Michelangelo Pistoletto’s “Sculpture for Strolling” serves as a kind of centerpiece of “do it (outside)” exhibition at Socrates Sculpture Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Blvd.
Through July 7, free
718-956-1819
www.socratessculpturepark.org
Art is usually not about following the rules, but the “do it” series of international exhibitions is indeed based on specific instructions laid out by an ever-growing number of established artists. Twenty years ago, artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist came up with an idea for an evolving, perennially in-progress exhibition in which these instructions would be interpreted by emerging artists and community groups in local displays. Even the rules have rules, including “There will be no artist-created ‘original’ and “Each interpreted instruction must be fully documented.” The latest such show continues through this weekend at Socrates Sculpture Park, where the very first fully outdoor iteration of “do it” in a public venue opened in May. Set in a white-tented walkway designed by Christoff : Finio Architecture, “do it (outside)” features instructions from more than sixty artists, some of which are meant specifically for the viewer to enact, and others that are interpreted in the park, but all of which are meant to exist only for the length of the show. Lars Fisk has constructed a trio of Ai Weiwei’s “CCTV Sprays,” which can spray-paint over surveillance cameras. Becky Sellinger realizes Paul McCarthy’s backyard trench of silver buckets and body parts used as paintbrushes. An unidentified artist has created Michelangelo Pistoletto’s “Sculpture for Strolling,” consisting of wet newspapers formed into a giant sphere; if someone wants to keep the object, they must wire $3,000 into a foreign bank account. Anyone can rent Anibal López’s “For Rent” sign for $20 a day, as long as they replace it with a nondigital picture of it.
![Grayson Revoir followed Darren Bader instructions to “glue a [rectangular] table to the sky [table top up, somewhere not too close to the sky’s zenith]” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)](https://twi-ny.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/do-it-2-e1373117804585.jpg)
Grayson Revoir followed Darren Bader instructions to “glue a [rectangular] table to the sky [table top up, somewhere not too close to the sky’s zenith]” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Katie Mangiardi danced with a large piece of chalk as per Joan Jonas’s “Instruction.” Grayson Revoir built Darren Bader’s description of gluing a table to the sky, cleverly using a mirrored surface. Jory Rabinovitz created David Lynch’s “Do It: How to Make a Ricky Board,” which comes with a poem from the filmmaker. Shaun Leonardo’s interpretation of Bruce Nauman’s “Body Pressure” asks that you press yourself against a cement wall until your mind removes the wall; “This may become a very erotic exercise,” Nauman points out. Ernesto Neto’s “Watching birds fly, the game of the three points” encourages visitors to follow the flight of birds flying above, noting, “flying insects are pretty good too, a bit more nervous though.” There are also instructions from Tracey Emin, John Baldessari, Sol LeWitt, Joan Jonas, Anna Halprin, Yoko Ono, Rivane Neuenschwander, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, William Forsythe, Tacita Dean, Christian Marclay, Robert Morris, Martha Rosler, Tomas Saraceno, Nancy Spero, and others, some more philosophical and less physical than others. The show comes down on Sunday, July 7, when it will have to follow rule number 5: “At the end of each do it exhibition the presenting institution is obliged to destroy the artworks and the instructions from which they were created, thus removing the possibility that do it artworks can become standing exhibition pieces or fetishes.” (Also on view in the park right now are Heather Rowe’s “Beyond the Hedges [Slivered Gazebo],” Chitra Ganesh’s “Broadway Billboard: Her Nuclear Waters,” and Toshihiro Oki architect pc’s “FOLLY: tree wood.”)
The fate of an eighteen-year-old boy charged with the murder of his father is at stake in Sidney Lumet’s first film, the gripping, genre-defining 12 Angry Men. After a series of establishing shots, a judge sends a dozen New Yorkers into the jurors room, where they need to come to a unanimous verdict that could lead to the execution of the teen. Over the course of about ninety minutes, an all-star cast examines and reexamines the case — and their own personal biases — as the heat increases, both literally and figuratively. At first, the nameless dozen men make small talk, trying to be friendly, but it’s not long before some of them are at others’ throats, primarily the gruff Lee J. Cobb, who has it in for the calm and thoughtful Henry Fonda, who is ready to stand alone if necessary for what he believes in. The other uniformly excellent actors playing a very specific cross-section of white, male America are John Fiedler, Martin Balsam, Robert Webber, E. G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Ed Begley, Joseph Sweeney, and George Voskovec. “I tell you, we were lucky to get a murder case,” Webber tells Fonda, but he won’t feel the same as the tension reaches near-violent proportions. 12 Angry Men is a searing examination of the criminal justice system as well as basic human instincts, behavior, and common decency. The Philadelphia-born Lumet, whose parents were both in the Yiddish theater, is able to tell the story in cinematic ways despite its taking place mostly in one small, sweaty room, letting the intense acting drive the narrative; the director, who was nominated for an Oscar for the film, would go on to make such other classic New York City dramas as The Pawnbroker, The Anderson Tapes, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, and Prince of the City. Nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and winner of the Golden Bear at Berlin, 12 Angry Men, based on an original teleplay by Reginald Rose, will be presented in a DCP restoration at Film Forum July 5-11.
