BYC and New York City

The last two weeks I have been on travel in the name of Art and Grad School. My first stop was in Boston to attend the opening of the Boston Young Contemporaries Show. The gallery lighting is bad, the crowd was small, and the press was minimal, but it was my first show in Boston so I wanted to attend.

It was nice to see my work on someone elses wall for a change. I spent four days with friends from AIB and made new friends as well. It was helpful in getting me invigorated for the semester again. I have to admit I was feeling very wilted after Laurel's professional development class. I'm still dealing with accepting that I can only do what I can do. I'm also working on making art that is what I want to make and not directed by outside influences.

From Boston I met up with my mother and a few friends for a week in New York City. I managed to shove a lot of art into a very small span of time. I was mentally and physically exhausted by the end of the trip, but now I have new ideas and a positive direction for my studio and research practice. It was nice seeing the work that I have studied for years in person finally. Some of it did not impress, some were smaller than I imagined, and some were so fascinating I couldn't get close enough to examine to my fill. You can see everything I photographed on my facebook album:

New York Art Facebook Album

I couldn't photograph everything, and why would I want to, but I did get some inspiring ones like this Barbara Kruger piece. She uses text in an interesting way, and she is someone I will probably research further this semester.

I also saw a new talent at a special exhibit at the Whitney Museum. Stewart Uoo.

 

He uses the usual material for sculpture but adds interesting materials like hair, nails, maggot and fly carcasses. He makes an interesting comment about current cultural views damaging nature of self-image. I also found it interesting how the sculptures were displayed. Some jut from the wall hovering just above the floor while others hung from long poles in the floor so they loomed over the viewer. I tried to keep in mind how the position of the art affected the way it read to the viewer. 

I saw this piece in the Flag Art Foundation Gallery. It is by Brooklyn based artist Jennifer Daltan. It addresses a political issue in an interesting way, but at the same time I didn't know if I was allowed to touch it or not. This began the nagging question, "Is participatory art in the gallery and museum space dead?" Is the only real way to make a participatory piece accessible through public art like Orly Genger's Madison Square Park piece.

This piece is amazing. The viewer can touch the work, sit on it, against it or just walk around it, but at the same time it is not fully open to the public. There is a hired guard watching the piece and everyone around it. There are three different colors in three different sections of the park, and only one section is open to the public at a time because there is only one guard. How is that functioning in the way the artist wanted? What sacrifices did she have to make to get the city of New York to allow such a large structural installation? Is there liability if someone climbs it (which you aren't allowed to) and gets hurt? So is the only true form of participatory art public installations of utilitarian objects like my last mentor Susan Robb's octopus bike rack?

I'm a tactile person. I like to touch things and interact with my world. I would like to share that fascination with my viewers, but is there really an avenue to do that anymore? Is this maybe something I want to discuss in my future work? If placement really matters for making a work of art speak to a viewer is there a way to address the issue of non-interaction without putting off the viewer? Lots of questions I hadn't thought of before my trip. It was interesting to see the different people at the various art venues, as well as, the different settings for all works. The galleries were quiet and sparse, the museums loud but very sterile, and the park was pleasant and inviting. Where do I want to fit now????