Under the Brooklyn Bridge

Something I struggle with daily

      What is the role of the artist in our society?  Ask this question to different people and you will learn about individual ideology, actual intellect, as well as a bit about class and education.  Of course there is “not really a correct answer to the question” although historically groups of artists argued for their ways of thinking as being the only art of the time.  Scholars and critics have come in to attempt to redefine art as the lens of interpretation, and of course the collector or patron who use their money and influence to direct and create their own definitions.     

Why does this even matter as most people I believe view art as something merely decorative created by grand eccentrics or meek introverts who only really have the ability to be an “artist.” This might be true in some ways but this is due to a mass interpretation heavy-handed to us with our historic paradigms of Oligarchic control.  As many know over recent years, probably 40 or so, there has been a real attempt by one side to try to erase thousands of years of history and on the other side to continue pushing the commodity fetish power structure side of things.  With socially engaged and culturally conscious people representing a voice of the avant-garde, where their art is no longer 'art' but something all together different and past the notion of cultural production.  And then there's the other side filled with glitter and jet setting events.

With all of this push and pull it’s more a power struggle of ideology and sadly it’s very often not about the work or what the work is about.  It's more a combination of who fits the profile of the archetype of the projected audience and a moment of social networking perceived to be beneficial by the organizer.  This happens at every level from galley to museum, residency to grant recipient and textbook to blog.  On top of all of this there is the middle ground containing the majority of people and this is an unbelievably gray space.  This is because the taking from both extremes happens here making it very difficult to navigate the real from the fake the truly invested or those merely looking for a sound investment.  What happens is it becomes a popularity contest on both sides of the middle and these people start to define public consciousness of art. 

Mars on Park Ave

Bill Powers grading exams on Mars

Since I started at Creative Time in January the talk of the office has been about the Tom Sachs Mars exhibition we had planned for this May and June at the Park Avenue Armory.  Well it opened on the 15^th and Runs until the middle of June and was in fact the best opening I have ever attended in my life even surpassing my own shows.  His work is easily accessible for all kinds of audiences, there was even a lack  of the horrible pretentious stereotype  of the art world surprisingly present in an opening filled with serious collector and celebrities like Michael Stipe, Kanye West, and Cynthia Rowley. Really the work is simply just fun and every one in the Armory for a brief bit of time let down there guards and believed  in being human for a moment perhaps having a bit of childlike nostalgia during the experience on Mars .  This might be due to the fact the works although some being monumental are clearly created by people, no fancy fabrications just years of hard work by Sachs and his amazing team of skate boarding  whisky drinking assistants.  The truth is the show is self-reflexive of humanity and the youthfulness and joy so often over looked in this city and in our society as a whole as computers and finance define us.  No one exemplified this more then gallerist and TV personality Bill Powers who was the most engaged person on Mars.  Wearing a Nasa Lab coat and grading exams of those  at the testing station on Mars.  His glow was so bright and smile so large I believe for the evening he was simply playing as he did as a 10 year old.  My time at Creative Time is almost over as I was just there for 6-month internship and this was the perfect culmination of my experience working for such a fantastic organization.  I will be kicking it on Mars a few days a week until the expedition  is over and I recommend you come so you can journey to Mars your self.

Hennessy on Grad School

Tom Sachs takes us to Mars

Tom Sachs talking about the role of "Tea Culture on Mars"

Tom Sachs is just simply rad!  Yesterday I was walked through Mars by Tom two days before it opens to the public.  Seeing the final touches go into this journey with years of planning was an experience and a half as an artist exactly a year out of grad school.  Tom skated around Mars explaining in great detail every aspect of life on the planet as he and his studio see it.  This is going to be the exhibition of the year in New York.


 http://tomsachsmars.com/

Racism and Baseball

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A few weeks ago I was in Boston and I went to watch the Yankees play the Red Sox.   

Two gentlemen next to me though got thrown out of the game and although I joke about it saying that it made it a more authentic experience, it was really sad.  I am also unsure how far it could be taken from a criminal perspective as it was at Fenway but clearly an assault based on race.  The men started throwing peanuts at an interracial couple a few rows up from where I was sitting.  They did it a few times before the man they where targeting came up and stated screaming at the wrong group of people. The couple must have gone to security as sure enough the men next to me started throwing peanuts again but this time four or so officers came and pulled them out of their seats.  This happened right before the Yankees really started winning or I could have been a target of this groups harassment.  He already made a Jew remark early on when he learned I was from New York.   I forget racism exists living in New York, I did see it in Princeton as well as in Philly but nothing as direct and uneducated as this.  The people behind me said it isn’t a season if that guy doesn’t get kicked out, but this was more then that.  I believed we had moved way past this in our society I guess the art world is a bit more accepting even with its ridged hierarchical structure. Or perhaps we are more subversive?

Liam Gillick at Casey Kaplan

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All I wanted was to be 15 and try to rail slide the sculptures in the gallery but not much more.  Oh wait Deitch did that like 10 years ago.  The Gillick show was just very confusing with large black vinyl works on the walls referencing medieval manuscripts juxtaposed with minimalist sculpture.  There was an over written statement for the show trying to explain what we where looking at.   Granted most of my posts are kind of on the smaller side, but if you are at the show pick up the statement, give it a good read and let me know what it's trying to say.  Truthfully some of the sculptures are ok if you are into work that has come out of Minimalism.   There is nothing one hasn’t seen before with the ground rails being the strongest works in the show.  I have a real problem in claiming Marxist inspiration for the work, as placing it in a gallery in Chelsea it kind of negates any firm connection to Marx.

 www.caseykaplangallery.com

Dana Schutz

Dana Schutz had an opening on May Second it was her first Exhibition at Friedrich Petzel.  Her paintings are often filled with a level of grotesque hummer but not so in this show. I found a more tamer Schutz a bit strange but not off putting for neither her or the gallery, one in which I feel pushes the limit more so then others in Chelsea.  Petzel's shows are often the best in the west 20's.  Schutz is helping to define what painting is in our present moment and pushing what figure painting can be.  Although the room of Yawn paintings may be some kind of acknowledgement of the show itself.  The work is both comfortable and a bit sleepy, but not boring.  I like yawning and I guess art doesn't all need to be super flashy, slick, or grotesque in its jokes.   Building the Boat While Sailing the largest work in the show is way too much in a conversation with the Murals of Diego Rivera so recently after the fantastic show at the MoMA however I like the painting.

www.petzel.com