NYNYNY opens tomorrow evening at Flux Factory’s HQ in Queens. While I’m not an artist in the gallery space, I am preparing a projection on window that will be screened for the opening only. This is actually a test run for a larger and longer work for sometime next year, but is complete and on its own by other measures. The work is back-projected onto a window, so a viewer standing in front will not cast their shadow but rather watch the skyline as seen from our roof, as it dissolves into itself over a near-three year timelapse – from an archive of photos I have been taking for that time, collecting shots at different intervals of the day and through the diverse seasons and weather that NYC receives.

The video to be screened tomorrow is 90 minutes, looped. Yes, I did say I plan for a longer work sometime next year!

Duration is key to this work. Each image will last for some time, as do the dissolves happen slowly, patiently. Is that skyline coming or going? Even the hard edge of our skyline is temporal, ethereal – nothing lasts forever!

Sample video below. 9 minutes 50 seconds from 90 minute work.

In mid-November I received a postcard in the mail. I immediately recognized it as being from my friend Jason Eisner, for a show that he was telling me about two months back. I opened the envelope only to realize that the opening was the weekend that just passed. I missed receiving the postcard on time because of the way in which our house mail system operates, so I became internally frustrated, because I would have loved to have attended the opening, which was laced with several performances.

But sometimes, things are somehow for the best.

I could not attend the following two weekends (the gallery is only open on Saturday and Sunday) because of Thanksgiving (closed) and prior engagements, so I set aside 2 December, a Sunday, to parade my way to this new-to-me space, the English Kills Art Gallery.

Living in Queens can be frustrating, because Brooklyn is right there – right there! I have to take three trains: the 7 (from 40 St/Lowery St) to the G (transfer at Court Square) to the L (transfer at Metropolitan) to Morgan Avenue, to arrive in Bushwick, an area technically only three neighborhoods away (but by other measurements worlds apart). That’s one train per neighborhood! Meanwhile the next decade-plus will see likely a billion dollars poured into constructing a new subway in Manhattan so that Upper East Side bougies don’t have to walk two blocks west to crowd themselves onto the 4/5/6. But WHATEVER! I exit at Morgan Avenue only to find a map for “Open Spaces“, a one-day event promoting artists and galleries in the Bushwick area – everything would be open! Sweet!

My agenda was set: first to English Kills, then just stroll and look, at my leisure.

Billed a ‘double solo show’, Jason and Brent Owens each got one of the two cavity spaces that constitute the English Kills space. Even before entering though, you knew you would be entering an alternative space, as each artist had made exterior signage (above image) to promote entry. Ahead – Knucklehead Blues!

(install by Brent Owens)

Both artists have similar but separate approaches: each obviously have a fondness for wood, drilling into it, chopping it up, hacking it as it were. Transforming it to their will. Owens additionally relies on a specific vernacular which he imposes into the grain, and one can leap from the language he uses to imagined narratives about his upbringing: LIKE THE PATH BEATEN BY THE SWINGING SACK OF FATHER TIME. One can only guess he’s from the South!

The Taxpayer, by Brent Owens, a homebrew-looking machine with multiple buckets, containers, modified Anheuser-Busch keg, propane tank. Where’s the moonshine bruh?

Eisner activated his space with both static works (as in framed, none pictured here though) and site-specific installation and sculpture. One or two of the works you got the impression were not only built & installed on-site, but perhaps not even conceived of until the artist was present in the space: wood blobs taking over the architecture or wood shoes hanging from conduit, or various carts promoting their… is that a billboard or a landscape?

The main work in the space was a cart, with inoperable wheels and a suggestive tow hitch, its bed stuffed with slats of foamcore to hold stiff what appeared to be a type of billboard structure depicting a rolling, segmented, landscape. An open cavity in the billboard-landscape revealed hidden works and spaces beyond: power towers, forest stubs, and a plastic work. Originally seen as obtrusive, the viewer is meant to penetrate the landscape in order to find these hidden messages and metaphors.

