INTERNATIONAL VELVET: NBC & The London Summer Olympics

So..............

They've come. They've gone! 

And...........

What did we think?

Everyone's been gripping about NBC's coverage. But let's face it! They were doomed from the start! London is 5-6 hours ahead of us and even NBC Universal cannot control time! Maybe next time.

But there are other things with which one can take offense. 

And the guilt lies with NBC! 

The English, in their true blue manner, managed to present us with an image of themselves that is quirky and innovative. The Brits, with Shakespeare, Sheridan and Shaw in their blood, returned to their roots: words and theater. 

The two epic productions that book-ended the event this Summer seem to confuse people... Why wouldn't historic figures quote Shakespeare? The over-arching "weirdness" of the opening ceremony was what makes the Brits the Brits!! Hospital nannies (looking remarkably close to Tea Ladies), phosphorescent blankets and multiple Mary Poppins. Music, drama and fashion book-ended the two-plus weeks that the Olympics took in London, a city that has, like in 1948, overcome its past to recreate itself as an international capital all over again!

(London performed this miraculous act over a decade ago, but now its internationally official. I sum it up to the Chunnel!) 

Let's face it: Anyone that could get Elizabeth II, Queen of England, to not only appear for the whole opening ceremony but enter with 007 via helicopter is alright with me!! It seems Queen Elizabeth II has finally learnt the lesson that Dame Edna Everage tried to teach her over 25 years ago: "Learn to laugh at yourself, otherwise you may be missing out on the joke of the century"! 

As I said earlier, the English are the masters of the theater and spectacle! NBC is not. From the beginning they seem to drop the ball. Why put us through the entire Parade of Nations but cut out Akram Kahn's touching tribute to the victim's of the 7/7 attacks in London to hear Michael Phelps pontificate about his possibilities? It wasn't bad enough that IOC refused to acknowledge it's own history (and hat's off to Bob Costas for even bringing the subject of the Munich Massacre up during the parade), NBC seem to want to refuse any acknowledgement of true feel at all! As major allies of ours, I think all of us felt as strongly during their ordeal as they did during ours on 9/11 and I think NBC made them a major disservice.

And now NBC, answer me this: why, when a preliminary competition was held could you not tell us exactly when we could catch the following broadcasts? Seems like good TV etiquette, no? And why put in two channels dedicated to basketball and soccer then run the same games at the same time on a second family network? And WHY couldn't you take BRAVO out of commission for two full weeks instead of just one!?! WHY!!??!!

Anyway.......

I did rather enjoy the closing event. The Brits are masters of Pop Music and they put up a nice representation. It seems Kate Bush got chopped out of the event and I didn't miss her.  Annie Lennox came through in true-blue divahood and kudos to Jessie J for not one but TWO flesh-colored catsuits in one evening!! Both opening and closing presented a fabulous slice of English music, but it did beg the question.........

WHERE WAS LULU??!!??

A WHOLE LOT OF ACTING GOIN' ON: Pinter's "The Caretaker" with Jonathan Pryce at BAM

In case I failed to mention it, I did take in the current production of Harold Pinter's "The Caretaker" with Jonathan Pryce at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater.

Pryce, Hassell & Cox in "The Caretaker" at BAM

But then comes the question, what can one say about it? Can you ever really know what the heck it's all about? "The Caretaker" was Pinter's first success in the theater and shows the British playwright flexing his artistic muscle. Pinter was never one to be categorized, but you can't help but feel the effects and acceptance of Beckett in this early work. But Beckett's characters begrudgingly honor their humanity even as they stare into the yawning abyss, where Pinter's are perpetually lost in an arid emotionless desert.


In this case we have Aston (Alan Cox) bringing an old geezer, Davies (Pryce), home to his cluttered leaky attic room in a house owned by his brother, Mick (Alex Hassell). There's talk of things being done around the place (a shed in the backyard is on top of the list) but the only work that gets accomplished is Aston's constant repairs on an old toaster. The two brothers are rarely in the same room together and when they are they don't speak. Mick takes a sadistic pleasure in harassing old Davies. Davies sees a weakness in Aston and tries to prey on it which provokes Aston to revoke his invitation. All the talk is about care-taking and growth but no one seems to be able to do any. The set by Eileen Diss adds a claustrophobic tightness that provides additional tension to the drama and the lighting, masterfully done by Colin Grenfell, gives a nice sense of mustiness and passing weather. 


