this week in art

ON KAWARA — SILENCE

On Kawara exhibition explores time and place on a daily basis (photo by David Heald / © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
Friday – Wednesday through May 3, $18-$25 (pay-what-you-wish Saturday 5:45-7:45)
212-423-3587
guggenheim.org

In many ways, Japanese Conceptual artist On Kawara was the first blogger, sharing details of his life via his own social-media platforms long before the internet, but never actually revealing much about his true self. As the splendid Guggenheim exhibition “On Kawara — Silence” discloses, Kawara, who was born in Japan in 1933 and spent most of his life in New York City, where he died last July while the installation was being put together (with his participation), took a rather objective view of existence. His oeuvre comprises postcards he sent to friends and colleagues telling them what time he woke up that morning, extensive notebooks listing who he came into contact with that day, maps of where he went, telegrams to friends and colleagues confirming he was alive, and paintings of the date, accompanied by often random newspaper clippings from the same day. These elements tell us everything about Kawara, and nothing. “How can we avoid misrepresenting the art of On Kawara?” senior curator Jeffrey Weiss asks in his catalog essay, “Bounded Infinity.” “Perhaps misrepresentation of Kawara’s work is not only inevitable but useful. To be sure, regarding the work of any artist, the things we choose to say are always haunted by the things we leave out. With Kawara, however, this aspect of interpretation is specifically, even strategically compounded by the work’s evasive status.” This evasiveness extends into the Guggenheim’s online bio of Kawara, which merely states, “29,771 days,” the exact length of time he was on this planet.

On Kawara, “Telegram to Sol LeWitt, Febryary 5, 1970,” from “I Am Still Alive,” 1970-2000 (© On Kawara. Photo by Kris McKay © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York)

Such series as “I Got Up,” “Today,” “I Met,” “I Am Still Alive,” and “One Hundred Years” engage viewers and encourage exploration despite their obvious repetitiveness, as they lead you to ponder the days of your own past, the people you’ve met, the places you’ve been, and the things that happened on specific dates, which hold different memories for different people, eliciting unique emotional responses. Every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm on the rotunda, there are continuous live readings of “One Million Years,” Kawara’s lists of dates going back and forward one million years, the annums echoing through the Guggenheim. But mostly Kawara’s output is centered on the here and now, where we are at this precise time and place. “He tells us: ‘It is today!’” artist Daniel Buren writes in his catalog essay, “A Moment’s Footprint.” “On Kawara — Silence” is also a natural fit for the Guggenheim; the show is arranged primarily chronologically by series, so as visitors rise up the museum’s spiraling walkway, they circle through intriguing aspects of Kawara’s daily existence. “It had always been his dream to have a show at the Guggenheim because of the cyclical nature of time and the way that the building represents that,” assistant curator Anne Wheeler points out in an online video. “On Kawara — Silence” speaks volumes, about both him and us. (On April 28 at 6:30, “Duologues on Kawara: Alfredo Jaar and Tom McDonough” will examine Kawara’s work in relation to world events and sociocultural critique.)

SAKURA MATSURI 2015

Large crowds will gather to see the blooming cherry trees at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this weekend (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Brooklyn Botanic Garden
900 Washington Ave. at Eastern Parkway
Saturday, April 25, and Sunday, April 26, $20-$25 (children under twelve free), 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
718-623-7200
www.bbg.org

It’s been a ridiculously cold and long winter, but springtime finally seems to be here, and with it comes one of our favorite annual festivals, the Sakura Matsuri at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The weekend celebrates the beauty of the blossoming of the cherry trees with live music and dance, parades, workshops, demonstrations, martial arts, fashion shows, Ikebana flower arranging, a bonsai exhibit, Shogi chess, garden tours, shopping, book signings, Japanese food, and more. Below are just some of the highlights of this always lovely party, with many events going on all day long.

