this week in art

DAVID GODLIS PRESENTS GODLIS STREETS

Who: David Godlis, Luc Sante, Chris Stein, Dave Brolan
What: Virtual book launch
Where: Rizzoli Zoom
When: Thursday, November 19, free with RSVP, 5:00
Why: “As Garry Winogrand said, ‘I photograph to see what things look like photographed.’ This book is what I photographed,” David Godlis explains in his new book, Godlis Streets (Reel Art Press, $39.95, November 2020). I’m used to seeing the ever-cool Godlis and his impressive curly hair every year at the New York Film Festival, snapping away from his seat at front and center, but this year’s event, of course, was virtual, so I will have to settle for catching up with Godlis on Zoom when Rizzoli hosts his book launch on November 19 at 5:00, when Godlis will speak with Reel Art Press music editor Dave Brolan. Godlis is known for his black-and-white documentation of the punk scene, cinema luminaries, and street photos from the 1970s to 1990s, ever since he purchased his first 35mm camera in 1970; his motto is “Better Living Through Photography.” Look out for his photo of an outdoor stand selling “Black Art,” a drawing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., next to “American Art,” a painting of a clown; a shot of a nun walking past a bus with an ad featuring a naked man and woman on it; and a picture of two women looking askance at him as they pass a peep show. The book includes a foreword by Luc Sante and an afterword by Chris Stein; both Sante and Stein will be part of the launch as well, which is free with RSVP.

PERFORMA TELETHON

Laurie Anderson will revisit Nam June Paik’s 1984 Good Morning, Mr. Orwell for Performa telethon (photo courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York)

Who: Jason Moran, Ragnar Kjartansson, Lang Lang, Yvonne Rainer, Jennifer Rubell, Laurie Anderson, Omer Fast, Maria Hassabi, Jesper Just, William Kentridge, Liz Magic Laser, Rashid Johnson, Shirin Neshat, more
What: Virtual benefit gala for Performa
Where: Pace Gallery
When: Wednesday, November 18, free with RSVP, 2:00 to 10:00 pm
Why: Performa is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary with an eight-hour gala fundraiser featuring live performances, specially commissioned artist editions, and testimonials, an online mashup of Nam June Paik’s 1984 Good Morning, Mr. Orwell and Barbara Kruger’s 1989 critique of Jerry Lewis and his annual MDA Labor Day Telethon, aired live from the seventh floor of Pace Gallery in Chelsea. “Nam June Paik’s innovations in broadcast and large-scale architectural installations of television monitors changed the way we think about the screen as an art form,” Performa founder and director RoseLee Goldberg said in a statement. “Half a century after Paik’s legendary interventions in television, we find ourselves in a unique situation: We must now rely on the screen in new ways in the midst of a pandemic that has cost over one million lives. Like Paik, we approach the screen as an exciting platform for artists to communicate their work and ideas.”

Produced in collaboration with E.S.P. TV, the fundraiser honors founding patron Toby Devan Lewis and will include a giant tally board, confetti, giant checks, balloons, a bank of people on telephones, and other telethon staples while acknowledging the Covid-19 crisis, election unrest, the BLM movement, and other critical contemporary social issues. The show will be highlighted by performances from Derrick Adams & Dave Guy, Jérôme Bel, Torkwase Dyson (reading an excerpt from Myself a Distance), David Hallberg, Glenn Kaino, Ragnar Kjartansson, Lang Lang, Marching Cobras, Jason Moran, Oyinda, Yvonne Rainer, Jennifer Rubell, Jacolby Satterwhite, Rufus Wainwright, Hank Willis Thomas & Ebony Brown, Samson Young, and Laurie Anderson, who will pay tribute to Paik; there will also be screenings of Lynda Benglis’s On Screen, The Grunions Are Running, and Document and testimonials from Tamy Ben-Tor, Elmgreen & Dragset, Omer Fast, Maria Hassabi, Jesper Just, William Kentridge, Liz Magic Laser, Kelly Nipper, Rashid Johnson, Shirin Neshat, and others, along with archival footage and never-before-seen behind-the-scenes outtakes. Six artist editions will make their debut and will be available only during the broadcast, by Korakrit Arunanondchai, Barbara Kruger, Kia LaBeija, Michèle Lamy, Cindy Sherman, and Laurie Simmons. The twentieth Performa Biennial, curated by David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards, is scheduled for 2021, but it might look very different from previous ones depending on the state of the pandemic.

