this week in art

BECOMING-CORPUS

LEIMAY’s BECOMING-CORPUS explores the nature of the human body (photo by Yara Travies)

BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
Through September 15, $20
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.leimaymain.cavearts.org

Becoming-Corpus is another mesmerizing, meditative multimedia production from director and choreographer Ximena Garnica and video and installation artist Shige Moriya, the principals behind the Brooklyn-based LEIMAY company (Floating Point Waves, Furnace). The seventy-minute piece opens with a breathtaking scene in which seven dancers (Masanori Asahara, Andrew Braddock, Andrea Jones, Liz McAuliffe, Denisa Musilova, Eija Ranta, and Savina Theodoru) stand still onstage, louvered black-and-white shadows projected across their bodies. Slowly they begin swaying, giving the impression that they are gently rocking on the sea. Meanwhile, Tommy Schell walks imperceptibly slowly across the back, a trip that will last all seventy minutes. Soon the dancers, five of whom are topless, start exploring their bodies as if they’ve just been born, in intricate ensemble movements that feature solos created by picking out individual dancers with spotlights. At one point they balance with their shoulders on the floor, their backs facing the audience, making them appear headless, arms and legs emerging as if they are hatching out of an egg. Birth is one of the subjects of the piece, as the dancers learn what their bodies are capable of by learning and experimenting with their limbs. The piece features an electronic score by Roland Ventura Toldeo, Christopher Loar, and Laddio Bolocko, with light projections by Moriya that create fascinating meshlike and shadowy elements directly on the dancers’ bodies and futuristic computer visuals on the floor and backdrop. A beautiful, elegant piece expertly performed with a playful dose of humor, Becoming-Corpus continues through September 15 at BAM Fisher’s Fishman Space, supplemented by an art installation in the Peter Jay Sharp Lobby that includes mixed-media representations of the creators’ and dancers’ faces, heads, and bodies as well as casts of Garnica and Moriya dangling from the ceiling, in addition to a specially designed “artifact” publication that details the development and process of the work. (There will be a post-show audience roundtable on September 13, the preshow “Tracing the Art” talk with Garnica and Moriya on September 14, and a closing night toast on September 15. To see our 2012 interview with Garnica and Moriya, please go here.)

LEIMAY: BECOMING-CORPUS

BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
September 12-15, $20-$50
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.leimaymain.cavearts.org

In such previous performances as Furnace and A Timeless Kaidan, the Brooklyn-based LEIMAY company have combined striking lighting and visuals with Butoh-inspired movement and electronic music to create mesmerizing works that often employ nudity as they test the capacity of the human body. For its latest avant-garde piece, LEIMAY — Colombian-born dancer and choreographer Ximena Garnica and Japan-born video artist Shige Moriya, the duo behind CAVE, the New York Butoh Festival, and the Williamsburg SOAK festival — has created the immersive multimedia performance installation Becoming – Corpus, running at BAM Fisher September 12-15. Part of BAM’s Professional Development Program, Becoming – Corpus consists of a visual art installation in BAM Fisher’s Peter Jay Sharp Lobby that includes molds of Garnica’s and Moriya’s bodies and investigates their creative process, along with four dance presentations in the Fishman Space featuring Masanori Asahara, Andrew Braddock, Andrea Jones, Liz McAuliffe, Denisa Musilova, Eija Ranta, Tommy Schell, and Savina Theodoru. The show incorporates a real-time six-channel video designed by Moriya and a live electronic score by Roland Toledo and Christopher Loar with meditative movement choreographed by Garnica. The September 12 show is a benefit performance that will be followed by an opening party and a silent auction; there will also be a post-show audience roundtable on September 13, the preshow “Tracing the Art” talk with Garnica and Moriya on September 14, and a closing night toast on September 15. To see our 2012 interview with Garnica and Moriya, please go here.

PUBLIC ART FUND TALKS — IRAN DO ESPIRITO SANTO: PLAYGROUND

Iran do Espírito Santo’s “Playground” alters perception of light and space at entrance to Central Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The New School, Tishman Auditorium
66 West 12th St. between University Pl. & Sixth Ave.
Wednesday, September 11, $10, 6:30
“Playground” continues through February 16 at Doris C. Freedman Plaza
212-223-7805
www.publicartfund.org
playground slideshow