Pryce gives a masterful performance as the old homeless man Davies, part existential vaudeville, part Shakespearean bombast, and kept reminding me of Stanley Townsend's performance as the homeless tramp in Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky", full of gibber and flips and quirky pirouettes. It's a fine line that Pryce walks, a fine, wavering line. Alex Hassell gives Mike a sense of street menace and someone teetering on the edge of mania with the sex appeal of the psychotic. The stand-out performance of the evening is Alan Cox's Aston. Button-downed and soft-spoken, his monologue at the end of Act 1 was equally gripping and harrowing and involves the play's nastiest bit of care-taking, the kind action done out of "love" that kills rather than cares.

At the Harvey Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene; (718) 636-4100, bam.org. Through June 17.

CONDITIONAL LOVE: Remembering Donna Summer

I was a teen living in Philadelphia when the phenomena known as Donna Summer began to enter my consciousness. Her first hit single "Love To Love You Baby" was making waves in the media partly for the orgasmic moaning that pervaded the recording, partly because in its 12" format it provided 17 minutes of it! Living in Philadelphia at that time, dance music was very important, especially in the gay community, yet I had a hard time relating to this new "hit". Perhaps it was the the incessant female moaning, perhaps the robotic beat of Giorgio Moroder's synthesizers, but whatever it was it baffled me at the time. But my regard for Summer's voice changed that summer when I was on a youth tour in Israel. There the buses were all equipped with radios. One day while out in the desert, the bus' radio begins to broadcast "Love to Love You Baby". Within seconds, in broad daylight, a bat comes through a window, onto the bus and attaches itself to a radio speaker on the roof and refuses to move until someone took their shirt and literally peeled the creature off the speaker.


There has always been a magnetic quality to Donna Summer's voice. I may have had difficulty initially, but her large mezzo-soprano voice was warm with just a light vibrato. I guess this reflects her roots in gospel, but unlike her fellow recently deceased chorister-cum-diva Whitney Houston, a strong direct quality that helped give her hits the anthemic appeal that singers today can only dream about.

Summer's emergence in the disco era was remarkable but not surprising. For many she WAS Disco. But she was an artist willing to push boundaries. Side A of A Love Trilogy is a single 17+ minute track "Try Me, I Know We Can Make It" that takes it's lyrics from that simple title. As I remember, it came with four calendar pin-ups of Summer and was an excellent choice for sex. Many of her albums were double albums; four full sides of hypnotic music. "Bad Girls" was essential to drunken Friday night parties as well as Improvisational Theater classes with Avery Brooks. 

She also tapped into the feminist movement of the 70's and making it pop, glorifying the "working women" whether sex worker or waitress, and her duet with Barbra Streisand "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" is the anthem for anyone who has ever been fed up with a lover. By the early 80's, her cover of Jon Anderson's "State of Independence" and her collaboration with Musical Youth "Unconditional Love" shows she was an artist interested in various and diverse sources. By the end of the last century her fame may not have been as glorious as it once was (her unfortunate statement in the late 80's regarding HIV and AIDS cost her deeply and she has apologized), but now, in retrospect, it blazed for us for an incredibly incandescent period.  

Finding videos of her performing live on Youtube today reminded me what a sharp, appealing performer she was. I will always associate her music with friends, good times and general happiness.


Thank you for the joy!!

On The Road Again

So what was one to do over a week in Boca Raton, Florida?

Especially since I had to miss Second Saturday Staten Island this month. Deep Tanks features an amazing exhibit until June 4th; a retrospective of Island artist Arthur Williams. 

Arthur Williams at Deep Tanks, Installation View

Highly graphic, slightly hallucinogenic, this densely packed mini-retrospective includes over 100 works in painting and ceramics. Williams has a Pop sensibility, sometimes crossed with the retro checkerboard styling of the 80s. 

Arthur Williams at Deep Tanks, Installation View

The numerous canvases range from adept to truly surprising. I found myself oddly drawn to the objects over the two dimensional work, but all the works are infused with humor and compassion. 

Arthur Williams at Deep Tanks, Installation View

It will undoubtedly put a smile on your face. The show is up until June 3rd and if this doesn't get you up and off your ass and over here, well.......

I was fortunate to have picked up a copy of Alison Bechdel's "Are You My Mother?" from the New York Public Library before taking off to the sunny South. And could I have picked up a more appropriate book? This graphic memoir by the creator of "Dykes To Look Out For" follows up on her 2006 "Fun House". Where the latter dealt with her relationship to her homosexual, transvestite father, this current volume deals with her relationship with her mother, often focusing on the period of her developing "Fun House".  It is a big story contained in a slim volume, but Bechdel is a veteran of the panel concept and knows how to utilize the format to her advantage. Actually a study of the Mother-Daughter relationship at the turn of the century, the author pursues a multi-threaded approach; the story encompasses the psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott and author Virginia Wolff with "sidebars" into the worlds of Sigmund Freud and Stephen Sondheim in a masterful slight of hand.


And I read it in under a week!!


