this week in art

SUMMER STREETS: VOICE TUNNEL BY RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s “Voice Tunnel” welcomes pedestrians into the Park Ave. Tunnel for the first time ever (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

SUMMER STREETS
Park Ave. Tunnel, 33rd – 40th Sts.
Saturday, August 10 & 17, free, 7:00 am – 1:00 pm
www.nyc.gov
voice tunnel slideshow

In such multimedia projects as “Open Air,” “Semioptics for Spinoza,” “First Surface,” and “Voice Array,” Mexican-born Canadian electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has used light, sound, movement, and touch to create interactive, immersive installations that require public participation. In 2008, his “Pulse Park” measured the heart rate of individuals in Madison Square Park and turned those biometric rhythms into beams of light that radiated across the oval lawn. Lozano-Hemmer’s latest New York piece, “Voice Tunnel,” is the highlight of this year’s “Summer Streets” festival, in which the city closes down Park Ave. to vehicular traffic for three successive Saturdays (August 3, 10, and 17) from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, instead encouraging people to walk, jog, run, bike, blade, and stroll down the famous thoroughfare and make their way to five rest stops filled with special free activities.

Visitors add their voice to affect light and sound in interactive tunnel installation (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

For “Voice Tunnel,” part of Lozano-Hemmer’s “Relational Architecture” series, the artist has installed three hundred theatrical spotlights that line both sides of the tunnel, projecting arcs of light that race across the ceiling, then go dark. The speed and frequency of the chasing lights are directly impacted by people’s voices; near the center of the tunnel, visitors can say anything they want into a microphone box, lasting between one and five seconds, with volume mattering. The word or phrase can then be heard echoing among the one hundred and fifty loudspeakers in the tunnel, mixing with the sounds of the previous eighty-nine participants. (Try to seek out the exact speaker that is emitting your recording.) Up to five hundred people are allowed in the tunnel at a time, and that is a first; the tunnel, which runs from Thirty-Third to Fortieth St., has been closed to pedestrians since it was built in 1834. Try not to get too caught up in taking pictures and video and instead let the light and sound envelop you, since without your involvement, nothing would happen. It’s also fascinating to realize that Lozano-Hemmer, who refers to his oeuvre as “antimonuments for alien agency,” is primarily using old-fashioned, more analog-type materials for “Voice Tunnel,” although everything is processed through a central computer station. “Depending on what is happening that day, you might see a very wide variety of different reactions, and that’s what I’m excited about,” Lozano-Hemmer says about the project. “I’m excited that this platform is out of my control.” “Voice Tunnel” is an enticing, engaging, and just plain fun display; don’t miss it.

GRAVITY AND GRACE: MONUMENTAL WORKS BY EL ANATSUI

El Anatsui’s hanging works welcome visitors to fascinating show (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

El Anatsui’s hanging works welcome visitors to fascinating retrospective (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Brooklyn Museum
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, fifth floor
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Wednesday – Sunday through August 18, suggested donation $12
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

Over the last decade, Ghana-born, Nigerian-based abstract artist El Anatsui has been gaining international fame for his unique sculpture-paintings that hang from ceilings and walls and climb across floors. The works, which often resemble maps, are composed of aluminum liquor bottle caps of a multitude of colors, woven together with copper wire by a team of assistants into patterns that Anatsui then puts together to form larger pieces that evoke African history, mass consumption, environmentalism, and the intimate physical connection between people all over the world. This continuing series welcomes visitors to the outstanding Brooklyn Museum exhibition “Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui,” which also looks back at the artist’s past while revealing his fascinating process.

El Anatsui’s “Waste Paper Bags” look back at African history while also evoking modern-day environmentalism (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Much of Anatsui’s oeuvre changes every time it’s shown at a new location, hung a little differently, without the same type of lighting, allowing them to be experienced anew; they also benefit from being viewed from a distance and then close up, offering varying perspectives. The show is expertly laid out, from the mazelike hallway entrance to the side-by-side “Red Block” and “Black Block” to the inclusion of several videos that show Anatsui at work in his studio and walking around, seeking out found objects and ideas for future projects. “I don’t believe in artworks being things that are fixed,” the artist and longtime teacher has said. “You know, the artist is not a dictator.” Indeed, painted wood reliefs such as “Motley Crowd” and “Amewo (People)” from the 1980s and ’90s are meant to be altered, with curators encouraged to rearrange the blocks of wood as they see fit. It’s all part of Anatsui’s “nomadic aesthetic” and dedication to the “nonfixed form,” representing multiple materials in varying shapes and sizes while also celebrating personal freedom. His titles also capture an international flavor, with such names as “Drifting Continents,” “Earth’s Skin,” and “Amemo (Mask of Humankind).” And make sure to get up close to “Ozone Layer,” which has the added bonus of air being blown in through the wall, creating sound and movement.