The delight of the day though was the Open Spaces event, and simply having the time to walk around and enjoy viewing random spaces, art and artists in their spaces. Other notable stumbled-upon spaces included Pocket Utopia, where artist Libby Hartle sat in residence, conversing with punters and carving short wood sticks out of re-constituted paper pulp.

All my cynicisms about this area of Brooklyn aside, it is obvious that some fantastic new spaces are cropping up and are being operated by people that obviously have an investment in their work and the artists they support. Our fair city’s first snow of the season fell this morning, but that didn’t stop me from trekking (again, THREE trains!) there to engage the area, and it shouldn’t stop you either! The Arts in Bushwick non-profit have simplified the task with an accessible map of the area’s galleries and studio complexes.

Things have definitely slowed down a bit now, and all for the best, I need a little rest. But it’s been a good run the past 15 or so days:

Halloween

I think I might prefer the grounds upon which Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated – coupled with an aversion to the commodity nature of so many American holidays – but of course Halloween is guaranteed to be a pretty fun fucking time! Especially in a city like New York City, where it is that one time of the year where it really seems quite natural to be riding the subway with a zombie or someone with an arrow through their head.

At my home we hosted the Hunter MFA annual dance party for the second year running, and it was a complete blowout!

Me? I followed through with my plans and fabricated an outfit which commented on desires of the male form, inspired by guerilla (text-less glossy posters showing a chiseled male with a notable package) and overt (newspaper back-cover spreads commanding “Meet Clint”) advertising campaigns throughout SoHo and the city at large promoting male underwear. For one night I was Clint Mauro, the Armani Exchange underwear model. Consisting of digital prints mounted on cardboard and fastened with zip ties, my outfit became an exo-skeleton of sorts that also greatly improved my dance moves!

(photos of me by Sarah Glidden – thanks Sarah!)

The morning after it was apparent the party was a complete and utter and total resounding success!!

GTA IV billboard followup

removed.

Performa07 opening

Later that night I attended the Performa07 opening at the Guggenheim with my matey Chen, which launched with a one-night only performance by Francesco Vezzoli. Contrary to what others had to say about the event organizing, not all hope was lost. Sure the line wrapped around the corner and nearly halfway to the next Avenue, and sure there was a fiasco surrounding the ticket issue, but eventually all punters made it inside and got to ‘view’ the performance in one way or another:

While some people got dugout-class chairs in the rotunda, and others got to stand along the signature spiral ramp, I still think I had one of the best seats in the house! Sent to one of the Gugg’s theatres, we didn’t get to see the ‘live’ performance but rather to watch it on two quad-split projection screens, with a model – someone by the name of Cate Blanchett or other – sitting on stage the entire time, who eventually got up and left to close out the performance, being video-tracked as she circled down the entire Guggenheim spiral ramp, to interrupt the scene and ask the cast what do they want, what is the truth?

The screen setup was spectacular, and between eight available screens it routinely switched between an array of around fourteen different shots or angles, constantly putting into question one’s perspective, placement and reading of the characters, their storied environment and interaction with each other. Remarkable!

A Psychic Vacuum

If you missed this one, you might possibly have missed the most important public art exhibition this year, anywhere! I’m referring to Mike Nelson’s Creative Time project that turned a dilapidated warehouse space right smack at the Delancey St and Essex St intersection, we’re talking the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge here, into a total apocalyptic fallout space, where you could only traverse by opening doors and passing through, sometimes getting caught in a labyrinth of similar paths and turns, and one encountered small shrines and references to war in the form of carcasses or the passing – almost absence – of time in the form of some old, old calendars.

The last room, which you had to encounter in order to exit back onto the street, was completely exhilarating. I actually laughed, quite heartily, when I entered: a giant warehouse room filled with tons and tons and tons of sand. I mean shit-tons! How did all this sand get here? This? This is what awaits the end? Oh man, talk about hitting the final nail on the coffin! I still laugh at the thought of that room, full of sand!

(nearly finished)

on the set with Law & Order

Two Mondays ago started early, at 6:30am – like I said, little time to sleep! – on set with the crew of NBC’s Law & Order. Nearly a 16-hour gig, they were doing a shoot at Location One, as their script called for an art gallery, so I was their facilities manager for the day. This was an amazing bunch of people, and the crew totaled easily around 60 people. And they all fit their roles perfectly: the actors were self-involved; the producers made influential decisions on the fly; the electricians were the biggest, nerdiest, thickest-glasses-wearing ones around! I got to see some pretty unique hardware, and it was pretty amazing to see how a shot gets made and furthermore to imagine how it will all be stitched together later for television! And thankfully they did their work when they did, as that night the Writers Guild of America strike went into full-swing, and within a day they were reportedly picketing the Law & Order set (which could have potentially made me a scab for crossing the picket line to open the facility!).

Fat Lipstick and the World Famous Bob

the Fat Lipstick film series opened with the screening of (breathe) Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom. Perhaps it rolls off the tongue easier in Japanese: Kyôfu joshikôkô: bôkô rinchi kyôshitsu. A steamy and raunchy film that was probably the perfect touch to welcome in the deep autumn chill of November, involving multiple girl-gangs whose members all had some brilliant cognomens like pipe-crusher or the-boss-with-the-cross; and corrupt politicians and high-school administrators and the multiple parties looking to expose them through blackmail, debauchery and group sex! All the while managing to throw in a comment or two about the American bombing of Japanese port cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I can’t think of a comparable American film to be honest, they definitely have something totally unique with this one!

Oh, and did I mention we were offered an exclusive performance by the World Famous Bob:

A performance you won’t see repeated ever again. As you can assess from the snapshot, if you missed it you missed it!

freeDimensional and Censorship opening

Closing out the run, if you missed the opening for Censorship organized by freeDimensional then you may very well have missed the best opening of the week! If not for the work – which was itself pretty spot-on – then for the party, you missed a great party! Complete with Censored ale, naked people (in that not-so-invasive sort of fashion, but somehow sensible), a raffle and a sound troupe that seemed to follow me from room to room as the evening progressed! And the crowd was really great, supportive and best-of-all willing to dance!

Additional asides:

The Altman Building

let me just say if you get a chance to attend an event at the Altman Building on W 18th Street @ 6th Ave, then go! It’s a gorgeous building. Expansive, open, bricked ceiling, huge riveted beams, a spectacular place for any type of event!

Helicopter chase

Oh and then there was that night that began with some typical NYPD undercover-but-not-so-undercover vehicles creeping up and down our block for some time, before eventually the helicopter showed up and a pursuit of some sort ensued. That was exciting.

Old feet, new shoes

Some new shoes were in order, as my last pair developed a sizable hole on the right sole which I didn’t find out about until I stepped into a puddle of murky water – fun fun. And as it turns out my feet have grown a full shoe size in the past year.

Closing

So all that and then some. I hope this post will keep y’all busy for a while. I know it sure kept me busy.

(and then i cleaned up it’s mess, of course)

time-lapse. original work = approx. 2h30+m

such has surely been the case these just-over two weeks I have been back since my summer holidays.

my first full 24 hours back home was burdened by a futile attempt to start cleaning our home from a potential (one could say inevitable given the nature of our living setup and lifestyles) bedbug infestation. it appears this past summer that a temporary subletter brought upon us a very permanent problem, something that has recently really been plaguing NYC and tearing homes and living situations apart (NYTimes article from 2005 Nov).

Welcome home!

Additionally, I was burdened both by work and practice: two days later returning to the job to help install and also make work for (see this post) Crater NY.

But the title of this post is not concerned with those politics!

Rather, it’s in reference to the hundred-plus openings from the past week in Chelsea and around the rest of New York City, proving the impossibility of seeing it all, taking it all in (not as if the openings are for the work anyhow). Plus-plus impossible if you are involved with a show yourself, as was the case with Crater NY, and being stuck in your one venue, and away from the mob scene that was likely in Chelsea and other places. Okay so I missed the big night, the 6th, when around 100 exhibitions opened and a couple thousand litres of wine got served, sunk and spewed, so I thought I’d venture out on the 7th after work, and nip in to whatever I saw was open and interesting (going by the crowd there).

