Rearrange the Tires
In 1961, Allan Kaprow filled the garden space at Martha Jackson Gallery with a mountain of black rubber tires and in the process Yard shifted art towards participation and installation. Yard was reinterpreted 8 times before the artist’s death in 2006. On the occasion of opening its first American gallery which happens to be on the same site of the earlier legendary gallery, Hauser & Wirth invited performance artist William Pope.L to do a reinvention of Kaprow’s seminal Environment. As you climb on and move the tires, listen to Pope.L’s soundscape spoken in the cadences of Barack Obama and notice the mirrors, light effects, body bags, cameras, and monitors. Make sure to visit the 2nd floor for an overview of Yard’s history and Kaprow’s important legacy.
“Allan Kaprow YARD“, Hauser & Wirth, 32 East 69th Street
http://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/425/allan-kaprow-yard/view/
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For her last show at Larissa Goldston Gallery, Orly Genger created Masspeak which filled the gallery with 3 tons of hand-knotted rope and some of our regulars may remember climbing on it. For her latest endeavor, Genger condenses the organic mass into a massive 8 x 8 x 6 foot cube called Reg, named after the 1965 winner of the Mr. Universe competition. Originally created for an exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, check out these videos to see the sculptures being installed: http://www.artbabble.org/video/orly-genger-whole-trailer and to hear Genger talk about her work: http://www.artbabble.org/video/orly-genger. Also, don’t miss the video and remnants of Genger’s performances where she’s encased in a block of plaster and attempts to free herself using an axe.
Orly Genger, Move, Larissa Goldston Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, 3rd floor
www.larissagoldston.com
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Eye on You
In Up Against, Janine Antoni continues her long-term involvement with the use of her body to make art (see previous work, http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/antoni/index.html). Her installation TEAR (she prefers we spell it since it can be pronounced 2 different ways with 2 different meanings) features an 11 foot square video projection of her eye and a 2 ton wrecking ball cast out of lead. Used to demolish a building in Pittsburgh, the soft metal records each strike. We don’t see the destruction but the sound of the demolition fills the long narrow gallery and Antoni’s eye blinks with every crash of the wrecking ball. Is she instinctively closing her eye as protection or willfully turning away? Also, check out Inhabit, a series of photos with Antoni suspended in her daughter’s room by a web of ropes in a harness. Like a skirt, she wears a fully furnished doll house where a spider has taken up residence and according to Antoni, she wears “the family drama”!
Janine Antoni, Up Against, Luhring Augustine Gallery, 531 West 24th Street
http://www.luhringaugustine.com/index.php?mode=current