Laura Aldridge, “Hand Extended,” detail, screen prints on Perspex, plaster, fabric, and paint (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
548 West 22nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
March 3-6, free
www.independentnewyork.com
Winner of the 2010 Rob Pruitt Award for Alternative Project of the Year, the Independent art fair is back in the old Dia space in Chelsea, with more than fifty galleries spread out over the second, third, and fourth floors. Founded by X Initiative’s Elizabeth Dee and Hotel’s Darren Flook, the Independent was a rousing success last year, and not just because it was free. It offered a wide range of multimedia, participatory installations in well-organized spaces, giving visitors the opportunity to play Ping-Pong on Rirkrit Tiravanija’s “The Future Will Be Chrome,” accept a torn page from Michael Dean’s “The Floor Is the Object,” take a seat in Ryan Trecartin’s caged-in “P.opular S.ky (section ish),” and create their own dialogue while investigating the artistic dialogues created by moss and Westreich-Wagner. The 2011 Independent is being developed with White Columns’ Matthew Higgs and codirectors Jayne Drost and Laura Mitterand and includes such artists and galleries as Dexter Sinister, Guyton/Walker, and Trisha Donnelly of Artists Space, Erica Baum of Bureau, Katinka Bock of Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Michel François of Bortolami, Josephine Meckseper of Elizabeth Dee, Walead Beshty of Wallspace, Reena Spaulings of Sutton Lane, Ryan Gander and Roman Ondák of gb agency, Michail Pirgelis of Sprüth Magers, Carol Bove of Hotel, Wolfgang Tillmans and Liam Gillick of Maureen Paley, Simon Fujiwara of Neue Alte Brücke and Gio Marconi, and Jonathan Monk of Meyer Riegger. Unfortunately, much of the work is not clearly labeled, so it is often difficult to know what you’re looking at. The fair is heavy on sculptural installation, with numerous floor pieces, so be careful where you walk, although you are encouraged to step on Eftihis Patsourakis’s “Skin,” composed of actual welcome mats from his native Athens, but stay away from Ryan Gander’s “Matthew Young falls from the 1985 into a white room (Maybe this is not that way it is supposed to happen)” [sic], made of broken stunt-safe sugar glass and wood. We got a kick out of Laura Aldridge’s “Hand Extended” screen prints on Perspex of cats holding on to a human’s arm, mixed in with her plaster, fabric, and paint wall pieces. With all the craziness and chaos going on, you’ll want to take a respite in front of Maureen Gallace’s small oil on panel “August, Beach Cottage (Pink Flowers),” another one of her gentle, memorable paintings. While there’s very little video, one of the better film installations is Rossella Biscotti’s “Yellow,” which uses an old-fashioned projector to relay a WWII-related psychiatric session. While not nearly as dazzling as last year’s inaugural fair, there’s still a lot to like about Independent, but you have to be willing to work for it.
Michelle Williams was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance as a disgruntled wife in Blue Valentine, but the movie really belongs to Ryan Gosling, who is heartbreaking as a husband trying to repair a dissolving relationship. Derek Cianfrance’s second film took a long time to get made — his feature debut, Brother Tied, came out in 1998 — but that extended gestation period allowed it to develop into a unique, original examination of a marriage in trouble. Set in Brooklyn and Scranton, Blue Valentine bounces back and forth between Dean (Gosling) and Cindy’s (Williams) courtship and a modern-day weekend in which they try to recapture that magic that got it all started. Much of the dialogue is improvised and scenes were often shot in just one take, giving the film an organic, realistic feel. Cianfrance occasionally uses nonprofessional actors to heighten believability; for example, the movers and their boss actually do work for the Brooklyn moving company where Dean is temporarily employed. Cianfrance cleverly manipulates the past with the present to develop the characters; interestingly, after introducing viewers to the growing relationship between Dean and Cindy, he shows her making love to her high school boyfriend, Bobby (Mike Vogel), as if she is cheating on her future husband, creating an uncomfortable feeling that directly impacts the way we interpret their contemporary struggle. The sex scenes, both between Dean and Cindy and Bobby and Cindy, are extremely graphic, initially threatening to burden the film with an NC-17 rating that the Weinstein Company successfully appealed just prior to release. Featuring a score by popular indie band Grizzly Bear, Blue Valentine is one of the best films of 2010, a powerful, very adult romantic drama that will leave you clutching tightly to your loved ones.
Returning home after having been hospitalized for mental reasons, sisters Su-mi (Im Su-jeong) and Su-yeon (Moon Geun Young) find their house very different — in addition to their father (Kim Kap-su) and his second wife, Eun-joo (Yeom Jeong-ah), there appears to be an unexplained presence that seems particularly interested in the extremely vulnerable Su-yeon. As tensions mount between the girls and the wicked stepmother, more and more blood shows up, as well as far too many confusing twists and turns. Though there is a lot to admire in this gripping psychological thriller, you’ll be scratching your head at the end, wondering just what the heck you have just seen. An Asian mix of The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999), Sisters (Brian DePalma, 1973), and the Cinderella fairy tale, Kim Jee-woon’s film has plenty of creeps that unfortunately never come together. Still, it was recently remade by Hollywood as The Uninvited, directed by Charles and Thomas Guard and starring David Strathairn and Elizabeth Banks.
