Tom Fruin "Necktie Party" Hand bent neon tubes, electrical wire, hardware

165 ORCHARD STREET

April 1st, 6 to 10PM

Signs of the Times
April 1st – May 5th

Photos by Carissa Pelleteri for Artcards Review

For day 2 of Miami art week we decided to branch out away from the main fair. There are a plethora of pop up fairs surrounding the main event. It is easy to get lost in orbit, with so much to do and so much to see. Nada, Scope, Pulse and Fountain all offer looks at younger, contemporary art from local, national and international artists. As the day wore on we were happy to see many of our gallerists and artists.

Cecilia Jurado and Brad Kahlhamer, Y Gallery at Nada Fair.

Jen Bekman

Steve Sacks, Bitforms Gallery

Aurel Schmidt, OHWOW Gallery

Tim Barber, OHWOW Gallery

Scott Campbell, OHWOW Gallery

Julian Montague, Pulse Fair

Jakkai Siributr

Howard Hurst and friend

Scope Art Fair

Denis McNett, Scope Art Fair

Olek, Scope Art Fair

Fountain Art Fair

Sisters Adina & Arielle Bier at Fountain

Amani Olu, Humble Arts Foundation at Nada

Okay Mountain Collective, Pulse Art Fair

Michael Buhler-Rose signing limited edition Grolsch beer

More photos on Carissa Pelleteri’s flickr.

As I descended the basement steps of the tiny one room Y gallery on Thursday night I had few expectations.  I was there to see “Golden Cage” a seven day performance by New York artist Hector Canonge, which opened on Wednesday. The project is inspired by the 18^th century poet Sayat Nova’s descriptions of growing up as an immigrant in the USA. Canonge describes the project as a reflection on the lives and experiences of illegal immigrants, who often forsake human rights and basic freedoms for the materials gains offered in the west.

Each day the performance stretches from 5PM to 8PM, so as I walked into the completely black gallery at roughly 7PM, I was surprised to find the pitch black space, mid-performance, devoid of spectators. The void-like space was occupied by a singular ring in the middle of the room, defined by a series of neon green fluorescent wires, spilling eerie green light across the floor.  The artist, crouched naked inside the glowing space, was surrounded by an immense unwound scroll of tissue, densely filled with words. As the artist began to re-wind the scroll, I was struck by the semi religious feeling of ritual. Having wound his text, the artist produced a second scroll, and without pause began to write. Great flowing letters, the words full of metaphor, which are not singular thoughts or phrases but pieces of a larger whole, one iteration of the immigrant story.

What was particularly interesting to me was the duality of meaning (which would at face value seem to be contradictory) present in both action and space. Walking counter clockwise around his “golden cage”, Canonge met and held my gaze with startling ferocity, everything about this moment was confrontational, stark and disarming, a performative metaphor for the state of the illegal immigrant, both vulnerable and restricted. I, the viewer could not help but share this feeling of isolation.  However, the longer I stayed with the glowing green, the more I felt its light reverberate around me; the performer at times seemed not a prisoner, but creator, safe and meditative within his bright green mandala.

Throughout the space of the hour I spent at the Y gallery groups of visitors came and went, each time drastically affecting the atmosphere of the space. What speaks to the real strength of Canonage as a performer is how he carried on regardless of the audience (or lack thereof). The resulting reality depended not on a viewer, but seemed simply to hang there in the warm, black basement air.