this week in art

GILLIAN WEARING: PEOPLE / HELEN COLE: WE SEE FIREWORKS

Gillian Wearing, “Snapshot,” Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

“Gillian Wearing: People”
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, 521 West 21st St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through June 24, free, 212-414-4144, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.tanyabonakdargallery.com
“Helen Cole: We See Fireworks”
PS122, 150 First Ave. at East Ninth St.
Tuesday – Saturday through June 11, $10, 212-352-3101, Wednesday – Friday 4:30 – 9:00, Saturday – Sunday 2:00 – 9:00
www.ps122.org

Two very different shows by conceptual British artists are currently shining a light on memory and performance, offering intriguing looks at individuals with fascinating stories to tell. On the second floor of the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea (through June 24), YBA legend Gillian Wearing has installed “Secrets and Lies,” a confessional box in which videos of people in form-fitting masks — with holes cut out for the eyes to reveal their emotional state — share personal tales of bullying and murder as well as virginity and drinking menstrual blood. The participants responded to Wearing’s call to “confess all on video,” and with the masks on they hold nothing back. As difficult as it is to listen to some of these piercing narratives, visitors are sure to be transfixed by their honesty and openness, making them wonder what secrets or lies they would share if they were on the other side of the booth. It continues Wearing’s career-long investigation of identity, which is also evident on the first floor in “Snapshot,” seven video portraits of women arranged in age order, accompanied by headphones on which an older woman relates her own tale, and in the short film Bully, in which a bullied man directs a group of individuals in a re-creation of an event that scarred him.

Visitors can shine a light on their own memories in “We See Fireworks” at PS122

Memory and performance are also at the heart of Helen Cole’s “We See Fireworks,” installed in PS122’s Ninth St. gallery through June 11. In a dark room with only a couch, approximately three dozen bare lightbulbs hang from the ceiling at varying levels, many featuring different-shaped filaments that slowly glow as each new tale begins. Cole has asked people to talk about an experience in their life that had performative elements, whether it be a family gathering, a school party, or other encounters (that tend to be lighter than those in Wearing’s works). Each story begins in complete darkness, then one or more bulbs come on, forcing the visitor’s attention in that direction, looking at the bulb as if it were the teller of the tale, until multiple bulbs come on, making the stories feel more universal. Like Wearing’s masked confessors, Cole’s unseen narrators can be unnerving at first, but the more time you spend in their company, the more rewarding it all becomes. If you would like to add your own memory, you can do so today from 4:30 to 6:30 and 7:00 to 9:00. “We See Fireworks” concludes PS122’s “The UK Comes to the EV” festival, which included the previous productions “Action Hero — Watch Me Fall” and “Curious — The Moment I Saw You I Knew I Could Love You.”

SHEN WEI DANCE ARTS AT THE MET

Shen Wei will perform the first site-specific dance in the Met’s history June 6 & 13 (photo courtesy Shen Wei Dance Arts)

Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Charles Engelhard Court
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Monday, June 6 & 13, $30-$75, 7:00
212-570-3949
www.shenweidancearts.org
www.metmuseum.org

Born in Hunan, China, in 1968 and based in New York City since 1995, visual artist, dancer, and choreographer Shen Wei founded Shen Wei Dance Arts in July 2000, appearing over the last ten years at such prestigious venues as the Venice Biennale, the Lincoln Center Festival, the Kennedy Center, the New York City Opera, the Sidney Opera, and the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In June 2009, SWDA performed a thrilling site-specific dance in and around Ernesto Neto’s “anthropodino” sculpture in the Park Ave. Armory, and this June they’re set for another unique experience: On June 6 and 13, SWDA, which favors slow, careful movement, will present the first-ever site-specific dance in the long history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The company, which consists of Javier J. Baca, Cecily Campbell, Hunter Carter, Sarah Lisette Chiesa, Evan Copeland, Jenna Fakhoury, Sara Procopio, Joan Wadopian, Adam H. Weinert, and Brandon Whited, will perform a new multimedia piece, with costumes by Shen Wei and Austin Scarlett and a live electronic score by Illusion of Safety’s Daniel Burke, in addition to a piece from their repertoire. The event will be held in the recently renovated Charles Engelhard Court of the America Wing, among works by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frederick William MacMonnies, Hiram Powers, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, Janet Scudder, John La Farge, Daniel Chester French, and Paul Manship as well as Martin E. Thompson’s massive Branch Bank of the United States facade. “I am looking forward to the experience of joining the beauty of bodies in stillness and the beauty of movement,” Shen Wei said in a statement, explaining that he has created “a piece celebrating the body in works of art of the past and the body in movement in the present.” Part of the Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Series, the performance can be seen seated around the court ($60) or standing in the Balcony Galleries above ($30). The June 6 performance will be followed by a reception with Shen Wei and the dancers (an additional $15).

