Melora Griffis, “bruised kite hope flares,” acrylic, gouache, and pastel on paper, 2010 (courtesy of the artist and 571 Projects)
571 Projects
551 West 21st St. #204A between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Thursday, December 8, free, 7:30
Exhibition on view Tuesday – Saturday through December 16, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
212-229-0897
www.571projects.com
In “wings and murmurs,” Melora Griffis’s intimate new solo exhibition at 571 Projects in Chelsea, many of the works feature variations on women’s faces, from the self-portrait “against the wall,” in which the painter, performance artist, and actress holds tight against the right side of the canvas, as if trying to hide from the viewer, to “sister,” which depicts a woman who looks like she has just been through a prizefight, and “unsichtbar,” in which the top part of the subject has been painted over in white, her face and head disappearing into the background. A bold mix of abstraction and figuration with a liberal use of white paint that melds into the small gallery space’s stark white walls, “wings and murmurs” beautifully displays Griffis’s confident brushstrokes and haunting color scheme, particularly in the ghostly “bruised kite hope flares,” which greets visitors as they enter the room. The show runs through December 16, with a special free event scheduled for December 8 at 7:30, “the paintings talk back,” in which poets Betty Harmon, Alystyre Julian, and Shelley Stenhouse will read pieces inspired by Griffis’s work, followed by an open dialogue and a musical performance by the artist.
On October 25, 2003, Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested for tax fraud and has been in prison ever since. The controversial story of the eight-billion-dollar man is told in German director Cyril Tuschi’s political-thriller documentary Khodorkovsky. Combining Michael Moore’s rugged determination to meet with GM CEO Roger Smith in Roger & Me with a police-procedural narrative, Tuschi (Slight Changes in Temperature and Mind) desperately tries to speak with the imprisoned Khodorkovsky, but for most of the film he only gets to communicate him through letters while instead talking with his first wife, his mother, his son, former business partners, spies, and various politicians, some of whom share illuminating details about the life and career of the seemingly equally loved and despised socialist-turned-capitalist and others who adamantly refuse to say anything about the onetime head of the Yukos oil company, perhaps out of fear of retribution. Khodorkovsky is alternately shown to be a philanthropic businessman who founded the Open Russia Foundation charitable project and a ruthless tyrant whose giant ego resulted in his publicly butting heads with former Russian president Vladimir Putin, the reason why many think he is in jail — and might never get out. Tuschi supplements the film with black-and-white constructivist animation of Khodorkovsky, placing him firmly in between socialism and capitalism as he seeks to lead Russia into a new age. Featuring music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and narration by Jean-Marc Barr and Harvey Friedman, Khodorkovsky paints a fascinating portrait of contemporary Russia as well as of one of its most enigmatic and mysterious figures. Tuschi and Khodorkovsky’s son Pavel will be at Film Forum on November 30 to talk about the documentary and its subject following the 7:50 screening.
Born in February 1939 and recognized as an enlightened reincarnation of the Trungpa tülkus when he was just thirteen months old, Chögyam Trungpa escaped his native Tibet during the 1959 Chinese invasion, eventually becoming a central figure in the spread of Tibetan Buddhism throughout the West. Filmmaker Johanna Demetrakas (Right Out of History: The Making of Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party), a former student and friend of Chögyam Trungpa’s, recounts his unusual story in the adulatory Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. “From the first seminar, called ‘The Battle of Ego” in Los Angeles, to filming his cremation on a cloudless but rainbow-filled day in Vermont, Chögyam Trungpa literally blew my mind,” Demetrakas explains on the film’s official website. His fascinating tale is liable to blow your mind too. Chögyam Trungpa invited Demetrakas into his inner circle from 1983 to 1987, allowing her intimate access to his wild life, which included exchanging his monk’s robes for a business suit and later a pseudo-military uniform, confusing his followers and angering his critics. A proponent of what he called “crazy wisdom,” Chögyam Trungpa studied at Oxford, suffered partial paralysis in a car accident, married a sixteen-year-old westerner, smoked cigarettes, was a heavy drinker, and carried on dalliances with many of his female students while teaching about fear, self-deception, the ego, spiritual materialism, and the importance of meditation. “You can survive by doing nothing,” he preached, but he alienated some with his nontraditional actions, leading him to be known as the “Bad Boy of Buddhism.” Trying to get to the bottom of the complicated man who founded such learning centers as the Naropa Institute and Shambhala, Demetrakas speaks with Chögyam Trungpa’s wife, Diana Mukpo, his lover Agness Au, and his eldest son, Sakyong Mipham; such fellow teachers as Pema Chodron and Ram Dass; poets Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman; and various other scholars, journalists, and former students, supplemented by archival footage and clips from his teachings, which together paint a compelling portrait of a most colorful and singular individual. Crazy Wisdom is scheduled for a one-week limited engagement at the Rubin Museum beginning November 25, with all screenings (several of which are beginning to sell out) followed by Q&As with such special guests as Demetrakas, Waldman, Au, Meredith Monk, Tulku Jamyang Rinpoche, and others.