So I headed over to Roebling Hall because I like Roebling Hall and think they have consistent shows and they’re not in the thick of Chelsea but off to the side and near that incredible industrial building on 11th Ave (between 26th and 27th, west side of street). it’s been a while but I like to think that I’m walking over there and not over there where everybody else is. Anyhow their opening was a show that sounded interesting but which I really didn’t know what to expect, by David Ersser called Nothing But Heavy Duty (sorry Roebling Hall I have to point to artcal because you use frames in your website, so I can’t link to anything!).

Sure enough, it was interesting:

(Makita? Milwaukee? ain’t no DeWalt that’s for sure!)

(ahh, he’s a quick-release bit kinda guy!)

The approach to the work was a good start, a half-completed stud wall where real screws were needed to hold it all together but included facsimile screw notches of sorts to suggest another anchorage. One wall wasn’t even hung, but merely leaning on the studs. Immediately you knew you would be dealing with something that questioned your sensibilities about ‘what is complete here?’ The room inside the room included power tools like a chopsaw and circular saws, power screwdrivers of various dispositions, makes and models, screw bits, caulking guns, ladders and even the presence of ‘raw wood’ sheets and sawdust suggesting activity but which could have been fabricated itself.

I left rather pleased, but was already mulling over the thought in my head, “What is art supposed to say to me?”

What are artists these days trying to say to the public with their work? What are they trying to accomplish? What is their message? What class do they belong to? etc.

As I walked back towards the throngs of Chelsea that were starting to gather – fashionably late like – I stumbled upon Ersser’s competition: life.

And the difficulty of it.

It was hard to tell what was going on here, and unlike so much art that is what made it interesting. Strange that it was less than a block away from Ersser’s installation, and thinking of Ersser’s show in relation to this space, but here was the real thing: detritus lived, worked and abandoned.

Materials from umbrellas to baby strollers, from luggage cases to Multi-Function Printers, lay strewn about, with several wardrobes thrown around for good measure. Where did all of this stuff come from, and who left it all here? The fence was bent, there was an entryway, someone wanted to get in and out of here. When it wasn’t a parking lot that is, this plot of asphalt that has no doubt seen its real estate value increase ten-fold over the past couple decades.

As I turned to continue walking it was a simple blip. Having just taken in Ersser’s show, and then contemplating that abandoned plot, I simply felt I didn’t need to see anything else, one opening was plenty.

Several of my friends have cringed from thinking about how to take in as many openings as possible, how to schmooze the scene and be in too many places at one time. But me, I’m a little pessimistic this time around. I’m burdened by real troubles to the point that I’m not so certain what it’s all for anymore. My only comfort was the thought of going home and making some art.

[MTAA have a gif showing the overwhelming list of openings last week]
[Hungry Hyaena also mention the list, as daunting]

Coney Island eat your heart out! You have GOT to have one of these! a just-deep fried soft pastry, then quickly drained & covered, smothered in fact, with sour cream, then topped with some delicious cheese, and splashed with some garlic oil goodness. Coronary explosion!

Lighting on the diorama. 40 watts I think, gold incandescent, around 40 degrees, looking over the left shoulder of the fish lady statue, out into the valley. difficult to see during the day. natural lighting is pretty powerful – oh well, can’t win ‘em all!

that’s great guys! festival is over. let’s go home now! … what? it hasn’t even begun you say!
(this was the VIP night, after tomorrow it starts accommodating around 40,000 people daily.)

Meanwhile:

the blister on my left foot is really starting to make itself known.

I finally had some cold food for breakfast. as in, milk, with cereal. The only way I knew it was milk was because the reverse side of the container was in spanish (leche), otherwise the container itself is pretty deceiving.

it’s funny, collaborating with 15 people. I thought the point of having an iPod was so that you could listen to music non-stop for 3 months or something to that effect. so why is it that you hear the SAME FUCKING ALBUMS over and over again? (and I’m not only talking about this installation!)

