Street art started out as graffiti in New York in the 1970s, but has developed and spread to be much more than that. This weekend the Ravels in Motion crew, and by that I mean myself with my new video camera, went to see Whole in the Wall: 1970 – Now, a large exhibition put together by the Helen Beck Gallery featuring some of the most prominent street artist from the 1970s onward. It’s on through June 27 at 529-535 W. 35th Street, and it’s really interesting both as a piece of New York history and in the way it presents street art as its seeming antithesis, fine art.
Category Archives: video
Human Carriage Gets Applause
Ann Hamilton created the site-specific Human Carriage for the recently closed Third Mind exhibition at the Guggenheim, and I wanted to share it with you because it was absolutely delightful. Her formal description of human carriage reads “Installation of cloth, wire, bells, books, string, pipe, pulleys, pages, cable, gravity, air, and sound.”
It was a playful and fun installation. It was also affecting: viewers clapped every time the book finally dropped. Every time. Once it got stuck, and I stopped in my tracks. What would happen now? (A museum worker with a pole pushed it along.)
The Guggenheim Museum described its working thus: “Hamilton devises a mechanism that traverses the entire Guggenheim balustrade, taking the form of a white silk ‘bell carriage’ with Tibetan bells attached inside. As the cage spirals down along the balustrade, the purifying bells ring, awakening viewers. The mechanism is hoisted back up to a post at the uppermost Rotunda Level 6, where an attendant exchanges weights composed of thousands of cut-up books that counter the pulley system that propels the mechanism itself.”
Ravels in Review Friday
You’ll be happy to know that dinner last night was delicious: tilapia, brussel sprouts, and potatoes; and a good time was had be all. (I know you were anxious about my entertaining abilities.)
As it is finally Friday, it’s time for a Ravels in Review post. I think the week certainly started out on a good note with a long-overdue introduction.
- So if you had any lingering questions about yours truly, check out the video post in which I formally introduce myself.
- In another video post, I give you a glimpse into Nearly Ninety at BAM, at which Merce Cunningham, Sonic Youth, and John Paul Jones created an interesting collaboration.
- The performance inspired me to learn more about experimental composer John Cage.
- I discussed the Pulitzer Prize process (say that 3 times fast..) and Holland Cotter’s win for Criticism.
- I shared some of my recent reading with a poem by Emiliy Dickinson.
- Yesterday, I left you with a To Do list of great gallery openings.
If anybody had a chance to check things out in Chelsea, let us know. Hopefully I’ll follow that gallery list myself! Today is 70 degrees and sunny–what could be better?
Happy Friday all!