Art Rx
This week, use your brain, a small dose of Bushwick, plus alternative art and dance in uptown Manhattan.
Some people can’t stand New York City in the summer — so much heat, so much sweat, so many tourists. But the doctor loves New York summers, because there’s so much going on! So many shows to see, so many events to attend — plus most art spaces are air-conditioned!
This week the doctor wants you to use your brain, with a lecture on Rodin and a panel discussion on copyright online. She’s also prescribing a small dose of Bushwick — to visit a giant art maze and catch Charles Atlas before he’s gone — as well as some alternative art and dance in uptown Manhattan. And for those who don’t mind the heat and want to be part of something truly fun and weird, she recommends Improv Everywhere’s mega mp3 experiment. Just make sure to wear sunscreen and bring a water bottle.
Arts and Labor
When: Opened Wednesday, July 11
Where: Lever House (390 Park Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan)
What do you get when you ask the irreverent Bruce High Quality Foundation to exhibit in the lobby of the posh Lever House? A 12-foot-tall sculpture of a union rat — cast in bronze. In addition to the rat, the group is exhibiting a visual and oral history of the relationship between labor and art. The Sotheby’s dispute may be over, but the topic is as timely as ever.
Not Hennessy Youngman
When: Opened Wednesday, July 11
Where: Salon 94 Bowery (243 Bowery, Nolita, Manhattan)
Yes, we all love the work of Hennessy Youngman, but what about his creator, Jayson Musson? After all the clamor over Art Thoughtz and the acclaim it’s brought Youngman, we’re excited to finally see some other work by Musson. This exhibition, titled Halcyon Days, is Musson’s “first body of work that is not text- or explicitly humor-based,” and it features fabric paintings.
Rodin and Gendered Sculpture
When: Thursday, July 12, 7 pm (free with museum admission)
Where: Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)
The Brooklyn Museum hosts art historian David Getsy, who will discuss how Rodin’s practice was informed by gender. Getsy plans to frame his discussion around Rodin’s “contradictory role as maker of frank images of the female body and supporter of women artists,” a promising topic that will resonate with the nearby Sackler Center exhibition, Rachel Kneebone: Regarding Rodin.
You Are Here
When: Opens Thursday, July 12, 8 pm–midnight
Where: Secret Project Robot (389 Melrose Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn)
Picture a giant, life-size maze filled with artists, musicians and performers. Now go to Secret Project Robot, where the You Are Here Festival sets up exactly that for the next month. Called both “a sort of anti-panopticon” by the Brooklyn Rail and “an anti-festival festival” by the Village Voice, You Are Here will likely be weird, overwhelming and entertaining.
Mirrorbox
When: Thursday evening, July 12–Friday, July 13
Where: Jack Hanley Gallery (136 Watts St, Tribeca, Manhattan)
If the maze isn’t enough to keep your head spinning, Jack Hanley Gallery hosts Megan May Daalder and her “Mirrorbox” on Thursday night and Friday. The “Mirrorbox” apparently “contributes to the breakdown of discrete identity” by putting two people into a shared “immersive helmet” designed with special lighting. Maybe bring a friend.
Astral Converted
When: Through Saturday, July 14, 7:30 pm ($35, $45)
Where: Park Avenue Armory (643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan)
OK, OK, we know this one’s expensive. But how often do you get a chance to see a seminal dance piece by Trisha Brown, with visual and costume design by Robert Rauschenberg and music by John Cage? Yeah, exactly. Astral Converted features dancers in collaboration with metal towers built by Rauschenberg, which use motion sensors to respond to movement. Back in 1993, Anna Kisselgoff wrote in the New York Times that the piece is for “those fascinated by pure movement.” Count us in.
MP3 Experiment
When: Sunday, July 15, 3 pm
Where: Governors Island (free ferries run all day from the Battery Maritime Building in Manhattan and Pier 6 in Brooklyn)
It may not be art, but it is awesome. Improv Everywhere’s Mp3 experiments are massive, gleeful, flash mob–ish events. The way it works is: the group creates a track with narration and instructions; participants assemble required props, download the track, arrive at the prescribed location and all hit play on their Mp3 players at the same time. Hilarity ensues.
Last Chance: Charles Atlas
When: Closes Sunday, July 15
Where: Luhring Augustine Bushwick (25 Knickerbocker Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn)
When Chelsea gallery Luhring Augustine opened a space in Bushwick earlier this year, it was accompanied by a lot of hand-wringing and dire predictions (hell, we even called it “the death star”). Five months later, it’s still unclear whether the invasion means the beginning of the end of Bushwick; all we do know is that, for some reason, they’ve only had one show up this entire time. Our reviewer was mixed on the new work on view there by video artist Charles Atlas; this is your last chance to go see it for yourself.
Copyright & Punishment
When: Wednesday, July 18, 7 pm
Where: Housing Works Bookstore & Cafe (126 Crosby Street, Nolita, Manhattan)
From the Richard Prince lawsuit to our recent Chuck Close article, there’s no question that appropriation, fair use and copyright are issues that, although we’ve been dealing with them for decades, are still as heated and as controversial as ever. Housing Works has assembled a panel of “online entrepreneurs” to tackle questions of copyright and fair use online. Did we mention there’s free wine?
