this week in art

PILGRIMAGE & FAITH: TRAVELLERS & MAGICIANS

The charming TRAVELLERS & MAGICIANS will be shown July 8 at the Rubin Museum

TRAVELLERS & MAGICIANS (Khyentse Norbu, 2003)
Cabaret Cinema, Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, July 8, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org/cabaretcinema
www.travellersandmagicians.com

Part road movie, part film noir, part spiritual quest, the charming Travellers & Magicians will sneak up on you when you least expect it. And just when you’re sure it will become a predictable tale of one man’s choice between a simple, beautiful, struggling village and the promise of wealth in America, it twists and turns and leaves you with an ear-to-ear smile and an ache in your heart. After scoring an international hit with The Cup (1999), writer-director Khyentse Norbu, who is also the Tibetan Buddhist His Eminence Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, the third incarnation of a principal lama, decided to make a film in his native Bhutan, a tiny country amid the vast Himalayas. Using untrained actors, Norbu tells the story of Dondup (Tshewang Dendup), a cigarette-smoking city dweller who comes to work in a small village that bores him. He listens to loud pop music and keeps his hair long, readying to go to the States to make money. He shuns the Buddhist tradition and is always in a hurry, never able to relax and look within himself or at the stunning country around him. While waiting for a ride on the deserted mountain roads, he is joined by an old apple picker, a rice paper maker and his daughter, and a young monk who plays the dramyin; the latter begins telling a mystical tale of loyalty, spirituality, brotherly love, faith, riches, and murder. The first feature-length film to be shot in Bhutan, Travellers & Magicians starts off somewhat slowly and obvious, with Dondup’s character over the top, but stick with it; the music, locations, and storytelling eventually come together like magic. Travellers & Magicians is screening Friday night at the Rubin Museum as part of the Pilgrimage & Faith series, being held in conjunction with the exhibit “Pilgrimage and Faith: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam,” and will be introduced by anthropologist Laurel Kendall. Admission to the museum is free on Friday nights, so be sure to check out the other current exhibits as well, which include “Patterns of Life: The Art of Tibetan Carpets,” “Masterworks: Jewels of the Collection,” “Body Language,” and “Quentin Roosevelt’s China.” (The series continues July 15 with Ismaël Ferroukhi’s Le Grand Voyage, July 22 with Luis Buñuel’s The Milky Way, July 29 with Edmund Goulding’s The Razor’s Edge,” and August 5 with Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Canterbury Tales.)

TIME AGAIN

“Novel” examines different modes of storytelling as part of “Time Again” at SculptureCenter (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

SculptureCenter
4419 Purves St.
Thursday – Monday through July 25, suggested donation $5, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
718-361-1750
www.sculpture-center.org

Playing off of Walter Benjamin’s theory of the vanishing point in the here and now, curator Fionn Meade has put together an intriguing collection of paintings, drawings, sculpture, installation, and video for the two-floor show “Time Again.” On view at Long Island City’s SculptureCenter through July 25, the show consists of works that self-consciously examine and manipulate imagery, representation, gesture, narrative, and the past through repetition and sequencing. In “Image of Absolon to Be Projected Until It Vanishes,” Matthew Buckingham continuously projects a single slide of Christian Gottlieb Vilhelm Bissen’s 1901 statue of Copenhagen founder Bishop Absalon atop a horse; over the course of the exhibition, the heat from the projector will cause the image to fade into nothingness, taking the history it embodies with it. Uli Hohn’s six cast plaster and wood reliefs are each slightly different, creating their own time line that feels like it is still in process. Evoking Andy Warhol’s 1960s Screen Tests, Rosalind Nashashibi’s “This Quality” cuts from a series of shots of a woman staring into the camera to cars covered by fabric on the streets of Cairo; rather than protecting the automobiles from the elements, it appears that the sheets are hiding their past, especially as people walk by. In a separate area, pieces by Sergej Jensen, R. H. Quaytman, Paul Thek, and others make up “Novel,” which provides a unique look at storytelling.

