Handing over control of his daily life to the online community for a month, artist and comic Marc Horowitz follows “The Advice of Strangers” on his whimsical website.
Horowitz polls his audience on such important questions as what he should discuss with his shrink and for whom he should vote, as well as more mundane matters, like whether he should drink a 5-Hour Energy drink or take a nap. Afterward, he videotapes the act of fulfilling the viewers’ choice. Presented by Creative Time as a public-art project, Horowitz’s real-time experiment takes social networking to new heights.
If you’re a fan of David Byrne’s artwork, then you’re going to want to check out the latest edition from 20×200, The Roots of War in Popular Song (forest of no return), a print that’s based on an original piece from his Tree Drawing series. “The Tree Drawings are particularly resonant — no artist myself, I find my creative comfort in words (as evidenced in the abundance of text-based works in our archives) and have been an inveterate connector of the unlikely and the disparate since childhood,” explains 20×200′s Youngna Park. “With on-the-surface simplicity and humble source materials — ‘straight from the sketchbook,’ he writes in his statement — Byrne’s sketches reveal an enviable breadth of knowledge, wit and humility, all in the pursuit of making sense of the often nonsensical.”
Proceeds from the sale of these affordable prints benefit our friends at Creative Time. The first 200 prints, which were priced at $50 each, have already sold out. The second 200 are $100 each, and the final 200 are $150 each. There is a limit of one print per collector. Translation: Hurry up and buy one!
Paul Chan’s Waiting for Godot in New Orleans chronicles the inspiration and production behind the artist’s 2007 theatrical experiment of the same name, through original artwork, interviews, and extensive photo-documentation.
The publication, released by Creative Time, offers insight into the imagination of a young artist, moved by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to re-conceptualize Samuel Beckett’s seminal work of absurdist theatre as a site-specific project, set amid the wasteland of watching and waiting that the devastated city had become.
Last week, New York City officially became a playground when artist Paul Ramírez Jonas unveiled his latest work, Key to the City. The project — co-sponsored by Creative Time — is an inclusive spin on the tradition of mayors handing over symbolic keys to visiting dignitaries, victorious athletes, and local heroes. The difference is that now anyone willing to participate in the project can bestow an honorary key upon anyone else, and the keys actually unlock doors, PO boxes, and secret compartments in over 20 locations situated in all five boroughs. Jonas awarded the first key to Mayor Bloomberg at the opening ceremony in Times Square on June 3.
Those eager to access New York’s hidden treasures can hand out and receive one of the 25,000 keys at a kiosk in Times Square through June 27. Click past the jump to see some of the places and things you can unlock and explore.
Art Basel Miami Beach opened to a smart-dressed crowd of VIPs, collectors, and the press on Tuesday afternoon. Bigger than ever, we kept getting lost as we tried to navigate the labyrinth-like arrangement of gallery booths. Eventually we stopped trying to plot a direction and just followed our eye, wandering from one aisle to the next while spotting noteworthy work here and there. Things that didn’t really look like art stood out, such as Michael Beutler’s gigantic rag rug at Galleria Franco Soffiantino. After believing we had seen everything, which wasn’t really the case, we dropped into the VIP lounge for champagne and nibbles, courtesy of Cartier.
Art Basel’s decision to choose Miami Beach for the location of an American outpost for its high-powered Swiss art fair was pure genius. Now in its eighth edition, Art Basel Miami Beach continues to be the most exciting place for viewing modern and contemporary art and for networking and partying with fellow players. Add the numerous satellite fairs, museum and gallery exhibitions, and special events to the mix and it makes for a dynamic week of art, sand, sun, and fun.
More than 250 galleries from 33 countries offer some 2,000 artists in the various sections of the fair this year. The layout has been revamped, and the Art Positions section, which consists of younger galleries showing cutting-edge projects, has been brought into the main hall from the shipping containers at Collins Park. The park site, which leads to the beach, has been renamed Oceanfront, where fair curators and Creative Time are collaborating to present a lively mix of free talks, videos, and performances. LA artist Pae White has turned Oceanfront into a visually dynamic miniature city that winds through the sand.
The Yes Men are an acclaimed group of ‘culture jammers,’ or people who stick it to the man through elaborate hoaxes that fool the media, onlookers, and the involved organizations. If you recall, they are responsible for the circulation of the fake New York Times paper that announced the end of the Iraq War back in November of last year. Today, the jammers have released an open-call for potential volunteers to aid in their next socially conscious, “large-scale shenanigan.” Read More »
Summertime, and the living’s easy. Especially with visions of picnics and sunny skies dancing in your head. Now that we’re past two months of pouring rain, capitalize on some of New York’s most culturally inclined outdoor spots and pack a design-friendly lunch-to-go. Our top three al fresco locales and a roundup of picnic goodies after the jump. Read More »
This summer, Creative Time launches New York’s first public art quadrennial, PLOT, with The World & Nearer Ones, an exhibition on Governors Island featuring 19 individual artists and artist collectives from nine different countries. Minutes away from Manhattan and Brooklyn by ferry, Governors Island in New York Harbor was home to the US military for more than 200 years, but now its fortresses, officer’s houses, chapel, theater, and other sites hold contemporary art. Exhibition curator Mark Beasley divides the work, which engages the island’s history and future, between indoor and outdoor locales — making the discovery of the artists’ projects an adventure. Read More »
Mike Nelson, A Psychic Vacuum, (detail) Mixed media installation, 2007.
Biking through Manhattan in the fall of 2007, I came upon a strange scene on the Lower East Side. It was one of those shuttered, derelict buildings I had passed many times, but that day there was an intriguing opening in its brick facade: a blank door on Delancey Street, through which a trickle of people flowed into an eerie interior. I had unwittingly stumbled into A Psychic Vacuum, an installation by the British artist Mike Nelson. There were no catalogs or placards; no conceptually abstruse artist’s explanations; I wasn’t even sure whether the labyrinth of rooms I found on the other side of that rabbit-hole entrance was intentionally created or merely found, a fully-intact wonderland. Read More »
