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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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 »

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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Photo by Mikhail Iliatov

Next Tuesday, Sept. 21, I curated a one-night performance event to happen at the new multi-media culture space Culturefix, located close to the brim of the Lower East Side. The show entitled Happy Oasis is an interesting blend of Hi/Lo Fi instrumentals and electronics with live projections, featuring experimental noisician link (Thessia Machado), electronic composer Ezekiel Honig collaborating with visualist Joshue Ott (superDraw), and sound/visual artist Mikhail Iliatov. The percussionist Hyun Moraes opens the show with an intense shamanic beating of a taiko drum. I’m really curious to see performance artists Kristin Reger and Martha Moszczynski (part avant-garde, part punk) collaborating for the first time to do an entrancing act with attributes to Middle Eastern women. If you have an iPhone or iPad, please bring it for a real-time interactive audio/visual experience. Complete details at opalnest.com

Metal Rouge. Photo by Lemule Barbour

Matthew Mcauley. Photo by Carissa Pelleteri

When I arrived at White Slab Palace, a stripped down art space in the heart of the lower east side on Saturday night, I had little idea of what to expect. The event, Paradise Now! curated by Artcard’s own Helen Homan Wu, proved to be a cultural tour de force, combining the work of six musicians, three visual artists, and the improvisational poetic styling of poet/writer/DJ Anavelyse. Continue Reading More »

A group exhibition featuring six young female artists from around the world, Bedtime Stories monotone dreams is showing at the artist collective space The Fardom from April 9th to May 2nd, 2010. The concept of the show was to manifest the moment that exists between sleep and wake states of mind. It was interpretted in all different ways by the artists and the works they chose to represent the idea. This is the latest curatorial project that I’ve been working on, and there is still one week left before the show closes.

Artists include KATJA LOHER, SOL KJØK, CHAW EI THIEN, CARISSA PELLETERI, KELLY STURHAHN, ALIONA YURTSEVICH

A few weeks ago, when I got an invite from Lucien Zayan, owner of the gallery The Invisible Dog to see an exhibition of a giant ant, I choked. Then I watched a short animation of the giant ant housed inside the space and thought it was some sort of an advanced technology art project created by Europeans, because it’s so out-of-the-box. I didn’t bother read more about the show, prefering to keep it ambiguous, and persuaded a few friends to come along for a surprise at the opening on Saturday.

Outside the Invisible Dog it seemed like any normal quiet night, but stepping inside the huge space the atmosphere shifted. In front of me was a looming white ball with raw steel sticking out from all sides. I was totally amazed at how bare they kept the gallery space to accomodate this giant. It seemed almost sad, but after reading the touching story behind it, I can see how it fits in to the theme. The ant was created to symbolize the trains transporting Jews and other nazi victims to concentration camps, and was inspired by the poet Robert Desnos. I didn’t get to meet the artist Xavier Roux, who conceptualized the project, but ran into Lucien with congratulating words.

I liked the ant. I’m sure the children running around it enjoyed it even more. And the hat was a nice touch. My only wish is that they set the ant free when it gets warmer outside.

the ant head

the sculpture is at least 60 feet long

Helen Wu with the owner/gallery director Lucien Zayan