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Playing the Building
May 31st - August 10th
Weekends, 12 PM - 6 PM
Free

Yesterday Bwog attended the opening of David Bryne's Playing the Building, an amazing, interactive art exhibit by the South Street Seaport. The installation is located in the Maritime Building, an expansive and beautiful abandoned space located right on the water. (Though Bwog found out from an intern that the space will soon become a gourmet food court as soon as this exhibit ends.) Bryne's piece itself isn't so much on the second floor, it is the second floor. Planted in the center of the room is an old wooden organ, and attached to the organ dozens and dozens of cables that are connected to different parts of the room. Cables extend from the organ to the pipes on the wall, the walls themselves, the windows, the ceiling, and the support beams.

There's a long line to actually sit and play the organ -- though yesterday Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson stepped right up to give it a shot. Each of the organ's keys and pedals corresponds to a cable, so when hit or pushed, a certain part of the building begins to boom, squeak, or moan. Hence, "playing the building." The organ's sounds are unforgiving to most non-piano players; most people Bwog listened to yesterday were only able to produce a few disjointed notes. But it's worth waiting to listen to an actual piano player give it a shot, as hearing the 9000 sq. ft. space moan and crescendo in unison is a really unusual and off-putting (in a good way) experience.

It's a far subway ride to be sure (take the 1 to 42nd and the N the R to Whitehall), but it's definitely worth the trip, especially considering that admission is free and posters of the exhibition are only $1.


Bwog staffer Julia Butareva reviews Ignacy Witkiewicz's show of contemporary drawings at the Ubu gallery.

In the corner of drawings by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, you find letters and numbers assembled in what looks like an obscure mathematical formula: NP, NTT 7 m. What do they mean? Apparently, they're abbreviations that indicate the drugs that the artist was taking or abstaining from while at work on the drawing. "C" indicates alcohol, "Mesk. Merck" is mescaline, "Co" means cocaine, "NTT" signifies abstention from alcohol, and "NP" is abstention from cigarettes. After one look at these at once arresting and repellent drawings, you won't be surprised.

Bwog staffer Kabir Singh reviews the Asia Society's Rockefeller exhibit.

In 1919 Lucy Aldrich wrote to her sister Abby Aldrich Rockefeller from Japan: "I'm not sure I shan't become a Buddhist...the whole thing appeals so much more to my temperamental—or is it emotional—love of color. The gold and lacquer, the beat of the drums and even the smell of incense. I love it all." This Rockefeller-in-law musing typifies the tone of the Asia Society's current show A Passion for Asia: The Rockefeller Family Collects. The family apparently had a keen eye for appreciating Asian art, yet I'm not convinced that they entirely understood what they were collecting.

Bwog staffer Julia Butareva reviews the Whitney Museum of American Art's exhibit featuring drawings by Raymond Pettibon.

As I walked into the Raymond Pettibon exhibition at the Whitney, a well-dressed mother walked in with her toddler. The kid babbled and squealed while I was trying to watch the video. "If you want culture," I thought, "this is not where you should take your kid. Try the Museum of Natural History, or maybe the Met." But after a few minutes of listening to several narrators making declarations like, " 'T'wasn't me,' quoth the raven," and, "'The world is big!' 'The world is small!' 'With a big enough O, you can swallow it whole!'" I began to relax. The kid was all right. It was all about subjectivity and polyphonic narration when confronting symbols of power.



Bwog staffer Julia Butareva reviews the Freight and Volume Gallery's exhibit featuring works by Alexia Stamatiou, Elizabeth Huey, Todd Herbert, Daniel Rich, and Scott Anderson.

Elizabeth Huey's painting "The Inquisition" easily dominates the small space that is the Freight and Volume Gallery. The gallery really is tiny and makeshift: two employees sit at their computers in a darkened nook about the size of a bathroom, and carelessly stored artwork spills out into the exhibition space.

Among the glossy, simplified suburb-scapes, Huey's imposing collage can't help but stand out. It's a landscape with a Gothic mansion atop a mountain. A town full of rustic houses can be seen in the distance. The sky is gray.

In accord with the exhibition's title, "We Build the Worlds Inside Our Heads," Huey's giant collage is a bizarre amalgam of people, places, and things, with no obvious unifying principle — rather like the exhibition itself.



Bwog staffer Julia Butareva reviews the Marian Goodman Gallery's exhibit featuring William Kentridge's preparatory drawings for his production of the opera The Magic Flute.

In Mozart's The Magic Flute, Sarastro, priest of Osiris and Isis and champion of the Enlightenment, triumphs over the mysterious and irrational Queen of the Night. Sarastro is first presented as a malevolent figure: he has kidnapped the Queen's daughter, and the prince Tamino is enlisted by the Queen to rescue her, in exchange for her hand in marriage. When the prince discovers that Sarastro abducted the princess to protect her from her mother's poisonous influence, he is won over by Sarastro's mildness and wisdom and becomes his disciple. Choosing knowledge and reason over superstition helps him overcome multiple trials and win the hand of the princess.

Now, what is a South African artist living in the modern world supposed to do with that? How does he stage an opera that celebrates the Age of Reason in the West? Well, if he is William Kentridge, he uses it as an opportunity to treat his favorite theme — the uncertainty and contradiction inherent in Enlightenment ideals.

On display at the Marian Goodman Gallery is a working model and a series of drawings Kentridge made in preparation for his production of the opera. The model includes projections and sound, and the drawings incorporate charcoal and collage.

Bwog staffer Kabir Singh reviews the Metropolitan Museum's exhibit featuring Emperor Akbar's lavishly illustrated Khamsa (quintet of tales).

Although a little hard to navigate at first, I grew to love the true to its provenance right-to-left organization of Pearls of the Parrot of India: The Emperor Akbar's Illustrated 'Khamsa,' 1597—98. Spanning this one-room exhibition at the Met are the pages and cover of an illuminated manuscript from the Indo-Persian Mughal Empire, the power that built the Taj Mahal. The curators have set out magnifying glasses, so you won't miss any detail of the exquisite miniatures and calligraphy.


Bwog staffer Juliya Butareva reviews Alexander Valdman's show of contemporary painting at the InterArts gallery.

Alexander Valdman's wife tells a story about how, while waiting to meet a friend on a street corner in Manhattan, she and her husband were suddenly accosted by a cop. As she politely answered the policeman's questions, Valdman suppressed a fight-or-flight response that would have been appropriate, even necessary, in his home city of Odessa.


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