this week in art

GARSON YU: T.I.N.Y. (THE INTERACTIVE NEW YORK)

Artist Garson Yu shows how it’s done at his new multimedia public art installation (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Pier 57, 15th St. & the West Side Highway
Daily through June 16, free, 9:00 am – 7:00 pm
www.hudsonriverpark.org
t.i.n.y. slideshow

As part of the continuing transformation of Hudson River Park’s Pier 57, Garson Yu has installed the site-specific “T.I.N.Y. (The Interactive New York),” a participatory art project that uses shipping containers to create a unique trip through the sights and sounds of the city. A former New Yorker who was born in Hong Kong and is currently based in Los Angeles, Yu runs yU+co, an award-winning company that has designed titles for such films and television series as Life of Pi, 300, The Walking Dead, Watchmen, and Oz the Great and Powerful. For “T.I.N.Y.,” Yu collaborated with his son, Adrian, an NYU Cinema Studies student who shot video across the city, capturing speeding subway trains, midtown traffic, mobs of pedestrians, skateboarders, street musicians, birds, ballplayers, kids riding the swings in Coney Island, and waves on the beach. Those images are projected onto two rows of shipping containers, where they can be viewed from a third, center row of containers between them, set up to look like a subway car, with windows on either side. The accompanying soundtrack includes dogs barking, cars honking, kids screaming, and many other city noises. “Straphangers” can leave messages on the walls of the central row using colored chalk; in addition, they are encouraged to make sounds into microphones placed in colanders, the loudness and frequency affecting the projections’ speed and motion, even making them go backward, like memories flashing past. A sign by the entrance advises, “Shout Yell Holla Make Some Noise.” When we stopped by on June 1, a man kept going over to several of the microphones, hooting and hollering with abandon; it turned out that it was Yu himself, who was sticking around to check out how people were reacting to the piece and to set off a chain reaction, which worked, as various men, women, and children followed suit. Meanwhile, from up above, Yu’s friend Ik-Joong Kang’s white sculpture of a boy with binoculars sitting atop a raised shipping container keeps watch. “We are storytellers,” yU+co explains on its website. “T.I.N.Y.,” which also features a family-friendly Sound Hunt on weekends, invites people of all ages to be part of the ongoing tale.

THE ARTFUL RECLUSE: PAINTING, POETRY, AND POLITICS IN 17th-CENTURY CHINA

Xiang Shengmo, “Invitation to Reclusion,” detail, ink on paper, handscroll, 1625–26 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Fund)

Asia Society
725 Park Ave. at 70th St.
Through Sunday, June 2, $10, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-288-6400
www.asiasociety.org

The state of the world getting you down? Considering just getting away from it all, leaving everything behind and heading to the mountains to live a life of quiet contemplation and study? As the Ming dynasty fell in China in 1644 to the Manchus, many public servants, who were also painters, poets, and calligraphers, did just that. Their work is documented in the beautiful, meditative exhibit “The Artful Recluse: Painting, Poetry, and Politics in 17th-Century China,” consisting of paintings, drawings, artist books, vertical wall scrolls, and horizontal handscrolls of some twenty feet in length. Splendidly curated by Peter C. Sturman and Susan Tai, the show features works by such talented recluses as Chen Jiru, Dong Qichang, Xiang Shengmo, Chen Hongshou, Gao Jian, Shitao, and madman Bada Shanren, scholar-painters who paid tribute to the past while often slyly commenting on the present and future as the Qing dynasty took over. The scenes depicted often include a solitary subject who is hard to find, perhaps out on the river, inside a hut, or on a mountain path, a mere spec in the vast natural world. Divided into such sections as “Summoning the Recluse: Landscape as Refuge,” “1644: A Landscape Transformed,” “Nanjing: City of Memories,” and “Returning Home: Stability and Normalcy,” the exhibition includes excellent wall labels accompanying each work, shedding light on such gems as Xiang’s “Summoning the Recluse” and “Invitation to Reclusion,” Zhang Feng’s “Immortals’ Secrets in a Stone Cave,” Bada’s “Small Fish,” Shen Shichong’s “Landscape,” and Dong’s “Contemplating the Dao with Emotions Cleansed.” The show runs through June 2, giving visitors the chance to cleanse their own emotions and wonder just what it might be like to really get away from it all.

