Tag Archives: Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

MET MUSEUM PRESENTS: THE RETURN

Avatar Adam offers insight into the reconstruction of Tullio Lombardo’s Renaissance Adam in interactive performance installation at the Met (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Venetian Sculpture of the Renaissance (Gallery 504)
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Daily through August 2, free with recommended admission $12-$25
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org
the return slideshow

A museum disaster, a literal “fall of Adam,” has led to one of the Met’s most intriguing new pieces and a surprising venture into both digital and performance art. In October 2002, Tullio Lombardo’s late-fifteenth-century marble statue of Adam collapsed to the ground and shattered into more than two hundred fragments, its pedestal giving way to its half-ton weight. In reconstructing what Met assistant curator calls “the most important sculpture from Renaissance Venice to be found outside that city today,” the museum employed digital technology that new media artist Reid Farrington has transformed into an educational and very entertaining interactive two-part installation. Farrington has previously used multiple screens and live performers in such presentations as Tyson vs. Ali (a fictional bout between the two champions), The Passion Project (reimagining Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 film, The Passion of Joan of Arc), and Gin & “It” (a complex behind-the-scenes staging of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope). Now he brings the restoration of “Adam” back to life with the interactive performance installation “The Return.” In the specially designed Gallery 504, “Adam,” which was commissioned for the tomb of Venice doge Andrea Vendramin, stands atop a new base, an apple in his left hand, his right hand clutching a bare branch of the Tree of Knowledge. Also in the room is a large-scale two-sided monitor that is like a supersized iPhone in which an animated Biblical Adam and a digital avatar of the sculpture discuss free will, determinism, God, compression and shearing, and other lofty subjects with an actor-docent (Cara Francis, Catherine Gowl, or Stephanie Regina), who navigates the performance by focusing on the museum’s groundbreaking reconstruction of the sculpture in brief, ever-changing explanations of specific parts of the sculpture, including the elbow, the torso, and the upper tree trunk. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the digital performer and the docent, so every performance is slightly different.

Biblical Adam examines his marble representation in Reid Farrington’s innovative “The Return” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Adams are sometimes wandering a van Gogh-like field and at other times immersed in a digital realm inhabited by falling 0s and 1s. The movement of the Adams is performed by an actor (Roger Casey, Jack Frederick, or Gavin Price) in a motion-capture suit in the nearby Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, where everyone is invited to watch him in action, surrounded by numerous monitors, including one showing what is being seen on the screen in the gallery, controlled by a pair of technicians. The Adams and the docent also delve into the nature of sin and the meaning behind the fig leaf while relating Adam’s physical fall from its podium to his metaphorical fall from grace in the Bible and comparing God’s creation to that of the artist. (The script was written by Farrington’s wife, playwright Sara Farrington.) Make sure to check out both sides of the monitor, which reveal the two Adams’ front and back. “The Return” is a fascinating way to explore a work of art; in this case, it came about because of an accident, but it could very well be the next wave of how we look at and think about art. An appendage to the recent exhibit “Tullio Lombardo’s Adam: A Masterpiece Restored,” which closed on June 14, the performance, which playfully evokes the 1982 sci-fi classic Tron, takes place daily from 12:45 to 2:15, as well as from 4:30 to 6:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. Admission is free; you can also follow all the fascinating action online via the Met’s live stream.

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS 50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION WITH LIVE MUSIC

Charlie Brown and Linus discuss Christmas in classic holiday special (courtesy of Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez Productions © 2014 Peanuts Worldwide LLC)

Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Saturday, December 20, 11:00 am & 1:30 pm, and Sunday, December 21, 2:00 & 4:00 pm, $40-$80 (includes museum admission)
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org
www.peanuts.com

First broadcast on television on December 9, 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas has been a holiday staple for fifty years, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is celebrating that half century of existential Christmas depression, commercialism, and faith with the special presentation “A Charlie Brown Christmas 50th Anniversary Celebration with Live Music.” “I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus,” Charlie tells his thumb-sucking, blanket-gripping best friend at the beginning of the cartoon. “Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel.” On December 20 and 21, the Met will make everyone feel a whole lot better by screening the delightful show in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium with the Rob Schwimmer Trio and the Church of the Heavenly Rest Children’s Choir playing live, reinterpreting the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s magical jazz score. Following the twenty-five-minute tale — which was written by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, directed by Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. veteran Bill Melendez, and features the voices of Peter Robbins as Charlie Brown, Chris Shea as Linus, Tracy Stratford as Lucy, Kathy Steinberg as Sally, and Melendez as Snoopy — Schwimmer and Mark Stewart will lead a holiday sing-along. Tickets, which range from $40 to $80, include museum admission, so you can also check out the Met’s Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche.

MET MUSEUM PRESENTS MALI NOW: BASSEKOU KOUYATÉ

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Thursday, October 30, $35-$45, 7:00
212-570-3949
www.metmuseum.org
www.bassekoukouyate.com

Malian ngoni master Bassekou Kouyaté and his band, Ngoni ba, will conclude the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Mali Now” series with an acoustic concert October 30 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. The group has released three albums, 2007’s Segu Blue, 2009’s Grammy-nominated I Speak Fula, and the latest, last year’s Jama Ko, which was recorded during the 2012 coup d’état and includes such dramatic songs as “Ne Me Fatigue Pas,” “Wagadou,” and “Segu Jajiri.” The Garana-born Kouyaté, who has been playing the ngoni, also known as a spike lute, since he was twelve, has performed with Taj Mahal, Toumani Diabate, Paul McCartney, Damon Albarn, and others. “Mali Now” previously featured a concert by Salif Keita and a three-part talk by Henry Louis Gates Jr. on the cultural, historical, and political legacy and future of the African nation. If you haven’t been following the influx of terrific Malian music over the last few years, highlighted by Tinariwen, the Touré family, Oumou Sangaré, Salif Keita, and Amadou and Mariam, this show at the Met is a great place to start.

