by Aaron Harbour
on August 30th, 2011
My fellow Americans. As a young boy, I dreamed of being a baseball, but tonight I say, we must move forward, not backward, upward not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.’- Kodos, Treehouse of Horror VII
‘…truth and…wonder in this country. For…energy and…inaction…love to move forward to…the exact same spot. In the end…time…needs all of you to deliver…the future.’- Excerpt from text edited from a presidential speech, part of Lauren Marsden’s Set for an Altered State, 2011
A tying off of sorts for her (productive) time spent in California, Set for an Altered State at Sight School in Oakland is Lauren Marsden’s first solo installation. The installation is a well conceived set of objects comprising a single, complete, immersive work. A cast off swim suit and sash of Miss Department of Energy (one of Marsden’s characters) sit in a pile of sand with a souvenir postcard of a de-ribbon cutting at a nuclear site decommissioning sits off to the side. There is a lectern with a remixed presidential speech (mashing power/energy, patriotism, and unity), a glitchy projection of idyllic wind turbines before a super blue sky, a pair of stage lights on the floor, and a , loud industrial fan activating a large, impossibly beautiful golden flag which emphatically flutters- all situated in the flat black gallery.
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by Cielo Lutino
on August 11th, 2011
Tiara, one of the film's main characters, applies make-up. Photograph by Kathy Huang.
I know very little about Islam, not much more about Indonesia, and absolutely nothing about being transgendered. These shortcomings didn’t prevent me from relating to Tales of the Waria, however, Kathy Huang’s documentary about four transgendered women in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population. Filmed in the cinematic coastal region of South Sulawesi, this sumptuously shot narrative follows four waria — a mash-up of wanita, which means woman, and pria, which means man — in their respective quests for love. Continue Reading More »
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by Gabriella Radujko
on August 9th, 2011
Yancey Richardson Gallery signaled appreciation for the naturalist John Burroughs by naming the summer group show Beautiful Vagabonds, the writer’s poetic keywords for birds. Few works exemplified a naturalist’s approach to photography, however, demonstrating fitting curatorial restraint for a subject-based show intent on catholicity. Among them Sustenance #114 by Neeta Madahar, Policeman by Jitka Hanzlová, American Goldfinches by Paula McCartney, and Terry Evans’ Field Museum, Drawer of Eastern Meadowlarks, works corresponding to what one would see in a natural history museum. Continue Reading More »
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by Amanda Schmitt
on August 2nd, 2011
Marilyn Minter, Green Pink Caviar, video, 8:00, 2009, courtesy of Ramis Barquet Gallery
If you find yourself trekking under the hot sun and making the gallery rounds in Chelsea on a 98°F day in the middle of July, then you are surely a glutton for punishment. However, thanks to the cool respite of air conditioning in Ramis Barquet Gallery, one can comfortably experience another sort of “Glutton for Punishment,” as this annual group video exhibition is aptly titled. Rather than a traditional video screening with a seated, theater arrangement, curator Nicholas Kilner presents each of the five videos separately, realizing a unique exhibition format and creating an immersive video experience. As the press release perfectly describes, “each of the works included uses video as a platform to explore the body in all its physicality and its subjectivity to innocent and aggressive desire.” Continue Reading More »
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