HOWL! FESTIVAL 2011

This weekend’s Howl! Festival pays tribute to what would have been Allen Ginsberg’s eighty-fifth birthday

Tompkins Square Park
Ave. A to Ave. B between Seventh & Tenth Sts.
June 3-5, free
www.howlfestival.com

The somewhat annual Howl! Festival has moved from the end of the summer to the beginning of the season, kicking off June 3 with the group reading of Allen Ginsberg’s epic 1955 poem “Howl,” with its unforgettable opening: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness. . . .” Getting under way at 5:00 in Tompkins Square Park, the free gathering, which also will be celebrating what would have been Ginsberg’s eighty-fifth birthday, will include such local literary luminaries as Darian Dauchan, Nicole Wallace, Curtis Jensen, Fay Chiang, Eliot Katz, Bob Rosenthal, John Giorno, Hettie Jones, and others, led by Bob Holman. The party continues on Saturday with the Great Howl! Out Loud Carnival for children (12 noon – 7:00 pm, Sunday also), with arts & crafts, games, miniature golf, face painting, balloon art, and more; the Hot Howl! Disco (1:00 to 4:00), with DJ Johnny Dynell; and live performances (2:00 to 7:00) by International Street Cannibals, Ekayani and the Tom Glide Space, Timbila, Emily XYZ, the Living Theater, LJ Murphy, John S. Hall & Musicians, Church of Betty, Bina Shariff, Vangeline Theater, Ed Sanders & Steven Taylor, Tyler Burba, and Arthur’s Landing, in addition to yoga classes, chanting monks, painting and sculpture, poetry circles, and other activities. On Sunday, Hip Hop Howl! (2:00 – 2:30) will feature a live mixtape showcase, House of Howl! (3:00 – 5:00) will consist of live music and dance under the theme “The High Life,” and Low Life 5: Flaming Queens (5:00 – 7:00) will conclude things with the much-loved two-hour production that this year pays tribute to the East Village’s LGBT artistic community and history, with such performers as Sade Pendavis, Vangeline Theater, the Pixie Harlots, Rachel Klein Theater, Go-Go Harder, and many more, dressed in elaborate costumes.

TWI-NY TALK: MOLLY SURNO — CINEMA 16 AT THE MET

Molly Surno is keeping the spirit of experimental and avant-garde film alive by bringing back Cinema 16

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Friday, June 3, 7:00
Free with recommended admission of $20
212-570-3828
www.mollysurno.wordpress.com
www.metmuseum.org/collegegroup

In 1947, Amos Vogel founded Cinema 16 as an art community where film devotees could see and discuss experimental celluloid works. Vogel, who turned ninety this past April, later cofounded the New York Film Festival with Richard Roud, serving as its first director in 1963; the NYFF still features the “Views from the Avant-Garde” showcase every year. Since April 2008, photographer and curator Molly Surno has taken up the reins of Vogel’s initial call to arms, answering his question “Shall this audience continue unaware of these hundreds of thought-provoking, artistically satisfying, and socially purposeful films?” by bringing back Cinema 16. The L.A.-born, Brooklyn-based Surno puts together monthly programs that combine classic and contemporary avant-garde films with cutting-edge bands providing live scores. On June 3 at 7:00, she is presenting her latest gathering, being held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition “Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York.” Introduced by Met associate curator Jayson Kerr Dobney, the evening, part of the Met’s College Group initiative, will feature films by Andy Warhol, Rudy Burckhardt, Edgar Varèse and Le Corbusier, Gina Carducci, Herbert Kosower, and Francis Thompson and live music by Nick Zinner and Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Shahin Motia of Oneida, and MV Carbon. As she prepared for the event, Surno was able to sneak in a few minutes to discuss experimental cinema and more with twi-ny.

twi-ny: You’ve held previous editions of Cinema 16 at such venues as the Kitchen, Smack Mellon, Galapagos, the Bell House, and MoMA/PS1, but your next edition is taking place June 3 at the Met, in conjunction with the “Guitar Heroes” exhibition. How did that come about? Did the location impact how you curated the program?

Molly Surno: To my amazement the Metropolitan Museum contacted me to do a performance as part of the programming for the “Guitar Heroes” exhibit. Humbled and inspired, I tailored this program entirely to the current show. The band is composed of some of Brooklyn’s most incredible string players, echoing the three centuries of string instruments on display. The films I selected are all based on the idea of a cityscape being a muse for artistic expression. “Guitar Heroes” shows the journey of string instruments from Southern Italy to New York and the way the luthiers drew from their environments. I took that same premise and selected films that used one’s surroundings as the platform for creative influence. Francis Thompson’s film N.Y., N.Y. quite literally examines the day in a life of a New Yorker but through a kaleidoscope-type lens; Andy Warhol’s Screen Test of Salvador Dalí expresses the culture of an artistic community congregating in New York; Gina Carducci’s Stone Welcome Mat journeys from the Sicily of her grandfather’s home super-8 films to her own return to Southern Italy decades later from the eye of a New York–based artist, among other tales of our surroundings informing and motivating creative works.

Francis Thompson’s “N.Y., N.Y.” is among the avant-garde films Molly Surno will be presenting at the Met on June 3

twi-ny: What do you choose first when putting together a program, the films or the musicians?

MS: The selection process entirely depends on the commission. For the Met the “Guitar Heroes” exhibition completely dictated both the musical and film curation.

twi-ny: Where did your love of experimental films come from? Was there a “Eureka!” moment? For us, the Eureka! moment, for example, was taking a class with Amos Vogel back in college. Is he familiar with what you’re doing?

MS: I am actively trying to find my way uptown so that I can meet Amos and potentially do a program together. It’s on the wish list.

twi-ny: Are there certain films out there that you’ve been searching for but have been unable to find or gain access to? Who are the new artists making experimental films today who have a similar spirit to those made by such innovators as Maya Deren, Bruce Conner, Shirley Clarke, and Stan Brakhage?

MS: Certainly films are hard to access because they weren’t preserved properly. For example, I wanted to show some Italian experimental film for this program, but there is so little that was properly archived (or archived at all). There is a community that is vibrant and active around the preservation of experimental films, and through them I have met some incredible contemporary avant-garde artists, including Joel Schlemowitz, Gina Carducci, MM Serra, and Mark Street, to name a few. A few years back I showed a piece by an artist named Ezra Johnson, who also works with animation. His work blows my mind.

twi-ny: You’re constantly surrounded by avant-garde film and music. Do you ever just push it all to the back of your mind and spend a Saturday night checking out The Hangover Part II, Thor, or the latest Twilight or Pirates of the Caribbean flick?

MS: This might be my favorite question any journalist has ever asked me. Oddly enough, the more experimental films I watch, the harder it is for me to sit through big-budget films. I mean, let’s put it this way: For me, a Saturday night spent among purely escapist entertainment would include The Godfather or The French Connection. . . . That is about as mainstream as I like to get.

!WOMEN ART REVOLUTION (!W.A.R.)

!WOMEN ART REVOLUTION will make its theatrical debut this week at the IFC Center with appearances by several of the women featured in the film

!WOMEN ART REVOLUTION (!W.A.R.) (Lynn Hershman-Leeson, 2010)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
June 1-7
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.womenartrevolution.com

Since the mid-1960s, visual artist and educator Lynn Hershman Leeson has been tracing the history of the American feminist art movement, interviewing many of the most innovative and influential women artists of the last fifty years. After playing at the Sundance, Toronto, and Berlin Film Festivals, her documentary, !Women Art Revolution (!W.A.R.), opens June 1 at the IFC Center, with a series of special guests on hand at many of the screenings to talk about the revolution. Serving as director, writer, editor, producer, and narrator, Leeson shows works by and speaks with such seminal artists and art-world figures as Nancy Spero, Judy Chicago, Miranda July, Yvonne Rainer, Yoko Ono, Marcia Tucker, Martha Rosler, Miriam Schapiro, Carolee Schneemann, Marina Abramovic, Faith Ringgold, and the Guerrilla Girls, using new and archival footage that examines the growth of the movement. The film, which features an original soundtrack by Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein, will run for one week at IFC, with the following special appearances, all with artist Alexandra Chowaniec: Leeson (6/1, 6:10), Leeson and Kathleen Hanna (6/1, 8:10), Howardena Pindell (6/2, 2:10), Carolee Schneemann (6/2, 6:10), J. Bob Alotta (6/2, 8:10), Janine Antoni (6/3, 12:15), Joyce Kozloff (6/3, 6:10), Martha Wilson (6/3, 8:10), Pindell (6/4, 2:10). B. Ruby Rich (6/4, 6:10 PM), Guerrilla Girls Frida Kahlo and Kathe Kollwitz (6/4, 8:10), Pindell (6/5, 2:10), Connie Butler (6/6, 4:10), Carey Lovelace (6/6, 6:10), and Lovelace and Faith Ringgold (6/7, 6:10). In addition, the full video and written transcripts of the interviews can be found online at the Stanford University Special Collections archive.

NICK ZINNER

Anastasia Photo
166 Orchard St. between Stanton & Rivington Sts.
Through June 4, free, 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
212-677-9725
www.anastasia-photo.com

Musician, producer, photographer, and Creators Project renaissance man Nick Zinner has been performing as a member of the popular indie band Yeah Yeah Yeahs since the group’s founding in September 2000, releasing the Grammy-nominated records Fever to Tell (2003), Show Your Bones (2006), and It’s Blitz! (2009). Although Zinner, who was born in Massachusetts and has been based in New York City for more than a decade, is used to the camera being turned on him, he has been taking pictures for many years, having studied photography at Bard and released several books, both solo and in collaboration with others, including No Seats in the Party Car (2001) and Please Take Me Off the Guest List (2010). His latest exhibit, on view at Anastasia Photo on the Lower East Side through June 4, consists of half a dozen shots he took of crowds at Yeah Yeah Yeahs shows between 2003 and 2009, taken from the stage. The audience is either grooving to the band or waiting for them to go on; sometimes the crowd recognizes that Zinner is taking a photo and poses for it, and other times they are just caught up in the frenzy of the performance. In one picture, fans reach out to him with sheer joy; in a second, a group of young women dressed in black, wearing black eye masks, are too cool to show any emotion at all; and in a third, one woman makes a crazy face while others smile away. Of course, pictures of crowds at concerts are not unusual, but it is rare for the shots to have been taken by one of the band members, offering a different perspective from photos snapped by hired music photographers. The photos were taken at concerts in Paris, Beijing, Brooklyn, Tuscon, Warsaw, and Tokyo; see if you can guess which is which before looking at the titles. (Zinner will also be playing alongside experimental films with fellow YYY Brian Chase, Oneida’s Shahin Motia, and MV Carbon at Molly Surno’s latest Cinema 16 presentation, June 3 at 7:00 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

HOLIDAY MONDAYS: QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART

Sung Hwan Kim’s “From the Commanding Heights…*” is on view at the Queens Museum, which is offering free admission on Memorial Day

Queens Museum of Art
New York City Building
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Monday, May 30, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
718-592-9700
www.queensmuseum.org

The Queens Museum is usually closed on Monday, but on May 30 it will open its doors, offering free admission to its exhibits, free family-friendly tours, free open studio time, free refreshments, and more. Current special exhibitions include “Sung Hwan Kim: From the Commanding Heights…*,” comprising video and related drawings and sculpture by the Seoul-born, New York-based artist; “Not the Way You Remembered,” a group show of works incorporating unusual materials; “Future Perfect: Re-Constructing the 1939 New York World’s Fair”; Egyptian artist Hassan Khan’s four-channel video “The Hidden Location”; Indian-born Niyeti Chadha’s site-specific “A Script for a Landscape,” which deconstructs and reconstructs space in the museum’s second-floor gallery; and “Ghana Think Tank in Corona: Developing the First World,” which is set up in a multimedia-equipped trailer. As always, be sure to stop by the long-term exhibits “The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass” and “A Watershed Moment: Celebrating the Homecoming of the Relief Map of the New York City Water Supply System” as well as the spectacular “Panorama of the City of New York.”