SculptureCenter examines memory and repetition in “Time Again” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The exhibit kicks into high gear in the basement, where the works are set up amid narrow concrete hallways and passages and in dark rooms. Laure Prouvost’s “It, Heat, Hit” video confronts viewers directly, demanding their attention and that they remember what they see, flash cuts of text and image that fly by in a fury as they tempt and attack all five senses. Rosemarie Trockel’s “Goodbye, Mrs. Mönipaer” consists of longer, calmer shots of a glassed-in bungalow on a beach, water lapping onto the sand as two women, one in a bikini, the other in a bathrobe, each one wearing a mask, are involved in a potential art deal. In “Untitled (David Wojnarowicz Project),” Emily Roysdon re-creates David Wojnarowicz’s “Arthur Rimbaud in New York” series, which comprised photographs of a man, most likely the artist himself, walking the streets of New York wearing a mask that replicated the only known photo of the influential French poet; Roysdon has revisited that idea by taking photos of friends wearing a mask that depicts Wojnarowicz’s visage. In “Berlin Flash Frames,” William E. Jones repurposes a 1961 propaganda film produced by the U.S. Information Agency to question history and memory as the Berlin Wall is constructed and individuals are prepared for relocation. And in “Rabbits,” Aurélien Froment details how to make various knots by using the “rabbit hole” storytelling technique about a rabbit and a snake, neatly tying everything together before taking them apart. The films, most of which are shown using old-fashioned projectors, are the star of the show at the cavernous SculptureCenter, which evokes the past itself, having taken over a former trolley factory, with various mechanical contraptions still visible, creating a kind of palimpsest. SculptureCenter is open on July 4; if you check in on foursquare, you get two-for-one admission and free lemonade. In addition, SculptureCenter will host a pair of “Time Again”-related screenings July 5-6 at 7:00 at Anthology Film Archives, including short works by Joan Jonas, Shahryar Nashat, Ursula Mayer, and exhibition artists Prouvost, Nashabishi, Buckingham, and Jones; Leslie Thornton and Lisa Oppenheim will participate in a special conversation following the July 5 show, with Jones taking part in a Q&A following the July 6 screening.

FRIENDSWITHYOU: RAINBOW CITY

FriendsWithYou’s interactive outdoor installation “Rainbow City” continues through July 5 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

30th St. & Tenth Ave.
Saturday & Sunday, 8:00 am – 11:00 pm, Monday & Tuesday, 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Admission: free
www.aolartists.com/rainbowcity
rainbow city slideshow

In conjunction with the extension of the High Line, the Miami-based art collective FriendsWithYou, consisting of Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III, has installed the fun installation “Rainbow City” at the corner of 30th St. & Tenth Ave. at the north end of the elevated railway that has been turned into a spectacular park. Situated next to the Lot on Tap, the new outdoor space under the High Line that serves Brooklyn Brewery seasonal beers and hosts such local food trucks as Eddie’s Pizza, CoolHaus, and Rickshaw Dumplings, “Rainbow City” is a temporary playland of forty colorful inflatables, ranging from ten to forty feet high, populating a sixteen-thousand-square-foot area. Numerous shapes, from mushrooms and circles to a snowman and a tall tower, are tied to the candy-striped ground, along with a pop-up store that is essentially a box that has popped open. Visitors can go inside some of the inflatables, while they can touch and push others as the balloons twist in the wind, but please do not turn them into punching bags. (If the wind gets too strong, the park will close.) FriendsWithYou also has an interactive, participatory show, featuring lots of smiley faces, at the Hole at 312 Bowery, continuing through August 6.

PETER EDWARDS: SPECTER FLUX

Peter Edwards’s orbs will light up Flux Factory in sound-influenced installation

Flux Factory
39-31 29th St., Long Island City
July 2-3, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
www.fluxfactory.org

For the holiday weekend, creative electronics and circuit-bending artist, teacher, and writer Peter Edwards has installed “Specter Flux” at Flux Factory in Long Island City, on view Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon to 6:00 pm. Also known as casperelectronics, the Flux artist-in-residence has constructed three interactive orbs that glow and change colors based on the noise in its environment, with digital and analog technology transforming the sound of visitors (who are encouraged to make any noise they want) as well as Edwards’s playing of a synthesizer, into LED-generated light. In addition, Flux Factory will be holding Hackposium on July 2, featuring multimedia presentations, workshops, and performance art by Zacqary Adam Green and Plankhead, Jascon Tschantre, Syed Salahuddin and Joe Salina, Jordan Seiler, Benjamin Gaulon, Nick Normal, Ed Bear and Lea Bertucci, Jamie O’shea, Jeff Donaldson, Phil Stearns, and TwistyCat. In addition, Hope Ginsburg and SP Weather Station have teamed up with Beka Goedde, Nim Lee, and Marie Lorenz for the illustrated lecture “Water: Sponge” on July 3 at 4:00. The nonprofit Flux Factory is also hosting “Sea Worthy, Excursions,” in which visitors can sail on New York waterways in specially built seaworthy boats from the Gowanus Studio Space located at 166 Seventh St. in Brooklyn, including helping Natalia Porter and Ben Cohen build the Mexican watercraft the Trajinera (July 2-3, 9-10, 16-17, $65 donation).

