Friday 28/11/08

Today started by catching the subway to Queens, which I hadn't done before. It wasn’t too hard. On arrival, as a class we went to The Sculpture Center, where the exhibition We Burn, We Shiver by Martin Boyce and Ugo Rondinone was on display. The exhibition was about displacement, changing the usual time and place of items to create confusion, but also provoke thought. My favourite piece was by Rosa Barba, which was a DVD documentation of a film called Its Gonna Happen. Instead of actually viewing the film's scenes, the visuals on the screen were the script directions detailing the scene. However the audio of the scene could be heard allowing the viewer to kind of become a ‘director’ in a sense, having to create the images to the film scene within their head, by reading the directions on the screen and listening to the audio/dialogue. This piece of art related to me specifically because I have studied film and television subjects and have been through a similar thought process while writing and creating short films. It was like the thought process and work behind the film was being shown as the final product. After The Sculpture Center, we had lunch and then went to look at some street art on the buildings of Queens. It was amazing, wall to wall images like nothing I had ever seen before.

We then headed to PS1 Contemporary Art Center, an affiliate to MoMa. It was in an old school, which I really liked, with three different levels and all the old classrooms filled with different works of art. The main exhibition was NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith, which presented works on spirituality and religion in contemporary art. However my favourite pieces were the Conspiracy Countdown by Robert Boyd, his first piece for his project Tomorrow People. It was a video installation about international conspiracy theories in particular the 9/11 terrorists attacks, UFO sightings and the AID’s virus. I found it really interesting to watch and this was definitely a favourite. Another favourite was the video installation called Mientras ellos, siguen libres by Regina Jose Galindo consisting of three titled segments; Confessions, 150, 000 Volts and Social Cleansing. The segments were about women’s and social rights, portraying very confronting images of a women, played by the artist, being abused and humiliated. I think it would be very interesting to research this artist further and to learn about her specific reasons for creating such a confronting piece. My other favourite piece was by Olafur Eliasson, Visible Mechanics, which was a huge circular mirror on the roof that rotated at different angles. The work was described to explore what it means to see, with the audience, without instruction, choosing to lie on the floor to look up into and experience the effects of the mirror. It felt like you were on the roof, and was a fun experience becoming a part of the art. I really enjoyed PS1 as I felt the exhibitions on display were very participatory for the audience, and therefore I felt it easier to understand the meanings behind the art. After a big day in Queens, we caught the subway home and chilled out in the common room discussing the day’s activities.