this week in art

twi-ny talk: BARBARA POLLACK / MIRROR IMAGE

Barbara Pollack first visited China in 2004 (photo courtesy Barbara Pollack)

MIRROR IMAGE: A TRANSFORMATION OF CHINESE IDENTITY
Asia Society Museum
725 Park Ave. at 70th St.
Wednesday – Sunday through December 31, $7-$12
Artist Talk July 21, free, 7:00
Brooklyn Rail talk Tuesday, August 9, free, 1:00
asiasociety.org

In a 2010 twi-ny talk, Barbara Pollack noted, discussing her book The Wild, Wild East: An American Art Critic’s Adventures in China, “Until the late 1990s, the art world was extremely narrow-minded and unwilling to think that a major talent could come from somewhere other than Europe or North America. That has changed forever, good riddance.”

Pollack spent the following decade meeting with, writing about, and researching these major talents, in China and other countries, leading to her next book, 2018’s Brand New Art from China: A Generation on the Rise.

Right before Covid-19 forced the lockdown of restaurants, theaters, museums, and other businesses in March 2020, Pollack’s “Mirror Image: A Transformation of Chinese Identity” had been scheduled to open at Asia Society but had to be put on hold. Pollack, a writer, teacher, curator, and visual artist with a law degree, pivoted immediately and formed, with Anne Verhallen, Art at a Time Like This, a nonprofit that presents sociopolitical art, both on- and offline. Finally, after a more than two-year delay, “Mirror Image,” curated by Pollack with guest curatorial assistant Hongzheng Han, opened at the Park Ave. institution in June and has just been extended through the end of the year.

The exhibition, which Pollack sees as a kind of follow-up to Asia Society’s seminal 1998 show “Inside Out: New Chinese Art,” features multimedia works that explore the idea of “Chinese-ness” by seven artists who were born on mainland China in the 1980s, six of whom are still primarily based there. In her curatorial statement, Pollack explains, “These artists continue to push forward. We no longer view them as ambassadors from an exotic land but as representatives of a world we share.”

Pixy Liao, who lives and works in Brooklyn and was born in Shanghai in 1979, contributes intimate digital chromogenic still-lifes of parts of her and her partner’s bodies. Cui Jie creates futuristic cityscapes with hints of the past in large acrylic paintings. Tianzhuo Chen invites viewers into one of his ecstatic theatrical performances in the five-minute two-channel video Trance. Liu Shiyuan, who divides her time between Beijing and Copenhagen, combines found images with original footage in dizzying prints. Miao Ying, who lives and works in Shanghai and New York City, incorporates online gaming into her computer-animated film Surplus Intelligence, while Pilgrimage into Walden XII is a live simulation that learns over time. Tao Hui’s Similar Disguise Stills is accompanied by QR codes that take visitors into digital TikTok soap operas with nonbinary characters. And Nabuqi’s How to Be “Good Life” is a living room installation, influenced by Martin Heidegger and Richard Hamilton, that questions how popular culture invades personal spaces.

Tao Hui, Similar Disguise Stills, archival pigment prints mounted on aluminum panels, 2021 (photo courtesy of the artist, Kiang Malingue, Esther Schipper, and Macalline Art Center, Beijing)

On July 21, Pollack will moderate a conversation with Pixy and Miao at Asia Society and Nabuqi and Tao participating remotely; the talk can be viewed in person as well as online here.

Pollack is an old friend; her second book was represented by Stonesong, my wife’s literary agency. Pollack recently discussed the impact of the internet on Chinese art, putting together an exhibition during a pandemic, the Chinese art market, Chinese identity, and more in her latest twi-ny talk.

twi-ny: The exhibition includes a timeline that goes back to President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 and Mao’s death in 1976. I know this could take a book – and you’ve written several on the subject – but, in a nutshell if possible, what have been some of the biggest changes in Chinese art and the perception of Chinese artists since then?

barbara pollack: I begin the timeline with Nixon’s visit and Mao’s death, basically the end of the Cultural Revolution, the most repressive period in modern Chinese history. The artists in this show were mostly born five to ten years later and had no experience with that kind of scary attitude toward intellectuals and creatives. In fact, they grew up in a world where there was an art infrastructure including auction houses, galleries, and, finally, new contemporary art museums. This all happened really quickly.

In the 1990s, art was still kind of underground, but by 2000, China hosted a major biennial, several official auction houses, and a few galleries. By the time these artists were exhibiting, China had an art market that rivaled that in the U.S. Most people here don’t realize that Shanghai now has a dozen contemporary art museums and there are several hundred galleries between Shanghai and Beijing and other cities. That creates an incredibly rich environment for artists to exhibit their works, despite censorship and other drawbacks.

twi-ny: The internet came to China in 1994, and much of the art in the show incorporates elements of AI, high-tech social media, and online gaming. How did the internet impact the work Chinese artists were creating?

bp: In 1994, China was still a pretty isolated, agrarian society. The internet changed everything for everyone, but mostly the generation born in the 1980s, as are the artists in this show. Suddenly you no longer had to smuggle in catalogues or merely read about shows of contemporary art elsewhere in the world. It took a while for the internet to improve, but soon you could get information directly. Artists in China learned rapidly how to have their own websites and how to email international curators. I know this firsthand by those who contacted me early on. But more importantly, before the establishment of the Great Firewall — China’s surveillance of all internet activity — people in China could learn about Chinese history not included in domestic textbooks. It was an eye-opening period and one of the reasons that this younger generation is so enthralled with the liberation that came from this technology.

twi-ny: In our 2010 twi-ny talk, you pointed out that Chinese artists were able to produce without the interference of the Ministry of Culture and that restrictions rarely impeded their output. Is that still true? That was two years before Xi Jinping took over as general secretary.

bp: I have no idea what has happened in the last two years, but it should be noted that in 2014, Xi Jinping gave a speech exhorting media, television, films, and art producers to “serve the people” and uphold Chinese culture. That’s a return to Mao’s rhetoric during the Cultural Revolution. As a result, there has been a rise in self-censorship for sure. I need to return to China to see how this has had an impact on cultural institutions and art making.

Miao Ying, Surplus Intelligence, single-channel film with sound, 2021-22 (courtesy of the artist)

twi-ny: Speaking of going to China, what was it like putting “Mirror Image” together during the pandemic? You’re used to traveling there often, but I imagine that because of Covid, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and other political situations, that is not possible.

bp: “Mirror Image” was supposed to open in the spring of 2020, just as Covid took over New York City and museums and galleries were closed. I was devastated that the show was canceled at that point. In fall 2021, Asia Society came to me and revived the show. By then, I knew we could not ship works from China — not because of Covid but because of shipping tariffs imposed by Donald Trump. So we used “virtual shipping,” with artists sending photo works and videos digitally.

Even Nabuqi’s great installation — originally created in Beijing with elements bought at the local IKEA — was completely assembled in NYC. The artist sent us a “shopping list.” We ordered from IKEA here and then she directed the installation via Zoom with a translator in the museum. I think that’s a perfect example of how globalization can impact — even facilitate — art making in the twenty-first century. Also, several galleries — Kiang Malingue in Hong Kong, Tanya Bonakdar in Chelsea, Pilar Corrias in London, and Chambers Fine Art downtown — were incredibly helpful in sourcing works in the U.S. I really have to thank the team at Asia Society for an extraordinary effort to pull this together.

twi-ny: The exhibition includes a wild video installation by Tianzhuo Chen; a few years back, you attended one of his performances here in the city. What was it like to experience it in person?

bp: Tianzhuo’s work is the most visceral experience I have ever had in an art institution. It’s like watching wild animals refusing to get back in their cages. The tension between the space and the performers is absolutely riveting.

Pixy Liao, Play Station, digital chromogenic print, 2013 (courtesy of the artist and Chambers Fine Art)

twi-ny: Another highlight of the show are ten digital chromogenic prints by Pixy Liao. How did you get introduced to her work?

bp: I met Pixy early in her career, around 2010, when she came to New York. She and her partner, Moro, have their own quirky band and I saw them perform at Printed Matter. I may have known her even before that. I love working with Pixy because she has no ego and comes off like a cutie pie but is actually quite brilliant and powerful. That’s the tension that comes through in the photographs. Her images really speak to people about the state of relationships in today’s gender-fluid world, not just in China or Chinese communities.

twi-ny: For people who might not know that much about contemporary Chinese art, what do you think will most surprise them about this show?

bp: Everything! Many Americans have such a limited view of China that they don’t even believe that creativity is possible in such a repressive society. It is repressive, but that is the framework that Chinese artists push against and test the limits of. Almost all of the work in the show has been shown in China without problems. Many of these artists have major markets with a new generation of young Chinese collectors, and internationally. But this may change. I’m worried about the future. Very worried.

twi-ny: On July 21, you will be moderating a conversation with four of the artists. What are some of the main topics you will be discussing?

bp: We will start with a discussion of how being born in China has influenced their choices as artists and whether that still guides their work. Then I will allow the artists to guide the discussion more or less. But this issue of identity will obviously recur throughout the evening. Most of the artists have told me they are citizens of the internet, not China. We’ll see where that leads us.

[You can watch a recording of the panel discussion here. Pollack will also be participating in a free Brooklyn Rail New Social Environment discussion on Zoom on August 9 at 1:00 with artists Liu Shiyuan and Miao Ying, moderated by Lilly Wei and featuring a poetry reading by Abby Romine.]

twi-ny talk: RUSSELL MALTZ: PAINTED / STACKED / SITE

Visual artist Russell Maltz monitors the load out for installation on Jay St. in DUMBO (photo by Matthew Deleget)

RUSSELL MALTZ: PAINTED / STACKED / SITE
Minus Space
16 Main St., Suite A, Brooklyn
Saturdays through July 30, free, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
www.minusspace.com
www.russellmaltz.com

When I first arrived at Minus Space in DUMBO to see “Russell Maltz: Painted / Stacked / Site,” I thought that the final phase of the Brooklyn-born visual artist’s multipart four-month retrospective had spilled out of the gallery and into the street. Since the mid-1970s, Maltz has been creating works using a wide range of materials, from concrete cinder blocks, glass, and pegboards to found wood panels, PVC pipes, paper, and a swimming pool; he has collaborated with construction companies, and he enjoys photographing artlike industrial detritus. There’s a lot of construction going on outside the gallery, some of which evoked Maltz’s use of color and materials.

Minus Space first showed his “POOL” project beginning in April, followed by “Stacks,” and now concludes with “Needles,” consisting of long, narrow vertical works of acrylic and polyurethane on glass plate and wood, suspended from a galvanized nail, each at a different height on the wall, forming three-dimensional palimpsests. Depending on where the viewer stands, they’ll experience varying depth of space in the works, including reflections of what is happening on Main St. — in this case, bringing the outside construction inside. In the main gallery each piece is a shade of blue, creating unique shadows on the walls. (There are additional works in other colors in the office.)

In conjunction with the exhibit, Maltz put up a temporary installation in a storefront at 28 Jay St., and his Scatter sculpture is part of a group show in Hillman Garden at 100 Broome St. in Luther Gulick Park this summer.

Maltz is a relaxed, easygoing guy who loves discussing art; below he talks about color, material, Brooklyn, and working during the pandemic.

twi-ny: You’re a Brooklyn boy, like me.

russell maltz: Yes, I am.

twi-ny: What do you think about how Brooklyn has changed over the years? I can’t imagine a place like Minus Space existing when I was a kid.

rm: I was born in Brownsville. My family moved to Canarsie when I was two or three years old. We lived in the Bay View Housing Project down by the Belt Parkway alongside Jamaica Bay.

twi-ny: I was born in Flatbush.

rm: Many different types of people lived [in Canarsie], mostly working class and from many ethnic and religious backgrounds. I’ve always regarded Brooklyn as a place where there is an ever-changing community of people. I think that the essence of any community and its value is all about the neighborhood. It seems that what is changing and what is inevitable is that in many places the need for development and the changes to a neighborhood that the development brings has priced out many of its current and historic residents from living in that particular neighborhood — the folks who made it what it is. Development should enrich a neighborhood and should be community-based so that the people who live there can continue to contribute to its identity and culture.

twi-ny: I couldn’t agree more. Since April, Minus Space has been showing a retrospective of your career in different phases, going back five decades. What has it been like putting together each individual section? Were you flooded with memories?

rm: Always — although, there was a prequel to the Minus Space exhibition in 2017 at the Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken in Saarbrücken, Germany, that was accompanied by a monograph that covered work from 1976 through 2017. The work shown in Saarbrücken was mostly done in Europe during these years. The Minus Space show gave me the opportunity to build from the Saarbrücken show in that [Minus Space owner] Matthew Deleget and I decided to make this show in three phases. Each phase would represent a different period of my work and identify the common threads within the work that continue to identify the work to present.

The “POOL” project (1976–79) explored the origins of my ideas and philosophies, the “Stacked” works (1983–2022) explored works made as sites and examined how color transforms material, and the third phase, “Needles” (2018–22), explores my concerns with painting on glass. Combined with other simultaneous activities, such as at 28 Jay St., the installation of construction materials in a vacant storefront, and the “Yardbirds” installation at the Hillman Houses on the Lower East Side, painted wooden elements used by gardeners in their everyday gardening activities. All of these venues gave me a chance to exhibit the many forms that my work can take and elevate the question of what a painting can be.

twi-ny: How did Scatter come about?

rm: The Hillman Garden came about as an invitation from a good friend, the artist David Goodman. David along with sculptor Bruce Ostler invited several artists to install their work in the garden. A garden to me exudes the energy of change: changing seasons, changing growth, and changing habit. I decided to do a work that comprised numerous wooden stakes used by the gardeners (mostly people who live at the Hillman Houses) to stabilize the trees. I painted the stakes Day-Glo yellow. It started in early April as a pile of painted material leaning against the garden shed and was transformed, evolving into a work that was scattered and used by the gardeners for its original purpose. The yellow color enhanced the daffodils, complemented the daylilies, and spread a smattering of color throughout the garden in a natural and random way, creating yet another way to see a painting.

“Russell Maltz: Painted / Stacked / Site” continues Saturdays through July 30 at Minus Space in DUMBO (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

twi-ny: This month at Minus Space you’re showing your more recent fragile “Needles.” What were some of the main considerations when hanging the show?

rm: The “Needle” works began in 2013. I had been developing a series of works using glass because of my ongoing explorations with transparency. For this phase of the exhibition I wanted to install the most recent pieces on glass and give the work the space to breathe to establish a presence in the site and give the viewer time to experience each work as a unique one.

twi-ny: How do you decide what materials to work with?

rm: The “Needles” are a result of a serendipitous event that occurred while working in my studio. I was cutting long lengths of plywood for another piece I was working on. When the cutting was complete and as I was doing my cleanup, I saw a bunch of sawn-off strips lying in a pile on the floor; the results of one action can be the beginnings of another action — and — Aha! Well, the rest and what was to follow came quickly in that these long narrow strips evolved into the exploration of color, form, and presence with various materials in yet another way to make a painting.

twi-ny: Your use of color is striking, particularly bright yellow and green and bold red. In a recent Minus Space talk, you said that “color is the glue that holds it all together.” What comes first — material or color, and how do they come together for you?

rm: Most, if not all of my inspirations and ideas about what I make, come from everyday life, both locally and when I travel. This is a great question because the answer is not always identifiable for me, in that the order of a thing that is inspirational or evokes me into the process of making has a sequence. However, if there is one thing that might be identifiable, it would most likely be light. It is the light that is the identifier to action, and the color that is the glue that transforms and holds the work in place.

twi-ny: The show also features two red stacks (ACCU-FLO Bundled #1 & #2) in the side window that are visible to passersby. There’s a lot of construction going on in the street, so it makes for a fascinating juxtaposition. You were a carpenter and a house painter, but I can imagine your having been a construction engineer in a previous life. Do construction sites really get your juices flowing?

rm: Yes. Not so much in that the sites are there but in the sheer energy of focus, coordination, and human power and coordination that it takes to engage in the process of making.

twi-ny: How did the pandemic lockdown affect your work? Were you able to spend productive time at your Crosby St. studio, or was creating difficult?

rm: I was in New York City for the entire run of the pandemic. It was for me one of the most productive times I can remember. It gave me the time I needed to do what I want and love most to do . . . the work.

NEW AGORA: JULY — ART, MUSIC, YOGA, AND MORE AT SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK

The art in Socrates Sculpture Park will be activated with special programs on July 9 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Who: Woomin Kim, Greg Hammontree, Douglas Paulson and Nicole Brancato, Rudy Walker Ensemble, Cooper-Moore, Ununu, Elliott Sharp, Duology, more
What: Jazz Foundation of America presentation for Second Saturdays
Where: Socrates Sculpture Park, 32-01 Vernon Blvd. at Broadway, Long Island City
When: Saturday, July 9, free, 9:30 am – 8:00 pm
Why: Socrates Sculpture Park and the Jazz Foundation of America have teamed up for a special day of live music, workshops, and more on July 9, activating the historic park and its current art installations. There will be yoga at 9:30 and 11:00 in the morning; from 10:00 to 2:00, the Hellgate Farm Stand will be open, and the Astoria Food Pantry will distribute free clothes, books, and essential items and collect nonperishables and clean clothing; at 11:00, Field Guide: Wildlife Among Us — Finding Shelter will take preregistered participants on a tour of the park, focusing on where animals and insects make their home; and at noon, artist Woomin Kim, whose “Shijang Project” quilts are at Susan Inglett Gallery in Chelsea until July 29, will lead a collage workshop with Noguchi Museum educators. In addition, Greg Hammontree’s ambient soundworld Trumpet Echoes will ring out all day in the Grove of Trees, where you can walk through the adaptive sonic space.

The afternoon will include live thirty-to-forty-five-minute concerts, featuring part I of .soundfullness by Douglas Paulson and pianist Nicole Brancato at the front gate BBQ area at 2:00, the Rudy Walker Ensemble at the Cobblestone Stage at 3:00, pianist Cooper-Moore inside Hélio Oiticica’s Subterranean Tropicália Projects PN15 at 4:00, improv trio Ununu at the North Gate Stage and part II of .soundfullness at the front gate BBQ area at 5:00, the legendary Elliott Sharp playing “Monkulations” on acoustic guitar in Oiticica’s installation at 6:00, and Michael Marcus’s Duology at the Main Stage at 7:00.

As you enter the park, you encounter the Broadway Billboard The Marooned Picturesque Series (Socrates) by New York City native Joiri Minaya, which was selected by the Socrateens. On view through August 14, Oiticica’s Subterranean Tropicália Projects PN15 is an immersive circular environment of an unrealized work by the late Brazilian artist and activist Oiticica, who was honored with a terrific exhibition at the Whitney in 2017, “To Organize Delirium.” Originally conceived for Central Park, the piece is now centered at Socrates, where visitors can follow narrow, winding paths to surprise places; facing the front of the park is a small platform and screen behind mesh, where live performances and screenings are held. Sharp and Cooper-Moore will play inside on July 9; on August 14, the closing reception is highlighted by “We are one only heart, one only earth, one only soul,” an invitation to the public by Brazilian Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa to learn about the violence the Yanomami people are facing at the hands of the Brazilian government.

In the Grove of Trees, where you can hear Trumpet Echoes, you will find Maren Hassinger’s Two Bushes, a new pair of sculptures made of iron wire hiding in plain sight among the natural elements of the park, harkening back to Hassinger’s Three Bushes, which were part of the 1988 group exhibition “Sculptors Working” at Socrates. The New York–based artist has also installed “Steel Bodies” throughout the park, consisting of ten steel sculptures inspired by different types of vessels throughout history; some of them resemble open cages, which you can walk into, offering a unique perspective on your relationship to the people and nature around you, while their placement, and the shadows they create, interacts dramatically with the surrounding trees, skyscape, and outdoor studio of Socrates cofounder Mark di Suvero. [To see all the artwork in the park, go here.]

KENZO DIGITAL’S AIR AT THE SUMMIT

Kenzo Digital’s Air offers a new perspective on making connections in the city (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

AIR
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt
45 East Forty-Second St. at Vanderbilt Pl.
Admission: $39-$73
summitov.com
kenzodigital.com
online slideshow

“I wanted New Yorkers to come and watch their home come back to life, to reengage with their friends and family they hadn’t seen for a long time and create ritual and ceremony around human connection, which is actually the antithesis of New York, which is a highly transactional city where people are just trying to survive,” Kenzo Digital said on a private walkthrough of his multipart permanent installation, Air, near the top of the SUMMIT One Vanderbilt skyscraper. “So I want to have a place where people can forget about that aspect of their survival identity in New York and connect through a primal curiosity on a basic, authentic level.”

Kenzo, a graffiti artist, DJ, and film and video director who has worked with Kanye West and Beyoncé, had lofty goals when designing Air; he didn’t want the project to just be an Instagram-friendly tourist attraction but to generate other, more meaningful conversations, especially among New Yorkers.

“In a nutshell, what I wanted to do was essentially create an experience of physical space that was capable of having a deep emotional and psychological relationship with a human being over the course of their entire life. The idea is you walk into this space and it will feel different every time,” he explained. “I wanted to create something that specifically challenges and defies language, both the written word and the image. It’s impossible to describe what this is, even though you can break it down by its components and you’d be correct, but it’s impossible to describe the effect of the experience and the emotional impact. Everyone is wrong and right in different ways, and it will be a different wrong and right every time you come.”

Air consists of several floors of fantastical views of New York City and dramatic reflections, reaching high into the sky and way down below, of the humans occupying the space on the ninety-first floor and above. “We built the entire thing during the pandemic. It was like making art in a science fiction film. It was . . . fucking crazy,” Kenzo notes. Glass windows and mirrors are arranged in geometric patterns that result in awe-inspiring repeated imagery that forces visitors to try to find their body in the space as well as their position in the city and the world. Kenzo, whose previous installations include Social Galaxy, which featured chambers where visitors were barraged by their social media history, and the immersive haunted house Nocturnal Awakening, considers the work to be “the story of your relationship to time, your relationship to New York City, your relationship to weather, and also your relationship to yourself.

“It’s about the relationship between the natural world and the physical world,” he points out. “If there is an approaching storm from New Jersey, you will see the city as an organism react to that storm — cars, traffic, people move differently, with rain on the street, fewer people, umbrellas pop up. You can see the city as an expression of nature. People always talk about the life force of New York; Air is an organ within that life force, the heart of it that contains its spirit. This is expressing the infinite power of chaos that is the collision of uncontrollable variables: nature, time, the world, your emotions, your place in all of this.”

Visitors first take an elevator that recalls one of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity rooms, with lights flashing on and off and mirrors that reflect the passengers into an endless oblivion. You get out at “Transcendence,” a large rectangular space with tall windows that offer stunning views of the city on three sides and glass floors that reflect the inside and the outside. It will take you a while to orient yourself, especially as you look down at what appear to be multiple levels of people either upright or upside down as buildings, blue sky, and clouds merge with the interior space.

“There are so many avenues, it almost looks like they’re delivering you to the front doorstep of One Vanderbilt,” says Kenzo, who speaks quickly and excitedly, like a child with a new toy. “And because it’s positioned so symmetrically, you can almost see the city like an organized system of neighborhoods; you understand it spatially, you understand the grid, and that grid is magnified and deconstructed within the grid of reflection that exists in here.” The gridlike structure recalls the multimedia installations of the father of digital art, Nam June Paik, who arranged television sets into wholly new, living environments; Kenzo is the late Nam June’s great-nephew and the creative director of his great-uncle’s estate.

Much of the eye contact in Air is made via the reflections, so you can connect with individuals who are not in your immediate physical space, if you can find them. It’s a far cry from being on the subway, for example, where many straphangers go out of their way to avoid eye contact with anyone.

When I mention to Kenzo that it’s hard to tell who is actually on the mezzanine and what are reflections, he replies slyly, “They are asking themselves the same question about you.”

In the mezzanine, you can look down and see how the next batch of people initially react to the area. Kenzo explains, “The idea behind Transcendence II is this concept of folding time in the sense of that when you’re up here, you’re essentially watching people exposed to the concept for the first time, and so the idea of connective language through primal curiosity is in effect because you see people, just where you were a few minutes ago, processing the information at a base level for the first time. So as we were just down there, observing that there’s a physical mezzanine up here and making eye contact, everyone up here has already established equilibrium and has the foundation of knowledge and information, and everyone down there is still figuring out what’s going on.” Kenzo envisions Air as encompassing human development: “crawl, walk, run, fly.”

Kenzo Digital stands next to the Empire State Building in his permanent installation at Summit One (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The idea for Air emerged from Kenzo’s subconscious.

“This is all based on a recurring dream I’ve had for twenty-five years; it’s a strangely, deeply personal thing,” Kenzo reveals. “In the dreams there’s a fictitious skyscraper, residential; so I’ve had these dreams that took place in the top two floors, the penthouse of the skyscraper, which is circular in shape, which is why I have the two circles on the east and west side as a nod to that dream. So it’s the ability to project my dream and then put it inside of other people’s mind and then for that to be a shared dream. And oftentimes I find people dream about it after the experience.”

Affinity is a room of silver balls, reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s helium Silver Clouds, that visitors can run through, kicking the balls in the air and against mirrors and windows, each ball reflecting themselves, those around them, the view, and other balls as dozens of orbs seem to multiply into thousands in a fun deluge. “It’s constantly engaging with the city; it’s always an inside-outside experience,” Kenzo says. In another room, the inside-outside connection involves a projection of sky and clouds on the wall and the floor as scanned images of your face are added to a large screen.

Levitation puts you in a space where you are seemingly floating above the skyline, standing on a transparent floor facing a window so clear that it makes you feel like it’s not there, that you are on a ledge, midtown Manhattan right below you. Cameras are set up to take a picture and/or video of you in the space that you can pick up at the exit. As wondrous as it is to look at, it also makes you feel the interdependence between nature, technology, and humanity as well as the impermanence of life. “It’s the story of your relationship to time, your relationship to New York City, your relationship to weather, and also your relationship to yourself,” Kenzo explains. You can further those relationships by taking the outside glass elevator, Ascent.

Levitation offers a chance to seemingly float above New York City (photo courtesy Summit One)

Kenzo honors Japanese artist Kusama with her 2019 work Clouds, a collection of amorphous stainless-steel and wax floor sculptures that also reflect visitors and the sky; it is the first of a rotating series of exhibitions Kenzo will curate by other artists in the space.

Kenzo sees Air as an ever-changing, always-evolving experience that changes from day to day, hour to hour, depending on the crowd and the weather, and he wants it to be more than just a photo opportunity that’s over when you leave.

“There’s a part of you that stays in here,” he says thoughtfully.

SigSpace: EMANCIPATED STORIES

Who: Quiara Alegría Hudes, Sean Ortiz, Sean Carvajal, Dominic Colón, Kenyatta Emmanuel, Suave Gonzales, Renee Goust, David Zayas, Kenyatta Emmanuel, Renee Goust, Jamie Maleszka, more
What: Installation and pop-up events
Where: Signature Theatre, the Pershing Square Signature Center Lobby, 480 West Forty-Second St. at Tenth Ave.
When: June 29 – July 24, Tuesday – Sunday, noon – 5:00, free
Why: Last summer, the Signature Theatre reopened with the immersive installation The Watering Hole, which included Vanessa German and Haruna Lee’s “This Room Is a Broken Heart,” part of which involved choosing a postcard designed by an incarcerated individual and sending a note to someone living behind bars. This summer the Signature has taken that a step further by teaming with the Fortune Society and Emancipated Stories to present an installation focusing on words and art by incarcerated people. Founded in 1967, the Fortune Society’s mission is “to support successful reentry from incarceration and promote alternatives to incarceration, thus strengthening the fabric of our communities . . . through believing, building lives, and changing minds.” Emancipated Stories was started by prison reform activist and playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes and her cousin Sean Ortiz, who spent ten years behind bars, as a way for incarcerated people to have their voices heard through handwritten letters that are shared on Instagram and in special installations.

Hudes, the Signature’s premiere writer-in-residence and author of such works as In the Heights, Water by the Spoonful, Daphne’s Dive, and Miss You Like Hell, explained in a statement, “The thing that’s fun and safe about theater is that the basic rule of engagement is one of listening. The fundamental contract is: I’m going to listen, I’m going to pay attention. Similarly, what we’re seeking to create is a communal space of sharing and openness. Within this installation and the events we’ve planned, the lines between audience and performer are more porous; it’s more of a gathering, and there’s no fourth wall, and we put the original letters in people’s hands. When you hold someone’s piece of paper and it’s handwritten — and you feel the grooves — it’s like holding someone’s hand. It’s an instant connection that’s part of the liveness of it. Surprising heart doors come open in these moments.”

“The Fortune Society is thrilled to be in community and collaboration with Signature Theatre and Quiara Alegría Hudes to help bring this insightful and moving project to life,” Fortune Society director of creative arts Jamie Maleszka added. “The goal of Emancipated Stories is to center and celebrate the full humanity of community members who are currently and formerly incarcerated and to grow meaningful connections through storytelling. The project perfectly aligns with our mission to build people, not prisons, and invest in more just collective futures.”

“SigSpace: Emancipated Stories” will be open in the theater lobby Tuesday through Sunday from June 29 through July 24, from noon to 5:00; admission is free. In addition, there will be four pop-up events, free with advance RSVP, featuring actors, artists, activists, musicians, writers, and members of the Fortune Society activating the installation, which was designed by Yazmany Arboleda with Emmanuel Oni, through music, discussions, readings, and writing letters in response to those from incarcerated individuals.

Wednesday, June 29
Kick-off, with actors David Zayas and Sean Carvajal, artist and activist Suave Gonzales, and Felix Guzman and Daniel Kelly of the Fortune Society, hosted by playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes, free with RSVP, 5:00 – 7:00

Wednesday, July 13
Music Night, with composer Kenyatta Emmanuel, singer-songwriter Renee Goust, writer and actor Dominic Colón, and others, hosted by Quiara Alegría Hudes, free with RSVP, 5:00 – 7:00

Sunday, July 17
Family Day, with Fortune Society community members and actor Sean Carvajal, moderated by Fortune Society director of creative arts Jamie Maleszka and Quiara Alegría Hudes, free with RSVP, noon – 2:00

Wednesday, July 20
Quiet Writing Time, free with RSVP, 5:00 – 7:00

PAUL MAHEKE: A FIRE CIRCLE FOR A PUBLIC HEARING

Paul Maheke rehearses A fire circle for a public hearing before US debut on the High Line this week (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Who: Paul Maheke, Morgan “Emme” Bryant, Lucy Hollier, Rafaelle Kennibol-Cox
What: High Line Art live performance
Where: The High Line at Fourteenth St.
When: June 28-30, free (advance RSVP recommended), 7:00
Why: “My work is always in reaction or in response to a certain space, a certain context,” multidisciplinary French artist Paul Maheke said in a 2018 discussion about his installation A fire circle for a public hearing at Chisenhale Gallery in London. “Often in my exhibitions, there is this notion of welcoming people in the space, whether they are collaborators or members of the audience.” Maheke is reimagining A fire circle for a public hearing for its US debut, taking place in the Fourteenth St. tunnel passage on the High Line June 28-30 at 7:00. He will be joined by dancers Morgan “Emme” Bryant and Rafaelle Kennibol-Cox and trombonist Lucy Hollier. The piece combines music, movement, and spoken word as Maheke explores marginalization, hypervisibility, erasure, and identity.

Paul Maheke’s A fire circle for a public hearing premiered at Chisenhale Gallery in London in 2018 (photo by Mark Blower)

“Paul’s work asks important questions about what it means to be a body onstage, and how a single person is able to hold many shared and overlapping histories in a single gesture. He encourages us to think about what is seen and what is not seen, both in the performance of a single person, but also in our wider cultures and histories at large,” High Line Art associate curator Melanie Kress said in a statement. Judging from a rehearsal I saw a few days ago, this is a powerful work with a lot to say about where we are at this moment in history.

RIVER TO RIVER 2022

Beth Gill’s Nail Biter is part of twenty-first annual River to River Festival

RIVER TO RIVER FESTIVAL
Multiple locations
June 12-26, free (advance RSVP recommended for some events)
lmcc.net/river-to-river-festival

One of New York City’s best and most wide-ranging summer festivals is underway. Sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), River to River offers free theater, music, art, dance, and more, from the East River to the Hudson. The twenty-first consecutive iteration begins with Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born’s repose without rest without end, a video installation in which the real-life partners (on the way, undone; Poor People’s TV Room) adapt their 2019 interdisciplinary performance piece, Adaku’s Revolt, which investigates ideas of beauty through nature and slavery. The installation is on view at Fosun Concourse Amphitheater at 28 Liberty St. daily through June 26 from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm; in addition, the space will be activated by live performances on June 13 and 20 at 8:00.

On June 17 at 7:00, Jonathan González will be at La Plaza at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center at 114 Norfolk St. for the world premiere of Practice, an immersive event focusing on Afro-diasporic idioms featuring Ali Rosa-Salas, Marguerite Angelica Monique Hemmings, Dani Criss, Jordan Lloyd, and Fana Fraser, with music by William “DJ Embe” Catanzaro. On June 18 at 3:00, Amy Khoshbin and Jennifer Khoshbin team up for The Sun Seekers on Governors Island, a participatory induction ceremony in which everyone is encouraged to disconnect from technology and reconnect with the natural world, involving sight, smell, touch, and hearing. On June 18 at 7:00, the opening will be held for Rose DeSiano’s Lenticular Histories: South Street Seaport, an immersive installation on Front St. of large-scale lenticular photographs on sculptural mirrored prisms that will remain on view through June 30.

Skave by keyon gaskin promises to be one of the hottest shows at River to River

Dancer and choreographer Beth Gill delves into psychodrama and sci-fi in the site-responsive Nail Biter, taking place in Federal Hall on June 22 and 23 at 5:30, with Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Walter Dundervill, Jennifer Lafferty, Jennifer Nugent, and Marilyn Maywald Yahel moving to a score by Jon Moniaci. On June 23 and 25 at 7:30 at La Plaza, keyon gaskin will present Skave, continuing his journey into oppression, imperialism, colonization, communication, and escape. On June 25 at 4:00, trombonist Craig Harris will lead a large ensemble in Rockefeller Park for Breathe, helping the community fight racial injustice.

Downtown favorite Heather Kravas returns June 25-26 at 8:00 with duet/duet, a piece set at dusk on Governors Island — inside and outside — for opal ingle, Joey Kipp, and Jennifer Kjos, whose movement, to an electroacoustic score by Zeena Parkins, references line drawings and the shapes our bodies can make. The festival was actually supposed to open on June 12 in Teardrop and Rockefeller Parks with Gregory Corbino’s participatory puppet performance Murmurations, but it was canceled because of the weather; watch this space for a rescheduled date. And just a reminder that all events are free, and walk-ups are accepted for sold-out events, as at least a few tickets usually become available around showtime.