this week in art

KIM BECK: SKYWRITING! THE SKY IS THE LIMIT/NYC

Artist Kim Beck wants viewers to take photos of her live skywriting event this weekend and send her the photos (courtesy Kim Beck)

The High Line near 14th St.
Sunday, October 9, free, 4:00 – 7:00
www.thehighline.org
www.idealcities.com
space available slideshow

This past spring, Pittsburgh-based artist Kim Beck installed “Space Available” on Washington St. rooftops, consisting of three naked billboards that can be seen from the High Line. Commenting on the current state of America’s economy, the works appear three-dimensional but are actually flat. “Space Available” worked extremely well when the Trisha Brown Dance Company performed “Roof Piece” on and around the High Line, and now it should fit in even better with Beck’s latest project, “The Sky Is the Limit/NYC.” For the live event, being held October 9 from 4:00 to 7:00, Beck will have a skywriting plane write such advertising messages as “All Sales Final,” “Last Chance,” “Now Open,” and “Everything Must Go,” which will fill the air before fading away. “In The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West writes ‘Surrender Dorothy’ in the sky,” Beck explained in a statement. “‘The Sky Is the Limit/NYC’ echoes this vague threat, in this case of a double-dip recession, while using the media of smoke to create a drawing in the sky.” Beck also is interested in documenting the social gathering itself that will take place on the High Line and down below. “When, in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, a crowd gathers to piece together skywriting, the spectacle unites disparate groups, as they cluster together to find meaning in the urban landscape. I am looking for folks to become a part of it by taking pictures.” Beck is encouraging viewers to take photos of the messages and post them online; she has even given shutterbugs tips on how to frame their pictures and also by identifying excellent viewing spots, which include the High Line, the Hudson River Greenway and Battery Park in Manhattan, East River Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, and Hoboken, Pier C, Maxwell Place Park, and Liberty State Park in New Jersey. In addition, Beck’s “Under Development” solo exhibition will run October 13 to November 12 at Mixed Greens, furthering her exploration of art, architecture, and commerce.

NICK CAVE: EVER-AFTER / FOR NOW

Nick Cave’s Soundsuits are on display at Jack Shainman and Mary Boone in Chelsea (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Ever-After: Through October 8, Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 West 20th St.
For Now: Through October 22, Mary Boone Gallery, 541 West 24th St.
www.nickcaveart.com
nick cave slideshow

If you wander into the Jack Shainman Gallery or Mary Boone over the next few days, you might think you’ve stepped into exhibits of unusual creatures from Star Trek, Star Wars, or even Lost in Space. But in fact you’ve entered the wild world of Missouri-born artist Nick Cave, who has been creating what he calls “Soundsuits” out of found material and fabric for more than ten years. Through this Saturday at Jack Shainman, “Ever-After” features groups of Soundsuits displayed like a fashion show at the Met, from the row of standing white-haired rabbit-people (“Mating Season”) to a collection of glittery button-covered astronaut-like figures shaped like ship air vents (and one tall one wearing a small shopping wagon) to a trio of connected beings whose heads resemble tubas (“Speak Louder”). In addition, an exhilarating video of bfrightly multicolored characters jumping and dancing to Africah rhythms against a white background is screened continuously in a separate room. A few blocks north, Cave’s “For Now” continues at Mary Boone through October 22, consisting of several dozen Soundsuits gathered on a platform in the center of the vast space, a playful circuslike menagerie of oddball characters in addition to a circular black-and-silver wall piece and a sole Soundsuit in the back office. At both galleries, Cave’s sculptural figures are faceless beings devoid of social, cultural, religious, ethnic, economic, and gender signifiers, allowing visitors to experience them without predefined judgment or biases. Cave himself refers to the work as a “psychedelic, functified freak show that is an accumulation of the decades from the perspective of voodoo woo-loo.” Be sure to marvel at the intricate detail in the many figures and the wide array of items used to create them.

ART IN ODD PLACES: RITUAL

May Ivy Martin will offer “Tree Kisses” along Fourteenth St. as part of Art in Odd Places festival

CEREMONY. HABITUATION. MYTH. OBSESSION. SUPERSTITION. LITURGY.
14th St. between Ave. C & the Hudson River
Through Monday, October 10
Admission: free
www.artinoddplaces.org