CELEBRATE ISRAEL PARADE — PICTURE ISRAEL: THE ART AND THE CRAFT

Bad weather couldn’t dampen the spirit of the 2012 Celebrate Israel Parade (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

57th to 74th St. up Fifth Ave.
Sunday, June 2, free, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
celebrateisraelny.org

On May 14, 1948, “The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel” proclaimed, “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice, and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” It’s been more than a little bumpy along the way, but Israel will be celebrating its maturation into senior citizenship on Sunday, June 2, with festivities in honor of its sixty-fifth birthday. The day kicks off with an 8:00 morning run through Central Park, followed by the Celebrate Israel Parade; the theme this year is “Picture Israel: The Art & the Craft,” focusing on “Illustrate, Create, Paint, Frame It.” The grand marshals are Long Island philanthropists Marty and Melodie Scharf and Israel Consul General Ido Aharoni, while special guests include Dr. Ruth Westheimer, journalists Harry Martin, Robert Moses, and Becky Griffith, and the Israel National Soccer Team, who will be taking on Honduras at Citi Field at 4:00. Among the many performers at the parade will be SOULFARM, the Brooklyn Jumbies, the Areyvut Mitzvah Clowns, Gilad Segev, the Barynya Entertainment Dancers, Amir Gwirtzman, the Rafi Malkiel Ensemble, Mama Doni, the BaRock Orchestra, Eyal Rob, and the Hebrew Wizards Band.

FIRST SATURDAY: LIFE, DEATH, AND TRANSFORMATION IN THE AMERICAS

“Raw/Cooked: Michael Ballou” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Michael Ballou, “Go-Go,” acrylic board, monofilament, wire, plywood, plastic cups, rug, with soundtrackby Kurt Hoffman and David Scher, 2013 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, June 1, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s long-term installation “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas” is the centerpiece of the June edition of its popular First Saturday program, with a special focus on Peru. The free monthly program will include live performances by Claudia Acuña, Chicha Libre, Rebel Diaz, Marcos Napa, and Mariachi Flor de Toloache, pop-up gallery talks, storytelling presented by the Redhawk Native American Arts Council, a curator talk of the featured exhibit led by Nancy Rosoff and Susan Kennedy Zeller, a Hands-On Art workshop in which participants can make a clay figure, and a participatory despacho ceremony, in which Q’ero healers Don Francisco and Doña Juana invoke reciprocity and loving-kindness. The galleries will remain open late so visitors can also check out “John Singer Sargent Watercolors,” a lovely collection of nearly one hundred stunning works that are a celebration of light and color; “LaToya Ruby Frazier: A Haunted Capital,” moving black-and-white portraits of Frazier and her mother and grandmother; “Käthe Kollwitz: Prints from the ‘War’ and ‘Death’ Portfolios,” devastating woodcut prints by the German Expressionist artist that display the horrors of battle, influenced by the loss of her son in WWI; “Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui,” a revelatory career retrospective of the fascinating oeuvre of the African artist who uses bottle caps and found metal and wood to create fascinating pieces; “‘Workt by Hand’: Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts,” comprising nearly three dozen American and European quilts; “Raw/Cooked: Michael Ballou” and “Dog Years” by the Williamsburg-based artist, who plays with light and shadow in the former, man’s best friend in the latter; and “Valerie Hegarty: Alternative Histories,” in which Hegarty wreaks havoc on two of the museum’s Period Rooms.

BUSHWICK OPEN STUDIOS 2013

Bushwick Open Studios will feature live performance, film, art, a neighborhood fair, a community mural, and more this weekend

Various locations indoors and outdoors in Bushwick
May 31 – June 2, most events free
www.artsinbushwick.org

The seventh annual Bushwick Open Studios takes place this weekend, consisting of three days of art, live performance, film, and other artistic endeavors. The official launch party gets going at 8:00 Friday night ($10) at Shea Stadium with Eula, Air Waves, Lodro, Darlings, and DJ Mr. Ad Hoc; there will also be concerts Friday afternoon at Don Pedro and Saturday afternoon at Lone Wolf. The neighborhood will come together for the public mural “How Does Food Unite People,” Hybrid Theatre Works will present an evening of performance art, Bossa Nova Civic Club will host a late-night Electronic Music Showcase, Brooklyn Fireproof East will be home to the Moving Forward concert, 3rd Ward will exhibit the group show “Walking into the Dashboard” (compiled from the World’s First Tumblr Art Symposium), CinemaSunday will include screenings followed by Q&As with the filmmakers, and Community Day in Maria Hernandez Park features arts & crafts, live music, family-friendly activities, yoga, and more.

PAUL McCARTHY: SCULPTURES/SISTERS

Paul McCarthy, “White Snow, Bookends,” black walnut, 2013 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Hauser & Wirth
511 West 18th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Hudson River Park, 17th St. & the Hudson River Pier
Tuesday – Saturday through June 1, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-790-3900
www.hauserwirth.com

Controversial LA-based multimedia artist Paul McCarthy continues his assault on pop culture, and particularly the Wonderful World of Disney, in his latest installations, which will be seen all over the city this spring and summer. The Salt Lake City-born artist currently has two projects that run through Saturday, June 1. At Hauser & Wirth’s vast new space on West Eighteenth St., “Sculptures” consists of a series of large-scale black walnut pieces that relate a rather adult version of the story of Snow White, combining the 1812 Brothers Grimm German fairy tale “Schneewittchen” with the 1937 animated Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Many of the girls’ faces are caught mid-orgasm, most clearly depicted in “White Snow, Cindy” (which also references supermodel Cindy Crawford) and the totem “White Snow, Erection.” McCarthy plays with the collectible aspect of Disney figures in “White Snow, Bookends,” which is divided into two parts, one on its side. The show also includes a series of pencil drawings, “Étant donnés White Snow Walt Paul Forest,” and a wall of “White Snow Tree Forest Monochromes,” square and rectangular brown sculpture paintings composed of wood, foam, and bedliner, evoking muddy woods.

