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.
‘Wanderers in the expanded field’ by ??? Joe Scanlan.
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)
Last Saturday the exhibition ‘2000 – 2010: A Retrospective’ by Simon Kentgens opened at Galerie Gallery.
The show runs until the end of this month and coming Friday, the 28th, during the Kunstweekend Charlois, we will have an altered exhibition and special activities at Galerie Gallery!
Seen last Friday at Gregor Podnar in Berlin; Ariel Schlesinger’s solo show called ‘Reverse engineering’. Although not many works and not all of them as good; a nice show, with quite some energy!
Goshka Macuga, ‘The nature of the beast’ (2009)
Macuga was commisioned to make new work by the Whitechapel Gallery in London, where Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ had once been exhibited. Inspired by this historic fact, Macuga made a replica of the Guernica tapestry that Nelson Rockefeller commisioned in 1955. Some thirty years later this was lent to the United Nations Headquarters in New York where it has hung ever since outside the Security Council. Offered as a deterrent to war, in 2003 the tapestry was covered by a blue curtain in front of which Colin Powell delivered his fateful speech on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Macuga’s installation ‘The nature of the beast’ in the Whitechapel Gallery consisted of the Guernica’s replica, as well as a round meeting table (a symbol of democracy) in front of it. The room had been designed to accommodate meetings, discussions and debates around the central table, with Guernica once again as a backdrop. Groups were invited to organise these events free of charge during opening hours.
Pauline Bastard, ‘Over the rainbow’ (2009)
A lot of her works are videos that I can’t show you here, because her website’s so Flashy… so go there.
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.