Art Dispatches From “Habibi City”
Alan Michelson’s oyster-shaped public artwork on Governors Island, a fragment of The Odyssey at The Met, and Simone Forti talking about her days in Yoko Ono’s Manhattan loft.
We went to sleep in New York last night, and woke up in Habibi City this morning, according to New York Magazine. I welcome the celebration of this cultural SWANA-sance, but it comes with the realization that I’ll probably never be able to get another ticket to Laylit again. Aside from the looming threats of rain, this week brings plenty to the table — shall we start with some oysters?
On Governors Island, Mohawk artist Alan Michelson (Six Nations of the Grand River) challenges the erasure of the Lenape in New York City by invoking shell middens. With almost a million oyster shells from Manhattan restaurants, Michelson’s “The Oyster” (2026) represents both Indigenous futurity and the mollusk’s rise, fall, and revival in the city. Have a glance at the review by Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian for some more historical context.
Heading uptown, The Met has recently pulled its preserved papyrus fragment of Homer’s The Odyssey from exhibition retirement. Currently displayed in the Department of Greek and Roman Art, the fragment contains three lines from Book 20 of the poem that don’t appear in the text published today. Rest assured that it’s not the only part of the story that Christopher Nolan omitted in his film rendition of the story … :~)
And lastly, in commemorating the life and work of the late Simone Forti, read a previously unpublished interview with the artist about her relationship with Yoko Ono, who has dedicated one of her famous screaming pieces to Forti. Speaking with Julia Bryan-Wilson in 2014, she also recalls her visits to Ono’s loft on Chambers Street with peers including John Cage, Bob Morris, and Yvonne Rainer.
Simone Forti Talks Yoko Ono, Dance, and Aging in Never-Before-Published Interview
About a dozen years ago, I happened to be simultaneously writing two different essays about two of the most influential artists of the 20th century who are almost exact contemporaries: Simone Forti (born in Italy in 1935) and Yoko Ono (born in Japan in 1933). Only two years apart, these women had many other things in common besides age: They were both transcultural migrants whose early lives were shaped by the deprivations of fascism and war. Both experienced discrimination — Forti’s Jewish family left Italy as a result of Mussolini’s Racial Laws, while Ono was (and still is) by turns exoticized and vilified as an Asian woman.
As cross-disciplinary groundbreakers, both Forti and Ono transgress the boundaries between sound, drawing, poetry, participation, movement, new media, and sculpture. They continually invoked touch as mode of connection, and they both incorporated everyday objects as charged collaborators. Often, their art manifests a sly irreverence towards physical decorum, from Forti’s seething mound of limbs in Huddle (1961) to Ono’s satirical 1971 Museum of Modern (F)Art. Ono radically shifted the terrain of art and music through works like her conceptual instruction paintings; likewise, Forti’s works based on captive animals — the subject of my 2015 essay “Simone Forti Goes to the Zoo” — forever reshaped how we think bodies should be and move. | Julia Bryan-Wilson
Read MoreFrom Our Critics
Hrag Vartanian
The Oyster on Governors Island
"The oysters in Michelson’s installation are just as far-flung as its visitors, echoing the scale of change and the way globalization has forced the migration of people, animals, and things in order to survive in the storms brought on by colonialism and its descendants, including neo-liberal capitalism.
Member Comment
—Jozanne Rabyor on "15 Outdoor Art Shows to See in NYC This Summer"
What Else Is Happening?
- A 2,300-year-old papyrus fragment containing parts of Homer’s Odyssey is now on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- “The Bowery: Devil’s Mile,” opening September 24 at the New Museum, traces 400 years of the iconic strip known as a destination for fun, however raucous or refined.
- Screening from today through August 20 at the Angelika Film Center, journalist Poh Si Teng's new documentary American Doctor (2026) details the healthcare horrors observed by three US physicians volunteering in Gaza. (Through Aug 20) [americandoctor.com]
- Artist Chang Yuchen and linguist Ross Perlin will be in conversation at Printed Matter to talk about Yuchen's exhibition and how her practice intersects with language. (Wed Aug 12) [printedmatter.org]
- Hear performances of student work from The Octavia Project at its Summer Showcase at CARA. Inspired by Octavia E. Butler, The Octavia Project uses speculative fiction as a lens through which to envision new futures and greater possibilities for our world. (Thurs Aug 13) [cara-nyc.org]
- See juror-selected works from the Art Students League of New York at the opening reception. (Thurs Aug 13) [The Art Students League]
- Join Greenwich House Pottery for an in-person artist talk with Michelle Im, who will give an overview of her work and share the project she is working on during her summer residency. (Thurs Aug 13) [Greenwich House Pottery]
- Poster House is screening Harlem Rides the Range (1939) in connection with their current exhibition, followed by a conversation about the history of Black Westerns. (Sat Aug 15) [posterhouse.org]
- Storefront for Art and Architecture is hosting a lecture and conversation with Martha Rosler, where they'll revisit her seminal work If you Lived Here… (1989) and its continued resonance with housing advocacy today. (Tues Aug 18) [storefront.nyc]
