Today Ash and I got ready and headed down to find Century 21, a well-known shopping department way down town. I had attempted to find it previously, but today I had looked at a map and knew where I was going...sort of. Unfortunately, we thought the N and R trains went there, turns out only the R train goes to Cortland St. We realised this just in time to jump off the wrong train and onto the right one!
Century 21 was right above the subway stop and I was pretty impressed straight away! I sprayed myself with Chanel No 5... of course. I also say that Clinique was incredibly cheap compared to back home. That is what mum has requested I buy her. I will definitely be doing a bit of Christmas shopping there!!! I found Calvin Klein suits for $99! Unheard of! I’m not sure whether they just have cheaper sweat factories here or what, but their prices are a lot cheaper for a lot of things!
When we eventually found the shoe section, it was a bit of a mission, I overheard a woman talking on a phone. She said “she will reach out to you over the holidays. That’s what I said; she will reach out to you over the holidays”. I know she means Thanksgiving seeing as it is tomorrow, but it felt like she thought she was in a movie. I don’t feel like that is a common expression in Australia. To “reach out” to someone. I don’t know whether the movies use lines like that because that’s how people actually speak, or people speak like that because those lines are used in movies. I would personally feel melodramatic and pretentious saying something like that. It’s just another really simple way of demonstrating the differences in Australian and American culture.
Running out of time, Ash and I headed North to Chelsea to look at some galleries. I didn’t take my newly acquired subway map...do I ever?! So, we got lost, again. I have really enjoyed my lost adventures and so don’t mind when I find myself in the same situation. All the better to enjoy what the city has to offer. We decided that we would walk to West 19th St where we were to meet Mark and stop at galleries on the way. Unfortunately, we were to meet at number 525 and where we got off it was number 23. We figured we should start walking as we didn’t know how long it would take us. We passed plenty of galleries but we were worried we would be late, so we had to window shop. It was raining and as we walked it only got harder. We got pretty well soaked. I still didn’t care...I’m in New York. Getting wet here is certainly better than getting wet in Brisbane!
We eventually found a pharmacy where we could buy ridiculously priced umbrellas and some Vitamin C. As my luck would have it, the rain had all but stopped when we got back outside. I’m sure there will be more rainy days though for which I can use my umbrella. I donated some money to the fund for feeding and clothing the homeless for Thanksgiving. I can’t imagine how awful it must be to be living on the streets anywhere, but particularly anywhere cold like it gets here.
There was a Starbucks on the way and I went in for a hot chocolate and a banana slash chocolate slash coffee cake slice. It was okay. A lot of flavours for one slice though :S It was the first food I had today and so was thankful for the sustenance, knowing that we would be doing a bit of hiking around Chelsea.
We eventually made it to where we were meant to be. After an hour’s walk...
I wasn’t able to catch all the names of people or the paintings, but I will go through as best I can to give my impressions of what we saw:
The first exhibition was at the David Zwirner Gallery, featuring New Rauch and Michaël Borremans. We viewed Rauch’s work first. The first painting was what I described as collective nursery rhymes. The reason I felt this way is because there seemed to be lots of different stories going on and while it was playful, there was also a darker edge to it. Like many children’s stories have. The darker undercurrent was evident in the sharp, pointed objects, painted in blacks and greys. I felt they were sinister in comparison to the bright and colourful human figures. There were a lot of different time periods portrayed in the painting as well. The suits of them men on the left were a different era to those of the leggings, long dresses and suit-like attire of those on the right. The buildings also demonstrated a change in time. This displacement is a feature of surrealism, as least that’s what I’m told but the art students! The mood of the piece was certainly alienating and created a type of estrangement. The artist also seemed to be dealing with objects which aren’t functional and I couldn’t quite make out what they were mean to be.
The second painting was darker again. My immediate impression was that it was to do with the vices people use to escape. I identified a fallen angel that seemed to cling at the feet of someone I would call a patron of the arts. This is before we discussed the painting. Mark suggested that the space was actually an artist’s studio. When he said this, I more readily identified the canvas and woman as a model (not a prostitute which I first though...but perhaps that is also the point?) and an artist’s brush and hand entering from side frame. There were also religious undertones, the angle and a wreath of thorns. At least I got the angel part right! The artist seems to enjoy the states of transitions. The multiple facets of the paintings and the paintings within paintings.
The third piece was dark again with owls. Probably used to signify darkness. There was a paintbrush again in this one on the lower left hand corner. To symbolise the artist again? I have found that his artist likes the shape of V’s and/or long pointed shapes, like cones. This painting, as the first, has many of these types of shapes and it creates the feeling of discordance. For me at least.
The fourth and final painting by this artist that we viewed and discussed again seemed to displace the normal and normality. There were surreal elements to it. There was a darkness to it, much like the first and third. It was of a man walking a monster that had an almost-human face.
The artist seems to enjoy presenting a number of stories at once, like the nursery rhyme feel I got from the first painting. The figures/people in his paintings seem to be focussed and purposeful.
In the same gallery but in a different space we then viewed Michaël Borreman’s work. It wsa titled “The Devil’s Dress”and I found it more aesthetically pleasing but more difficult to read than Rauch. Mark and the other students talked some but as I sat staring at the work I couldn’t make sense of it. I had to put the pieces together to create some sort of context. It is then that I noticed that while there were naked bodies, they were almost entirely covered. The faces were mostly hidden, and the only one we could see was completely expressionless. I felt that there must be a connection between the exposed body, expressionless face and the way the artist had presented these images. That were weren’t meant to gain meaning but focus on the painting itself. That that was the art we were to witness. When I voiced this opinion, Mark said that that was what some reviewers had said of the work. A good guess! The art itself, not the meaning, becomes the subject matter.
We moved locations to view Lambie’s work. It was interactive, about 70’s pop-culture, and use visual art to portray music and sound. It was titled “Spiritualised”. Vortexes were used to convey the idea of consciousnesses and a state of mind. The faces of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (a famous photo) has been filled in with vortexes. There were belts wrapper around like fire hoses on the walls. Each had a particular name from a song and were there to represent pop culture. The installation was designed and meant to be an organism. The jars of t-shirts that climbed one corner of a room felt like you could climb up them, increasing the feeling of an LSD trip. These jars were labelled “Digitised”.
There was an industrial feel to the work. This came from the metal, silver, blacks and greys and the pieces of armour in some of the art pieces. I particularly enjoyed the work with the chairs and giant belt. The chairs had concrete cushions and jars with coloured t-shirts underneath. It felt performative.
We then moved on to another gallery that held one piece only. It was that of a giant leg (possibly that of Asterix as Jake pointed out!) on a square box. All of which was silver. Not a lot to the piece and I didn’t find it aesthetically nice.
I find it astounding walking around Chelsea that I can just look inside a window and there is a gallery with just one piece of art in it. I spoke with Mark about people walking in and buying it, how it’s an actual reality here. I can’t seem to wrap my head around it. I can only dream of it. He also made the point that a lot of art will be bought directly from the artist’s studio for the real art connoisseurs and never make it to a gallery. It’s a shame that should miss out on it. I guess the rich can do what they like and the artist has to make a living. Back to Cattelan again!
On a personal note, I feel like I get more and less, understand more and less because of my lack of art history knowledge and education. I think that the visual art students aren’t always able to let go of what they have been taught and think freely and openly, without fear of being wrong. I am happy to be wrong, and art is so subjective in all its forms that no one ever can be wrong, really. I am lucky because I feel like I am learning more sometimes. I have had so many wonderful conversations with people about art and their practice that I am informing my own practice. I’m feeling very wealthy at the moment.
We moved on to see Yoko Ono’s work. It actually turned out to be my favourite of the day! I think I identified with her work a lot more because it is performative and more theatrical. As soon as I walked in I was reminded of a few theatre shows. One by Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre Company and Ionesco’s The Chairs. It felt very physical theatre and all I wanted to do was get into costume (painted body) and perform there and then. Probably shouldn’t have said this to Mark...awkward. However, I found it incredibly pleasing both visually and physically. The lighting on the doors was beautiful and I felt at peace and inspired all at once. The use of shadows and light was lovely. The lighting really added another dimension and depth to the piece. I imagine that if it were to be placed in another gallery, the lighting would have to be as particular. It wouldn’t work otherwise.
When looking for another gallery we accidently stumbled (or rather climbed a bunch of stairs) and found a gallery full of Gretchen Ryan’s work titled “Cheers in Heaven”. My first reaction was “ewww” and then “creepy!” and then “what’s she saying?” In the end, I think she might have actually been pointing out the darkness of cheerleading and not trying to glorify it or the young girls that partake in the sport. Either way, I was glad to move on to the next gallery – Exit Art.
Exit Art is a really inspired space. As soon as Mark said that they received Government funding I was really interested to know how that works here. I have done units in Australia in funding and submissions, and I find it a really interesting process. Exit Art receives Government funding from state and local levels and public grants. Some are for a period of time and others for a specific art work, such as the one on display today. There were a lot of religious and racial undertones. It was an aural and visual show with the inclusion of videos. The piece “First Black President” was a strong piece and I spent some time looking at this and thinking of the connotations. There were also pieces titled “Nazi Eagle” and “Nigerian Power” which demonstrated the artist’s political and racial views. All pro-black and anti-Nazi. This particular artist uses a lot of clean lines and the work shown was a 15 year retrospective, with some newly commissioned art works included. The gallery itself will be 30 years old in 2012 and they are getting ready for a good year and celebration. They exhibit 4 to 5 exhibitions a year, often with a political edge or on current issues. They promote the work of emerging artists and display their work often. There are open calls for submissions, usually within a concept or theme.
Exit Art is designed to house all art forms. It plays a movie every Wednesday night from local filmmakers and shows approximately two plays a year in their theatre rooms downstairs. It is also in the area of Hell’s Kitchen which I discussed at length in my group presentation. It was cool to finally get into the area and look around.
We headed home to do some journaling and then out to see Breaking Dawn Part 1 at the movie cinema, not far from our Hostel. Eight of us went and I was starving that I had a hot dog and small coke (which as incredibly big for a small!!!). The movie was fairly awful as far as movies go, but enjoyable because it was very girlie and after all the deep thinking I have been doing was a nice change and relaxing time. It was also nice just to hang out with a bunch of the other students and chat informally. We have a really good dorm room and we get along really well (when they don’t wake up early and bang all the doors! Hahaha).
Well, that’s it for another day! Chat soon.
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