Paul McCarthy, “Sisters,” bronze, 2013 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Outside and down the street, McCarthy’s bronze “Sisters” rises on the pier, a demented tableaux of decapitated animals, smiling squirrels and bunnies, an old television set, and other odd objects, centered by a pair of tall sisters on crumbling bases. It’s unlikely that Walt Disney would be happy with this scene, although the Brothers Grimm would probably be delighted. McCarthy, whose “Cultural Gothic,” a sculptural installation in which a man stands proudly next to his son, who is having sex with a goat, was a highlight of the New Museum’s recent “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star” exhibition and whose “Balloon Dog” loomed large over the Frieze Art Fair on Randall’s Island earlier this month, will continue his fascination with Snow White at the Park Avenue Armory from June 19 through August 4, when the multimedia “WS” takes over the immense Wade Thompson Drill Hall; admission is $15 and limited to those eighteen and older, so don’t expect your grandfather’s Snow White. Meanwhile, “Paul McCarthy: Life Cast” will continue through July 26 at Hauser & Wirth’s 69th St. space, lifelike casts of Elyse Poppers that evoke the 1960s sitcom That Girl, along with life-size casts of a naked McCarthy himself. And on June 20, “Paul McCarthy and Damon McCarthy: Rebel Dabble Babble” moves into the 18th St. gallery, as father and son examine Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause as only Paul McCarthy can.

NYC 1993: EXPERIMENTAL JET SET, TRASH AND NO STAR

Charles Ray, “Family Romance,” painted fiberglass and synthetic hair, 1992-93 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

New Museum of Contemporary Art
235 Bowery at Prince St.
Friday – Sunday through May 26, $12-$16
212-219-1222
www.newmuseum.org

Where were you in 1993? Thirty years ago, we were toiling for the Evil Empire, hoping that the Rangers would win their first Stanley Cup in more than half a century, seeing Springsteen on tour without the E Street Band, and looking for a new apartment after having just gotten married. But in general, 1993 found itself in the midst of a rather nondescript decade highlighted by the tempestuous presidency of William Jefferson Clinton and perhaps best exemplified by the Y2K nonproblem. The New Museum turns its attention on that one specific year in “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star.” Taking its name from the 1994 album by legendary New York underground giants Sonic Youth (the album was recorded in 1993), the show gathers together works created around 1993 by a rather distinguished group of artists, including Matthew Barney, Larry Clark, Martin Kippenberger, John Currin, Nan Goldin, David Hammons, Todd Haynes, Derek Jarman, Mike Kelley, Annie Leibovitz, Elizabeth Peyton, Cindy Sherman, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gillian Wearing, and Hannah Wilke. There are many stand-out pieces, from Robert Gober’s “Prison Window,” wonderfully placed near an “Exit” sign, Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled (Couple),” a string of lightbulbs dangling from the ceiling, and Lorna Simpson’s “7 Mouths,” consisting of close-ups of seven mouths on photo-linen panels, to Devon Dikeou’s lobby directory boards, Charles Ray’s “Family Romance,” depicting a naked fiberglass family of four, all the same height, and Paul McCarthy’s “Cultural Gothic,” in which a man seems proud that his son is doing a goat. And visitors get to walk on Rudolf Stingel’s carpet on the fourth floor and in the elevators.

Pepón Osorio, “The Scene of the Crime (Whose Crime?),” detail, mixed mediums, 1993 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

However, the show is not quite the time capsule curators Massimiliano Gioni and Gary Carrion-Murayari sought; not all of the work is actually from 1993 (Sarah Lucas’s simple but elegant 1991 “The Old Couple,” Jack Pierson’s 1991 four-letter, multicolored “STAY,” Kiki Smith’s 1992 life-size bronze “Virgin Mary,” Andres Serrano’s 1992 prints from the Morgue series), while others deal with events that occurred prior to 1993 (Lutz Bacher’s “My Penis,” in which William Kennedy Smith repeats that phrase over and over in a six-and-a-half-minute video loop; Glenn Ligon’s “Red Portfolio” references a 1989 direct-mail letter from Pat Robertson). Some of the older works, especially those not by New Yorkers, might have first been shown in New York in 1993, including at the Whitney Biennial, but it doesn’t feel all of a piece, the specific groupings making more sense to art insiders than to the general public. Still, “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star” is a fun sampling of the art of the early ’90s, even if it doesn’t make any grand social, cultural, or political statements.