Last week when I found myself in Times Square late in the evening hours, there was a man in a perfectly pressed suit, sitting in chair before the TKTS booth staring intently into space. There was a girl in glittery underwear and bunny ears hopping around a construction area for tips. There was the gold mime off of work asking for a cigarette from a businessman who had also just left the office. In other words, any hour in Times Square, especially in the evening, has some seedy tone of the surreal. This week’s Times Square After Hours program, called Cabin Fever: An Alpine Fantasy, similarly was a performance event with its own touches of the surreal, particularly with a human/taxidermy collaboration.
Clocktower Gallery
Posted inArt
Retreat to a Hidden Winter Cabin in Times Square with The Drums, Kimsin Kreft, and a Human-Taxidermy Duo
As the temperatures in New York rise into the summer heights, there is a place in Times Square that’s always frozen. The Aspen Social Club on 47th Street with its tree trunks sprouting in the walls, decorative deer antlers, and icy-toned space where a waterfall replicates a Rocky Mountain slope acts as a year-round Aspen cabin. It’s this hidden winter oasis that will host the next Times Square After Hours program on Wednesday, June 12, from 9:30–11:30pm.
Posted inArt
A Peek at Nomi Ruiz After Hours + Free Album Download
If you couldn’t make it to the Thursday, May 9 After Hours event featuring performer Nomi Ruiz then do not fear, we have a video that will give you a taste of what you may have missed.
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Singing for Shy People with Voice-Activated Instruments
As the Cat Stevens–loving Maude declared to a morose Harold in the 1971 film Harold and Maude, “If you want to sing out, sing out!” But for those of us who are too self-conscious or cursed by shrill tones and off-key octaves, having such belting confidence is hard. For such introverts, Ranjit Bhatnagar has created “The Singing Room.”
Posted inHyperallergic
Photos from Wednesday Night’s After Hours in Times Square with Marco Brambilla
Last Wednesday night, the inaugural edition of the After Hours series kicked off at the Room Mate Grace Hotel lounge in New York’s Times Square with a haunting installation by artist Marco Brambilla and an ethereal performance by Cammisa Buerhaus. Co-organized by Times Square Arts and Clocktower Gallery, the event welcomed the whole Art on Air team, including Joe Ahearn, Beatrice Johnson, David Weinstein, and Jeannie Hopper, as they livestreamed from the, venue interviewing the participating artists and attendees throughout the night. The temporary exhibit was generously hosted by Room Mate Grace Hotel. Hyperallergic was the exclusive media partner for the event, and the whole Hyperallergic team was there.
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Marco Brambilla Brings Star Trek to Times Square
After Hours is a new joint venture of Times Square Arts and the Clocktower Gallery, and it’s aiming to bring creatives back to the hub of Times Square. Each month, After Hours will invite leading artists, musicians and performers to a very New York venue to expand the minds of visitors. Hyperallergic is proud to be the exclusive media partner for the series. For tickets — plus delicious drinks and a chance to see great art and meet the artists, RSVP here.
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Prisoner Fantasies
While I often feel that galleries and museums have overzealous security guards, I was not completely prepared for entering the Clocktower Gallery in Lower Manhattan, located on what feels like the forgotten 13th floor of one the city’s courthouses.
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Free-Floating on the 13th Floor: Caroline Cox at the Clocktower
Moving through Caroline Cox’s immersive installations at the Clocktower, the venerable exhibition space on the 13th floor of a city-owned building in Lower Manhattan, is like peeling free from gravity. Although you don’t literally leave the ground, the sculptures’ pulsing aureoles do their best to convince you otherwise. One moment you’re in the institutional-white hallway of a neglected municipal building and the next you’re among star clusters and jellyfish, crepuscular clouds and aggregating amoebae.
Posted inArt
Office Space: The Conceptual Art Show?
In 2011, the American Dream has deteriorated to looking like an empty office space with abandoned cubicles, lone water fountains and abandoned family photographs of the past employees. On two floors of the midtown Manhattan Lipstick Building, and only an elevator ride away from Bernie Madoff’s old office, a group of artists transformed an empty office into an art exhibition, 14 & 15, by placing conceptual art around the lavish office, playfully moving objects that had been left in the offices and changing how viewers understand office space. However, much like the current economic state with the gap between the wealthy top 1% and everyone else, only the select few seem to be able to experience this exhibition.
