Structural Patterns

Alex Villar climbs up a scaffold and breaks into a business

I just came across video documentation of a new public performance by Alex Villar – “Breaking into Business” that he executed as part of the Open City festival in Lublin, Poland. In “Breaking into Business”, he literally performs the concept of “Open City” by walking through the city pushing a scaffold on casters, setting the scaffold below a business window, climbing up the scaffold and into a window. As I watched the video, I kept wondering if all these places had agreed to his visit or what was the reaction within the location as Alex stepped into the building from a second or third story window. Unfortunately, the videographer only follows Villar on the street and we never see the interaction within the building. As is the nature of Alex Villar’s performative work, the focus is on his action, movement and intervention in and through the urban space.

The Muñoz Waxman Gallery of the Santa Fe Center for Contemporary Arts currently houses a giant child’s dream.  Once you walk past the reception desk, imagine walking into a cave and as you come out the other side, you discover a huge sail boat anchored in the main space.

First view of the THE DUE RETURN upon exiting cavernous entrance portal

My wife took our nearly three year old son to the installation last week and he went nuts.  I didn’t get to see it, so  I decided to take him back today, it was a lot of fun – a rich imaginative space for young children and just cool for everyone else.

The installation was executed by a collaborative group called Meow Wolf and apparently over a 100 artists contributed to the installation.  If you spend enough time in it, it’s easy to see how over a hundred people could have a hand in it, because it’s so detailed and rich.  Although I eventually found at least three ways to get into the second level of the “inter-dimensional ship”, initially it appears that steps carved into stone and dirt are the way in… here’s an image from behind the ship picturing the steps and bridge onto the ship:

Image from behind Inter-Dimensional Ship

Once we were on the deck, my son headed straight to the navigational bridge which is filled with monitors, buttons, switches, leds… The monitor’s present Processing sketches that allow for interaction via a variety of switches.  Two slightly older kids, perhaps 4, 5 or 6 were already at the helm and navigating the ship into a battle.  Iggy jumped right in, though he immediately started calling himself the captain.

Navigational bridge of THE DUE RETURN

Close up of main monitor in the Bridge, a fun Processing sketch.

At the back of the bridge, there are stacked televisions with single channel camera feeds, so that you have a view of other parts of the ship.

Security Monitors on THE DUE RETURN, as in most of the ship, some things function others adorn.

Captain's Quarters

Chamber below the boat's bridge, might be the clinic

Single sleeping chamber, stacked above another sleeping chamber.

Behind the ship as it escapes some floating glow things.

Throughout the ship you can find 2D barcodes that lead you to webpages that tell the story of the ship and it’s crew.  You can learn more about it at THE DUE RETURN’S web site and apparently there’s a link to a related iPhone app… every media available is part of this ship!  It was also a performance space from end of May through June.  But ultimately, it’s a child’s dream come true.

Two pieces that struck me while visiting the Museum of International Folk Art today:

Bicycle Paper Mache Figure Store

I couldn’t get close to this bicycle, so I shot it from above.  Since the Chivas mascot is prominent amongst the paper mache figures, it’s safe to assume that it’s a Mexican shop on wheels, beautiful!

Decorated Head Set

I failed to write down where this head piece is from, I believe either Bolivia or Peru.  A video next to a few of these featured the man who makes them from discarded objects.  During a festival, men wear these things on their heads, there’s an entire armature within it that the performers need to hold, so that the piece stays in place.

Just came across these art-specific animations. Whether they are coming out of annoyance, jealousy, desire for recognition and fame, creative drive, or all things combined, they’re entertaining for anyone with an Art History and Contemporary Art background.

HOW TO KILL THE ARTISTS ep.5 from Laurina Paperina on Vimeo.

As greater bandwidth allows for higher quality video, I’ve posted a 7-minute single channel edit of a 14-minute 3-channel video installation commissioned by the New Museum in 2004 for an exhibition titled “Counter Culture.” The installation presents three animated portraits reflecting on the history and the future of the Bowery neighborhood. The monitors presenting the animated portraits are installed within a sculptural work made of a series of large steel ducts that have been interwoven together.

The exhibition “Counter Culture” occurred before the ground breaking for the new New Museum building at Bowery and Prince. My contribution to the show focused on capturing three alternate perspectives on the transformation of the Bowery neighborhood at the time. The three animated portraits are based on interviews with three long time Bowery personalities – Anton Bari, manager of the Bari Restaurant Supply and Real Estate, Bruce Davis, a resident of the last “flop house” in the Bowery, the Sunshine Hotel and Pedro Bisonoro or Morocho a 30 year resident of the Bowery, originally from the Dominican Republic.

Here are images of the original installation in Freeman Alley:



And a link to the site documenting the installation: FROM DARKNESS TO DAYLIGHT

I’ve become a big fan of Duke Riley’s work. Riley combines historical research, public intervention and skilled craft to generate narratives that are immediately engaging and subtly layered and complex.

