this week in art

THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD BOOK CLUB

“Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife” looks at death at the Rubin Museum

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Wednesdays through August 25, $20 per session, 7:00
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org/bookofthedead

Last Wednesday the Rubin Museum of Art began its seven-part series on the THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, led by Dr. Ramon Prats, by examining “Addiction and Attachments” with Dr. Gabor Maté. This week, the discussion of the eighth-century funerary text also known as PROFOUND DHARMA OF SELF-LIBERATION THROUGH THE INTENTION OF THE PEACEFUL AND WRATHFUL ONES turns to “The Near-Death Experience” with Prof. Lee W. Bailey and continues with future talks on “The Analysis of Dreams” with psychoanalyst Morgan Stebbins (July 21), “The Death of Death” with Rabbi Neil Gillman (July 28), “The Egyptian Book of the Dead” with Brooklyn Museum curator Edward Bleiberg (August 11), “Channeling the Dead” with medium Jesse Bravo (August 18), and “How to Die” with Roshi Enkyo O’Hara (August 25). Actually, just about everything at the Rubin right now is about death. “Memento Mori,” the Cabaret Cinema series of Friday night films (free with $7 bar minimum), begins this week with Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 noir PIERROT LE FOU and also features Robin Hardy’s awesome 1973 horror classic, THE WICKER MAN (July 23), Ingmar Bergman’s very funny THE SEVENTH SEAL (July 30), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s IL DECAMERON (August 6) and IL FIORE DELLE MILLE E UNA NOTTE (August 20), Frank Capra’s LOST HORIZON (August 27), and Philip Kaufman’s excellent 1978 remake, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (September 3).

Several of the current exhibitions at the museum also take a fascinating look at the end of physical being. “Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife,” which runs through September 6, delves into the BARDO THODROL, aka THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, with original illuminated manuscripts, ritual cards, and other items than take visitors into different worlds of existence. Through August 9, “Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures” explores the art of death as seen in European Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism, including a topography of the afterlife, an intriguing video installation by Bill Viola, and paintings, sculpture, and ritual objects. (Also on view is the excellent “In the Shadow of Everest,” Tom Wool’s photographs taken in May 2001; the terrific “From the Land of the Gods: Art of the Kathmandu Valley”; and “Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond,” featuring works by contemporary Tibetan artists.)

ANTONY GORMLEY: EVENT HORIZON

Antony Gormley has filled the Flatiron District with nude sculptures of himself, both in Madison Square Park and atop neighboring buildings (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Madison Square Park & surrounding area
23rd to 25th Sts. between Madison & Fifth Aves.
Through August 15
Admission: free
www.eventhorizonnewyork.org
event horizon slideshow

In fall 2007, British installation artist Antony Gormley made visitors seemingly disappear in his Chelsea exhibit “Blind Light” at the Sean Kelly Gallery. Now he has made himself appear all around the Flatiron District in his exciting, controversial “Event Horizon.” In a city where art can be found nearly everywhere one looks, now life-size sculptures of a nude Gormley can be seen nearly everywhere one looks in and around Madison Square Park. The Turner Prize winner has cast thirty-one “indexical copies” of himself, placing four (cast in iron and weighing fourteen hundred pounds each) at ground level and the other twenty-seven (cast in fiberglass and weighing a mere seventy pounds apiece) on buildings overlooking Madison Square Park, the farthest away standing on a lower level of the Empire State Building. Gormley refers to viewers as “silent witnesses” as they observe and seek out the sculptures, many walking around the park counting to see if they can spot each one. Although the project has resulted in some emergency 911 calls regarding potential suicide jumpers, it is primarily an engaging installation that encourages people to actually lift their heads out of their iPhones and BlackBerries and instead pay attention to the world they live in, noticing things that they usually just walk past without a second thought.

OUTDOOR CINEMA 2010

Free live music and film screenings will run in Socrates Sculpture Park Wednesday nights in July and August

Socrates Sculpture Park
Vernon Blvd. & Broadway, Long Island City
Wednesdays July 7 through August 25
Live performances at 7:00, film screenings at sunset
Admission: free
718-956-1819
www.socratessculpturepark.org

For its twelfth annual summer season of free movie screenings, Socrates Sculpture Park has teamed up with the Museum of the Moving Image and Rooftop Films to “celebrate the cultural diversity of Queens” on Wednesday nights in July and August. Each evening begins with a live performance, followed by a film at sunset. The series gets under way July 7 with Todd Chandler’s road movie FLOOD TIDE, with a live score played by Dark Dark Dark. Outdoor Cinema goes to Ireland on July 14 with Tom Moore and Nora Twomey’s THE SECRET OF KELLS, with Swedish short films on July 21 and Vera Chytilová’s Czech drama DAISIES on July 28. Each night will also feature local vendors selling food from the “host” country. The August schedule has not been announced yet. Be sure to get there early, not only to get a good spot but to check out the art installation “Cityscape: Surveying the Urban Biotope,” which continues through August 1. (For a complete, day-by-day list of free summer movies in New York City, click here.)

WARM UP

Prepare for some massive crowds at weekly PS1 Warm Up (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MoMAPS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Saturdays from 2:00 to 9:00, July 3 – September 4
Tickets: $15 (free for Long Island City residents)
718-784-2084
www.ps1.org/warmup

One of the hottest, sweatiest weekly dance parties of every summer will get people moving and grooving beginning on July 3 when Warm Up returns to PS1 in Queens. The series features live bands and DJs from all over the world, including Spain, Sierra Leone, France, Sweden, Canada, and Brooklyn, playing in the shadow of Solid Obectives — Idenburg Liu’s “Pole Dance,” winner of the annual Young Architects Program and displayed in the courtyard. The opening-day lineup is a mere taste of things to come, with live sets from Delorean, Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang, and Glasser, with John Talabot and Korallreven manning the turntables. On the horizon are Kalup Linzy and JD Samson on July 24, Animal Collective DJ’ing on July 31, a DFA showcase with James Murphy and Pat Mahoney on August 7, DJ ?uestlove and These Are Powers on August 14, and Holy Ghost!, House of House, and DJ Mehdi on closing night, September 4. And don’t forget to check out the expansive “Greater New York” exhibition. PS1 is one of the treasures of New York City, with something to see and do in every little nook and cranny, so be prepared for anything and everything.

FIRST SATURDAYS: AMERICAN ICONS

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, July 3, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s monthly late-night party goes silver instead of red, white, and blue on July 3, paying tribute to the late Andy Warhol with a screening of Mary Harron’s 1996 flick I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, gallery talks on the new exhibit “Andy Warhol: The Last Decade,” Society HAE’s dance party “The Factory 2010,” a workshop in which participants can make a Warhol-like print, and “15 Minutes of Fame,” an art battle between Antony Zito, Lexi Bella, Concep, and Marthalicia Matarrita. In addition, the museum will be showing Alan Parker’s 1980 film FAME, and Brooklyn bands Analogue Transit and Dynasty Electric will perform live.

LUKE JERRAM: PLAY ME, I’M YOURS

Anyone can tickle the ivories at pianos placed throughout the city (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations in all five boroughs
Through Monday, July 5
Admission: free
www.streetpianos.com/nyc2010

Sing for Hope, a nonprofit arts activist organization that brings music to schools, hospitals, and communities with underserved youth, has teamed up with multidisciplinary British artist Luke Jerram to present “Play Me, I’m Yours.” The interactive installation consists of sixty pianos placed throughout the five boroughs, in such locations as Lincoln Center, Joyce Kilmer Park, the Staten Island Zoo, the Coney Island boardwalk, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Tompkins Square Park, and Chelsea Market, where people can sit down and just play away, like they have previously done in São Paulo, London, Sydney, and Barcelona. Not many New Yorkers have pianos in their apartments, and they might not be good enough to get a gig at Carnegie Hall, but they can sit down on these benches and tickle the ivories to their heart’s content, bringing music to intersections, public parks and plazas, and other mostly outdoor spots, giving mini-concerts and inviting strangers to sing along. As Jerram notes on the official website: “Disrupting people’s negotiation of their city, the pianos are also aimed to provoke people into engaging, activating, and claiming ownership of their urban landscape.” The last few days will feature many special events, including, on July 1, a London–New York link in Times Square at 11:00 am, Ragtime Rick Pedro dashing from Greeley Square to Herald Square to Bryant Park to Times Square for successive lunchtime appearances, and That Guitar Man from Central Park, David Ippolito, joining pianist George Wurzbach at the Naumburg Bandshell at 1:00. The project comes to a close with Sing for Hope performances July 1-4 at Chelsea Market at 6:00, with the grand finale taking place on the four pianos at Lincoln Center from 2:00 to 6:00 on July 5, with special guest artists from across the musical spectrum.

WHITNEY LIVE

Dylan Rau leads Bear Hands into the Whitney July 2 as part of summer music series (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Whitney Museum of American Art
Lower Gallery and Sculpture Court
945 Madison Ave. at 75th St.
Select Friday nights July 2 – August 27 at 7:00
Free with pay-what-you-wish admission after 6:00 ($12-$18 before 6:00)
212-570-3600
www.whitney.org

In the recent past, the Whitney Live performance series has featured such cutting-edge indie pairings as Vivian Girls with These Are Powers, Woods with Yellow Fever, Abe Vigoda with Grooms, and Titus Andronicus with Real Estate. This summer’s lineup is equally impressive, beginning July 2 with High Places, who just put on a sweet set at the Northside Festival this weekend, and Chaz Bundick, better known as Toro y Moi. On July 23, Bear Hands, who wowed us at an industry showcase a few months back at the Studio at Webster Hall, and Darlings take the stage, followed by Javelin and Warpaint on August 13 and DJ/Rupture and Tanlines on August 27. There are no advance tickets or reservations available; all four shows are free with museum admission (pay-what-you-wish after 6:00), and it’s first come, first served. The museum remains open until 9:00 on Friday nights; exhibitions as of July 1 include “Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield,” “Jill Magid: A Reasonable Man in a Box,” “Christian Marclay: Festival,” “Off the Wall: Part 1 — Thirty Performative Actions,” and “Facing the Artist: Portraits by John Jonas Gruen.”