“Red Block” and “Black Block” hover behind “Peak” in beautifully curated show (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

“Red Block” and “Black Block” hover behind “Peak” in beautifully curated exhibition (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The exhibition, Anatsui’s first solo show in a New York museum, also features charcoal and graphite drawings, acrylic works on paper, and “Waste Paper Bags,” a collection of large-scale sculptures made of discarded aluminum printing plates that relate to Nigerian culture as well as go-bags that Ghanaian refugees packed when escaping their country in a hurry. It’s a terrific show that has been extended two weeks through August 18; there is also still time to see his “Broken Bridge II” outdoor wall piece on the High Line, which runs through September. Admission to the Brooklyn Museum is free on August 4 for the monthly First Saturdays program, the theme of which is Caribbean, with live performances by Casplash, Los Hacheros, and Zing Experience, curator talks, screenings of the omnibus film Ring Di Alarm and Storm Saulter’s Better Mus’ Come, an artist talk with Miguel Luciano, dance workshops, a discussion with author Nelly Rosario about her debut novel, Song of the Water Saints, and pop-up gallery talks focusing on specific works by Anatsui.

SUMMER STREETS 2013

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s interactive “Voice Tunnel” is a highlight of this year’s free Summer Streets programming

Park Ave. & 72nd St. to Foley Square
Saturday, August 3, 10, 17, free, 7:00 am – 1:00 pm
www.nyc.gov

Good luck trying to find one of those blue Citi Bikes for the next three Saturday mornings, as Summer Streets returns for the fourth year. On August 3, 10, and 17 from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, Park Ave. will be closed to vehicular traffic from 72nd St. to Foley Square and the Brooklyn Bridge, encouraging people to walk, run, jog, blade, skate, and bike down the famous thoroughfare, getting exercise and enjoying the great outdoors without car exhaust, speeding taxis, and slow-moving buses. There are five rest stops along the route (Uptown at 52nd St., Midtown at 25th, Astor Pl. at Lafayette St., SoHo at Spring & Lafayette, and Foley Square at Duane & Centre), where people can stop for some food and drink, live performances, restorative yoga and meditation, fitness classes, bicycle and parkour workshops, ziplining, rock-wall climbing, and other activities, all of which are free. In addition, there are four site-specific art installations, including Risa Puno’s “The Course of Emotions: a mini-golf experience” at the Uptown Rest Stop, Chat Travieso’s “CoolStop” water mister at Foley Square, Bundith Phunsombatlert’s “Art within One Mile” self-guided adventure consisting of eighty signs from Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge, and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s “Voice Tunnel,” an interactive sound and light work that will allow pedestrians into the Park Ave. Tunnel for the first time ever. It’s quite a sight to see Park Ave. filled with only extremely happy men, women, children, and dogs; don’t miss it.

CHELSEA ART WALK SUMMER 2013

Rachel Hulin’s “Cape Flight” is one of many photos capturing her son seemingly flying through the air (© Rachel Hulin / courtesy ClampArt)

Multiple locations in Chelsea
Thursday, July 25, free, 5:00 – 8:00
www.artwalkchelsea.com

Nearly one hundred galleries will stay open till 8:00 on July 25, many hosting opening or closing receptions, during the fourth annual Chelsea Art Walk. Over at Lombard Fried Projects, Lucien Samaha’s “The Flight Attendant Years: 1978-1986” details the artist’s longtime relationship with airplanes, first as the son of a father who worked for the airline industry, then as a TWA flight attendant who graduated from the prestigious Breech Training Academy. Marianne Boesky is celebrating summer with “Sunsets and Pussy,” with images of both by Ed Ruscha, Lucien Smith, Betty Tompkins, and Piotr Uklanski. At Bryce Wolkowitz, JR follows up his “Inside Out New York City” project with “The Wrinkles of the City, Havana,” a collaboration with José Parlá in which they take photographs of people in Cuba’s capital and put large-scale versions on the sides of buildings. Rachel Hulin will be at ClampArt for the opening of her first New York City solo show, “Flying Henry,” which consists of photos of her six-month-old son seemingly soaring through the air like a child superhero. Julie Saul is currently showing Siberian photographer Nikolay Bakharev’s “Amateurs and Lovers,” a series of black-and-white shots, primarily nudes, taken both inside and outside, providing a unique sense of intimacy.

