

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The Forbes Gallery

By Anthony Venditto on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007

The Forbes Museum is a wet dream for 8 year old boys and future billionaires with aspirations of world domination. It’s also a testament to the vanity and self- centeredness that lies at the disgusting rotted core of capitalism run amok.

TOY BOATS!

According to a sign all of the boats on display are toy boats, not models. The sign tells us models are, “precision made” duplicates while toys are actually working objects that are meant to be played with.

So what does Mr. Forbes do with these wonderful relics from the Golden Age of toy boats?

He locks them behind plexiglass where he can show them off to the public, fagary_huh1.jpgr from where any child will ever get to lay their grubby little hands on them-Bastard!

One of the toy boats was the size of Gary Coleman and has a real working gasoline engine. I wonder if it has a soul.

MINIATURE ARMIES!

There are soldiers recreating Cortez crushing the Aztecs on a three foot high temple. There are lil’ Union soldiers slaughtering lil’ Confederate soldiers. There are itsy- bitsy Greeks destroying an itsy- bitsy Troy.

There are even miniature cowboys committing genocide on miniature Indians. It is an awe inspiring display of murderous war throughout history as recreated by children’s toys.

MONOPOLY!

A room dedicated to a game that in order to you win you must screw over every other player until you have destroyed them financially.

According to Mr. Forbes it helped him and his siblings, “whet their capitalist appetites.” I’m sure that for dessert they feasted on the hopes and dreams of the middle class.

WHAT THE FUCK?

This is a trophy room with a hysterical twist. They’re trophies NOT won by anyone in the Forbes family, but shit that they bought at yard sales. For example they have a piece of wreckage from the Hindenburg, and some dead dude’s swinning trophy.

I gotta be honest with you; I have no idea what the hell this room is all about.

Why the ENTIRE World HATES Us!

Finally there’s an exhibit called Silver of the Stars. This is a room of silver goblets, bowls, spoons and other gaudy displays of wealth owned by famous pompous jack offs.

One such object is a teapot owned by geriatric assbag and famed wife beater: Sir Sean Connery. I was less than impressed.

In Conclusion…

This is a museum filled with toys that will never be played with, and trophies displayed by a man who didn’t earn them, but could afford to buy them.

It’s a fantasyland where toy soldiers depict historic scenes of barbaric butchery, and filled with displays of such ostentatious gluttony that even Michael Jackson would blush, if he is still physically able to. But on the plus side: It’s free.

So if you can forget about the obvious horror inherent in this type of display I think you’ll have a good time- but you won’t be able to sleep at night.

Come See What’s Wrong With America:

60 Fifth Avenue
at 12th Street
New York, NY 10011
212-206-5548

Hours
Tues-Wed 10am-4pm
Fri-Sat 10am-4pm

There is no planned closing date for this museum. In fact it will probalby outlive us all!
p.s.: I swear I’m not a bitter person, I’m actually a republican, but this museum really pissed me off- also, I was sober.

Posted in Know Your City | 3 Comments » | Delicious del.icio.us | Digg Digg it |

Kimberly Hart: Open Season

By Anthony Venditto on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007

Conventional thinking preaches that sugar and spice and everything nice are all that little girls are made of. Kimberly Hart in her exhibition, Open Season, reminds us that conventional thinking has no place in modern art.

She laughs in the face of convention and shows us that little girls can be balls (ovaries?) tough, little bad asses that buck pre conceived notions and recreate social norms on their own terms. In this exhibit she’s unleashed an alter ego to counter Degas’ pink frilly tutu wearing prissy lil’ Daddy’s girl.

 

930-028ballerina-posters.jpg

She has created a persona reminiscent of a modern day Scout,(Yes kids, that is a “To Kill a Mocking Bird” reference… you’re welcome.) a sequins clad warrior princess who could very well be the love child of Ted Nugent and a pre- felonious Martha Stewart.

A child who is,” an aspiring angler, a fortress defender and impudent enough to strike down her own pony.” It’s this audacious alter ego that has created the instillation on display at the Chelsea gallery- Mixed Greens .

 This is a collection of works that depict hunting scenes as only an adolescent girl could imagine them.  The largest piece, dominating the room, is an acrylic painting of a quiet, bucolic forest scene.  There’s a river with fish jumping out of it, there’s birds and ducks and butterflies, there’s even an 8 point buck and a unicorn.

Also in the upper right hand corner are four wooden shelves holding plaster busts of unicorns, crows and bunnies.  Placed in front of the canvas is a white stool with a pyramid of old- timey milk cans on top.

A nice enough piece of art on its own, but the genius of it, the slap in the face to Jane Austin’s “Little Women” fun of it is the dozen or so palm sized felt bulls eyes scattered throughout.  My favorite one is right over the heart of the unicorn.  It reminded me of the old light gun shooting gallery at Six Flags.

That’s just one example.  The other selections she has created are equally hysterical and uniquely girly in their depictions of traditionally non girly subject matter.  But that’s just part of what makes them so wonderful.

These are the works of an adolescent’s guilt free imagination.  Only a child could view nature and the hunt with such giddy macramed glee.  Only a child could create a piece of art with bunnies strung up by their feet above a puddle of blood made out of red felt, and have it not be about violence.

There’s no adult voice at work here.  There’s no fear or mean spiritedness.  There’s simply the vision of a lil’ tomboy rambunctious and wild with a runaway imagination.  This instillation is about the joy of childhood, the joy of LIFE, and that’s something we can all dig.

 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

  • Mixed Greens Gallery- 531 w26th St- between 10th and 11th

  • (take the C or E to 23rd  and walk west)

  • Hours: M- F 10am- 6pm; Sat 11am- 6pm

  • Closes April 21!

 

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