CROSSING THE LINE — RYOJI IKEDA: SUPERPOSITION

(superposition, 2012 © Kazuo Fukunaga / Kyoto Experiment in Kyoto Art Theater, Shunjuza)

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
October 17-18, $35, 7:00
212-570-3949
www.fiaf.org
www.metmuseum.org

In the summer of 2011, Japanese multimedia artist Ryoji Ikeda dazzled New Yorkers with the immersive site-specific work the transfinite, which invited visitors to sit down in the Park Avenue Armory and merge with a two-sided monolithic wall, extended onto the floor, that came alive with a mind-blowing array of experimental digital music and mathematically based projections, as if welcoming people inside the mind of a cutting-edge computer. Things will be only slightly more contained for the U.S. premiere of superposition, Ikeda’s theatrical piece being presented October 17 & 18 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Ticket holders may be sitting in seats, but what’s happening onstage will take them through mesmerizing sound and visuals that combine art and science, mathematics and human behavior in unique ways, exploring technology, philosophy, probability, and the future of existence, zeroing in on a single subatomic particle. The work is being presented as part of the French Institute Alliance Française’s annual Crossing the Line Festival, consisting of multidisciplinary projects and performances at locations throughout the city. In conjunction with superposition, Salon 94 on East Ninety-Fourth St. is hosting a solo exhibition of Ikeda’s work October 20-31, and his black-and-white test pattern [times square] is being projected on nearly four dozen digital screens in Times Square nightly from 11:57 to midnight for the October installment of “Midnight Moment,” the monthly program organized and supported by the Times Square Advertising Coalition in partnership with Times Square Arts; on October 16, the visuals will be accompanied by an Exclusive Sound Experience, with limited headphones available beginning at 11:00. (If you’re attending the October 17 performance of superposition, be sure to arrive at the museum early, as Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir will be playing a special pop-up concert at 6:00 in the Carroll and Milton Petrie European Sculpture Court (Gallery 548) inspired by the Costume Institute’s upcoming “Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire,” which opens October 21.)

DEAN AND BRITTA — 13 MOST BEAUTIFUL: SONGS FOR ANDY WARHOL’S SCREEN TESTS

Dean & Britta will reprise their audiovisual Andy Warhol tribute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 6 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Saturday, October 6, $35, 7:00
www.metmuseum.org
www.deanandbritta.com

Two years ago, at the CMJ Festival, Dean & Britta announced that they would play “13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests” for the last time ever in New York City at the Skirball Center in October 2010. Well, it seems that the Met has gotten them to change their mind, as they will once again be performing their outstanding set piece on October 6 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, in conjunction with the new exhibit “Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years.” In 2006, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh commissioned Dean & Britta to compose scores for screen tests that the silver-haired artist shot at the Factory from 1964 to 1966; they searched through hundreds of the black-and-white films (each four minutes and sixteen seconds in length) until they decided on Lou Reed, Nico, Edie Sedgwick, Dennis Hopper, Paul America, Susan Bottomly, Ann Buchanan, Freddy Herko, Jane Holzer, Billy Name, Richard Rheem, Ingrid Superstar, and Mary Woronov. The result is a stunning collection of gorgeous instrumentals (“Silver Factory Theme,” “Incandescent Innocence”), covers (Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It with Mine” and the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Not a Young Man Anymore”), “Knives from Bavaria” from the Dean & Britta record L’Avventura, and other trippy tracks, including the phenomenal “Teenage Lightning (and Lonely Highways),” that the duo, accompanied by Anthony Lamarca and Matt Sumrow, performs live while the screen tests are projected behind them. Dean, who was previously in Luna and Galaxie 500, introduces most of the songs/films with a little historical detail about the subject, adding both nostalgia and, unfortunately, tragedy to the proceedings, as most of the people being shown on the screen are no longer with us.

FASHION MEETS FURNITURE: A CONVERSATION WITH ANNA SUI

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Friday, January 14, $25, 6:00
212-570-3949
www.metmuseum.org

Since 1991, fashion designer Anna Sui has been staging runway shows with collections influenced by everything from music, textile design, film, and comic book characters to art, British youth culture, interior decoration, and Seventeen magazine, as pointed out by Andrew Bolton in the deluxe book ANNA SUI (Chronicle, November 2010, $60). Sui’s Fall 2010 collection was inspired by furniture designer Charles Rohlfs, whose Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts handiwork is currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 23 in the exhibition “The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs.” On Friday, January 14, Sui will be at the Met to talk about Rohlfs and her collection, along with Bolton, who is curator of the Met’s Costume Institute, Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, the Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts, and Joseph Cunningham, curator of the American Decorative Art 1900 Foundation. “There’s no doubt that Anna’s a little crazy,” photographer Steven Meisel writes in the introduction to the book, so be ready for anything in what should be an exciting evening.