Saturday, April 25

The Battersby Show: Beginner Cosplay Crafting, with Charles Battersby, Ann Milana, Lady Ava, Mink-the-Satyr, and Uncle Yo, J-Lounge at Osborne Garden, 12 noon

Sogetsu Ikebana Demonstration, with Yoko Ikura and Shoko Iwata, auditorium, 1:00

Dancejapan with Sachiyo Ito, Main Stage, Cherry Esplanade, 1:15

Ukioy-e Illustration Demonstration with Artist Jed Henry, J-Lounge at Osborne Garden, 2:00

Samurai Sword Soul, Main Stage, Cherry Esplanade, 2:15

Urasenke Tea Ceremony, auditorium, 3:00 & 4:15

Takarabune Dance, Main Stage, Cherry Esplanade, 3:15

Hanagasa Odori Parade with flower hat dance by the Japanese Folk Dance Institute of New York, J-Lounge at Osborne Garden, 4:15

Akim Funk Buddha’s Urban Tea Ceremony, Main Stage, Cherry Esplanade, 5:00

Sunday, April 26

Children’s Suzuki Recital, Brooklyn College Preparatory Center, auditorium, 11:30

Awa Odori Parade, with Takarabune Dance, J-Lounge at Osborne Garden, 12 noon & 3:00

The Battersby Show: What Is Cosplay? with Charles Battersby, Aleta Pardalis, Dokudel, Mario Bueno, Uncle Yo, and YuffieBunny, J-Lounge at Osborne Garden, 1:00

Rock and Roll Love book signing with Misako Rocks!, J-Lounge at Osborne Garden, 2:00

Sohenryu-Style Tea Ceremony with Soumi Shimizu and Sōkyo Shimizu, auditorium, 2:30

Japanese Folk Dance Institute of New York performs Minbu dances, Main Stage, Cherry Esplanade, 3:00

Magician Rich Kameda, J-Lounge at Osborne Garden, 4:00

NY Suwa Taiko Kids All Stars, Main Stage, Cherry Esplanade, 4:15

The Sixth Annual Sakura Matsuri Cosplay Fashion Show, with original music by Taiko Masala, Main Stage, Cherry Esplanade, 5:15

HUMAN KINETICS MOVEMENT ARTS: FACETS OF TIME

The striking FACETS OF TIME takes place in the Urban Garden Room near Bryant Park (photo by Harry Schnitzler)

Who: human kinetics movement arts
What: Facets of Time
Where: Urban Garden Room, 1095 Sixth Ave. at 43rd St.
When: Wednesday, April 22 & 24, and Friday, April 29, free, 9:00
Why: Yana Schnitzler’s human kinetics movement arts specializes in site-specific dance installations in public places. In the past, they have performed at the Hudson River, on Wrightsville Beach, in a storefront on Maiden Lane, at Ground Zero, in the windows of a bank, and outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their latest work, Facets of Time, finds them in the lovely Urban Garden Room in Midtown, a glassed-in public plaza with a quartet of living green sculptures. The trilogy of slow-moving pieces, which explores the nature of perception, features a seemingly endless sheet of colorful fabric that daringly connects with the area; the audience watches from outside on the street, looking in. “Each movement installation is inspired by and created for a specific environment,” Schnitzler has written. “By utilizing elements of surprise and (dis)integration, the installations become an integral part of that environment, and at the same times give it new meaning. In their often sculpturesque character, the installations expose the hidden poetry of public spaces.”

PERFORMING, RE-ENACTING AND REACTING

Martha Wilson will be part of April 22 panel discussion looking back at the history of Franklin Furnace and the reperformance of historical works

Who: Martha Wilson, Robert Longo, Nicolás Dumit Estévez, Tavia Nyong’o, and Alaina Claire Feldman
What: “Performing, Re-enacting and Reacting”
Where: Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 West 14th St., second floor, room 213
When: Wednesday, April 22, free, 6:30
Why: In conjunction with the traveling exhibition “Performing Franklin Furnace,” curated by FF founder Martha Wilson and continuing at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery through April 30, and “Martha Wilson: Downtown” at the NYU Fales Library also through April 30, Pratt will host the panel discussion “Performing, Re-enacting and Reacting,” with Wilson, fellow artists Robert Longo and Nicolás Dumit Estévez, and cultural critic Tavia Nyong’o, moderated by Alaina Claire Feldman of Independent Curators International, celebrating the highly influential Franklin Furnace, the artist-run space whose archives have now moved into Pratt in Brooklyn, and considering the current trend of re-performing historical works.