WARM UP 2011

PS1’s Warm Up summer series gets under way July 2 in “Holding Pattern” courtyard (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Saturdays from 2:00 to 9:00, July 2 – September 3, $15
718-784-2084
www.ps1.org
holding pattern installation

The hottest, sweatiest dance-party series of the summer kicks off July 2 at MoMA PS1 as Warm Up gets under way. Situated in the sumptuous courtyard, where Interboro Partners & WHATAMI by start has installed the fun and fanciful “Holding Pattern,” which includes Ping-Pong, foosball, kiddie pools, a sandbox, oak and plum trees, white ribbons, and a cool mirror area (nearly all of which will be donated to the local community at the end of the season), Warm Up features live musical performances and DJ sets by some of the fabbest people around. The July 2 lineup consists of DJ Pierre, Beautiful Swimmers, Delicate Steve, Protect-U, and Zoovox, followed on July 9 by the amazing Four Tet, Fatty DL, SBTRKT, Bronze, Matthewdavid, and TURRBOTAX® DJs. On July 16, agnès b. presents Audio Love by Juan + Johnny, Joakim, Koudlam, and Mirror Mirror. Among the other highlights to watch out for are DJ sets by Gang Gang Dance on July 23, Das Racist on July 30, Simian Mobile Disco on August 6, and His Name Is Alive on August 13 and live sets by XXYY on July 30, Juan Maclean, Blood Orange, and Grimes on August 20, and Justin Miller on September 3. As always, the museum will be open as well, so be sure to catch the ultrahip “Ryan Trecartin: Any Ever,” Laurel Nakadate’s powerfully evocative “Only the Lonely,” Nancy Grossman’s fetishized “Heads,” and the second half of the dual MoMA/PS1 exhibition “Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception,” especially the magnificent film Guards and a collection of camera guns in the café that you are allowed to pick up.

FIRST SATURDAYS: VISHNU

“Vishnu Saving the Elephant (Gajendra Moksha),” opaque watercolor and gold on paper, India, mid-eighteenth century (collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, July 2, 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 free First Saturday program for July celebrates the opening of “Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior” with a series of special programs and events on July 2. The evening honoring the gentle god begins at 5:00 with a live musical performance by Falu and continues at 6:00 with traditional dance and storytelling courtesy of the Kathak Ensemble. Also at 6:00, Clean Penny Service will clean visitors’ dirty pennies, in conjunction with Skylar Fein’s installation “Black Lincoln for Dooky Chase.” The monthly Hands-on Art workshop (6:30-8:30) will teach attendees to sculpt a Vishnu avatar. At 7:00, curator of Asian Art Joan Cummins will give a talk on the Vishnu exhibit. But things really get going with an Independence Day dance party at 8:00 with the Freedom Party NYC and DJs Cosi, Herbert Holler, and Marc Smooth. But if that gets too hot and heavy for you, there’s also a concert of traditional Indian music about Vishnu at 8:30, courtesy of the RagaChitra Foundation. The galleries stay open until 11:00, so be sure to check out “reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio,” “Lorna Simpson: Gathered,” Sam Taylor-Wood’s “Ghosts,” “Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and Amulets,” and “Four Bathers by Degas and Bonnard” in addition to the above-mentioned exhibitions and the permanent collection. (Note: Some programs require free advance tickets.)

403 PRESENTS: THE BEAUTY IN DECAY

Ian Ference will talk about his images of urban decay and negative space at tonight’s 403 cultural salon (photo © Ian Ference)

Private building in downtown Manhattan (given upon RSVP)
Monday, June 27, $60 with RSVP , 7:00 – 11:00 pm
www.facebook.com/event
www.ianferencephoto.com

Lelaine Lau, who was recently honored as the May Woman of the Month by Thierry Mugler’s Womanity Project, will be hosting her latest 403 cultural salon with special guest Ian Ference. The Rochester-born, Brooklyn-based photographer focuses much of his work on architectural interiors, including a continuing project on abandoned buildings, particularly insane asylums. As Lau explains, “Ian Ference’s photography of urban decay is both transporting and beautiful. The histories that he writes are meticulously researched. They are a peek at a bygone era, a slice of history. From his haunting images of Admiral’s Row, North Brother Island, or Hart Island, to the images of abandoned hotels and theatres along the Eastern seaboard, the stories behind the buildings touch on issues of architectural heritage, societal mores and attitudes of the time, demolition-by-neglect, development, zoning, and landmarking. Other photos conjure up thoughts on a more human scale.” In his artist statement, Ference explains, “The primary purpose of my work is to create a living record of these structures, many of them architecturally rich, and most of them in danger of demolition, whether by neglect or by wrecking ball. Every building has stories — the stories of the people who worked, lived, and died within its walls. Vacant now, the walls can still tell some of these stories, and it is in that direction that I aim my camera.” Ference will discuss and present images of the vast breadth of his work at tonight’s gathering, with a light dinner and wine catered by Vance Brooking and Mey Bun.