ROSANNE CASH AND A. M. HOMES: EYE OF THE COLLECTOR

Rosanne Cash and A. M. Homes appear in new Met film Eye of the Collector (photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images North America)

Who: Rosanne Cash, A. M. Homes
What: Prerecorded film with songs and poems
Where: Met Museum Facebook and YouTube
When: Tuesday, November 17, free, 7:00
Why: In conjunction with the exhibition “Photography’s Last Century: The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection,” which continues through November 30, the Met is hosting the free virtual presentation Eye of the Collector. In the half-hour film, directed and edited by Phyllis Housen, singer-songwriter extraordinaire Cash, whose albums include Seven Year Ache, The List, and She Remembers Everything, and Homes, who has written such books as Days of Awe, This Book Will Save Your Life, and The Mistress’s Daughter, share songs and poems, accompanied by images from the exhibit, which features works by Paul Strand, Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Joseph Cornell, Diane Arbus, Andy Warhol, Sigmar Polke, Cindy Sherman, Richard Avedon, and many others, promised as a 150th anniversary gift to the Met from Tenenbaum and Lee. The film will be streamed over the Met’s Facebook and YouTube pages on November 17 at 7:00.

“The pandemic and the protests were the perfect storm of isolation, longing, inspiration, longing, fear, and hope,” Cash writes about her new single, the sociopolitical “Crawl into the Promised Land,” adding, “Living in New York City was a pressure cooker, particularly in April and May, when the deaths were spiking and the city sealed itself off, and utterly changed. But strangely, there was also a sense of unity and community, and the potential for transcendence. I kept thinking of the model in physics, where things have to fall apart in order to re-assemble themselves in a more refined, evolved state. . . . I need more space and time to understand what happened, what we are still going through. Why we elected such an unfit person to guide us, why we kill Black people with impunity, why our leaders dismantle and mock every institution we have painstakingly created to hold us safe, why some deaths matter and others don’t. I won’t be here ‘fifty years away from here,’ but someone I gave birth to, or someone they gave birth to, will live in those times and understand, and maybe pass the knowledge on to me, even in another world or another life. The magnitude of the moment requires time and an ocean of reflection.” That is precisely what Cash and Homes will be offering on Tuesday night.

PUBLIC ART FUND TALKS: DAVINA SEMO / REVERBERATION

Davina Semo’s Reverberation rings out in Brooklyn Bridge Park through April 18 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Who: Davina Semo, Daniel S. Palmer
What: Livestreamed discussion
Where: Public Art Fund Zoom
When: Monday, November 16, free with RSVP, 5:00
Why: “Ring them bells, ye heathen / From the city that dreams / Ring them bells from the sanctuaries / ’Cross the valleys and streams / For they’re deep and they’re wide / And the world’s on its side / And time is running backwards / And so is the bride,” Bob Dylan sang on his 1989 album, Oh Mercy. You can ring them bells from the sanctuary of Brooklyn Bridge Park, across the East River, in Davina Semo’s interactive installation Reverberation, which continues through April 18 along the Pier 1 waterfront promenade. Reverberation consists of five large-scale bronze bells in pearlescent orange paint, named “Reflector,” “Singer,” “Dreamer,” “Listener,” and “Mother,” that visitors can ring by pulling on a chain, each clapper with unique drilled holes to emit a slightly different sound, evoking wakeup calls, warnings, alarms, calls to action, prayer, and change, and the dinnertime announcement for families to come together, all taking on new meanings during the Covid-19 crisis. (You should bring your own hand sanitizer if you plan on grabbing the galvanized steel chain, and remember to observe social distancing.)