THOMAS HART BENTON’S “AMERICA TODAY” MURAL REDISCOVERED

Thomas Hart Benton, detail, “City Activities with Dance Hall” from “America Today,” egg tempera with oil glazing over Permalba on a gesso ground on linen mounted to wood panels with a honeycomb interior, 1930–31 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of AXA Equitable, 2012)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gallery 746
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Daily through April 19, recommended admission $12-$25
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org

Several years ago, I was giving a friend a tour of Midtown lobby art when I started to lead him into the AXA Equitable Center on Seventh Ave. between Fifty-First and Fifty-Second Sts. “Why are we going in here?” he asked, adding, “I worked here for six years.” We walked in and I pointed up at the walls, which contained Thomas Hart Benton’s swirling 1930-31 mural, “America Today.” Glancing around, he said, “I can’t believe I never noticed this before.” Upon recently encountering “America Today” at the Met — AXA donated the seminal work to the museum in December 2012 while undergoing renovations — I felt as if I’d never seen it before myself, even though I had marveled at its wonder dozens of times. It has been carefully reinstalled to its original dimensions, complete with zigzagging silver Art Deco elements cutting through each piece, as commissioned in 1930 by New School for Social Research director Alvin Johnson for a circular boardroom in Joseph Urban’s West Twelfth St. modernist building. You can now get up close and personal with Benton’s dramatic depiction of contemporary America, a country built by hardworking people as technology and industry grow at an unstoppable pace. Using egg tempera that he made himself with eggs given to him by the New School (in lieu of actual monetary payment), Missouri native Benton divided the work into ten panels, each one based on scenes he had witnessed during his travels across the country in the 1920s. “Every detail of every picture is a thing I myself have seen and known,” he said. “Every head is a real person drawn from life.” Among his models was one of his students, Jackson Pollock, who posed for several characters. The panels range from the futuristic “Instruments of Power” to the Jazz Age “City Activities with Dance Hall,” from the cotton-heavy “Deep South” to the fiery “Steel” and “Coal,” from “Outreaching Hands” grasping for more to “City Building,” with skyscrapers rising in the background while men toil in the foreground. In addition to being a dynamic piece of art, “America Today” serves as an important historical document, capturing a country obsessed with progress despite the coming Great Depression. Benton’s naturalistic flair and use of color, especially reds, which stand out in every panel, add dramatic impact and cinematic scope to his narrative of America’s resiliency and determination, a story that would be told very differently if Benton were around today to report on the state of things.

Thomas Hart Benton, “Outreaching Hands” from “America Today,” egg tempera with oil glazing over Permalba on a gesso ground on linen mounted to wood panels with a honeycomb interior, 1930–31 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of AXA Equitable, 2012)

“Thomas Hart Benton’s ‘America Today’ Mural” is supplemented with works that inspired Benton, including Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “The Harvesters,” Giorgio de Chirico’s “Ariadne,” James Lesesne Wells’s “Builders,” Reginald Marsh’s “The Bowery,” and Grant Wood’s “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” as well as other Benton paintings. There is also a very informative video presentation that follows the path of the mural from inception to installation at the Met. It’s quite a story, and quite a work.

MULTIMEDIA ARTIST TALK: KEHINDE WILEY AND DJ SPOOKY

Who: Kehinde Wiley and DJ Spooky
What: Interactive multimedia talk
Where: Brooklyn Museum, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington St., 718-638-5000
When: Thursday, April 16, $16 (includes museum admission), 7:00
Why: Kehinde Wiley and DJ Spooky will team up at the Brooklyn Museum to discuss Wiley’s midcareer retrospective, “Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic,” featuring five dozen of his unique portraits and sculptures. The evening will include a talk, a performance by Paul D. Miller, better known as That Subliminal Kid, DJ Spooky, and a Q&A.

