Ana Navas, ‘Yet far more often than these text based pieces, one would play pure melodies on the mouth organ (version II)’ (2013)
Based on descriptions of audio guides from ethnographic museums, 10 objects are created out of paper napkins. The originals remain unseen; the reconstruction relies only on the information heard.
Phyllis Galembo, ‘Kambulo and Kapada (They Start the Dance), Makishi Masquerade, Kaoma, Zambia’ (2007)
Walker Evans, ‘Labor Anonymous’ (1946)
Walker Evans: the magazine work (2014) by David Campany traces Walker Evans’ work as a jurnalist in avant-garde publications as well as mainstream titles such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Architectural Forum, Life and Fortune.
The panel below is what one would see when today’s diptych is closed. The grinning gent holds a scroll that warns, “Leave this panel closed, otherwise you’ll be angry with me.”
(closed)
Upon opening the diptych, the viewer is greeted with an ass shot of the cheeky man from the closed panel and opposite it, a fool who makes a hilarious gesture, mocking the viewer’s disobedience.
(open)
A scroll on the full-moon panel declares, “It’s not my fault because I warned you in advance!” On the right panel, another scroll proclaims, “Moreover, we wanted to warn you so you wouldn’t jump out the window!”
The thistle protruding from the flasher’s undies is a symbol of pain, defense, and misanthropy.
By an unknown Flemish painter.
Goshka Macuga, ‘When was Modernism?’ (2008)
Mixed media installation including tree, concrete, soil, breeze blocks and concrete benches, and works in various materials by Ramkinkar Baij and students from the sculpture department at Kala Bhavan, the Faculty of fine Art Visva Bharati University, Santinketan, West Bengal.
‘Another Misspent Portrait of Etienne de Silhouette‘ (1999 – 2004) by Christian Capurro.
Christian Capurro asked anonymous people to erase a page from a 246-page issue of Vogue Hommes magazine from 1986. They were also asked to write in pencil on their erased page both the time it took them to do this and whatever monetary value they currently received at work for their time, translated into an hourly rate or rates. The erasing took 5 years to complete and involved over 250 people.
‘Alarm Dance 3’ (2007) by Daniel Eatock.
Watch more alarm dances after the jump:
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A definite highlight (for me) of the Whitney Biennial was the work ‘We like America and America likes us’ (2010), by The Bruce High Quality Foundation.
With its title and form referring to Joseph Beuys’s performance ‘I like America and America likes me’ (where Beuys was picked up from the airport with a Cadillac ambulance and brought to the gallery, where he lived with a coyote for three days) an old ambulance stands in one of the rooms of the Whitney, a film playing on its windshield. The film is comprised of different clips taken from youtube videos. The female voiceover tells us about her difficult relationship to America, while it is constantly unclear whether America is a man, a woman, a lover, a friend, or really just the country.
The original video that’s shown on the windshield of the ambulance.
