New Bowery

Adventure. Surprise. Wonder. Discovery. Each of these describes my experience today exploring the “New Bowery.” The last time I tackled the lower east side art scene was over a year ago. Since then the emergence of this area as the next art frontier has been secured by the opening of the New Museum’s new building on 235 Bowery (this Saturday, December 1st) and a host of new galleries and spaces in the area. The lower east side of my childhood — Sunday afternoons with my great-grandmother picking out stockings, knives, girdles, pajamas (you name it!) — is a distant memory, yet the presence of the history and identity of the place remains. Just how long this area will retain what some might superficially call “grit” or “edge,” and what I would call authenticity, is anyone’s guess (though the days are surely numbered). Luckily, it’s there today for all of us to experience and enjoy. So, hurry on down!

Despite the fact that I suffered from a comprehensive, utter and total lack of any understanding about the art I saw today, I’ve decided to share my thoughts anyway. After all, isn’t that the most fun we can have with art? To have absolutely no idea what we are seeing and/or hearing, yet to feel an internal response nonetheless that itself is an opportunity, a new window opened, for discovery. See that. And you thought you were supposed to “get it.”

Salon 94 Freemans, 1 Freeman Alley

Aïda Ruilova’s single channel video projection, Lulu, immediately grabbed me. I was riveted by its nightmarish sequencing and its repetition of moments loaded with suspense, tension, aggression, anticipation and excruciation (is that a word?). According to the show’s press release:

“In Ruilova’s Lulu, three male leads portray Lulu. The recasting of the very traditional female role of the femme fatale with three male actors who constantly change roles allows Ruilova to play with gestures of seduction and destruction. This gender switch provides an ambiguity, an appeal to both men and women, inspired for Ruilova by the cross gender appeal of actors like Marlon Brando or Helmut Berger. “

I confess that upon reading that text, I think: “Okay. Nice to know.” But what’s more interesting to me about the work is how successful it is in communicating through its visual references, cinematography, music and editing in such a way that forces the viewer to emotionally participate in the unfolding drama(s).

Museum 52, 95 Rivington Street

Next, I visited the inaugural exhibition of Museum 52 at which my favorite piece is the following:

Untitled (Cabinet), Philip Hausmeier

Steel tube, steel rods, mirror and silicone

108 x 90 x 24 inches

2007

To encounter this work is to have an experience. Here the experience is one of violence, participation, destruction and, perhaps, dismemberment. In walking around the work, one sees oneself in the shattered pieces of mirrors, but only pieces of oneself, as if you too, the viewer, are part of the explosion, defined in one on-line source as “a violent blowing apart or bursting caused by energy released from a very fast chemical reaction, a nuclear reaction, or the escape of gases under pressure.” The experience is simultaneously intimidating and exhilarating. The work is best described by the following excerpt from the artist’s bio:

“Triggered by a sense of perplexity and wonderment, Hausmeier’s recent artistic practice explores the reciprocal relationship between physical circumstances and subjective experience. Sensory perception as an intertwining factor is investigated through transformations of the everyday. In his expansive and physically engaging installations, the artist inventively uses mundane objects such as steel, twigs and plastic to create a poetic intuition of simplicity.”

James Fuentes LLC, 35 St. James Place

After walking through a part of Chinatown along E. Broadway that seemed unrecognizable as a part of New York, the United States even, I finally found James Fuentes LLC and Lizzi Bougatsos’ solo show entitled Street Feather. My first reaction was quite simply that the show was a great example of something I hadn’t the faintest idea how to approach or appreciate. But there was something earnest about it, especially so because James himself was there imbuing the whole place with a sense of purpose and importance. After all, to set up shop in this remotest of remote places found by traveling over the river and through the woods, really must be connected to something of meaning. Some of that meaning clearly has to do with the revitalization of the surrounding area and Fuentes’ related project affectionately called “New Bowery.” Through the lense of this effort, I was able to appreciate some of the significance of Bougatsos’ work. In particular, Birdhouse for Humans, 2007, Cardboard, metal grating, wood, carpet, vegetable oil, clip lights, music player, pork loins (113″ x 97″ x 93″)– described in the show’s press release as follows:

“Recently on a quiet afternoon, Lizzi Bougatsos was walking down Avenue C when shenoticed a birdhouse perched on the side of a building that, judging by its materials, was likely constructed by a homeless person. Bougatsos saw this as an intensely humane gesture. Later she returned to the site to study and document the birdhouse, after which she commenced replicating it in human scale.”