Flickr day 7 set

I got the first light installed! A 3 ft. 35W fluorescent above the diorama. Of course, this is not the only lighting for the diorama, mostly for fill and for the ’sky’ (read below). There will also be a 50W or higher flood lamp installed from the side, probably at around 40-45 degrees, to give some harsh shadows and really bring out the shapes of the buildings, and to suggest an early morning rise!

We also tried to install the sky today, working with this inkjet printed canvas of a sky, just some clouds, blue and white, which we acquired from that film studio (the sky was originally from a nationalist political party billboard or something like that!). The test installation failed miserably. The original plan was just to ‘dome’ it over the diorama, but doing so really killed the light and created a terrible trapped mood. Even with a giant window (read below) it was difficult to digest.

So we scrapped that idea and so for the time being I moved on to making the viewing window. This one goes way back.

Months ago, while planning out the installation and starting work on the diorama, we started arguing points about the viewers’ experience, and of this window in particular. Daupo and I argued for a panoramic, wide, landscape style window, around four feet wide by ten inches tall, one pane of something clear like plexi, which would let the viewer keep moving but still gazing, and thus to move along the landscape and see it from different vantage points. Jean was pretty adamant that the window be tiny, round, and there only be one, like an airplane window, or porthole. He thought this would restrict the viewer to one vantage point – and this would be favorable somehow – and that it would also decrease the amount of time the viewer spends with this part of the installation, after all we need to keep people moving on this thing, we are surely to have a lot of punters! This debate was raised several times and went back and forth and back and forth. In situ, having constructed the diorama, it was obvious a lone porthole wouldn’t cut it. So we made the wide window and even then it seemed defeating. There wasn’t enough experience, and all the work put into this really layered work was lost with a wide but thin window that seemed restrictive to a viewer who had to be around 5′8″ for the optimal experience. Everybody else got shafted.

Soooooooo… we scrapped that window and re-framed it. I only got to move the bottom part (straight, rectangular), and drew out the top (curved, following the overall shape of the diorama itself) on a piece of plywood before the last train was near to arrive.

Kerry loaned me her watch, so I finally have a timepiece now, and an alarm. I stopped by a 24 hour supermarket which was only three times as big as my bedroom, but finally picked up some real food for the morning, so day 7 here I come! Armed with a digital watch and a full belly I hope!

Related:
Day 6 Flick set

This island is fucking transforming I tell you! It’s amazing how much infrastructure they’ve built here and how many pavilions have been constructed in such a short span! Oh, and that humongous 12-storey tall structure across the way from us, that’s a zip line to the other side of the festival! No shit! You go up, way up, then grab a zip line that will carry you several hundred feet and nearly to the terra firma, over the heads of the crowd enjoying a concert below! This place is fucking nuts!

On our installation front, not too much activity today. Got in late thanks to my roomies busting into my room at 5am, laughing and piling on top of me – that’s love for ya! Spent most of the day installing small detail work and fabricating the two town buildings that are supposed to be some future contemporary art museum in Budapest (the MEO perhaps? link to old NYTimes article) – can’t remember exactly. Also did several tests and only just before leaving figured out how to fabricate the skyways and pedestrian sky-tunnels and walkways around the city, using another odd foam material that’s slightly pliable and can be twisted between building structures.

How many days do we have left?

Related:
Day 5 Flick set

And ready to stir it all up again!

Today was a ‘big push’ day of sorts. Lots of new projects got devised, old ones got solved and a few leaps really happened! Emma arrived today, she’s an ex-Fluxer; she was a big help in re-fabricating the chain bridge for the diorama. Previously it was just held together with… fishing string? The bridge and model itself was a good idea but it wasn’t well constructed. I acquired some tiny jeweler’s chain and suggested that be the suspension, in an elegant V from tower to tower. The Frenchies who drove all the way from Paris made enormous progress on the facade of the tent, creating a high-contrast Constructivisty design using nothing but gaffers tape!; Ian and Adrian started designing and framing out the mezzanine-cafe-balcony-thing that people can pay a premium to experience (in addition to getting an ear-full from Morgan for an hour they’ll get certain views of the installation only experienced from the upper deck). And pretty major progress was made fabricating the ride cars, which will not simply be minimalist wood-frames but decked out with trim and picture frames I think we acquired from that film studio mentioned earlier. Regardless, they look hot!

it was a big push not only for us too. It seemed like in two-minutes flat just across the way from our tent many shirtless men had constructed this multi-multi-multi storied tall scaffolding thing, which none of us are sure yet what it’s for:

Work ended quite early, but for all the right reasons. We got invited to dinner! And this would likely be the only chance that we would all get to dine with each other, so it was really quite special.