Karen Finley’s “The Art World and Its Discontents” is a work-in-progress on view at Freight + Volume’s “The Decline and Fall of the Art World, Part 1: The One-Percenters”

Beverly McIver explores her identity as an African-American artist in a group of portraits at Betty Cuningham. Ana Cristea promises to “serve bliss” with James Viscardi’s “Present Perfect.” David Zwirner is featuring early work by Robert Arneson in its 20th St. space and a pop-up bookstore at 519 West 19th St. Franz Prichard will give a tour and lecture on Takuma Nakahira’s “Circulation: Date, Place, Events” at Yossi Milo, Jon Irving, Matt Van Asselt, Joyce Kozloff, and Leslie Golomb will participate in artist talks in conjunction with the International Print Center show “New Prints / New Narratives,” Masako Inkyo will offer a calligraphy demonstration at Onishi Project, Susan Shwalb will give a silverpoint demonstration at Garvey/Simon, and visitors can play a game of Inclusion and listen to the band Challenger at Rare Gallery. In addition, a number of artists will open their studio doors at 526 West 26th St., including Melora Griffis, Xanda McCagg, Arlene Rush, Ayn S Choi, William Evertson, Farhana Akhter, and Myrna Minter-Forster.

MUNCH / WARHOL AND THE MULTIPLE IMAGE

Andy Warhol, “The Scream (After Munch),” screenprint on Lenox Museum Board, 1984 (© 2013 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society, New York)

Scandinavia House
58 Park Ave. at 38th St.
Tuesday-Saturday through July 27, $5, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
212-847-9740
www.scandinaviahouse.org

“Isn’t life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?” Andy Warhol rhetorically asked. “I have no fear of photography as long as it cannot be used in heaven and in hell,” Edvard Munch explained. Shortly after a 1982 Munch exhibition, New York’s Galleri Bellman commissioned Warhol (1928-87) to create pieces based on the work of Munch (1863-1944). The pairing of the two men — one a fame-obsessed pop-culture junkie with a very particular public persona, the other a deeply personal artist who explored dark psychological themes and suffered from severe anxiety — actually makes a lot of sense, as each experimented with printing techniques for both artistic and commercial purposes. As part of Munch 150, a worldwide celebration of the Norwegian painter’s 150th birthday, Scandinavia House is hosting “Munch | Warhol and the Multiple Image,” which brings together works by the two printmakers. For the Galleri Berman commission, Warhol chose Munch’s “Madonna,” “Self-Portrait,” “The Brooch. Eva Mudocci,” and “The Scream,” tracing photographic blow-ups of the original image, breaking them down into their bare elements and then re-creating them, incorporating different colors, ghostly doubling, and other effects that give new life to Munch’s famous images. The exhibition, splendidly curated by Dr. Patricia G. Berman and Pari Stave, consists of thirty-two prints, including multiple versions of Munch’s controversial “Madonna,” in which he sexualizes his dark-haired subject, adding spermatozoa and an infant in many of the works, and a pair of self-portraits, one a trial proof never before displayed in America, in which his head and upper body seem to be floating in a dark nothingness. In a series of eight diptychs titled “Madonna and Self-Portrait with Skeleton’s Arm (After Munch),” Warhol places the images side-by-side, changing color and resolution, desexualizing and resexualizing the woman as her initial artistic creator stares blankly at the viewer. Warhol’s psychedelic versions of musician Mudocci include the tracing that has a hint of Michael Jackson in the face. In the back room is a nearly dizzying series of “The Scream (After Munch),” as Warhol and his master printmaker, Rupert Jason Smith, play with line, form, and color, altering the prominence of the background and foreground, each screenprint providing different emotional takes on Munch’s iconic, oft-reproduced image.

