Tag Archives: tanya bonakdar gallery

OLAFUR ELIASSON: VOLCANOES AND SHELTERS

Olafur Eliasson, “The volcano series,” sixty-three C-prints, 2012 (© Olafur Eliasson)

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
521 West 21st St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through December 22, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-414-4144
www.tanyabonakdargallery.com

Although best known for his colorful, dramatic installations using various combinations of glass, mirrors, metal, water, and light, Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has also been taking photographs of Iceland, the home of his parents’ birth, for two decades, capturing its unique natural landscapes and putting them together in fascinating grids. His latest exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar is highlighted by three such grids on separate walls in the Chelsea gallery’s main space, enveloping visitors with their looming physicality. “The hut series” consists of fifty-six photographs of “micro-parliaments,” small, remote cabins set against earth and sky. “The hot springs series” collects forty-eight photos of one of Iceland’s most distinctive natural elements, geothermal hot springs that bubble beneath the ground. And “The volcano series” captures sixty-three shots of volcanic craters from around the country. In the back room, “The large Iceland series” features bigger, individual portraits of more natural phenomena. Upstairs, Eliasson, who works in Berlin and Copenhagen and was the subject of the terrific 2008 MoMA/PS1 retrospective “Take Your Time,” has installed “Your disappearing garden,” filling nearly half a room with volcanic obsidian rocks, as if he shipped a part of Hrafntinnusker to New York City. And behind a curtain are three works that dazzle the senses, a trio of tabletop fountains that slowly spin in a dark room illuminated by strobe lights that make it look as if the cascading water is momentarily frozen in time; visitors will actually feel dizzy as they walk around these “anti-gravity experiments,” which Eliasson has titled “Object defined by activity (now),” “Object defined by activity (soon),” and “Object defined by activity (then).”

ERNESTO NETO: SLOW IIS GOOD

Ernesto Neto, “The Sun Lits Life, Let the Son,” polypropylene and polyester rope, plastic balls, plants, terra cotta, black pepper, turmeric, cumin, and cloves, 2012 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
521 West 21st St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through May 25, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-414-4144
www.tanyabonakdargallery.com
slow iis good slideshow

Brazilian mixed-media artist Ernesto Neto, who filled the Park Ave. Armory three years ago with the giant exoskeleton “Anthropodino,” has created another organic treat for the senses, “Slow iis good, with my back to the world!” On view at Tanya Bonakdar through Saturday, “Slow iis good” consists of two floors of colorful crocheted polypropylene and polyester cord works highlighted by several pieces that invite visitors inside, engaging their senses of sight, smell, touch, and hearing. On the first floor, the sonic “SoundWay” (be sure to shake the sides) leads to “The Island Bird,” which resembles the lower half of an enormous body, with the extended feet serving as an entrance to a playful central area that dangles from the ceiling. With your shoes off, you can follow the unsteady path as you walk over plastic black balls and relax in a cushioned rest stop. While inside, you not only merge with the piece, becoming part of it, but you can look out and see other smaller works, such as “Grub” and “Sorry, I Don’t Know Exactly Where to Go,” hanging on the walls and residing on the floor, offering a different perspective from the usual gallery experience. Upstairs you are greeted by the cozy “Labor,” where you can sit down and examine one of the spinning machines used to do the heavily detailed and time-consuming crocheting. Next, in a small gallery off to the side, you can take a load off in “Blue Hammock” or “Green Hammock,” which are as comfortable as they appear. The last room holds another surprise, “The Sun Lits Life, Let the Son,” a bridgelike structure with rocks and more plastic balls, surrounded by hanging plants and spices, the scents of black pepper, turmeric, cumin, cloves, and greenery combining with the feeling of antigravity to lift you into another dimension. As the title says, “Slow iis good”; take your time making your way through the works, which are certainly fun but also disorienting, as you have to be careful to maintain your balance in the two larger pieces, but it’s well worth it.

GILLIAN WEARING: PEOPLE / HELEN COLE: WE SEE FIREWORKS

Gillian Wearing, “Snapshot,” Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

“Gillian Wearing: People”
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, 521 West 21st St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through June 24, free, 212-414-4144, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.tanyabonakdargallery.com
“Helen Cole: We See Fireworks”
PS122, 150 First Ave. at East Ninth St.
Tuesday – Saturday through June 11, $10, 212-352-3101, Wednesday – Friday 4:30 – 9:00, Saturday – Sunday 2:00 – 9:00
www.ps122.org

Two very different shows by conceptual British artists are currently shining a light on memory and performance, offering intriguing looks at individuals with fascinating stories to tell. On the second floor of the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea (through June 24), YBA legend Gillian Wearing has installed “Secrets and Lies,” a confessional box in which videos of people in form-fitting masks — with holes cut out for the eyes to reveal their emotional state — share personal tales of bullying and murder as well as virginity and drinking menstrual blood. The participants responded to Wearing’s call to “confess all on video,” and with the masks on they hold nothing back. As difficult as it is to listen to some of these piercing narratives, visitors are sure to be transfixed by their honesty and openness, making them wonder what secrets or lies they would share if they were on the other side of the booth. It continues Wearing’s career-long investigation of identity, which is also evident on the first floor in “Snapshot,” seven video portraits of women arranged in age order, accompanied by headphones on which an older woman relates her own tale, and in the short film Bully, in which a bullied man directs a group of individuals in a re-creation of an event that scarred him.

Visitors can shine a light on their own memories in “We See Fireworks” at PS122

Memory and performance are also at the heart of Helen Cole’s “We See Fireworks,” installed in PS122’s Ninth St. gallery through June 11. In a dark room with only a couch, approximately three dozen bare lightbulbs hang from the ceiling at varying levels, many featuring different-shaped filaments that slowly glow as each new tale begins. Cole has asked people to talk about an experience in their life that had performative elements, whether it be a family gathering, a school party, or other encounters (that tend to be lighter than those in Wearing’s works). Each story begins in complete darkness, then one or more bulbs come on, forcing the visitor’s attention in that direction, looking at the bulb as if it were the teller of the tale, until multiple bulbs come on, making the stories feel more universal. Like Wearing’s masked confessors, Cole’s unseen narrators can be unnerving at first, but the more time you spend in their company, the more rewarding it all becomes. If you would like to add your own memory, you can do so today from 4:30 to 6:30 and 7:00 to 9:00. “We See Fireworks” concludes PS122’s “The UK Comes to the EV” festival, which included the previous productions “Action Hero — Watch Me Fall” and “Curious — The Moment I Saw You I Knew I Could Love You.”