Theo Jansen with his Strandbeest
“Close both eyes to see with the other eye.” (RUMI)
It was a long week. I want it to be over, but not to go away. I missed so much, and saw so much.
Attempting to absorb huge amounts of anything often leaves one trying to focus, remember and keep close lessons and knowledge that zoomed by in flashes as we moved from fair to gallery, museum to performance.
Dutch artist Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest was a glorious way to see his vision with skies blue as pale lapis lazuli adding backdrop to his large sail driven PVC creatures slowly making their own way over the white sand beach twice each day.
They were fun and strangely eerie as the millipede-like feet, one after another, undulated in an equine manner. It was quietly alluring to watch their first United States appearance on our sands rather than home on the wilder Holland beaches, though they have traveled far afield on numerous occasions. His 42-foot-long Animaris Suspendisse was particularly impressive.
Introduction of Trevor Smith, Peabody Essex Museum, in Conversation with Strandbeest artist Theo Jansen and book photographer Lena Herzog
Since 1990, Jansen has been in his laboratory (his studio, if you must) creating a "beest" every winter and debuting his latest creature every spring. He wants them on the beaches in herds so they can live their own lives. A tad Frankensteinian, but gorgeous creatures in movement none the less. I caught him in an artists talk at the Salon series in the Convention Center. I liked his casual exuberance in describing how he arises every day with a “brilliant” thought (insert chuckles here), streaking to his studio to express the new idea only to find materials less than persuaded to accommodate his “brilliant idea."
The next day he wakes up with another “brilliant idea” and off he goes again. I love that about artists, the thrill of new concepts constantly fueling ambition. Photographer Lena Herzogs was also on hand to discuss her impressions as she became immersed in the Strandbeests, ultimately photographing for her elegant book STRANDBEEST: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen. Theo Jansen’s work will be showcased at the wonderful Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., in Fall 2015.
Exhibition Mana Monumental, a selection of large-scale works by artists who are part of Mana
MANA in Wynwood on 23st Street was a big surprise. When, exactly, did the megalith explode out of the dirt to become MANA, we wondered? The huge hanger like building sported equally large artwork easily and effectively. The inaugural MANA Art Fair Wynwood “campus” is 140,000 sq ft and 22 acres.
Gasp, it can’t be! Oh, but it is, Blanche. The MANA headquarters are located in an old Jersey City tobacco warehouse and claims to be “dedicated to celebrating the creative process” uniting artists studios, exhibition spaces and services in one location.
I managed to sit in on their very last Wynwood Art Week Conversation which was titled "Identifications: A Discussion About Non-Conformity, Labeling, and Forms of Identity" presented by the Witches of Bushwick. Oddly I had read about the creative and social group “Witches of Bushwick ” in the New York Times last February. Here....I looked up the link for you: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/fashion/Witches-of-Bushwick-Brooklyn.html?_r=0
Witches of Bushwick artists in conversation, MANA Art Fair
Moderator by artist C. Finley, other panelists were artists Alli Coates, Hayden Dunham, Abel Macias, James Moore, Signe Pierce and Ilana Savdie. The discussion stuck with me as I pondered the idea of not allowing my current physical body or natural parameters (gender, etc.) to dictate who I was or how many inventions I could make from my current incarnation. I could now, because of avatars and the unlimited outreach of the computer world as well as erasing the boundaries of the mind, to expand into many personae . . . as many as I can think up and manage. It was a concept to ruminate more deeply upon, especially as age changes your own ideas of who you are inside and out as you morph from decade into decade.
Let’s not overlook Anthony Spinello of Spinello Projects. His gallery had made it into Art Basel for two years in a row (2012 and 2013). This year he commandeered a 7,500 footft old Auto Body facility between Purdy and Bay Aves on the Beach, erecting copious video screens in the cavernous space by over 25 female curators and 33 female artists addressing “difficult issues relating to fourth- and fifth-wave feminism and gender inequality."
It had a good vibe, if I may be allowed to say that. As I walked in, I was told it was only three minutes to a performance piece. I figured I was Divinely Led and felt quite pleased for such elegant timing. I perched on a black stool on the auto body shop floor, and looked up to see a woman in a white track suit-type ensemble standing at the top of a stairway inside the large space.
She proceeded to wobble, then tumble down the entire flight of stairs, then lay there for several minutes before “falling” back up the staircase, stand at the top for several minutes. Rinse and repeat for as many times as you can imagine. I managed to go through three repeats before my mind wandered followed by my body. Ana Mendez was the performer in her piece called Liminal Being, an “anti-show embodying ambiguous, often chaotic states that exist in the moments before crossing thresholds.”
TRUST with artists Hank Willis Thomas and Jim Ricks
Also managed to see the main film shown at the Colony Theater on Lincoln Road on Friday night. Tim Burton’s Big Eyes didn’t feel particularly Tim Burton-y and I was put off by the male lead. His performance was theatrically ham-handed to my sensibility. It was the story of a couple's ruse that hubby was the Big Eyes artist “Keane” when in fact it was the wife who clandestinely was turning out these big eyed waifs. It was a true story of art fraud with Christopher Waltz and Amy Adams as his wife, whom I always have time for. It is a nasty little tale that gains steam as it goes.
The giant inflatable speech bubble and recording booth in Collins Park labeled “Truth” had me for a moment. It is traveling the world gleaning two minute “truths” audio from anyone willing to share. I was in the midst of pondering my own truths when I came upon the Fieldwork piece. It forced me to think about what my Truth is now before formulating my sentences. By Jim Ricks, Hank Willis Thomas and Ryan Alexiev.
The End.
