~15 WARREN ST . . NIGHT LIGHT
a lime green light emitting . . recycled bottle ‘chandelier’. .
greeted you – at the show’s main floor entrance.
innovative, spirited. sad. funny. futuristic, elegant and clumsy, but g-l-o-w-i-n-g.
glowing acid shades of green, like a veritable dracula of light . . fix-tures !!
this light fix-ture stood, or I guess ‘spoke for’ . . a lot of what this one week show, put together in less than 2 weeks, by 3 young downtown artist / curators, SEAN VEGEZZI, ABELINE COHEN and ANDREW KASS . . was all about:
namely,
1. raw-ness . . a thrown-together hyper party-mastery of the new, splashed onto the old (building).
2. freshness, as in cutting edge expression, arms asunder . . world !!
3. technically: site-specifc under-pinnings . . of all manner.
4. thematically: childhood, and often, specifically a Tribeca, NYC childhood.
5. the Tribeca twin towers that were crashed down. directly, implicitly, or just bye the way . . as fallen empires, go.
6. TRI. TWIN. SINGULAR. a lot of word, mind & life gaming. mapping. reaching out for.
7. and . . l-i-g-h-t.
light flickered, and light cast. light produced as above, and light pin-pointed. light as by-product, and light as subject . . light as fire, and light as candles. light as reflection and light as refraction / both off-shoots of digital screens pulsating here and there. or dancing: thin strings of party lights overhead. serious: florescent tube lights that framed windows, glowed .. pink. defined depths, turned alcoves into hauntings, lit open coffins, lit tiny subterranean gardens . . as much light as could be defined in as many different ways, and s-t-i-l-l, the place was dark, and mysterious and spoke to the nighttime, the New York City night. all the children of the night . . had come out to play.
light sparked, life energy crackled . . the real NYC downtown ‘underground’ had came to life, lit up . . and spoke up.
for a moment, outside the usual routes & rituals of ingrained & over-grown art system – it had flared up . . into being, with a huge walking on the dark side . . gorgeousness.
a huge bang-up rebel outlaw bonfire !!
of an artist-run, found space, one week long art show party opened year . . 2014.
apparently, surprisingly. the downtown heart, is alive and well,
and keeps on . . beating.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH