~ROB PRUITT & URS FISCHER . . a look back to the 2000s
a look back to the 2000s /
a look back – the . . . FUTURE !!!!!!!
a super quick – DIY . . . LOOK BACK !!
to their ‘collective’ influence – on the art scene of today /
esp re DYI, re-thinking of standard gallery exhibition concepts,
and, of course their own take on: art-infused . . utilitarian,
common – everyday objects. and, not to minimize – the shock of their cheerful breaking of the rules of what defined ‘serious’ art.
most notably:
ROB PRUITT, in 2008:
shook everybody up with his on-site, DIY WATERFALL !!!
except Roberta Smith, who called it “sophomoric” in her NYT review.
I think mostly because, it had supposedly “1,000 crushed Viagra capsules in the raging water that ran down the gallery steps”, and, of course !!
Rob called the piece, ‘VIAGRA FALLS’ . . !!!
I guess these guys, also broke the rule of – you can’t be funny ?
everybody else was blown-away – to see the mad rushing cascade of water, roaring down the upscale gallery entryway, Viagra pills or not / as DIY as you could ever hope to be, and had never ever seen anything as – audacious before.
the water flowing through . . extreme DIY plastic bags, and then re-cycled back up – by a hidden pump.
ROB PRUITT, ‘Viagra Falls’, in the exhibit:
‘Whose Afraid of Jasper Johns’, conceived by Urs Fischer & Gavin Brown,
Tony Shafrazi Gallery, NYC.
May 9 – July 12, 2008
all Photos: NANCY SMITH
see: the original 2008 artloversnewyork report
then . . .
there was the time, Rob Pruitt nonchalantly parked . . . a glorious / DIY waterfall !!!!
that danced about the back-end, of a standard 4 x 4 pickup truck, how Americana /
how DIY – can you get ?!!!
on the street, outside his opening for ‘Multiple Personalities’, GBE /
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, when it was downtown / 620 Greenwich St. on the West Side, NYC.
Sept 13, 2014.
Photo: NANCY SMITH
then,
there was the time . . . in 2005 !!!!
when DIY legend-to-be, URS FISCHER . . . built a life-size house,
constructed from bread (alone) !! – in Gavin’s now legendary, downtown gallery, on Greenwich Street. which was in itself, a most glorious exhibition site, with great spatial volume, and natural light that emanated from the huge glass walls / & sited on the most ideal corner lot, ever.
URS FISCHER, ‘BREADHOUSE’, GBE / Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Downtown, West Side NYC
FEB 18, 2005
Photo: NANCY SMITH
URS FISHER at the opening of:
‘Fig, Nut and Pear’, still one of my most fav – exhibition titles,
a knock-out show, in which the crusty, ‘Breadhouse’ was also first presented /
Urs is standing in front of his large painting, ‘A Novel and a Novelist’, and you
just knew – he was destined for super stardom.
Feb 18, 2005
Photo: NANCY SMITH
and, don’t even get me started,
on that time URS FISCHER dug a hole, into the floor of Gavin’s gorgeous gallery.
URS FISCHER, ‘You’, 2007 – a seriously excavated hole / in the gallery.
pictured in ‘the hole’, on opening night, from left:
Tony Shafrazi, Peter Brant, and Gavin Brown.
GBE / Gavin Brown’s enterprise, 620 Greenwich St, West Side, Downtown NYC
Nov 24, 2007
Photo: NANCY SMITH