8
Jun/11

GILLIAN WEARING: PEOPLE / HELEN COLE: WE SEE FIREWORKS

8
Jun/11

Gillian Wearing, “Snapshot,” Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

“Gillian Wearing: People”
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, 521 West 21st St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through June 24, free, 212-414-4144, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.tanyabonakdargallery.com
“Helen Cole: We See Fireworks”
PS122, 150 First Ave. at East Ninth St.
Tuesday – Saturday through June 11, $10, 212-352-3101, Wednesday – Friday 4:30 – 9:00, Saturday – Sunday 2:00 – 9:00
www.ps122.org

Two very different shows by conceptual British artists are currently shining a light on memory and performance, offering intriguing looks at individuals with fascinating stories to tell. On the second floor of the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea (through June 24), YBA legend Gillian Wearing has installed “Secrets and Lies,” a confessional box in which videos of people in form-fitting masks — with holes cut out for the eyes to reveal their emotional state — share personal tales of bullying and murder as well as virginity and drinking menstrual blood. The participants responded to Wearing’s call to “confess all on video,” and with the masks on they hold nothing back. As difficult as it is to listen to some of these piercing narratives, visitors are sure to be transfixed by their honesty and openness, making them wonder what secrets or lies they would share if they were on the other side of the booth. It continues Wearing’s career-long investigation of identity, which is also evident on the first floor in “Snapshot,” seven video portraits of women arranged in age order, accompanied by headphones on which an older woman relates her own tale, and in the short film Bully, in which a bullied man directs a group of individuals in a re-creation of an event that scarred him.

Visitors can shine a light on their own memories in “We See Fireworks” at PS122

Memory and performance are also at the heart of Helen Cole’s “We See Fireworks,” installed in PS122’s Ninth St. gallery through June 11. In a dark room with only a couch, approximately three dozen bare lightbulbs hang from the ceiling at varying levels, many featuring different-shaped filaments that slowly glow as each new tale begins. Cole has asked people to talk about an experience in their life that had performative elements, whether it be a family gathering, a school party, or other encounters (that tend to be lighter than those in Wearing’s works). Each story begins in complete darkness, then one or more bulbs come on, forcing the visitor’s attention in that direction, looking at the bulb as if it were the teller of the tale, until multiple bulbs come on, making the stories feel more universal. Like Wearing’s masked confessors, Cole’s unseen narrators can be unnerving at first, but the more time you spend in their company, the more rewarding it all becomes. If you would like to add your own memory, you can do so today from 4:30 to 6:30 and 7:00 to 9:00. “We See Fireworks” concludes PS122’s “The UK Comes to the EV” festival, which included the previous productions “Action Hero — Watch Me Fall” and “Curious — The Moment I Saw You I Knew I Could Love You.”