Davina Semo will discuss her outdoor installation in a virtual Public Art Fund talk on November 16 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

“Bells are very much part of our urban landscapes,” Semo says in a Public Art Fund video. “They are easy to ignore in a way because they’re so ubiquitous, and oftentimes they are housed in institutions that for better or worse are no longer relevant or are maybe relevant in ways that we want to change. I was interested in taking the form and this ancient tool and democratizing the process in this way that I hope could be meaningful to the person ringing the bell and also to the community at large.” On November 16 at 5:00, the DC-born, San Francisco-based Semo will take part in a free Public Art Fund talk with curator Daniel S. Palmer, cosponsored by the Cooper Union. As Dylan also sang, “Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf / Ring them bells for all of us who are left / Ring them bells for the chosen few / Who will judge the many when the game is through / Ring them bells, for the time that flies / For the child that cries / When innocence dies.” (You can see twi-ny’s slideshow of Reverberation here.)

IN CONVERSATION: GEORGE CONDO AND MASSIMILIANO GIONI

George Condo, Internal Riot, acrylic, pigment stick, and metallic paint on linen, 2020 (© George Condo / photo by Thomas Barratt)

Who: George Condo, Massimiliano Gioni
What: Livestreamed webinar
Where: Hauser & Wirth Zoom
When: Monday, November 9, free with advance RSVP, 1:00
Why: This past spring, Hauser & Wirth presented the online program “Distanced Figures: George Condo,” in which the New Hampshire-born, New York-based artist discussed his virtual exhibition, “Drawings for Distanced Figures,” and took attendees inside his Hamptons studio to share his working methods during quarantine. “I love to draw, and in the usual context of privacy, one doesn’t think of the term isolation or forced separation; rather, it’s a space to create without being watched,” he noted about the show. On November 9 at 1:00, the purveyor of “physiognomical abstraction” will talk about his new exhibit, “Internal Riot,” which continues in-person at Hauser & Wirth’s 542 West 22nd St. gallery, speaking with New Museum artistic director Massimiliano Gioni; admission is free with advance RSVP. You can reserve free timed tickets see the exhibition, which Condo describes as consisting of “composites of various psychological states,” here. (You will also have access to “Jack Whitten: I Am the Object.”)

SAN FRANCISCO PLAYHOUSE: ‘ART’

The cast of ‘Art’ rehearsed in masks before filming Tony-winning play onstage together

‘ART’
San Francisco Playhouse
Through November 7, $15-$100
www.sfplayhouse.org

Perhaps the two most important members of the crew of San Francisco Playhouse’s streaming revival of ‘Art’ are production manager Maggie Johnson and general manager Danika Ingraham, who also served as the Covid compliance officers. SFP is one of the first companies in the country to get permission from Actors’ Equity to use its physical theater space to stage a play, albeit without an audience, but filmed with three actors and a full, professional crew. The ninety-minute show was rehearsed with masks and regular testing, then filmed with three cameras over three days, following strict guidelines. Yasmina Reza’s play, which won a Tony in 1998, is a natural for the pandemic, with organic social distancing; the cast spends most of the time more than six feet away from one another, in and around three chairs, with very limited touching of any kind. Yet SFP artistic director Bill English was already considering putting on the play prior to the lockdown, as the work’s central conceit serves as an apt metaphor for what is going on in America today.

Originally written in French and translated by Christopher Hampton (Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Savages), ‘Art’ focuses on a white painting purchased for $200,000 by the erudite Serge (Johnny Moreno). His best friend, the cynical Marc (Jomar Tagatac), thinks it’s a “piece of shit.” Their other friend, the more middlebrow Yvan (Bobak Bakhtiari), who is about to get married, is caught in the middle; Marc desperately wants him to admit to Serge that the painting is terrible, but Yvan doesn’t want to offend Serge, regardless of what he really thinks of the work. Their fifteen-year friendship threatens to crumble as they all start saying things they are likely to regret.

