Michael Ballou, “Go-Go,” acrylic board, monofilament, wire, plywood, plastic cups, rug, with soundtrackby Kurt Hoffman and David Scher, 2013 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, June 1, 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 long-term installation “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas” is the centerpiece of the June edition of its popular First Saturday program, with a special focus on Peru. The free monthly program will include live performances by Claudia Acuña, Chicha Libre, Rebel Diaz, Marcos Napa, and Mariachi Flor de Toloache, pop-up gallery talks, storytelling presented by the Redhawk Native American Arts Council, a curator talk of the featured exhibit led by Nancy Rosoff and Susan Kennedy Zeller, a Hands-On Art workshop in which participants can make a clay figure, and a participatory despacho ceremony, in which Q’ero healers Don Francisco and Doña Juana invoke reciprocity and loving-kindness. The galleries will remain open late so visitors can also check out “John Singer Sargent Watercolors,” a lovely collection of nearly one hundred stunning works that are a celebration of light and color; “LaToya Ruby Frazier: A Haunted Capital,” moving black-and-white portraits of Frazier and her mother and grandmother; “Käthe Kollwitz: Prints from the ‘War’ and ‘Death’ Portfolios,” devastating woodcut prints by the German Expressionist artist that display the horrors of battle, influenced by the loss of her son in WWI; “Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui,” a revelatory career retrospective of the fascinating oeuvre of the African artist who uses bottle caps and found metal and wood to create fascinating pieces; “‘Workt by Hand’: Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts,” comprising nearly three dozen American and European quilts; “Raw/Cooked: Michael Ballou” and “Dog Years” by the Williamsburg-based artist, who plays with light and shadow in the former, man’s best friend in the latter; and “Valerie Hegarty: Alternative Histories,” in which Hegarty wreaks havoc on two of the museum’s Period Rooms.
When Bill Stone first began making Triumph of the Wall: My Life as a Work in Progress, he was hoping for a meditative documentary on the nature of expectation, exploring commitment, contemplation, and connection in both life and work, both his and his subject’s. However, he ends up with something far different, and try as he might, he just can’t get it on track. Stone follows the travails of Chris Overing, a jack of all trades who has accepted a job building a one-thousand-foot dry-stone wall for an unseen client. Overing has never done anything quite like this before, and that becomes readily apparent as what he thought would be a two-month process turns into years. During that time, Stone sticks with his subject, attempting to get him to wax poetic about what he is experiencing, maybe talk about perfection, procrastination, and the possibility of ever seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, Overing doesn’t have a whole lot to say, and the vast majority of what he does say is not very philosophical. But Stone soldiers on, traveling to Scotland to talk to some professional stonemasons, and he even brings in a pair of artist friends to help work on the wall, desperate for colorful stories and more exciting human interaction. But as the frustration keeps mounting, the director stretches too far as he awkwardly, if very honestly, tries to make sense of it all. (For a much better treatise on wall building, check out Paul Auster’s 1990 novel The Music of Chance, which features a character named Stone.) At the start, Overing, Stone, and the film are filled with promise; even the director’s name makes the whole thing feel like it was meant to be. But alas, the various story lines, like so many of the stones, never quite fit together. Triumph of the Wall opens May 31 at the Quad, with Stone, Overing, and producer Fred Bohbot participating in Q&As following the 7:00 shows on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night.
We were huge fans of Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, so it was with much disappointment that we watched his 2002 TV show, Firefly, come and go so quickly. But the diehard fans, known as Browncoats, wanted more than the Fox network gave them, so Whedon delivered this exciting feature-length film for Universal, reuniting the cast, including Nathan Fillion as Mal, Gina Torres as Zoe, Alan Tudyk as Wash, Morena Baccarin as Inara, Adam Baldwin as Jayne, Jewel Staite as Kaylee, Sean Maher as Simon, Summer Glau as River, and Ron Glass (yes, the guy from Barney Miller) as Shepherd. The bad guy this time around is known simply as the Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a cold-blooded killing machine out to destroy River, who has very dangerous special powers that the Alliance wants silenced. Also getting in the crew’s way are the Reavers, vile creatures who prefer to eat their prey alive. While the Browncoats should be thrilled with the film, so should newbies to this world, as Whedon has managed to make Serenity an involving stand-alone space Western that sci-fi fans can enjoy without knowing anything about Firefly. But after you see this thoroughly enjoyable flick, you’re likely to rush to catch up on everything you missed. Serenity is screening at BAM on May 30 at 9:50, preceded at 7:00 by Whedon’s new movie, a modern take on the Bard’s Much Ado About Nothing, as part of the BAMCinématek program “An Evening with Joss Whedon,” with Whedon taking part in a Q&A following the first film and introducing the second; although both events are sold out, there will be a standby line for any tickets that might become available.
