In the last several years, the term “pop up” has become ubiquitous in the art world. The majority of these related, newfound endeavors — brief exhibitions, stores and happenings — make charming use of relatively sparse, small storefronts. In this vein, I’ve come to expect a bit of space-maximizing ingenuity from the pop-up crowd. And yet I couldn’t have been more pleased to find the exact opposite at No Longer Empty’s latest temporary exhibition, This Side of Paradise. The sprawling show occupies more than 20 rooms of the abandoned Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx and takes its name from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, a fitting tale of greed and social ambition.
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The curious history of a former retirement home for wealthy elderly people fallen on hard times and the contemporary Bronx community now surrounding that home provide rich material for the 32 artists in No Longer Empty’s current exhibit, This Side of Paradise. Sharing its name with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, which follows the trials of a man seeking and losing love, wealth and status, This Side of Paradise inhabits the Andrew Freedman Home on the Grand Concourse, a stately structure sitting behind a fence and broad lawn.
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Standing outside the Judson Memorial Church on Saturday night, two days after the Day of Action and the same week of the raid on Zuccotti Park, I, along with a group of art lovers, artists, Occupy Wall Street protesters and random passersby, watched people being turned into living art objects by artist Michael Alan in his film We Are All Living Installations: Occupy Yourself (2011) that was organized in conjunction with the OWS Art and Culture Committee.
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NEW ORLEANS — The Piazza d’Italia generally isn’t high on many people’s lists of Things To See And Do In New Orleans; in fact, I’d guess that most of the tourists who stumble across it do so while getting lost on their way to or from the nearby Harrah’s casino or Hilton Riverfront. They probably no idea that this gaudy urban ensemble, designed by Charles Moore and opened in 1978, represents one of the seminal pieces of postmodern architecture in the country. In his Prospect 2 biennial piece, Francesco Vezzoli adds an extra layer of kitsch to New Orleans’ Piazza d’Italia with his “Portrait of Sophia Loren.”
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Art in Odd Places relies on a lot of serendipity, but when it happens it’s wonderful. The annual art event is bringing small and large acts of ceremony with over 60 artists performing, installing, exhibiting and interacting all along 14th Street from October 1 to 10. Following this year’s theme of Ritual, I set out this week to pace 14th street and the paths of Union Square each day to discover what artistic offerings would unexpectedly appear.
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Approaching Fulton Landing from the East River Jean Nouvel’s new pavilion for Jane’s Carousel is less impressive than I was expecting. The squat box made of what I initially thought was transparent glass and sea-foam green metal appears dwarfed by the massive Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges that bracket it on either side. My initial reactions from a distance were mostly negative. The thick roof seemed heavy and cumbersome. The pavilion, particularly when the retractable doors are closed, feels unfinished. I don’t know why I expected this glass pavilion to be as sleek and transparent as the Fifth Avenue Apple Store, but I did. Even Philip Johnson’s Glass House visually seemed more weightless than this. Approaching the pavilion from land was different.
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Viewing a horde of 3D printers solemnly forming the same sterile shapes may have put me in a regressed mental state, but the sight of gleeful children swinging towards sheets of water that vanished right before contact struck me as beautiful. The aptly named “Waterfall Swing” by Dash 7 Design was the most oddly touching thing I saw at the 2011 Maker Faire New York in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
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In the 1960s, Paco Rabanne subverted traditional dressmaking techniques in his fashions, eschewing the needle and thread for pliers and wire and replacing fabric with metallic discs and panels. The so-called “space age” dresses constructed solely of inflexible paillettes revolutionized how women could adorn their bodies. Now, Etsy-extraordinaire Hally McGehean continues the trajectory of this alternative dress style in her work, with some über-conceptual 21st Century touches.
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Living blocks from Ground Zero since 2004, I’ve never been a fan of the September 11 tribute overload with its countless ceremonies, blocked streets, morbidly curious tourists and nutty 9/11 Truthers. This year, I spent 9/11 watching visual and performance artist Hunter Reynolds in a 9/11 tribute Mummification performance, which was an intensely powerful experience.
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Waterfalls now cascade and soothe at Ground Zero. Actually, the word “ground zero” may soon wither into an anachronism because the new memorial is a stunning work of art in its own right.
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