A little birdie told us at Hyperallergic HQ that Ugo Rondinone’s “Hell,Yes” (2001) will be removed from its perch on the facade of the New Museum. The same little birdie told us that it is slated to be replaced by Isa Genzken’s 30 foot (8 meter) tall “Rose” sculpture.
What do we think of the newest addition to the Bowery? We’ll let you know after it’s installed in early November.
Inspired by the closing of Ai Weiwei’s “Sunflower Seeds” installation due to health hazards, I’ve been writing about how environmental impact is factored in to the evaluation of installation art. Does a work of art have to have a low carbon footprint to be great, or should we completely separate a piece from the cost of its production?
To start off the debate, I want to explore a few works of installation art that could be considered environmentally friendly and evaluate what impact they have, both environmental and artistic.
Every week, we’ll recap the best comments we’ve received on Hyperallergic’s posts, whether that’s on the blogazine itself, on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook. Be sure to check in every Friday for new comments.
This week, check out responses to our Powerless 20, additions to our list of dangerous works of art, and commentary on the conflict between installation artists and the environment.
Last night, Manhattan’s Guggenheim Museum was transformed into a futuristic new media award’s show venue as the finalists of the first Play: A Biennial of Creative Video biennial were announced to a crowd of Google, Intel, HP, Guggenheim employees (all sponsors of the event), artists, and new media types who were wow’d by the large projections on the interior and exterior of the Fifth Avenue landmark.
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright could’ve never predicted that his building would serve as an ideal screen for a 21st Century online video awards show but it was the ideal venue for the whirlwind of projections that provided the backdrop for a livestreamed event prepared by the online video giant, YouTube.
Despite his image of a crotchety old traditionalist, David Hockney hasn’t been one to shy away from new technology. The artist, best known for his 60s portraits painted of California intelligentsia, has been making drawings and paintings on an iPhone since 2009, and recently scaled up to an iPad, using a simple brush app and a finger or thumbnail to paint. Sent out to friends or displayed to humorous effect on a tiny easel, Hockney is taking an old medium and carrying it out with new media tools that have only become prevalent in the past few years.
When we talk about art, we rarely talk about its environmental impact. What’s the carbon footprint of manufacturing a fiberglass Jeff Koons versus the making of an Andy Goldsworthy? As opposed to, say, water bottles, the cost of making a work of art rarely factors into how the work is analyzed and accepted. It is not for art critics to ask how many trucks were used to make Spiral Jetty. But why not? At what point do the environmental shifts and changes in the natural order that these pieces require outweigh their artistic value?
Out across the pond, there’s an art fair going on. Only slightly overshadowed by the Ai Weiwei Turbine Hall installation debacle, London’s Frieze Art Fair has been soldiering on nonetheless to bring collectors to the art, and vice versa. We’ve combed over the internet to bring you some impressions of the fair, the quality of the work on display, and the possibility of a newly invigorated market. Optimism still hasn’t frozen over!
And the winner of our first Hyperallergic t-shirt contest is Duncan Alexander and his “T-SHIRTS ARE THE NEW GALLERIES” design, which garnered 43% of the vote. Congratulations, Duncan!
Thanks to the hundreds who voted. The brand new Hyperallergic t-shirt will be available for order at the end of this month.
Ltd Los Angeles is an inconspicuous gallery nestled into Sunset Blvd. a block from a great comic book store, two good restaurants, and an awesome dirty Mexican joint. The gallery has been open for a while, but with blacked out windows and a small logo, it is hard to spot. Their fourth and current show in the large and welcoming space features the work of Kalup Linzy in an exhibition titled Fantasies, Melodramas, and a Dream called Love. Unfortunately, Linzy’s show is disappointing.
You might remember Poster Boy from his days wreaking havoc on the New York City (Brooklyn) subways, slicing up vinyl-adhesive posters with a pocketed razor and remixing them at will. The prankster switched up celebrity bodies, rearranged words, got big in the blogosphere, profiled in New York Magazine, got questionably arrested, and has now put out a book of his works. It remains a mystery to most people who Poster Boy is, though the smart guess would be a collective of like-minded street artists, and the War of Art book doesn’t do anything to clear the mystery up. What the slim volume does do well is to document Poster Boy’s work, a collection previously only visible on Flickr.
This month we add another 20 to the growing list of the Powerless 20 we published last year to mark the painful rite of passage that is Art Review’s hilarious Power 100 list.
Here’s to hoping you’re not on it!
After Ai Weiwei’s Tate exhibition was effectively quarantined for its impact on visitors’ health and well-being, we thought we’d investigate the art world for a few other pieces and exhibitions that ended up being a little more than curators and artists bargained for. From the Tate Modern’s numerous Turbine Hall offenses to falling sculptures, environmental devastation, and out of control Richard Serras, here are a few works we’d only want to admire from a safe distance.