I Photoshopped the drawings pictured in this post in order to better see the detail that Riley executes in his graphic work; they are worth seeing in person whenever possible. Although the only work documented in this post is graphic representation, Riley works across media and he has gotten the most attention for his public interventions, such as “After the Battle of Broolyn” for which he built a replica of an 18th Century U.S. Revolutionary submarine “The Turtle” and set out on the Hudson to attack a ship, the Queen Mary 2 docked off Manhattan. The NYC Coast Guard hauled Riley and his submarine from the Hudson.

The latest exhibition presents two installations revolving around two separate historical narratives – the hobbo ballad “An Invitation to Lubberland” and Petty’s Island, a Citgo owned island in the Delaware River.

I didn’t have the patience to watch the videos portraying An Invitation to Lubberland which presented a late 19th century/ early 20th century dressed man running around underground tunnels. I was much more drawn to the second work presented “Reclaiming the Lost Kingdom of Laird” which consists of an intervention upon a Citgo fuel storage tank and a reclaiming of the island by the Laird Kingdom Liberation Army that published a letter to Hugo Chavez on the Huffington Post reclaiming Petty’s Island.

The project includes a giant portrait of Ralston Laird painted onto the top of a storage tank, interviews with the great great grandson of Ralston Laird, artifacts of the Laird family and beautiful drawings that re-imagine the island. (Ralston Laird was an Irish immigrant who once lived on Petty’s Island and claimed himself king of Petty’s Island.) Below are a few closeups of the large scale drawing pictured above.

Duke Riley goes all out with his work. He ventures across boundaries to realize work that must be taken seriously due to the earnestness of execution. My only point of critique is that his graphic work is consistently in line with hipster subculture aesthetics informed by past eras of Americana and I would much rather see Riley establish his own visual language. Although the visual styles are generally informed by the era of the topic that he tackles it seems to be the same early 19th century U.S. graphic style that he recreates. Perhaps what I enjoy the most is that Riley really seems to enjoy his work thus the research leading to dense narratives that are conceptually and visually engaging.

Since hearing that Krzysztof Wodiczko had a new installation at Galerie Lelong in Chelsea, NYC, I had been looking forward to seeing the show, unfortunately it was underwhelming. I’m a fan of Wodiczko, particularly his earlier works – the vehicles and other sculptural objects activated by participatory street interaction. …OUT OF HERE: The Veterans Project is a black box installation that presents a row of windows framing a blue sky. The windows and sky are video projections near the ceiling of the gallery and the intention is to place the viewer within an architectural space, looking out to the sky. Throughout the gallery ceiling speakers are suspended so that the viewer can hear street sounds.

The installation is essentially a video loop. Initially all the windows are intact and one can hear vehicles and voices, a background of street sounds. Then one hears a helicopter approaching and along the windows projected onto one wall of the gallery, the black silhouette of the helicopter appears and moves across the windows. Then from speakers opposite of the helicopter projection, one hears a ball bouncing and sees the ball reach the top of its arch along the a row of windows. The primary sounds are that of a boy playing with a ball that goes on to break one of the windows, there is some parental yelling in Arabic as the boy plays. Soon there are new voices, in English, military voices giving orders and searching for a target followed by the sound of bullets. There is shooting, windows breaking, people screaming, a cacophony of war like sounds followed by silence and then the loop restarts…

I wish that I could say that the installation effectively transported me into a new space and presented me with the horror of warfare and the sense of being a helpless target, but as the silence ended by the sound of the helicopter and the sequence of virtual events reinitiated, it all just seemed like trite theatrics. Within the confines of a blue chip gallery in Chelsea New York, the installation rings hollow and one is left wondering what is the point?

Wodiczko’s work has always employed a sense of theater and monumentality, whether it’s the quirky designs of his sculptures or the larger than life video projections. But the theatricality of large scale projection on the street has an innate immediacy whereas within the confines of a commercial gallery, the immediacy is muted. According to the exhibition’s press release, the installation is “based on interviews and encounters with veterans and civilians from Iraq and Afghanistan,” I wonder what these people’s reactions are to their experiences being represented in this form. Is it meaningful? Does the installation present some potentiality in relation to their lives? Or is it merely a slick gallery display?

In general, I question the goal of presenting politicized art in commercial galleries or in the white box in general. Wodiczko’s installation left me with a strong sense of the irrelevance of gallery art in relation our world and the complex issues that our present society confronts or chooses to ignore or misuse.

The Ben Rubin show at Bryce Wolkowitz titled Vextors is definitely worth the visit. Although the work is a bit slick for my taste and some of the most interesting aspects about the work get lost in the presentation, it’s an attractive show. Also Rubin’s form of data visualization is much more exciting and creative than most of the data viz we see… black screens with floating vectors.

Walking around Chelsea yesterday, I stepped into David Zwirner that had a show titled 112 Greene Street: The Early Years (1970-1974) and was excited to discover Gordon Matta-Clark’s “Fresh-Air Cart” from 1974 (pictured below).

Once again, last semester I had a talented group of aspiring animators in my introductory 2D animation class. Here are a few select links:

Links to several other animations are available on my Hunter page, enjoy!