GALLERY SESSIONS: BJÖRK EXPLAINED BY A FAN

“Björk” exhibit at MoMA has led to quite a cacophony (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

BJÖRK
MoMA, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Exhibit runs through June 7, $14-$25 (timed tickets available same day only)
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
bjork.com

There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot more that can be said about Björk’s disastrous solo exhibition at MoMA, so reviled that critics are calling for the heads of chief curator at large Klaus Biesenbach and museum director Glenn D. Lowry. The truth hurts; it’s a head-scratchingly absurd show. I went in determined to see something everyone else missed, trying to find something positive in the four-part presentation, having admired Björk Guðmundsdóttir’s work for many years, from her time leading the Sugarcubes to her award-winning performance in Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark to her innovative Biophilia album, app, tour, and concert film. But alas, the simply titled “Björk” exhibition seems to go out of its way to annoy. The MoMA-commissioned ten-minute “Black Lake” music video, for a song from her latest album, Vulnicura, about her breakup with longtime partner Matthew Barney, is fine, a two-screen projection in which she lets loose against Barney, who just last week sued her for custody of their twelve-year-old daughter. “My soul torn apart / My spirit is broken / Into the fabric of all / He is woven,” she sings in a haunting volcanic landscape that features dripping substances evoking Barney’s use of petroleum jelly at the Guggenheim and in Drawing Restraint 9 (in which Björk had a major role) and lava and feces in “River of Fundament.” However, you will have to wait a lot longer than ten minutes to get into the specially designed area in MoMA’s atrium, then wait again after it’s over to enter the theater that shows many of Björk’s cutting-edge videos. Also, several of her unique Biophilia instruments play music in the lobby by the sculpture garden entrance. But it’s the heart of the show that is so disturbing, the time-ticketed “Songlines,” in which an iPod touch guides visitors through eight rooms, a chronological trip through Björk’s eight albums, from 1993’s Debut through January’s Vulnicura. The very small spaces feature handwritten notes and lyrics, costumes, video paraphernalia, and, through headphones, a bizarre fairy-tale-like fictionalized narrative, written by Icelandic poet Sjón and narrated by actress Margret Vilhjalmsdottir, about a young girl (Björk) growing up to become someone. You can’t purchase timed tickets in advance (only same day, onsite), so you might be shut out if you get to MoMA too late in the afternoon. Also, once you start going through “Songlines,” you are not allowed to go back to a previous room; you must proceed forward, and since it’s unlikely you’ll actually need all five minutes for each stop, the audio will often not be in sync with your physical surroundings.

Despite living part-time in New York (and Iceland and London) and having held several concerts in the city on her Vulnicura tour (she had to cancel her April 4 show but will be coheadlining the Governors Ball on Randall’s Island on June 6), Björk has not participated in any events and given only one interview (to Time magazine) in conjunction with the exhibit — although there are mannequins of an ornately designed Björk in “Songlines” — so MoMA is leaving it up to others to put it all in perspective and try to make sense of this utter mess. But they’re not exactly calling in the big guns; instead, on April 10 at 11:30 and April 22 at 1:30, the gallery session “Björk Explained by a Fan” will be led by an unnamed “dedicated fan of the composer, musician, and artist,” moderated by a museum educator. On April 12 and 18 at 11:30, “Sights and Sounds” will delve into how sound can be made visible. On April 17 and 24 at 11:30, “Björk” will examine art in relation to post-technological culture. And on April 26 at 11:30 and April 30 at 1:30, anyone can participate in “Björk: Human Behavior,” an open group discussion about Björk’s exploration of the connections between nature and human behavior; people are encouraged to share “their personal experience of the Björk exhibition,” which could be quite fascinating in and of itself. All talks are first-come, first-served and do not include a visit to the show. I can’t imagine that any of these talks will enhance your personal experience of a show that has been called “abominable,” “an ill-conceived disaster,” “oh so disappointing,” “a waste of time,” “a strangely unambitious hotchpotch,” and, quite simply and right to the point, “bad.”