I caught
the Whitney Biennial this afternoon. Traditionally, nobody likes it much -- neither the paleo-con critics OR the art-world partisan have kind words for it. I can see why. As an overview of contemporary American art currents, my gut feeling is that something this comprehensive shouldn't be this underwhleming. None of it is vile, but most pieces, mired in their dreary literalness or overworked themes (suburbia, youth culture, genitalia, televangelists), simply don't register in my head.
The rock stuff is especially disappointing. (It's a cynical sop to hep post-boomers, sez I.) I've never liked Christian Marclay's visual works, and the Destroy All Monsters collective awfully rockist (MC5! P-FUNK! LESTER! DEE-TROIT!). And you know, Chris Ware just doesn't belong in this at all. Jimmy Corrigan = masterpiece but I get no pleasure at all seeing his work in a place so totally unsuited for work so intricate. It's scaled for the book, not the gallery wall. And quite frankly, he's only got one great subject anyway: growing old and dying a lonely, unrecognized death. I wish he'd grow up, a little.
Hirsch Perlman's stuff was the best thing I saw there. After he moved into a new house, he sets aside a room for this carboard robot family made from the materials of his move, and documents its construction, mutilation, annihilation and reconfiguration. He sometimes overplays the violence a little, but still, I came away with the overwhelming sense that people = garbage. Also good were Forcefield (I think) and their dark room of tacky crocheted robot gods that scared the bejesus outta me. Still not sure what to think of the AA Bronson piece, and I may say something about Stephen Vitiello's WTC-inspired soundwork on NYLPM at some point.
The link above includes excerpts, photos and clips from much of the artwork, btw.
Anybody else seen the show?
― Michael Daddino, Sunday, 28 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Also neat was Karin Campbell's performance piece "When I Close My
Eyes." She paints eyes on her eyelids, sits down in the gallery,
closes her eyes, and converses with passersby. Any reservations I
had immediately melted away when Karin patiently (but cheerfully)
fielded a question from a young girl -- she wanted to know what the
deal was with her eyes. Very charming. More "serious" art should be
made that's suitable for kid-consumption. You know, get 'em while
they're young.
― Michael Daddino, Sunday, 28 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
About
10 net-
related artists are represented, but most of it I paid no mind
to, either because they were banal or had a crummy interface or were
being hogged by other museum-goers. There was one piece I played
with that created works from webpages you typed in: of course I
typed in freakytrigger.co.uk and got a cornucopia of reworked
graphics from the site and most of the sites it links to, including
ILx. I'm not sure who did it.
I'm still trying to work out Robert Nideffer's work, which I've
installed on my machine.
― Michael Daddino, Sunday, 28 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
chris ware is in the whitney bi? jeebus, i'm surprised he even
agreed...
― jess, Sunday, 28 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
I don't know if it was just for the opening, but that Forcefield room of crocheted
robots also contained real people standing stock still. It was a spooky challenge to
approach each figure trying to work out whether it was real or not.
I quite liked the Christian Marclay drumkit. And I thought the best thing was the
radically skewed 3D phonebox. But I agree that the Whitney never quite seems to
get it right. PS1 is much better curated.
― Momus, Sunday, 28 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
three years pass...
Ha, who'dathunk that four years after liking the living art in the Whitney Biennial I'd
be it?
Today's my day off and I'm going to see PS1. Some things don't change.
― Momus (Momus), Monday, 10 April 2006 15:14 (nineteen years ago)
That reminds me, I've got a free e-voucher for up to 5 people to get into the whitney, which they gave me for doing some voluntary stuff there last october. But I'm not going to be back in NY in time to use it, so if anyone wants to go and see momus, give me a shout and I'll forward it to you (you might have to pretend to be me).
(first dibs go to laurel and phil, if either of you want it, cos you were both so lovely when I was there).
― JimD (JimD), Monday, 10 April 2006 17:10 (nineteen years ago)