~’THE BIG SHORT’ . . . 9 ‘ALTERNATIVE’ CURATOR-PROJECTS / HUNTER BASEMENT OFFICE POP-UP / OPEN SAT / 12 – 6 PM
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – SAT FEB 3 / 12 – 6 PM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
def, GET YOURSELF T-H-E-R-E.
THIS IS THE LAST DAY !!!!!!
CURATED BY: EMILY JANOWICK & PATRICK MOHUNDRO
THIS SLIVER of a SHOW . . is a KEEPER.
about the size of a glass shard,
compared to . . . ‘QUIET’ and ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ (!!),
this artist-curated show, and the 9 ‘alternative’ gallery-indie curators it presents,
are examples of how underground ‘projects’ have to work now.
just literally get your foot in the door, and put up a show.
‘THE BIG SHORT’ – CURATED BY EMILY JANOWICK & PATRICK MOHUNDRO
FEATURING . . . 9 INDIE / ALTERNATIVE CURATORIAL PROJECTS:
75 CELL, CATBOX CONTEMPORARY, CUSTOM PROGRAM, ESSEX FLOWERS, PAY FAUXN, PLUG DUMPSTER, TETE-A-TETE, WATER MCBEER, & HELPER
‘THE BIG SHORT’ . . WILL BE OPEN THIS / SAT FEB 3, 2018 / 12 – 6 PM / FOR ITS VIEWING.
THE ARTISTS INSTITUTE BASEMENT – IN THE DIRECTORS ‘CLOSET’ OFFICE / 132 E.65th Street at Lexington
“No one can see a bubble. That’s what makes it a bubble.” -MARK BAUM, THE BIG SHORT, (2015)
~gallery press release
the show’s artist curator producers . . . EMILY JANOWICK (@cyclone_bomb) & PATRICK MOHUNDRO (@mo_hun_dro),
are 2nd year MFA grad students at Hunter. I guess they could be anywhere, from this angle.
but here they are, in a small, tiny closet of an academic’s office, in the low-ceiling basement, of a grand old brownstone-type building. their show’s entire area looks to be 200 sq. ft. , if that.
including a tiny bathroom to the right, & a small couch to the right of that.
and a desk or two. a back wall lined with bookcases.
behind them is a found piece by . . . PAY FAUXN.
Pay Fauxn couldn’t exactly drag in their actual venue, which is an abandoned pay phone box, so in came the next best thing: a ‘distressed’ urban cardboard sign, which was then enshrined in a vacuum seal baggie.
very raw, Pay Fauxn is the project of . . MARY KOSUT.
“PAY FAUXN is an obsolete pay phone on the grounds of a defunct nursing home at a bus stop in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.”
the best way to follow them, besides just walking by, would be by IG / @payfauxn
or via the website: www.payfauxn.com/.
yes, definite hit – that link.
JULIE MALEN . . . soft sculpture, looking very bloody, bad meaty !!
in the small bathroom’s exhibit curated by ESSEX FLOWERS.
JULIE MALEN.
scale is a whole other ‘bag’ of body parts, in the digital age.
what can be big can be made small, and what is small . . can seem large.
look at that, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ . . still relevant.
ESSEX FLOWERS . . put on a tiny show called ‘Please Mister Postman’, last April 2017 . . with tiny reproduction paintings by 5 contemporary artists, displayed in the gallery hallway mailbox, curated by NICHOLAS MOENICH.
referenced to, in passing conversation by ‘THE BIG SHORT’ curators, it seems to have set the bar / for mini shows, in very small & off-the-grid . . places.
still in the ESSEX FLOWERS bathroom, the back wall:
painting by . . JASON STOPA.
the black vase with the strange green plant, is also by . . JULIE MALEN.
NICKOLAUS TYPLALDOS made . . the surreal BANANA.
the set of very real looking potatoes are by . . MARGARET LEE.
curiously, they are made of plaster. strange, how compelling they were.
the Essex Flowers display even has a title: ‘Watch Out For the Water’.
it’s about . . “the etymology of 2 terms: gare a l’eau and trompe l’oeil”.
it also serves:
“as an exercise in provisional curating as it was organized from idea to installation in 72 hours.”
JULIE MALEN . . black vase and flowering cactus.
MARGARET LEE . . 2 potatoes, plaster.
I found these such compelling objects, just something about them.
CATBOX CONTEMPORARY is a gallery space run by PHILIP HINGE, “in his cat’s cat-tree in Ridgewood, N.Y.”.
‘Catbox Catellite’ – is their ‘visiting’, off-site platform.
the low fi light provided by this flood lamp, casts a dramatic spell on the tiny totemic sculptures & paintings.
miniature offerings by . . MIKE LINSKIE.
the tiny ‘Untitled (Starmen)’ drawings are 3 x 3 in., pen on paper, 2018.
the little sculptures sitting on the floor, are ‘Hermit-Man Remains’. 4 x 4 x 3 in., hand-painted hermit crab shells, plaster and sand. 2014.
a tiny mural.
MIKE LINSKIE, ‘Palm Grove’, 11 x 14 in., watercolor on paper, 2016.
the WATER McBEER install, on the couch.
“Water McBeer presents a selection from his private collection.”
the 2 framed pieces: CHRIS MARKER in ‘Nanomuseum’ curated by HANS ULRICH OBRIST; the electric naked woman painting is by JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLANI. the strange concrete circle on the floor is by IGNACIO GATICA, and the even weirder 3 prong piece is by BRENDAN LYNCH.
also, in the tiny Water McBeer gallery:
a wonderful, teeny tiny bronze-looking book of matches, by ELIZABETH FERRY !!
or, is that a real book of matches, painted to look bronzed – I asked myself later.
and, check out the detail on that miniature wood floor.
CUSTOM PROGRAM, an alternative gallery space in Brooklyn . . presented ‘The Active Denial System’ by MEGAN SNOWE.
“The Active Denial System (ADS) is a less-than-lethal, millimeter-wave direct-energy weapon developed by the US military for the purposes of perimeter security and crowd control …”
tucked in a bookshelf a tiny, but radical . .
Rasta tableau by . . HELPER !!
less scary tech !!
more Rasta magic !!
57 CELL . . an alternative publishing / curatorial project, had a retrospective of all 4 booklets to date, offered up for browsing. interestingly, 57 cell publications are only offered as hard copy, there is no online digital archive available.
57 CELL is a GREGORY KALLICHE PROJECT, see: 57 CELL
each ‘booklet’ presents the work of one artist, this is a page from:
‘ALEE PEOPLES / DOWN THE DEEP’. you would want to flip through all four.
while TETE-A-TETE had its many digital projects playing . . on multiple laptops, around the room.
see: tete-ahh-tete.net
perhaps most ethereal,
PLUG DUMPSTER . . presented a performance by EMIL BOGNAR-NADOR on the opening night.
‘Listen To The Space / An Invitation To Hear Listening’
@plugspace . . is a CRAIG MONTEITH project.
PHOTO COURTESY: THE BIG SHORT – CURATORS
leaving behind . . the infinite world in a closet of an office,
that was ‘The Big Short’.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH – unless otherwise noted