~15 WARREN . .
15 WARREN STREET . . .
opened last SAT DEC 28, 2013 and as promised . . it was a BLAST.
a furnace of the new, young, and . . hopeful.
a spectacle, a journey into the night. the New York City nite . . at its best.
as ephemeral as a firecracker’s shooting light !!
and . . just as brilliant.
I heard it got shut down by the cops, in the proud tradition of the very best NYC openings.
I heard it runs for one more week, but . . maybe not.
at least up . . until this Sunday.
ha, when social media hits New Year’s Eve . . everything comes to a full stop.
I mean, those guys are still out there . . p-a-r-t-y-i-n-g !!
but they gave the city a great NEW YEAR. 2014.
heading into the YEAR OF THE HORSE, you can see . . it’s gonna be a non-stop gallop all the way.
jump on, or fall . . off.
the very definition of pop-up, or what.
the green light, on the left – was the doorway . . in.
yeah, it was a bit like Alice in Wonderland. you entered a tunnel into a timeless timeline.
things were big, things were small. there were dark warrens, creaky stairs, and holes in the floor.
caves in the walls. ad hoc wiring. improvised lighting, rainbow painted walls.
art and color and explosions of sheer untested, unnamed talent .. everywhere.
as a pop-up, it was the ultimate pop-up.
catch it as it happens, because when it’s done, it’s a dance in the mind’s eyeball, is all.
the show made it’s most ‘overt’ political stand, in the front window . . the ‘frontispiece’.
and what it said, was . .
these 3 friends, the show’s young 20 something curators: SEAN VEGEZZI, ABELINE COHEN, and ANDREW KASS . . grew up in this neighborhood, Tribeca, and saw the World Trade Center, aka the Twin Towers come down.
they couldn’t have been more than 10 or so, and it made a big big impact.
a deep desire, not to turn to the dark, but to defy. to heat seek to the core of this great grit of a free state city, and tear away the layers, and love it to death. and in so doing, make their mark.
a creative mark. a chaotic mark, a spark to the future, a gorgeous wild raw . . burn mark. just anything but a narrow ‘route’ defined by other peoples’ warring. in fact, I NO gun images in the entire show, plenty of shooting flames. and no doubt . . ‘messages’. but no guns. no bombs. no images of mass destruction. no body parts.
like the press release said: this was a place of INQUIRY.
this was a place of art.
this was a place that stood up to SUITS !!
suits of art .. go f-ck yourself.
terrorists, fascists. you don’t define us. either.
maybe make that . . 2 sides of the same coin.
and, well. o.k. the corporate suits are taking over.
the mom & pop shops down there are going the way of the seedy dives, dirty egg shipping docks, and even the pool hall that used to line Duane St. New York City kids know the true meaning of the word ‘gentrification’, and not just how . . to spell it.
it happens that fast. it happens before they even hit their stride, as the next generation.
but they owned a piece of it, and don’t you . . forget it.
HELLO, MY NAME IS KATE, and I WAS BORN . . on FRANKLIN ST. top floor of a fabric warehouse. 1986.
long gone, turned into a big $$ lala condo land before I hit . . 2.
Rivington & the BOWERY, up next. 10 years later, same story. whoosh.
inside 15 WARREN . .
it was ALICE IN WONDERLAND. KIDS GROWING UP . . IN NYC.
no diff.
SURE, statements were there, for the taking . . if you wanted.
philosophy. inquiry. metaphor . . .
I’ve seen the (unhappy) cube face, on the (unstable) tower. and I’m so digging it. I’m digging the raw space.
I’m feeling it.
I’m filing . . my report.
damn . . what’s under that skirt ?
NYC . . the mother of us all.
god is in the . . the details.
ad hoc sculptures leaning into raw walls, arrows and lit-up coffins, no guns.
burning cars, white chicks, black comic book heros ?
Grecian oracles meet shaft ?
painted flames, hero chicks, politically incorrect ?
in a totally raw space . . awesome.
ancient history / myths, storefront history / architecture, and just the . . magnetism of men vs women ?
what it ultimately meant didn’t really matter, it was just great to see this huge painted, cut-out explosion of energy come to life, and flame-out in this raw space, in a substantial, but contradictory ‘flat’ imagery format.
a comic book frame . . come to life.
move over, RICHARD SERRA.
POP POP POP and more POP.
Canal St. water ?
define: true grit !!
define: finesse. touche. voila. plus, I see the l-i-g-h-t ?
define: perfection / art . . in a row.
perfection / thought.
perfection / impulse brought to 3D.
the red bottle tops, are wicked good. they say it all. POP POP POP.
POP-UP !!
RAW CELEBRATION, WICKED GOOD CURAT-ION.
step back, and get the full picture, as in . . never-ending.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, NEW YORK CITY.
MORE PIX, to follow.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH