Sometimes being bilingual plays funny tricks on you. Today, I walked by this “usines ours” sign I spontaneously read it half in French (“Usines” = Factories) and half in English (“ours” = “à nous”). Granted, for you other bilingual readers out there, I could have read it all in French (“Ours” = “Bears”) but somehow the bilingual version made more sense. Is it that wave of protest in Wisconsin? Anyway, it read as a throw-back to the slogans of “Mai 68” and “autogestion” (workers’ self management) – as in: factories are ours.
… and yes, it’s only Monday, but one has to find some levity in a moment when local “institutions” in the East Village are disappearing one after the other… This note, at “Elephant”, the Thai/French bar-restaurant on E 1st, thanking its “costumers”.
Fancy that: it will be reincarnated as an Italian resto-bar, courtesy of the people who transformed sorely missed Baraza into The Summit Bar, a “playground”, as the owner aptly describes it.
Other “institutions” that will not see 2011: Max Fish and Pink Pony, on Ludlow Street, both rumored to be closing down by December 31. And then there is the uncertain fate of Mars Bar, a symbolic loss for the good ol’/bad East Village. But hohoho, the murals keep on being topical:
Update: January 28 – Max Fish and Pink Pony have negotiated a one-year extension of their leases, and Mars Bar still offers its unique “day care for drunks”.
Many, many topics to catch up on, but for now, just two things I want to do this weekend:
sacrifice to the yearly ritual of Dumbo’s Open Studio – it is a sunny day after all, who knows, there might even be some good art beyond clichés, and speaking of cliché I want to stop by Holger Keifel’s book signing. Not that boxing is my thing, but his portraits are quite amazing. More about his work here and about the book here. (The signing takes place 10 AM to 6PM, appropriately enough at Gleason’s gym, 77 Front Street, 2nd Floor).
The other thing I want to do is see again Harry Shearer’s “The Big Uneasy”, a documentary about how New Orleans got flooded, and why it could happen again. More about that here already for those of you who read French (saw it on the 5th anniversary of Katrina in New Orleans).
The theme at the Storefront for Art and Architecture was “Quarantine”. You can see how that worked: a crowd and isolation-tent-looking blobs outside, and a narrow (of course crowded) space inside. And the show? Well, in theory, interesting – for anyone who actually managed to read the art – I guess “projects” would be a better word – on the walls. Another day, maybe?
I broke my usual Saturday “farniente” rule for a (somewhat lazy) art marathon. Well, not half as lazy as the selection at “Pulse”, the art fair dedicated solely to contemporary art. The cardboard stuff, the comic-strip inspired ironic stuff, the attempts to shock, the sociological narrative: it was all there, with an uninspired feeling of déjà-vu all over again.
After a bit of a walk to clear the mind (lovely day by the Hudson), I arrived at the Armory Show, where the general tone of the contemporary part of the fair was of efficient professionalism. The show offered no real surprises (except for wood cuts that immediately felt like a breath of freshness, the work of Louise Bourgeois), but, compared to Pulse, a somewhat less caricatural sample of what one sees in galleries currently, and evident signs of the growing interest in photography and digital prints. The air was thick with quiet expectation and the strolling crowd paused only occasionally, when pulled apart between a crowing puppet above the hanging art and a flagellant’s video, or stopping to contemplate the vanity of Damien Hirst’s skull prints.
This Saturday is the last day of the Vision Collaborations Festival at the 14 Street Y (a once a year treat… you’ll have to wait till the Vision Festival in late June for a line-up coming close to this!). Check the program here.
Visual arts, dance and music explore an innovative dialogue in sound, space and sight. The collaborations and improvisations are at the core of these unique performances, and this Friday night one of my favorite pianist, Matthew Shipp, engaged in this conversation in tone and movement, along with violinist Rosie Hertlein and drummer Whit Dickey, as Mario Zambrano, Emily Coates, Marie Blocker and Emily Clime danced.
Matthew Shipp (piano) and Rosie Hertlein (violin)
For those who would want to hear Matthew Shipp, he will be playing next Sunday, March 14, from 5 to 7PM, at a benefit for a very special place: A Gathering of the Tribes, a salon on East 3rd Street. You will hear music that feeds the brain and opens the mind, and you will be supporting a real grass-roots artistic community.
For those who can’t attend and are curious, an excerpt of a recent concert with Matthew Shipp and Whit Dickey:
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