“Munch | Warhol” exhibit brings together two iconic printmakers (photo by Eileen Travell. Scandinavia House/The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 2013)

Ultimately, it’s that repetition, with minor or major changes, that most directly link the two artists, both of whom reworked their originals over and over again to create commercially viable multiples. As it turned out, Warhol’s Munch-based lithographs were never published as an edition, the multiples never released as a multiple of its own. “Munch | Warhol and the Multiple Image” continues at Scandinavia House through July 27; on July 23 at 6:30, Dr. Jay A. Clarke will give the lecture “Munch’s Repetition” (free but advance RSVP suggested), and there will be a docent-led tour on July 27 at 1:00.

“I’M HERE” SPECIAL EVENTS

Chath pierSath, “Where Snow Falls,” acrylic and collage on paper, 2013

Tally Beck Contemporary Gallery
42 Rivington St. between Eldridge & Forsyth Sts.
Wednesday, July 24 & 31, and August 7, free, 6:00
Exhibition continues through August 30
646-678-3433
www.tallybeckcontemporary.com

In conjunction with the exhibit “I’m Here,” a series of mixed-media collages by Cambodian-born poet, artist, and humanitarian Chath pierSath, who escaped first to Thailand and then the United States as a child after losing much of his family to the Khmer Rouge, Tally Beck Contemporary is hosting a trio of special free talks on three successive Wednesdays. On July 24, Tally Beck will deliver the illustrated lecture “The Art and Architecture of Angkor Wat,” examining the history and legacy of the massive temple built in the early twelfth century by King Suryavarman II, as well as recent developments. The talk takes place at 7:30, preceded by a reception beginning at 6:00. That will be followed on July 31 by “A History of Contemporary Cambodian Art” and on August 7 by an artist’s talk with pierSath, whose show at the Lower East Side gallery remains on view through August 30. Advance RSVP to the talks are recommended and can be made here.

RAIN ROOM

Visitors can magically walk through “Rain Room” at MoMA without getting wet (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Museum of Modern Art
West 54th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Through July 28
Museum admission: $25 ($12 can be applied to the purchase of a film ticket within thirty days)
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.momaps1.org/expo1
rain room slideshow

If only it were so easy to control the weather. In the lot adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA is presenting rAndom International’s “Rain Room,” an immersive, interactive installation in which visitors walk through falling water without getting wet. A series of sensors detect body motion, creating a barrier as people move slowly through the space, the spigots above them shutting off as they pass beneath them. A penetrating white light shoots through the rain, resulting in marvelous shadows and other very cool visual imagery. (Note that MoMA advises not to wear “dark, shiny, reflective fabrics, fabrics made of raincoat material, or skinny high heels”; also, if you move fast, the sensors won’t pick you up as well and you will get a little wet.) Only ten people are allowed inside at a time, and they are encouraged to stay for no more than ten to fifteen minutes, as the lines have been ridiculously long, stretching four hours and more. Members can start going in at 9:30, with nonmembers filing in at 10:30. In a wonderfully wacky little twist, on especially hot, sunny days MoMA hands out umbrellas to people on line, not to protect them from the rain in the exhibit, but to guard them against the beating sun as they stand outside absorbing the heat.

To accommodate the large crowds, MoMA has also instituted a faster-moving viewing line, allowing people to go inside and see “Rain Room” from the sides but not actually walk under the water and get the full experience. Although it is gimmicky, “Rain Room” is a lot of fun, too, offering visitors a unique way to kind of part the Red Sea themselves. It takes on even more meaning as climate change has been leading to dangerously unpredictable weather patterns that humanity has no control over, with many scientists claiming that it might be too late to save the earth as we know it. The U.S. premiere of “Rain Room,” which continues through July 28 as part of MoMA’s expansive “EXPO 1: New York” at PS1, will be followed this fall by “Autonomy,” a related show in RH Contemporary Art’s new gallery in Chelsea, owned by Restoration Hardware. “EXPO 1: New York,” the theme of which is “Dark Optimism,” runs through September 2 in Queens, featuring environmentally conscious works by such artists as Olafur Eliasson, Meg Webster, Adrián Villar Rojas, Marie Lorenz, and Ansel Adams as well as special “Speculations” talks through July 28 with Lynn Hershman Leeson, Otto Piene, and others.