Yesterday I went to Japan Society for the Kota Yamazaki/Fluid hug-hug (glowing) dance.
I must admit, regardless of having read the description and program, that I did not understand anything at all. Not even after hearing Kota Yamazaki explain his work after the show. So, I did the only thing a reasonable person can do when approaching art and not understanding: feel.
While the apparent lack of linear narrative or character identification makes it hard to approach, the dancers movements (rather than the much touted but ineffective light design), unobtrusive (and minimal) sound landscape by Kohji Setoh, and the elegant twist with the hanging wooden props becoming physical space at the end, played together surprisingly well.
On Friday, at lunch time, I went to the Guggenheim to meet Susan Thompson, Curatorial Assistant, for a tour of Francesca Woodman exhibition.
Although Francesca Woodman`s photographs are undeniably subtle and portray the mind of a troubled young woman (body, space, self, disgust, identity, etc), it is a pity she took her life so early, leaving us with what is obviously a truncated body of work, one that begins, explores, promises… but never concludes because death found her first.
On Tuesday I went to New York University for a nice conversation in the Inside the Internet Garage series, with journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher (AllThingsDigital, Wall Street Journal, etc).
Besides the very interesting bio/background overview of them that the interviewer did, here are some quotes that caught my attention.
Walt Mossberg:
IT departments are the most regressive force in tech, blocking new tech adoption
The story goes that Larry Page asked Steve Jobs for advice, he said “Find the 5 things you do best, and focus on it”, which its what hes doing
Last Saturday, given that the Anarchist Art Festival seemed a little weak, I decided to spend the day at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York).
First, a nice tour of “The Shaping of New Visions: Photography, Film, Photobook” exhibition (Edward Steichen Photography Galleries, third floor) by Dr. Elizabeth Cronin, assistant curator of photography at MoMA and NYPL. This exhibition, covering the period from 1910 to today, offers a critical reassessment of photographys role in the avant-garde and neo-avant-garde movements—with a special emphasis on the mediums relation to Dada, Bauhaus, Surrealism, Constructivism, New Objectivity, Conceptual, and Post-Conceptual art—and in the development of contemporary artistic practices.
On Friday I went to the MET, and took a tour of their “highlights” with a curator, stopping at a few particularly interesting pieces in their collection. Here are some of them, and what makes them particularly interesting:
In the Greek/Roman hall, the sculpture of fabric: while the greek sculptors portrayed the idealized human figure (even turning it into a mathematical formula) and the romans followed that tradition, fabric was the only part that was sculpted as it was, from thick to almost transparent, with embroidery, motifs, etc.
After posting graphs and cold data (quite ilustrative, I believe), and the discussion it has generated (people, why don`t you use the “comment” instead all the other unstructured methods you are using?), please let me write a caveat about graphs and cold data.
In my high-tech gym, you have the option to have a lot of data collected, for your own, private and personal use. It seems like a great idea at first.
Since I could not get a hold of tickts for New Museum`s Seven on Seven, I decided to make the most out of my day yesterday (defying my cold), so I even had time to visit the NYC anarchist book fair, at Judson Church (Washington Square).
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I wish I had had more time to devote to exploring all the literature (great and aweful) on display. But at least I had time to notice:
