Author Archives: Linnea

Blue Morph at Governor’s Island

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Mark di Suvero work isn’t the only thing up on Governors Island this summer. Blue Morph is an interactive installation by Victoria Vesna that is taking over the St. Cornelius Chapel on Governors Island. Vesna’s work is part of the WAVE(form)s: Electronic Art Exhibition and was created in collaboration with nanoscientist Jim Gimzewski.

The morph is that of a butterfly, which you can see in the blue light on the large screen in the apse. The rather haunting sound that echoes through the chapel is meant to correspond to cellular changes in the butterfly as it emerges from its cocoon.

But the interactive element makes this installation really come to life. The participant sits on a blue disc that lights up, and places the white crochet hanging thing on his head. Suddenly the sounds are amplified in his ears and he has the best view of the piece in front of him. It soon becomes clear that if the person moves, the image on screen changes, or perhaps one could say distorts. It feels as if the participant is the heartbeat of the whole glowing exhibition.

The artist’s intention was to encourage stillness and silence, and only then can the participant watch the metamorphosis unhindered. I guess I was a little more entranced with myself when I experienced it than the artist intended. 😉 The installation is up through September 25 in the St. Cornelius Chapel on Governor’s Island. More on the background of Blue Morph here.

Mark di Suvero at Governors Island

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Mark di Suvero’s large steel sculptures have taken over the lawns at Governors island this summer, and I couldn’t think of a better way to see them. The scale suits the large lawns, and seeing them with Manhattan or the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop is a treat. Somehow despite the imposing size and weight of the I-beams and salvaged steel, they still feel playful. The kids got the same vibe–more than one was trying to crawl or hang from these works this past weekend.
Rust Angel, 1995
Rust Angel, 1995
Old Buddy (for Rosko), 1993-95
For Chris, 1991
For an interesting history of the artist’s relationship with dealer Richard Bellamy, plus some much better photos, check out 16 Miles.

Reflections on Ostalgia

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First let’s do away with the problem of the name: “Ostalgia” might mean a nostalgia for East German Communist times, but it is not the proven thrust of the fascinating and diverse melting pot of works housed in the 5 floors of the New Museum through September 25. The works are more ambivalent than that. Similarly, “ost” refers most directly to East Germany, but these works come from artists all over the former Eastern Bloc.

 Three Capacity Men, 2005, by Thomas Schutte with photographs from U-NI-TY, 1991-94 by Michael Schmidt’s 

If one ever thought if was possible to synthesize the works and experiences of artists from the 1940s to now from all of the countries into a coherent narrative without a didactism that overrules the complexity of the situation…well, clearly that is a tall order. Maybe it’s best to leave it as Massimiliano Gioni, curator at the New Museum, says here:

“I had no ambition to tell the truth about the Soviet Bloc. Memory is never reliable, but it’s all we’ve got and this exhibition is about remembering a time and place that is quickly going away.”


Like Younger than Jesus, another show of Gioni’s, the curation somehow sidesteps any guidance. However, in the sprawling, exhausting, bewildering expanse of works that make up Ostalgia, there is certainly a lot of worthwhile art to see.

No. 14 in the ‘Relationship’ series, 1989, Nicolay Bakharev
Bakharev has many photographs in the this show that, like this one, ignored the official ban on nudity.

No. 22 from ‘Ogonyok’ series, 2001 by Sergey Zarva
The artist paints the covers of a formerly popular Soviet magazine, although for him these are relics found in parent’s and friend’s houses as he was born later, transforming the covers into negative, demonic masks.

Julius Koller, U.F.O.-NAUT J.K. a (U.F.O.), 1987

Koller’s work is part of a series called UFO, standing for Universal-Cultural Futurological Operations, among other things, and dealing with a new approach to Anti-Happenings and the Anti-Images. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions. (It baffles me; I just really like the plate.)

The hundreds of works are fascinating overall, both as artworks and in their strong relation to life in the former Eastern Bloc. Each of them and their creators have distinct stories worthy of being told. The best way to get a sense of the many threads is to start on the 5th floor, where a room-sized mural acts as a visual history charting communism’s rise and fall in the Eastern Bloc. Cotter of the New York Times was right to say that what could have been an amateurish survey turned into something more. I honestly can’t wait to go back and have a second chance to delve into these works. And that is the first time I’ve thought that this summer.