On view in ‘Disguise’: Zina Saro-Wiwa, “The Invisible Man” (2015), pigmented inkjet print, 28 x 44 in, Seattle Art Museum, Commission, 2015 (courtesy the artist, © Zina Saro-Wiwa) (click to enlarge)
This week, take in open studios in Greenpoint and Lower Manhattan, visit an indie game arcade in Queens, listen to an experimental noise pop group play the soundtrack of Twin Peaks, and more.
100 Years of Dada
When: Tuesday, April 26, 7–8:30pm
Where: Duplex (61 Christopher Street, West Village, Manhattan)
If you’re looking for a performance that’s bound to be loud, vibrant, and simply bizarre, Patafest’s Chorus will likely fulfill all those requirements. Billed as “an experimental cabaret celebrating 100 years of Dada,” this one-night-only event is the first project of Patafest, a new festival centered on absurdity and, quite specifically, the relationships between humans and animals. The inaugural cabaret, presented by SVA’s MA Curatorial Practice, promises live music, theater, video art, poetry, cocktails and more. —CV
Neither Here nor Now
(via canopycanopycanopy.com)
When: Thursday, April 28, 7pm
Where: Studio Museum in Harlem (144 West 125th Street, Harlem, Manhattan)
How do we document, communicate, or measure an ephemeral work of art? On Value, a book collaboration between Triple Canopy and choreographer and artist Ralph Lemon, responds, through poetry, interviews, essays, and art, to interdisciplinary work that institutions still struggle to frame and display. At the Studio Museum, Lemon will be joined by artist Adam Pendleton, one of the book’s many contributors, in a conversation about how both of them have translated live events into other mediums. —EWA
African Masks and Contemporary Art
When: Opens Friday, April 29
Where: Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)
A mask isn’t simply something you wear, but something you hide behind or transform into. Disguise considers the multiple meanings behind the mask by asking 25 contemporary artists to respond to historical African masks in the Brooklyn Museum’s and Seattle Art Museum’s collections. In works ranging from sculpture to video and sound art, artists of largely African heritage reveal that the masks, while no longer communicating their original uses, channel power and social dynamics that still resonate today. —EWA
Yung Jake IRL
(via moma.org)
When: Friday, April 29, 8pm ($25)
Where: Museum of Modern Art (11 West 53rd Street, Midtown, Manhattan)
A lot of artists today make work about or on the internet, but few seem to embody current technology quite as much as Yung Jake. He’s a rapper and an artist, but perhaps more than either, he’s the kind of person who wants to be interviewed for a magazine feature by text message.
On Friday night at MoMA, he’ll give a “freeform multimedia performance” to close out a series devoted to Sundance’s New Frontier program, after which he and some friends will take over the museum’s lobby for a PopRally. I’m curious to see what it might look like to get “E.m-bed.de/d” IRL.
LMCC Open Studios
When: Friday, April 29–Saturday, April 30
Where: Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Studios (28 Liberty Street, Financial District, Manhattan)
As a counterpoint to your more typical, neighborhood-wide open studio extravaganzas (see Greenpoint Open Studios, below), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s version lets you discover works by a group of resident artists (31 this year) in a pretty special and unique setting: the vacant, often partially gutted floor of a Financial District office building. Come see what artists — including the geologically inclined Nadja Frank, the irreverent carpenter Nick Doyle, the large-scale collagist Aaron Fowler, and conceptual investigator of the everyday (and Hyperallergic contributor) Chloë Bass — have been working on since September. —BS
An Independent Arcade in Queens
When: Friday, April 29–Sunday, May 30 ($45–100)
Where: Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, Queens)
The “all-black wearing cousin” (as the organizers put it) of the West Coast–originating IndieCade returns for its fourth year and a weekend of participatory activities. Discussions will explore gaming for women in Nigeria, sustainability for artists, games in schools and libraries, and the mechanics of death in games, while a promising “Strange Arcade” will showcase innovative technology in games on sleep paralysis, 1920s switchboard operating, and biofeedback horror. As always, the show-and-tell sessions should be a highlight, where local creators demonstrate their interactive works in progress —AM
The Music of Twin Peaks
When: Saturday, April 30, 7 & 9pm ($25)
Where: The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
With the official cast list for the new Twin Peaks just released, it’s a good time to be thinking about the show and revisiting its unforgettable soundtrack — which I’ve always found chilling, inspiring, and unbearable, in roughly equal parts. At the Kitchen, Xiu Xiu will play “the parts of the songs as written — meaning, following the harmony melody but to arrange in the way that it has shaped us as players.” You can listen to what this sounds like online, but no doubt it will be even more transporting in person.
Greenpoint Open Studios
When: Saturday, April 30–Sunday, May 1
Where: Various locations around Greenpoint (Brooklyn)
Being relegated to the G train, Greenpoint has always been a little off the radar (even as rents there have risen), and the same can be said of its art community. There are a lot of artists making terrific work in the neighborhood, but without the name-brand recognition (and associated baggage) of Bushwick. A beautiful spring weekend is a great time to check out what Greenpoint artists are up to, and on this one, some 300 of them will open up their studio doors. (Hyperallergic is the event’s media sponsor.)
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With contributions by Elisa Wouk Almino, Allison Meier, Benjamin Sutton, and Claire Voon
