I wanted to post about something I saw at Wood Street Galleries
While Myles and I were on our very educational field trip, we made a stop to the Wood Street Galleries in Downtown. These galleries are above a T-station. This is where a few months ago we saw an installation by Amorphic Robot Works.
Anyway, it is their Summer Party show. Summer shows at commercial galleries are usually just a hodge podge, barely strung-together group shows of pieces pulled from their stables. Wood Street isn't commercial, but rather civic, so I was hoping for a little more than I got. It wasn't bad, but I am not gushing.
It was a show of video art, some early examples of pretty influential video artists. Now this is not to be confused by the show that just closed on Rock Video as art. Different things.
First of all, I thought I would be able to refer back to the web page so I could provide you some complete information on artist, title, etc. But Wood Street's webpage hasn't been updated to reflect a show that has been up since last week. I hope they have it updated by the Gallery Crawl that is scheduled for next Thursday in that neighborhood.
With a video installation, cross noice is a problem. In the lower gallery there was projected on a wall any of four videos from the more famous of the artists. One of these, which I did not get to see, was by Ant Farm, for instance. The sound for these videos was through speakers and audible throughout the gallery. So that other videos culd also be viewed and heard, in another area they had set up several TV's with DVD players and head sets. They were nice enough to have couches to sit on, and even coffee tables to put your feet up on, but each TV only had one set of head phones. It would have been nice to be able to have other people listen with you, other than just watch while you listen. I don't just say this as someone who goes to art events with children, but as someone who also goes with adults occassionally. I didn't need another set of 'phones, but come next Thursday it will probably be nice.
Because of Myles' impatience with the fact that none of the TVs were showing Thomas the Tank Engine (do I ever curse the day I introduced him to that show--and it was only this past MONDAY), I only got to catch about 15 minutes of a video about September 11th. I was hoping for one of those videos where you just watch someone sleep for three hours, but no, I had to choose 9/11. I forgot the artist already, not because the video isn't memorable and the artist isn't noteworthy, but I was counting on the website being updated to jog my memory. Anway, this video, called just 9/11, was fascinating. There was some footage that I saw that was very similar to news coverage (the excavator digging in the rubble, news conferences), and even some of the more wrenching images you would expect to see in any art related to 9/11, but this artist spent a great deal of time gawking at the gawkers. Right next to a sign that says no cameras, he is filming a continuous line of tourists that are snapping photographs. He films one family posing in front of the still smoldering ruins with their infant, like it is the Statue of Liberty. He even catches a few of the National Guard pulling out cameras while they are on duty to direct traffic to take pictures of things being pulled out of the wreckage. There was this one woman, at the Canal Street nerve center that was set up to help with the Missing Persons, standing out front talking to a policeman, and when she sees she is being filmed, starts mugging for the camera. I wish I could watch the whole thing (it is almost an hour long) to have a more coherent idea of what he was trying to do. I get the feeling he set out to do one thing, and ended up with a completely different project. A radically different Statement, if you will.
So if the Wood Street Galleries ever update their website, or if I have an opportunity to go all the way back downtown to spend more time in the gallery, I might actually have a chance to see more of this video, see a few more videos, and actually have some pertinent info, too.
Anyway, it is their Summer Party show. Summer shows at commercial galleries are usually just a hodge podge, barely strung-together group shows of pieces pulled from their stables. Wood Street isn't commercial, but rather civic, so I was hoping for a little more than I got. It wasn't bad, but I am not gushing.
It was a show of video art, some early examples of pretty influential video artists. Now this is not to be confused by the show that just closed on Rock Video as art. Different things.
First of all, I thought I would be able to refer back to the web page so I could provide you some complete information on artist, title, etc. But Wood Street's webpage hasn't been updated to reflect a show that has been up since last week. I hope they have it updated by the Gallery Crawl that is scheduled for next Thursday in that neighborhood.
With a video installation, cross noice is a problem. In the lower gallery there was projected on a wall any of four videos from the more famous of the artists. One of these, which I did not get to see, was by Ant Farm, for instance. The sound for these videos was through speakers and audible throughout the gallery. So that other videos culd also be viewed and heard, in another area they had set up several TV's with DVD players and head sets. They were nice enough to have couches to sit on, and even coffee tables to put your feet up on, but each TV only had one set of head phones. It would have been nice to be able to have other people listen with you, other than just watch while you listen. I don't just say this as someone who goes to art events with children, but as someone who also goes with adults occassionally. I didn't need another set of 'phones, but come next Thursday it will probably be nice.
Because of Myles' impatience with the fact that none of the TVs were showing Thomas the Tank Engine (do I ever curse the day I introduced him to that show--and it was only this past MONDAY), I only got to catch about 15 minutes of a video about September 11th. I was hoping for one of those videos where you just watch someone sleep for three hours, but no, I had to choose 9/11. I forgot the artist already, not because the video isn't memorable and the artist isn't noteworthy, but I was counting on the website being updated to jog my memory. Anway, this video, called just 9/11, was fascinating. There was some footage that I saw that was very similar to news coverage (the excavator digging in the rubble, news conferences), and even some of the more wrenching images you would expect to see in any art related to 9/11, but this artist spent a great deal of time gawking at the gawkers. Right next to a sign that says no cameras, he is filming a continuous line of tourists that are snapping photographs. He films one family posing in front of the still smoldering ruins with their infant, like it is the Statue of Liberty. He even catches a few of the National Guard pulling out cameras while they are on duty to direct traffic to take pictures of things being pulled out of the wreckage. There was this one woman, at the Canal Street nerve center that was set up to help with the Missing Persons, standing out front talking to a policeman, and when she sees she is being filmed, starts mugging for the camera. I wish I could watch the whole thing (it is almost an hour long) to have a more coherent idea of what he was trying to do. I get the feeling he set out to do one thing, and ended up with a completely different project. A radically different Statement, if you will.
So if the Wood Street Galleries ever update their website, or if I have an opportunity to go all the way back downtown to spend more time in the gallery, I might actually have a chance to see more of this video, see a few more videos, and actually have some pertinent info, too.
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