For his first public installation in the United States, São Paulo-based artist Iran do Espírito Santo has created “Playground” at Doris C. Freedman Plaza at the entrance to Central Park on 60th St. & Fifth Ave. Resembling a gray Lego or Tetris construction, “Playground” also evokes such previous Public Art Fund projects as Sarah Sze’s “Corner Plot,” Sol Lewitt’s “Structures,” and Ryan Gander’s “The Happy Prince.” Appearing unfinished, the cubelike, thirteen-foot-square “Playground,” which do Espírito Santo refers to as an “idealized ruin,” has missing concrete blocks that form geometric shapes of their own and allow visitors to walk inside, offering uniquely framed views of the surrounding area, which includes trees, the Plaza Hotel, and passing taxis and horse carriages, in a seemingly changing relationship with light and space that plays with perception. Although its name brings to mind the many playgrounds in Central Park, people are not allowed to climb on it, although taking a seat on one of the blocks is encouraged. The largest piece in the Brazilian artist’s “Destroços” (“Remains”) series of architectural fragments, “Playground” will be on view through mid-February. On September 11 at 6:30, do Espírito Santo will be at the New School giving his first New York lecture, discussing the work, which is part of the Public Art Fund project “Square Pegs, Round Holes: From White Cube to Public Sphere” and continues October 2 with Mark Manders and November 13 with Allora & Calzadilla.

ABBY ALDRICH ROCKEFELLER SCULPTURE GARDEN: THE MODERN MONUMENT

Katharina Fritsch’s “Group of Figures” is back in MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, which is now open for free every morning from 9:00 to 10:30 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Museum of Modern Art
The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden
West 54th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Early hours: open daily 9:00 – 10:30 am, free
www.moma.org

Designed in 1953 by architect Philip Johnson, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden resides on the site that was once the town-house home of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, one of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art. A socialite and philanthropist who married John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1901, Aldrich was the mother of Abby, John III, Nelson, Laurance, Winthrop, and David Rockefeller. The garden has been one of the great, peaceful respites of New York City for sixty years, its multiple levels and reflecting pools, which Johnson called “canals,” along with its birches and beeches, offering visitors a beautiful space to commune with both art and nature en plein air. Beginning September 9, the sculpture garden will be open for free starting at 9:00 each morning, ninety minutes before the rest of the museum opens to paying customers. Early risers can buy coffee and other drinks and enjoy the garden’s current arrangement of sculptures, “The Modern Monument,” which consists of old favorites as well as newer delights. Walking around the garden, one will encounter Alberto Giacometti’s “Tall Figure, III,” Jenny Holzer’s “Granite Bench,” Joan Miró’s “Moonbird,” Barnett Newman’s “Broken Obelisk,” and Pablo Picasso’s “She-Goat.” Aristide Maillol’s “The River” still dangles over one of the pools, while Hector Guimard’s “Entrance Gate to Paris Subway (Métropolitain) Station, Paris, France” stands in its longtime space at the far east end and Henri Matisse’s stunning quartet, “The Back,” lines its usual wall, celebrating the human body. Also on view are Mark di Suvero’s “For Roebling,” Tony Smith’s “Die,” Claes Oldenburg’s “Geometric Mouse, Scale A,” Picasso’s “Monument,” and Katharina Fritsch’s colorful “Group of Figures.” The most recent addition to the garden is Stephen Vitiello’s audiovisual installation “A Bell for Every Minute,” which was created for the High Line and now resides outside at MoMA, a collection of different bells from around the city chiming minute after minute. In 2004, when the museum returned to Midtown after a major renovation and expansion (and temporary move to Queens), architect Yoshio Taniguchi restored the garden to its original dimensions, explaining that it is “perhaps the most distinctive single element of the museum today.” And now entrance to this most distinctive element is free every morning from 9:00 to 10:30.

FIAF OPEN HOUSE

The Nature Theater of Oklahoma will be presenting an exhibit of drawings as well as episodes 4.5 and 5 of LIFE AND TIMES at FIAF this fall

French Institute Alliance Française
Florence Gould Hall and Tinker Auditorium, 55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Le Skyroom and FIAF Gallery, 22 East 60th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, September 10, free, 6:00 – 8:00
212-355-6160
www.fiaf.org

The French Institute Alliance Française is getting ready for the fall season, highlighted every year by its multidisciplinary Crossing the Line festival, with a free open house on September 10. From 6:00 to 8:00, visitors will be able to sample French wine and cheese in Tinker Auditorium, check out the Nature Theater of Oklahoma drawings exhibit “10fps” in the FIAF Gallery, receive beauty treatments in Le Skyroom, explore the new digital library Culturethèque, meet author-artist Gwenaëlle Gobé (The Diary of Stephanie: Electoral Surge) in the Haskell Library, watch Ruben Toledo’s short animated film Fashionation in Florence Gould Hall (with Toledo introducing the 7:00 screening), and take mini-French classes in the sixth-floor Language Center. Look for twi-ny’s preview of the 2013 Crossing the Line Festival next week.

LOWER EAST SIDE OPENING NIGHT: ART AND FASHION

Strange Loop group show focuses on fashion design and photography (photo by Ryan Burke)

Orchard St. at Grand St. and other locations
Sunday, September 8, free, 4:00 – 8:00 pm
www.lowereastsideny.com

The Lower East Side says goodbye to the summer season and welcomes the new fall shows at the second annual Lower East Side Opening Night: Art + Fashion, taking place on Sunday, September 8, from 4:00 to 8:00. More than fifty galleries will be participating in the free block party, with opening receptions for such shows as Jella Gueramian’s “Let’s Go Further” at Allegra LaViola, “Vaginascope: Sijae Byun’s Solo Exhibition” at Tally Beck Contemporary, Katherine Bradford’s “Small Ships” at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, Brian Leo’s “Party’s Over, If You Want It” at S&J Project(s), and the group exhibit “dots, stripes, liquid cyber, and other platitudes: Fashion Design — Fashion Photography” at Strange Loop, which provides an excellent segue into the evening’s other highlight, the “Looks of the LES” fashion show. Curated by Amy Odell of cosmopolitan.com, the fashion show features hairstyling by Adel Atelier and makeup by Dustin Knoblauch, with presentations from such local stores as Any Old Iron, the Cast, the Dressing Room, Old Hollywood, the Great Frog, Earnest Sewn, Urban Cricket, By Robert James, and others. In addition, there will be live music by DJ Onda Skillet, Nancy, Countdown Love, DJ Anton Bass, Heaven, and Threats.

STATE OF MIND: NEW CALIFORNIA ART CIRCA 1970

Paul Kos, “Sound of Ice Melting,” two twenty-five-pound blocks of ice, eight boom microphone stands, mixer, amplifier, two large speakers, and cables, 1970/2011 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse at 165th St.
Thursday – Sunday through September 8, free, 11:00 am – 6:00 (8:00 on Fridays)
718-681-6000
www.bronxmuseum.org

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a group of West Coast artists developed an evolving brand of California Conceptualism that incorporated environmental concerns and social interaction into works that explored consumer culture and the changing political landscape with a wry sense of humor while redefining what art is and could be. Originally mounted as part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time series, “State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970” continues at the Bronx Museum of the Arts through September 8, comprising approximately 150 paintings, drawings, photographs, video, performances, and installation from 60 artists. Curators Constance Lewallen and Karen Moss have arranged the splendidly designed exhibit into such thematic sections as “The Street,” “Public and Private Space,” “The Body and Performance,” “Language and Wordplay,” and “Feminism and Domestic Space,” offering an exciting, well-paced tour of a California avant-garde immersed in the counterculture revolution of the era.

Visitors are encouraged to walk through Barbara T. Smith’s “Field Piece” and trip the light fantastic (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

For “Hair Transplant,” Nancy Buchanan exchanged body hair with Robert Walker. For “California Map Project,” John Baldessari spelled out the name of the state using geographic formations. Visitors can walk into Bruce Nauman’s immersive “Yellow Room (Triangular)” and prance through Barbara T. Smith’s “Field Piece,” lighting up nine-foot-tall blades of grass made of translucent resin. For her “Sitting Still” series, Bonnie Sherk took a seat in public places as people passed her by. Lowell Darling offers visitors a diploma from the Fat City School of Finds Art. Allen Ruppersberg Sunset Boulevard “Al’s Grand Hotel” is partially re-created, a 1971 project in which people could actually rent rooms and become part of the art. One of the highlights of the exhibit is a trio of video monitors showing cutting-edge, experimental short films by Chris Burden, Paul McCarthy, and Nauman that subvert the traditional nature of the creative process. For “Sound of Ice Melting,” Paul Kos surrounds a block of ice with eight microphones, which make the ice a kind of celebrity with not a whole lot to say. Other artists featured in the show are William Wegman, Martha Rosler, Ed Ruscha, Lynn Hershman, David Hammons, Eleanor Antin, Terry Fox, Allan Kaprow, and Bas Jan Ader, who literally died for his art. Although State of Mind” is a snapshot of a very specific period in the history of twentieth-century American art, it also reveals how these conceptualists not only captured the zeitgeist of the times but opened a wide artistic path for the future. The Bronx Museum is open Thursday through Sundays, and admission is always free. This week’s First Fridays program features live performances and special screenings from participants in the “Bronx Calling” Second AIM Biennial, which consists of works by such emerging New York area artists as Allison Wall, Diana Shpungin, Alejandro Guzmán, Daniele Genadry, and Alan and Michael Fleming. The evening will include Katie Cercone’s ritual-based “Queen$ Domin8tin,” Alicia Grullon’s “Cold War Karaoke Night” in which the audience can reenact cold war speeches, and the Flemings’ “Objects and Extensions,” a dance piece in which the brothers integrate their bodies into the architecture of the museum.