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Paper Rain parade to launch Art Basel in Hong Kong

by Helen Homan Wu on June 23rd, 2013

Arto Lindsay "untitled" (colored filters) 2013. Image courtesy South China Morning Post

They say Hong Kong is a cultural desert, a city that only welcomes commercial high-brow art. Though I don’t completely disagree, that cliche is slowly  disappearing and for a performance curator coming from New York’s vibrant art scene, it is exciting to break through new grounds. I wouldn’t have missed the chance to create a massive public art project– an Art Basel commission, for the launch of its inaugural edition in Hong Kong. When I was asked to produce such an event, it seemed just a perfect fit, perhaps even a dream project, as I’ve been an admirer of the progressiveness of its cultural programming (think Basel Miami’s Oceanfront Nights and Art Parcours), and an excuse for me to work with many talented artists and performers all at once.

Cedric Maridet at Art Basel Hong Kong

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The Autumnal Equinox and the Uni Project

by Gabriella Radujko on September 29th, 2012

photography © courtesy Sam Davol

Pop-ups–boutique, market or museum have entered the psyche of hip New Yorkers, but if you are really lucky, you will have experienced the pop-up library known as the Uni Project.

Part-library, part-performance space, the Uni Project, a portable library kiosk with curated cubes, popped up on a stretch of waterfront at the Gantry State Park in Long Island City, Queens on the first day of fall. The blustery weather wrestled with the portable bookshelves and seats, but passersby, especially the short, cute variety with parents hovering close by, intuitively browsed, read and celebrated books, played games and explored portable worm bins for indoor composting. Continue Reading More »

Kinematic Thursdays: Behind the Sounds

by Charlie Schroder on July 2nd, 2012

Piet-Jan van Rossum with Paul Clipson (Photos by Louie Metzner)

Subtwine – Entwine’s speakeasy-like downstairs space that has hosted musical-artists-in-residence such as Toucan (as profiled in the New York Times), video art exhibitions curated by CoWorkers Projects— for a limited time is home to the West Village’s only ongoing experimental sound art event, KINEMATIC Thursdays. Presented by Yulia Topchiy of CoWorker Projects, Kinematic Thursdays is curated by Helen Homan Wu of Opalnest. This is such a unique series of events blending video art, experimental music and sound art that I asked Helen for a bit of the backstory.

Noveller

Heike Baranowsky 'Monfahrt' (courtesy of Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin)

Helen founded Opalnest to provide exposure for artists — artists who work with time-based media — that do not necessarily fit into the typical art gallery structure here in the U.S.  She explains that in European cities like Berlin, interdisciplinary contemporary art such as sound art is a robust, thriving genre regularly reviewed and written about by theorists in the same manner of the traditional fine art disciplines of painting or sculpture. Continue Reading More »

Armory Arts Week Event: ‘Editquette’ Photo Recap

by Artcards Review on April 3rd, 2012

Loren Connors, Julien Langendorff, Jim Jarmusch, Hiraku Suzuki (photo: Louie Metzner. courtesy of Opalnest)

Hiraku Suzuki (photo: Louie Metzner)

Photo: Amy Mitten

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The Future is Now

by Kristin Trethewey on December 9th, 2011

Rachel De Joode, Seeing the Future, a skype-performance, 2011

A young, naked man stares at us, reacting in real-time via webcam; his image is projected onto a typical artist’s canvas and easel a few meters away. Every few minutes he speaks to us. Sometimes I hear what he says, “a woman walks across the room” or “the man with a blue jacket just moved towards the back”. Other times the Internet connection is too weak and his words become fragmented. But the audience understands he is watching us. We continue standing in front of him immobilized, it is awkward and the tension is real. Continue Reading More »

Artcards Artist Conversations #tmirror

by Helen Homan Wu on July 23rd, 2011

Screen shots from last week’s tweets for Doug Barrett’s “INSTITUTION/AUDIENCE/4′33″/TWITTER MIRROR”

Entire feed HERE

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Unsound Festival NY 2011 Recap

by Helen Homan Wu on April 12th, 2011

Ben Frost, Daniel Bjarnason, Sinfonietta Cracovia with film manipulations by Brian Eno & Nick Robertson (Photos: Stephen Cardinale for Unsound Festival)

It has been a highly provocative and musically charged past week and a half. For those who have been following Artcards Review, I’ve been covering Unsound Festival 2011 here in NYC since its opening on April 1st.  And yesterday was the final wrap up of an entire week and a half of experimental music and sonic arts events. The shows were aesthetically diverse and seemed to have opened up new pathways for a lot of local sound art enthusiasts. Besides igniting interest through cross-cultural collaborations, audiences also got a chance to get a closer look at the artists’ practices through “conversations” during Unsound Labs. In retrospect, Unsound 2011 seemed to have a much less focus on electronic music per se, with a more diverse palette on genres ranging from Iceland’s Ben Frost and Sinfonietta Cracovia, to Lustmord and Deaf Center, both deep, dark, and ambient in its own ways, to the Bunker nights of techno music to the finale disco party by local hosts Kiss & Tell. Even though I wanted to attend it all (trust me, I penciled it all in my calendar), I would not have been able to write this recap if I did. But apparently Stephen Cardinale, Unsound’s official photographer shot through the entire week of events, and here it is below. Continue Reading More »