this week in art

TWI-NY TALK: PHIL HARTMAN OF TWO BOOTS

Phil Hartman and his son, Leon, will be celebrating the silver anniversary of Two Boots on August 23 in East River Park

TWO BOOTS 25th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT: AN EVENING OF FREE LIVE MUSIC, PERFORMANCE ART, POETRY, AERIALIST, AND FOOD
East River Park Amphitheater
FDR Drive between Grand & Jackson Sts.
Thursday, August 23, free, 5:00 – 9:00
www.twoboots.com
www.summerstage.org

Twenty-five years ago, New York native Phil Hartman and Doris Kornish opened Two Boots in the East Village, a pizzeria with a distinct Cajun flavor. In the ’90s they began expanding, adding a movie theater that screened alternative and foreign films while introducing pizzas named after fictional and real pop-culture figures. Today there are more than a dozen Two Boots restaurants, across Manhattan as well as in Brooklyn, New Jersey, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, selling specialty pies named for such favorite characters as Mr. Pink from Reservoir Dogs,, Andy Kaufman alter ego Tony Clifton, Newman from Seinfeld, Larry Tate from Bewitched, No. 6 from The Prisoner, Dr. John, Bella Abzug, Bette Midler, and Charlie Parker as well as the Village Vanguard. On August 23, Hartman and his son, Leon, who also works in the business, will host a free concert in East River Park in honor of Two Boots’ silver anniversary, featuring performances by Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, Mamarazzi, Odetta Hartman, Himalayas, the Whiskeyhickon Boys, Lady Circus, and the Magic Beans; the event will also include poetry from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (Caroline Rothstein, Mahogany Browne, and Marshall “Soulful” Jones ) and the City Lore/Bowery Poetry Club’s POEMmobile, live art and painting by Lizzy Grandsaert and Kat Carrot Flower, the Homespun Mini-Merry-Go-Round, and informational booths from the Lower Eastside Girls Club, the Lower East Side Ecology Center, and Time’s Up. The festivities will be emceed by actor Luis Guzmán, for whom the Luisaida pie is named after, and there will be free samples of the Newman and the Larry Tate. Phil discussed Two Boots, the revitalization of the Lower East Side, and more in our latest twi-ny talk.

twi-ny: What were the initial expectations when you opened your first pizza place twenty-five years ago?

Phil Hartman: Doris Kornish (my original partner) and I had two principal motivations: we badly needed funds to finish postproduction on our first film, No Picnic, which would go on to receive an award at Sundance in 1988, and we’ve always operated under this premise at our restaurants — don’t try to cater to an imaginary audience, just do something that we really love and hope that other people agree with us.

twi-ny: How did the idea for naming pies after famous fictional characters get started? Do you need to get permission to use the names? If so, has anyone ever turned you down?

Phil Hartman: The character names didn’t start until eight years in — beginning with Larry Tate, Mr. Pink, and Newman. I’ve always loved second bananas, oddballs, and the overlooked and underappreciated. And we’ve never been turned down — we just figure we’re honoring these characters and they would be proud of it.

twi-ny: What is your personal favorite slice?

Phil Hartman: The Bayou Beast (andouille, crawfish, jalapeños, mozzarella, and sauce), which combines the best of both worlds (Italy and Louisiana) is my fave — though as their parent, you know I love all the slices.

twi-ny: Is there a specific combination that you really wanted to work but it just couldn’t come out quite right?

Phil Hartman: My biggest disappointment is that we never really made our Pizza Piazza work — Mike, being one of our all-time idols (we’re enormous Mets fans); the pie was too soupy but will be resuscitated when he enters the Hall of Fame next year!

twi-ny: On August 23, you’ll be celebrating your twenty-fifth anniversary with a free concert in East River Park. How did the lineup come together?

Phil Hartman: We’ve always loved African pop music, and given that Fela Kuti is no longer with us, we had the chance to reach out to the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars and grabbed it. Mamarazzi is an amazing local Afro-funk band, with lots of our friends in it; Odetta, our daughter, just recorded her first album, and is bringing together her band and lots of special guests; Himalayas is an awesome Brooklyn marching band, which will rock the crowd, from within the crowd; Whiskeyhickon Boys are one of our house acts — gangsta folk at its best; plus Lady Circus from House of Yes, Nuyorican Poets Cafe all-star poets, live art by 4heads Art Collective, a mini-merry-go-round, and lots more.

twi-ny: When the first Two Boots opened back in 1987, the Lower East Side was a very different place. Since then, you’ve been at the center of the neighborhood’s transformation, adding such events as the Howl! Festival and leading an influx of new restaurants, music venues, and other institutions in addition to a revitalized Tompkins Square Park. How would you compare the Lower East Side of the 1970s and ’80s to the way it is now?

