My Beating Heart

Pepón Osorio from his solo exhibition My Beating Heart / Mi Corazón Latiente currently at New Museum, New York:

Black Sun

Mire Lee from her solo exhibition Black Sun currently at New Museum, New York:

The Original Riot

Wynnie Mynerva with their installation The Original Riot currently at New Museum, New York:

Let there be light

Olafur Eliasson at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York 2012:

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York 2012:

New Museum, New York 2012:

Trockel, Scott and yarn bombing

What do Rosemarie Trockel, Judith Scott and yarn bombing have in common?  They do share a common thread ...

I walked into Trockel's exhibition A Cosmos at New York's New Museum the previous week, not expecting much.  The result was my fascination about the documentation of Trockel's whole spectrum of creative works over the decades.  One particular body of works that interested me was her knitted "paintings" in wool.  They were aptly supplemented by Scott's knitted sculptures.  Photography was not allowed at New Museum but I can show you Trockel's work I saw this summer.

Trockel at Museum Ludwig, Köln 2012:

Also seen this summer was some yarn bombing when I was travelling.  Yarn bombing is considered a form of graffiti using colourful yarn instead of paint or chalk.  A tree and some architectural elements shown here have been yarn bombed in Kassel:

Preoccupied Waveforms + Nam June Paik

Back to Toronto ...

It's a real disappointment most art galleries were still recovering from flood damage and closed when I visited NYC this past weekend.  But what I did happen to see there was really worth the trip.  One of my favourite is Haroon Mirza's sound and light installation Preoccupied Waveforms at New Museum's Studio 231.  The texts Mirza used:

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Can't find a good video on youtube.  For a taste of Mirza's electronic sound and installation, check out this Digital Switchover video from his own website - simply brilliant.

Now on the unstoppable electronic superhighway, new media installations have gone a long way since Nam June Paik's pioneering waves in the 60s.  Paik at Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin 2012:

NYC textures

SANAA's 2007 New Museum, New York:

Frank Gehry's 2007 IAC HQ, New York:

Jennifer Marman & Daniel Borins's installation at C24 Gallery, New York 2011:

Serra experience vs Höller experience

Two major shows currently on view in NYC are Richard Serra's Junction/Cycle at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea and Carsten Höller's Experience at New Museum.  Though totally different in execution, both invite viewers' active participation by physically travelling through the installations - leisurely walking in Serra's while recklessly dashing in Höller's.

Serra at Chelsea's Gagosian, New York 2011:

The Serra experience is contemplative and personal, almost like a pilgrimage.  One couldn't help feeling enlightened while exiting.  Höller's Experience, on the other hand, is more sensory and spontaneous.  It is a re-interpretation of his 2006 Unilever Series project at Tate Modern in London.  I must confess that I actually did not experience Höller's installation first-hand.  Deterred by the long queue waiting to get in, I decided to observe from a distance instead.  Here's a glimpse of what it looks like:

Video from ShootingStarsProNY's youtube channel

Lower East Side

The Lower East Side of Manhattan is definitely sprouting ...

On the Bowery, SANAA's 2007 New Museum:

A few doors down, Norman Foster's 2010 Sperone Westwater Gallery:

Further south, Bernard Tschumi's 2007 Blue Condo:

Hello World*

Thursday nights are free nights at New Museum.  I went there on Thursday but it was too crowded.  So I decided to visit again on Friday.  They were showing Ostalgia, a survey of the art produced in and about the former communist European states.  Sharing a similar but slightly different theme of new art from central and eastern Europe is the Power Plant's current exhibition Rearview Mirror in Toronto.  I visited PP just before coming to New York.  So inevitably I have to compare the two shows.  I must say that I have enjoyed the NM show much better than PP's.  There are a few artists showing at Ostalgia that I intrinsically like.  Too bad photography was not allowed.  So I cannot show you.

Friday nights are free nights at Whitney Museum.  I went to see one of their featured shows - Cory Arcangel's Pro Tools.  When I was in Berlin last month, I saw another Arcangel exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof.  In fact, the two shows carry Arcangel's works from the same series.  So it's just like seeing the same show again - this time at a larger scale.  Arcangel has been exploring the interplay of digital technologies, internet culture and art in various media.  All his exhibited works here have incorporated the use of technological tools - either newly innovated or obsolete.

Arcangel at Whitney, New York 2011:

*Hello World is the title of a series of Arcangel's pen-plotter drawings shown at both exhibitions.