Serge (Johnny Moreno), Marc (Jomar Tagatac), and Yvan (Bobak Bakhtiari) argue over more than just a painting in SFP revival

But there’s a reason the title, ‘Art,’ is in quotes. It is not really about whether an abstract painting by a supposedly famous artist is any good, about what qualifies as ‘art.’ It’s about how difficult it has become to remain civil with people who do not share the same likes and dislikes, the same beliefs, you do. Marc is so upset that Serge has bought the white painting that he is ready to lose him forever. Although Reza (God of Carnage, Life x 3) wrote the play in 1994, it has a timeless quality; the white painting is essentially a blank canvas for the audience to fill in as they please. In 2020, for example, you can imagine it as an electoral map of blue and red states, with three friends arguing over what’s best for the country, willing to end their relationships if they are not voting for the same candidate. During the coronavirus crisis, it’s happening every day over social media, with former high school classmates, family members, and best friends fighting over the virus, immigration, health care, foreign policy, and the economy; they might block one another on Facebook, but they also might not be so willing to meet face-to-face once this crisis is over and go to a museum together.

The English-language version was originally performed by three white men, Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, and Ken Stott, in London in 1996; the 1999 Broadway premiere featured Alan Alda as Marc, Victor Garber as Serge, and a Tony-nominated Alfred Molina as Yvan. SFP’s diverse casting adds an innate twist to the proceedings as Moreno, Tagatac, and Bakhtiari form a quick camaraderie even amid their characters’ growing displeasure with one another. (It also answers the rhetorical question director English asks in a program note: “Why open our 2020/2021 season with a play written for three white men and their petty upper-middle-class quarrel over a work of art?”)

It’s truly wonderful to finally see a fully staged production, with actual costumes (by Randy Wong-Westbrooke), sound (by Teddy Hulsker), lighting (by Heather Kenyon), and a real set; in addition to the three comfy armchairs, there is a three-sided wall that spins around in the back before stopping to delineate which man’s apartment we are at in each scene. Both Marc and Yvan have small, framed paintings on their wall, while Serge’s is empty, perhaps to be covered by his five-foot-by-four-foot investment. The final stream is effectively edited by Wolfgang Wachalovsky, who puts you onstage with the actors; it was not shot to make you feel like you are sitting in the theater. And until we are allowed back into theaters to see live forms of “art,” this is about as close as we’re going to get.

MINISTRY OF TRUTH: 1984/2020 EXHIBITION AND Q&A

Sue Coe’s “We Are Many. They Are Few.” can be found at Morgan Ave. & Harrison St. in Brooklyn (photo courtesy Art at a Time Like This)

Who: Abigail de Ville, Marilyn Minter, Deborah Kass, Ruj Greigarn, Barbara Pollack, Anne Verhallen
What: “What Have Artists Contributed to the 2020 Election?” live, online discussion about new outdoor exhibition
Where: Art at a Time Like This Zoom
When: Monday, November 2, free with RSVP (donations accepted), 7:00 (exhibition continues through at least November 20)
Why: On March 17, just at the start of the pandemic lockdown, Barbara Pollack and Anne Verhallen launched Art at a Time Like This, a website that asked the question, “How can you think of art at a time like this?,” kicking off months of daily postings of politically charged old and new works by dozens of major artists, in addition to lively Zoom discussions exploring the role of art and the artist in the age of Covid-19. Pollack and Verhallen have now moved their activism outdoors with the ambitious “Ministry of Truth: 1984/2020,” a collection of twenty billboards located across the five boroughs, featuring new, civically conscious designs by an impressive group of emerging and established artists. The winners were chosen out of twelve hundred submissions, some through an open call, by Pollack and Verhallen with the Bronx Museum’s Jerome LaMaar, independent curator Larry Ossei-Mensah, Carmen Hermo of the Brooklyn Museum, and the Queens Museum’s Sophia Marisa Lucas, resulting in a wide range of diverse works from graduate students and international stars, responding to the failures of the current administration.

V. L. Cox reveals “The End Hate Doors” at 21st St. & 44th Rd. in Queens (photo courtesy Art at a Time Like This)

“I think what has been our way of working is that over the course of seven or eight months, we’ve always had a direct response to the moment, and so the way we worked was also very much in the moment,” Verhallen said during a recent Zoom interview. “The first day that we launched the online exhibition, we didn’t know that we were going to make it into a nonprofit, but everything was very organic, and so was this first public project. This is the first of many to come, hopefully.”

Pollack and Verhallen make no bones about the goal of “Ministry of Truth: 1984/2020,” which was organized by Art at a Time Like This with Save Art Space. The name of the exhibition refers to a trio of slogans emblazoned on the white pyramid that is the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984: “War Is Peace.” “Freedom Is Slavery.” “Ignorance Is Strength.”

“One of our main goals is to demonstrate that artists have ideas that need to be brought into the political conversation, that they envision other ways of looking at things, alternative ways of looking at things, and solutions for the future that are not part of the political debate,” Pollack said. “So we thought with the election coming up, we needed to provide some kind of special platform for art in response to crisis.”

Shirin Neshat’s “America Land of Dreams” interacts with other signage at Grand St. & Catherine St. in Brooklyn (photo courtesy Art at a Time Like This)

In an email blast, they declared, “Early voting has started and this administration has taken to the courts to cut mail-in deadlines. Other absurd restrictions and rules encouraging voter intimidation are also in the courts, facing decisions by Trump-appointed federal judges. So to ensure your vote is counted, get to your polling place early or drop off ballots before next Tuesday. Let’s hope for a clear-cut decision that leaves no question of the outcome. . . . On your way to your polling place, take a look around you. You’ll probably find one of the billboards in ‘Ministry of Truth: 1984/2020’ along your way.”

You can rent a car, take public transportation, or get on a bike and trek around to see as many of the billboards as you can; there are ten in Brooklyn, four in Queens, three in the Bronx, two in Staten Island, and one in Manhattan. (You can find the complete map here.) On Atlantic Ave. and Classon Ave., Deborah Kass proclaims, “Yo Vote!” in bold yellow letters on a blue background. Marilyn Minter calls for “Justice Now!” (Eleventh Ave. & Forty-Fifth St.) in glam graffiti. Sue Coe’s “We Are Many. They Are Few.” (Morgan Ave. and Harrison St.) is a graphic black-and-white depiction of two giant cops trampling over a Black Lives Matter rally as a city burns in the background. Helina Metaferia’s “Headdresses 6” (Webster Ave. and East 173rd St.) reveals a black woman’s headdress to include leaders of the Black Power Movement. Mel Chin’s “Flag of America 2020” (Jackson Ave. at the Pulaski Bridge) shows Old Glory with the stars divided in two, twenty-five on each side, while Holly Ballard Martz also incorporates the Stars and Stripes in “The Greatest Show on Earth” (Calyer St. and McGuinness Blvd.), complete with a “No Exit” sign. And in Ruj Greigarn’s “The Marching” (Myrtle Ave. and Cornelia St.), a nonbinary person in a blue blouse, black pants, and black high-heeled boots walks down the street carrying a rainbow flag. Other billboards by Shirin Neshat, Dread Scott, Abigail de Ville, Dan Perjovschi, Aaron Gilbert, Akinbo Akinnouye, Guerrilla Girls BroadBand, Lola Flash, Angela Portillo, Rachel Hsu, Holly Martz, Terry Berkowitz, V. L. Cox, and Ileana Hernandez also involve dissent, racism, hate, injustice, immigration, police brutality, and an America that is supposed to be the land of dreams.

“Sometimes it’s hard to find words around everything that’s happening, and artists are so attuned to how our communities feel,” Verhallen said over Zoom. “So besides giving the artist a voice in a public space, it also provides the audience with a sense of camaraderie and catharsis.”

Lola Flash’s “i pray” makes its point at Utica Ave. & Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn (photo courtesy Art at a Time Like This)

Talking about reviewing the submissions, Pollack notes, “It was this great outpouring of humanity. It was really moving to look through them. It was amazing how much people had to say.”

Verhallen adds, “Both Barbara and I got really emotional when we went through it because it really felt like an outpouring of people’s hearts. The last couple of months, there’s been a real demonstration from voices that have been unheard, so it was quite an experience to go through the works.”

On November 2 at 7:00, election eve, Pollack and Verhallen will host the live, interactive Zoom discussion “What Have Artists Contributed to the 2020 Election?,” joined by Greigarn, de Ville, Minter, and Kass, each of whom has previously contributed work to Art at a Time Like This. Admission is free with RSVP.

Oh, and no matter where you are, be sure to vote, because that’s what all of this is about.