A great restaurant quite near to my apartment, the owner prepared all of the food for us himself, and you can tell he poured his heart and soul into it. We started with some bread and appetizers, including this delicious ball of something that included egg and garlic and some sort of pastey goodness that held it all together, as well as serving a shot of brandy with shriveled prune! INTENSE! then we moved to the main course which for the vegetarian in me only included the portion of some delicious dish that was sort of like a pasta without the pasta or a curry and included some peppers which I don’t think I’ve ever had before, onions, garlic, and tomatoes, soaked up with more bread. we concluded with dessert which offered us a flat sugary dough with ground poppy seeds and I think honey, as well as some tarts and jam.

Afterwards we proceeded, already stumbling (and still close to my apartment thankfully, since I had forgotten my travelpass), to some rooftop bar. The weather was perfect, one never needed a coat but there was a constant breeze. And after I was jostled once the Hungarian crew learned of my lineage and inquired about my sobriquet, I was introduced to Unicum, which I had never heard of and so had never tasted. It is delicious! A unique and overwhelming nasal-clearing type of drink, but as Jakab, the director of the Hungarian Cultural Center so aptly put it, “It’s in your blood!”

Related:
Full-size day 4 photos on this Flick set

this stuff is slow-going, but I reckon the level of detail that can be achieved will make the work worthwhile. It’s a bit of a conundrum really. the diorama is and isn’t crucial to the overall project. it is because in a way it determines the placement of buildings and objects that will be engaged further on in our installation, but isn’t because it’s technically only supposed to be viewed for an approximate 15-20 seconds, not gawked at for endless minutes (like me once at the Filmmuseum in Frankfurt, Germany where I gawked for so long at a diorama used for the King Kong vs T-Rex scene in the original 1933 film that eventually a staff attendant came up to me to ask if I was okay!). But I find myself pouring in countless hours to these little buildings because there isn’t much else we can do on this end, since we can’t ship anything large, or anything at all really (anything going into the show has to fit in our luggage!). And since we can’t really design the rest of the layout until we get a majority of the diorama constructed, and I have nothing but time for this now, thus I am spending lots of time for something that will receive little viewing time.

I can only reckon that once the thing is installed, that aside from the 8 days the installation is up, we will only have photos and documentation to account for the work, thus the level of detail will hopefully heighten any reception of the work absent of the physical work. the Flux Factory isn’t very good at archiving its physical remnants from exhibitions, and I hope to retrieve my personal contributions to the diorama for making extended works, so again hopefully time and detail now will payoff later.

the very very rough sense of scale we have going so far. This is probably around 33-35 sq. ft., with some room in the foreground and right side that you can’t see, and you can imagine with some buildings as small as my thumbnail, then we need a shedload of buildings!

all diorama-related photos up on my Flickr: Diorama Party

There was a talk at work earlier tonight and no matter how moved or excited I am by the talk and the discussions I invariably find myself more intrigued by the scattered array of the materials needed to make the talk and discussion, the juxtaposition and layout of tools, materials, wires, etc. that are used in order to fabricate events and which motivate human interaction and activity. Indeed if there were no wires, no computers, no projectors, people wouldn’t even show up anymore – we used to gather around campfires, now we gather around 2Ghz processors and 2500 lumens projectors. However don’t get me wrong, I’m completely in favor of the analog interpretation of this idea also: the notion reminds me of a piece I made for an exhibition in a domicile in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn last year, where I raked the basement dirt floor and exhibited all the found items, remnants of years, decades even, of previous activities: