‘In Places’ (2004) by Erik Olofsen. (Russian introduction, video after 1:00 )
Tag Archives: New York
Dia:Beacon
The following pictures were taken at the Dia:Beacon, one of the Dia Art Foundation‘s residencies in the state of New York. They have an impressive collection of iconic pieces of art, and each artist has their own room inside their wonderful building, the former Nabisco box printing facility built in 1929.
Bruce High Quality Foundation @ Whitney Biennial
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.
Martin Creed @ Gavin Brown’s Enterprise
Currently up at Gavin Brown’s in New York is an exhibition of Martin Creed‘s newest work.
The picture above is a variation on his work ‘Work No. 300’ (2003)
Christopher Chiappa
Christopher Chiappa, ‘Hermit crab’, video (2010)
‘Hermit crab’ is a video manipulating common childhood pet hermit crabs in a way that
depicts power and abuse. The artist’s head is cropped out of each frame as he methodically
glues each of the twenty-five hermit crab shells together to form a circle. The crabs’ behavior
during the gluing evokes human struggle and strategies for coping as a group.
Photograph taken at the end of the production of the film.
Sarah Morris
Above: ‘BEIJING’ (fragment, 2008), below: ‘Midtown’ (1998), by Sarah Morris.
The first film and latest film by Sarah Morris, both alienating and seducing at the same time. ‘BEIJING’ shot during the Olympic Games in 2008, ‘Midtown’ 10 years earlier in New York City.
Alex Hubbard @ Whitney Biennial
The other highlight for me was the video ‘Annotated Plans for an Evacuation ‘ (2009) by Alex Hubbard.
In the video, Hubbard continuously alters the look of an old, used Ford Tempo. He does this with styrofoam, plaster and spraypaint in a way that makes it seem like he has a very clear plan for the make-over. However, over the course of the video, the purpose for his alterations becomes increasingly unclear, while their pointlessness becomes ever more clear.
The video, as installed at the Whitney.