Now in its seventh year, Art in Odd Places lines all of Fourteenth St., from Ave. C in the east to the Hudson River in the west, with site-specific audio and visual installations, interventions, and performance-art projects right on the street. Continuing through October 10, this year’s edition, curated by El Museo del Barrio’s Trinidad Fombella and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art’s Kalia Brooks, focuses on ritual, with works from more than sixty artists exploring the political and the personal, the individual and the community, the religious and the cultural. Scott Andresen’s “Daily Portage,” consisting of quilted detritus, can be found in shop windows between Ave. A & First Ave. Daniel Bejar adds history to subway signage for “Get Lost!” Tom Bogaert will create “Double Portraits” in front of Our Lady of Guadalupe each night from 5:00 to 7:00. Michael Borowski’s “Wash Closely” mobile sink offers passersby the opportunity to cleanse themselves in public. Laurie LeBreton’s “Pilgrimage” features more than three hundred handmade paper figures in the Fourteenth St. Framing Gallery re-creating a Buddhist cave pilgrimage in Laos. On October 6, Lawrence Graham-Brown will perform “Gimme Bak Ma Clothes!,” referencing Thomas Dartmouth Rice of the American Minstrelsy Theater and the Jim Crow laws. From October 7 to 9, Marissa Mickelberg will take a goat for a walk in “Goat Walk.” On October 8, Rob Andrews’s “Union Square Clean” will involve forty people cloaked in black, gathering in the park to have their feet washed by strangers, while a tuxedoed LuLu LoLo will doff her chapeau to you in “A Tip of the Hat on 14th Street.” On Saturday and Sunday, Alexa Hoyer, dressed in traditional Bavarian garb, will shine your shoes and take your picture in Union Square for “Just a German Shoeshine Girl,” while Lois Weaver and Lori E. Seid will hang laundry and tell stories for “Commit an Act of Domestic Terrorism.” And on Sunday, Julia Barbee will walk the length of Fourteenth St. combining prayer, perfume, and poetry for “Before/After Scenting New York.” You might be used to seeing a lot of strange things on Fourteenth St., but be prepared for things to get a whole lot stranger during this fun festival.

DREAM-OVER: A SLEEP-OVER FOR GROWN-UPS

Rubin Museum
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Tickets on sale October 4, $108
Event takes place October 22, 8:00 pm – 9:00 am
www.rmanyc.org/dreamover

The Rubin Museum’s inaugural Dream-over this past March was a unique and wildly successful sleepover party for adults. It’s safe to say that Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler’s files never contained anything quite like this. Complete with bedtime stories, expertly guided discussions of Freudian dream interpretation and imagery, and a night bedded down in front of an artwork specially selected for each dreamer, the event sold out in minutes as adventurous New Yorkers rushed to spend an evening amid the colorful paintings and mystical sculptures of many-armed buddhas, flying sages, and spectacular contemporary photography in the Rubin’s exceptional collections of Himalayan art. It’s no pipe dream that the Dream-over is back; its October 22 reincarnation will be conducted under the guidance of Lama Lhanang Rinpoche, spiritual teacher of the Nyingma Longchen Nying-Thig order of Tibetan Buddhism, and clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr. William H. Braun. Lucky participants will engage in an art meditation workshop, discussions of Tibetan Dream Yoga, and Himalayan tales as well as enjoy a midnight snack, Tibetan breakfast, and no contact with the outside world for more than twelve hours. (Turn those cellphones off!) Lucky participants fill out a detailed Dreamlife Questionnaire in advance, then the Rubin decides which artwork each dreamer will snooze under — one that will hopefully influence your brain’s nighttime wanderings. (If you go as a couple, you will both sleep together under one work of art.) Tickets are a bit pricier than in March ($108 vs. $55) and the event may sell out even more quickly, but you’ll instantly know it’s well worth the money and effort when you arrive in nightclothes and with a sleeping bag and bed down under the eyes of hundreds of compassionate buddhas — or a modern photograph of an Indian street, as we did in March — and see just what one’s subconscious turns up.

ATLANTIC ANTIC

Atlantic Ave. between Hicks St. & Fourth Ave.
Sunday, October 2, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
www.atlanticave.org

It looks like it should be quite a beautiful day for the thirty-seventh annual Atlantic Antic, where more than one million people are expected to enjoy food, art, music, dance, and more along Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn, from Hicks St. to Fourth Ave. On outdoor stages and inside bars and restaurants, you’ll be able to catch live performances by the Winsor Terrors, Les Sans Culottes, Charanga Soleil, the Dysfunctional Family Jazz Band, the Jack Grace Band, BR and Timebomb, the Black Coffee Blues Band, Alex Battles’ Whisky Rebellion, the Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues, and many more. The afternoon also includes lots of family-friendly activities between Boerum Pl. & Smith St,, with pony rides, magicians, puppet shows, kids’ bands, face painting, inflatable rides, and plenty more. Among the participating establishments are the Chip Shop, the Waterfront Ale House, the Brazen Head, the Flying Saucer, Gumbo, and Hank’s Saloon, and there will be local booths galore selling all kinds of items you won’t find at standard street fairs. And for the eighteenth year, the New York Transit Museum is hosting the Bus Festival on Boerum Pl. between State St. & Atlantic Ave., featuring vintage buses, workshops, free tours, and other fun things.

RED HOOK RAMBLE

Alejandro Teichberg puts the finishing touches on his “Not Out of the Woods Yet” exhibit at the Everbrite Mercantile Co. in Red Hook (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

So you’re finally ready to venture off to that hotbed of Swedish home furnishings, IKEA, prepared to face massive crowds and track down all the parts you need from the nearly endless warehouse section before bringing it home to figure out how to put it all together. If you don’t have a car, the best way to get there is via the Water Taxi that leaves from Fulton Ferry Landing every forty minutes (beginning at 11:00 in the morning) and is free on Saturdays and Sundays. But when you get off in Brooklyn, don’t hurry your way into the superstore. Instead, first take a ramble through Red Hook, another gentrifying nabe that offers some great places to eat, shop, and check out art. And you’re gonna need this foray before foraging through IKEA. Head down Van Brunt and begin your Red Hook ramble at the Red Hook Lobster Pound (284 Van Brunt), where you can order an excellent lobster roll and enjoy it at the next-door inside picnic area. Then stroll to the Everbrite Mercantile Co. (351 Van Brunt), where you can buy all sorts of unusual objects and see Alejandro Teichberg’s “Not Out of the Woods Yet” exhibit, consisting of some wonderful paintings of natural scenes immersed in personal memories. Next up is the Kentler International Drawing Space (353 Van Brunt), which is currently showing Lezli Rubin-Kunda and Ellen Moffat’s collaborative multimedia “Marking Space.” Then stop at Baked (359 Van Brunt) for a ridiculous sweet & salty brownie, a slice of crazy good Red Hook Red Hot red velvet cake, or the insane, heavenly chocolate cloud cookie. Now that you’re stuffed with food and art, you’ll be ready to navigate through IKEA — or else you’ll be so satisfied with your lovely afternoon that you’ll board the free ferry back home and take a good, long nap filled with pleasant dreams instead of facing the nightmare of having to assemble that computer desk, headboard, or kitchen table you don’t really need as much as you originally thought.

BRING TO LIGHT: NUIT BLANCHE NEW YORK 2011

Marcos Zotes’s “CCTV/Creative Control” will look down on “Nuit Blanche” visitors from the Milton St. water tower (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations throughout Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Saturday, October 1, free, 6:00 pm – 12 midnight
www.bringtolightnyc.org

Greenpoint will shine bright tonight for “Bring to Light: Nuit Blanche New York,” the second annual multimedia festival featuring site-specific projections and performance art in the gentrifying neighborhood. Begun ten years ago in Paris and now held in numerous cities around the world, “Nuit Blanche” celebrates the community in which it takes place; in the case of Greenpoint, an industrial zone that has seen an influx of artists (and hip bars, restaurants, and music clubs) over the last few years, “Nuit Blanche” seeks to build interest in expanding and opening up more of the waterfront to public use. In fact, executive director Ethan Vogt and director of operations Tom Peyton got the city to allow access, just for one night, to several areas that are usually closed to the public. “Bring to Light” consists of more than fifty installations scattered throughout Greenpoint, from a trio of Richard Serra videos from the 1960s and ’70s to Krzysztof Wodiczko’s “Veterans Flame Greenpoint” (footage of a flame flickering to Afghan war stories told by Polish and English-language veterans), from Jeremy Blake’s Winchester Trilogy to Raphaele Shirley’s light-and-water-based “Light Cloud on a Bender,” from Sean Boggs’s slide sequence “Passerby” to Jeff Desom’s panoramic restaging of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Among the interactive performances are Rita Ackermann’s “A Backwards Walking Flash Mob,” in which one hundred participants will be filmed walking backward; Daniel Canogar’s “Asalto,” in which people are filmed crawling across a green screen, the results of which will be projected onto a tall building across the street, as if dozens of men, women, and children are climbing up the facade toward the heavens; and Ellis & Cuius’s “The Company,” in which visitors can walk under and around an arch of dangling Tungsten lightbulbs that react to sound and movement (and will host live performances in the space). If you take the East River Ferry from Thirty-fourth St., you’ll be greeted by Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s “Soft Sell,” a video of a large lipsticked mouth welcoming visitors to Greenpoint (and which was originally created for Times Square in 1993, just as it was about to undergo massive changes itself), and can later find Alex Villar’s “Splitting Image” in the park, about a commute on the ferry. And keep an eye out for Marcos Zotes’s “CCTV/Creative Control,” a projection of an enormous watching eye under the Milton St. water tower. There’s art just about everywhere you look, so grab a program, follow the map (or just walk around aimlessly), and enjoy what should be a fascinating and fun — and free — evening of unique and unusual art and architecture.