Phil Hartman: We’ve lost a lot of the color and complexity, but there still are a lot of great folks and great organizations carrying on the countercultural tradition here. It’s a lot less scary, which is good if you’re raising three kids here (like I have), but also a lot more tame (which is a shame!).

SURFACE TENSION: THE FUTURE OF WATER

Eyebeam Art + Technology Center
540 West 21st St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through August 11, free, 12 noon – 6:00
212-937-6580
eyebeam.org

Part of this year’s World Science Festival, “Surface Tension: The Future of Water” takes a playful yet serious look at the natural elixir of life. Running through August 11 at Eyebeam, the interactive exhibit features installations by engineers, artists, scientists, and others that examine H2O from a multitude of different angles. Hal Watts’s “Bottled Waste” asks visitors to turn a crank to feel how much energy is needed to fill a liter of water. Kieren Jones, Alexander Groves, and Azusa Murakami examine the growing levels of plastic garbage in the ocean in “The Sea Chair Project.” David Bowen’s “Tele-Present Water” is a hanging sculpture that creates waves based on weather patterns experienced by a data buoy station adrift in the Pacific. Di Mainstone, Louis McCallum, Nanda Khaorapapong, Richard Shed, and David Gauthier’s “Hydrocordion” encourages people to make music by manipulating water in cylindrical aqua flutes using their hands and feet. Ralph Borland reveals that the highly praised PlayPump project, in which children in developing countries participate in pumping drinkable water, does not work quite as well as promised in “The Problem with the PlayPump.” Fergal McCarthy re-creates the 1968 Burt Lancaster film The Swimmer, based on a John Cheever story about a man who makes his way through a Connecticut community by swimming in private backyard pools, by making his way through Dublin using private and public pools, rivers, seas, and canals. The most spectacular installation is Julius Popp’s “BIT.FALL” (seen in slow motion in the above video), in which free-falling water forms words that are being sourced live from the internet, a pixelated waterfall of digital information that is visible only for a few seconds. “Surface Tension” is an intriguing and enlightening exhibition that focuses not only on the many uses of water but the challenges faced by those who need it so desperately.

PARALLAX AF

82Mercer
82 Mercer St. between Spring & Broome Sts.
Saturday, August 4, and Sunday, August 5, free with suggested donation, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
www.parallaxaf.com
www.82mercer.com

Beginning in London and proceeding to Miami, the Parallax Art Fair, familiarly known as P(AF), is coming to New York this weekend, moving into 82Mercer on Saturday and Sunday. Adventurous art lovers can enter for free to peruse items for sale in a way that fair curator and conceiver Dr. Chris Barlow promises will provide “an intellectual framework that encourages risk to buy what you actually like for a change—there is nothing worse than making a purchase you like and some ‘specialist’ sneering down their nose at you.” Dr. Barlow is looking to lever the playing field with P(AF); as he writes on the fair’s website, “Consensus is not objective. It is temporary, arbitrary, and artificially reinforced by Art History. It is one thing for a major collector like Charles Saatchi to identify surface problems in the industry, as he has done recently, but we must probe much deeper and tackle the core problems if we are to transform the industry, and its pedagogical wings, from the inside out. This is perhaps one method for generating a more democratic and diverse cultural sector.” Exhibitors from more than two dozen countries will be on hand, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, and Turkey, with an online catalog that can help you narrow down which specific art you might be most interested in.

SUMMER STREETS

The people will occup Park Ave. for three successive Saturdays during annual Summer Streets program (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Park Ave. & 72nd St. to Foley Square
Saturday, August 4, 11, 18, free, 7:00 am – 1:00 pm
www.nyc.gov

The New York City government — or at least Mayor Michael Bloomberg — is on a mission to make its citizens healthier. While that has led to controversy over trans fats and the size of soft drinks, it has also resulted in the annual Summer Streets program, when Park Ave. is closed to vehicles from 72nd St. all the way down to Foley Sq., instead to be filled with people walking, jogging, skating, and biking between seven in the morning and one o’clock in the afternoon. On August 4, 11, and 18, the third annual Summer Streets will include activities for the mind and body throughout the route, which features several rest stops. At Fifty-first St., there will be a tai chi class taught by the Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA, bachata lessons from the Piel Canela Dance Company, a double dutch performance by the National Double Dutch League, theatrical teasers from the upcoming New York Fringe Festival, salsa lessons from Salsa New York, and an Ecuadorian dance performance courtesy of the Ayazamana Cultural Center. At Fortieth St., you’ll encounter restorative yoga and meditation by Yoga Agora, massage therapy from Pegasus Wellness, and a site-specific urban art installation. At Twenty-fifth St., you can rent bikes and rollerblades for free and learn about recycling. At Astor Pl. and Lafayette St., Crunch will host a series of public workouts, including Sunrise Salutations and Masala Bhangra, and you can find another site-specific urban art installation. At Spring and Lafayette, the REI Outdoor School will hold bicycle seminars, with free repairs from Bicycle Habitat, and you can climb a rock wall. And finally, at Foley Square, there is yoga from Shape Up NYC, a Taiwanese Temple Fair from Chio-Tian Folk Drum & Arts Group, a dance cardio workout led by Broadway Bodies, free zip-lining, more art, a mobile playground, and live performances from Still Saffire, Asphalt Green, and the National Double Dutch League. Even if that is all too much to swallow, just going for a leisurely stroll down a vehicle-free Park Ave. makes for a memorable experience.

FIRST SATURDAYS: CARIBBEAN RHYTHMS

Zing Experience will help celebrate Haitian culture at Brooklyn Museum on Saturday night

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, Augsut 4, free, 5:00 – 10:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum is getting into its annual Caribbean groove with its August First Saturdays program, celebrating the cultural heritage of Haiti. The free evening begins at 5:00 with Val Jeanty, Buyu Ambroise, and Zing Experience showcasing a mix of Haitian music and also includes dance performances by Makeda Thomas (FreshWater), NICODA (How We Are Connected), and League of Unreal Dancing and a dance workshop taught by Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy. There will be a screening of Reina de mi misma, Queen of Myself: Las Krudas d’ Cuba, Celiany Rivera-Velázquez’s 2010 documentary about the lesbian hip-hop group Las Krudas, as well as a book talk with Elizabeth Nunez, who will discuss her 2011 novel, Boundaries, which deals with a Caribbean immigrant in New York. There will also be gallery talks and a hands-on art workshop, along with time to see such exhibitions as “Raw Cooked: Ulrike Müller,” “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company,” “Playing House,” “Rachel Kneebone: Regarding Rodin,” “Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913–1919,” and others.

CHARLES LONG: PET SOUNDS

New Jersey-born artist Charles Long has populated Madison Square Park with a group of colorful, amorphous musical creatures (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MAD. SQ. ART
Madison Square Park
25th St. between Madison & Fifth Aves.
Through September 9, free
www.madisonsquarepark.org
pet sounds slideshow

For several years, California-based multidisciplinary artist Charles Long been inspired by the Los Angeles River, particularly the detritus that washes up on the shore and the excrement of the blue herons and white egrets that snakes down the concrete, forming abstract images that he sees as creatures and interprets into sculptures. He has also collaborated with such musicians as Stereolab, Wilderness, and Mark Mothersbaugh. Long’s latest work, the site-specific “Pet Sounds,” combines his love of abstract shapes and experimental music in engaging, playful ways. Taking its name from the classic 1966 Beach Boys album, “Pet Sounds” winds through the center of Madison Square Park, as handrails create a new path populated by a group of colorful amorphous shapes that emerge from the railing and make sounds when people touch them. A kind of three-dimensional Rorschach test, the smooth biomorphic blobs, which add bright doses of blue, yellow, gray, pink, and purple to the very green park, resemble body parts, animals, and, well, excrement. Different sounds emerge from different sections of some of the pieces, resulting in a cacophony that is not quite as smoothly harmonic as the Beach Boys but still tons of fun. It might look like a kids’ playground, but adults are more than welcome to let out their inner child and create their own mini-symphony with these inviting organic shapes. Long’s largest public sculpture to date, “Pet Sounds” will remain on view through September 9.

CHIN CHIH YANG: KILL ME OR CHANGE

Chin Chih Yang’s “Kill Me or Change” will feature thirty thousand aluminum cans dropped on the artist in front of the Queens Museum

Queens Museum of Art
New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Saturday, July 28, and Sunday, July 29, free, 2:00
718-592-9700
www.queensmuseum.org

On Saturday and Sunday, Taiwanese artist Chin Chih Yang will bury himself under a barrage of thirty thousand aluminum cans, making a statement about art, the environment, recycling, and overconsumption. The longtime New Yorker will present “Kill Me or Change” in front of the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, a follow-up to his 2007 installation in Union Square Park, “123PollutionSolution,” in which he collected thirty-five thousand cans and ten thousand MetroCards and placed them in a rectangular arrangement on the ground. While you’re at the museum, you should go inside as well, where a five-dollar suggested donation will let you see such special exhibits as “Ada Bobonis: Stages, Mountains, Water” and “Caribbean: Crossroads of the World” and such long-term shows as “A Watershed Moment: Celebrating the Homecoming of the Relief Map of the New York City Water Supply System” and the spectacular “Panorama of the City of New York.”