So what DOES one do in Broward County? Well I called Girls' Club in Fort Lauderdale to see if they might be able to open up for me Saturday morning (official hours 12-5 Weds-Fri) on my way down to Miami. And sure enough, they accommodated me! 

Re-Framing The Feminine at Girls' Club, Installation View

"Re-Framing The Feminine" is an exhibit curated by Dina Mitrani, a Miami curator, of almost 50 photographic works from the organization's founder's collection. And it is an impressive collection; leaning heavily in works of the past 25 years, it does pay slight homage to earlier women photographers with unsurprising works by Ruth Orkin and Helen Leavitt. The general slant is the "female" eye but a large majority of the work features the female body. 

Re-Framing The Feminine at Girls' Club, Installation View

The show has a pleasant mixture of the familiar (Tina Barney, Vera Lutter, Sally Mann) and the unfamiliar (Courtney Johnson, Delia Brown, Ania Moussawei) that plays it fairly safe but has some definite high notes that include Lucinda Devlin's interiors of "fantasy" motels, Carrie Mae Weem's charmingly elegiac Untitled photograph, and Delia Brown's sly vamp on the Becher school grid in "Some of My Clothes". 
But where were Catherine Opie, Justine Kurland and Sarah Charlesworth? This may be the downfall of dealing with just one couple's collection when curating a "big" show.


I decided to breakfast in FTL and remembered a place called the Egg and You Diner on Rte 1 in Wilton Manors. I chalk it up to my New Jersey upbringing that made me sense this was a "serious" diner and I indulged in a sinfully delicious breakfast of biscuits with sausage gravy. Sitting at the counter I met other late morning diners who had journeyed 30+ miles just for their poached eggs with cheese sauce!! Yum yum yum!!!

According to friend and curator Dan Cameron, I missed a really good show at the Miami Art Museum while I was down that afternoon, but I did get to visit Scotty's Landing for a leisurely late afternoon meal. Lousy service took some time to acknowledge us, but they did offer Magic Hat #9, a personal hot weather fave. I also experienced my first fish taco!! Featuring fried grouper in a flour tortilla, I did wish the accompanying sides of guacamole, slaw and salsa hadn't arrived in covered #6 plastic containers, but the final composed product was not unsatisfactory.



Speaking of Magic Hat Brewery, I decided to forgo my usual vodka and whatever this trip for a six-pack of their Summer Elder Betty brew. To my luck it's an American Hefeweizen beer with a lovely dark color to it; the elderberries add a dark fruitiness that balances the sharp mustiness of the wheat beer. Nicely done.


Then came Mother's Day when I accompanied my Mother to CHOPS Lobster Bar in Boca Raton so we could split the Dover Sole entree. For high end eating down there it wasn't too shabby. Considering the date, the restaurant was humming but not overwhelmed and the service was attentive without being overbearing. The initial room is a bit dark but the main dining room has a vaulted tiled ceiling reminiscent of the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station and an ample view into the active kitchen. The bourbon ginger cocktail I had as a starter was excellent and set the bar for the rest of the meal. The Caesar salad was creamy and not overwhelmed by enormous croutons as it often is; here they were represented by thin small dark "crisps". The sole was prepared with care table-side and maintained the general level of richness the entire meal had. Sharing a slice of strawberry cheesecake for dessert, we both slowly rolled home remarkably full!!

Judi Dench and Friends in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

What do you do on a rainy Florida afternoon with your Mum? Why not go to the movies? My Mom had been pitching for the new British import The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, so off one rainy afternoon we went to the multiplex. Effectively directed by John Madden (Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown, Shakespeare in Love), a strong ensemble cast featuring Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy, and Maggie Smith as a group of "older" English-folk who find themselves trying to adapt to the ways of the sub-continent in a run-down "hotel" being run by a inexperienced but enthusiastic Sonny (Dev Patel of "Slumdog Millionaire") is perfectly fine. Nothing really surprising unfolds here (the gay character dies and receives a full Hindu burial, the toxic couple separate healthfully, the "desperate" find "hope", Sonny stands up to his Mum, and old codger Maggie Smith ends up liking India!!!) but it is nice to see how competent actors deal with mediocre material. The cinematography does do a nice job of capturing the whirling kaleidoscopic of urban India. If you must.

Luscious Fog: A Walk Through Chelsea

Running errands on the West Side, we got lost in the fog and ended up in gallery territory. Here's what we saw:


Terry Winters "Cricket Music, Tessellation Figures and Notebook" @ Matthew Marks (522 & 502 W 22 St) - This month is a banner one for abstract painting and Terry Winters' show of large oil on linen canvases is a delight. Bright and happy, they expand on the artist's exploration of nature and the "micro as macro" sensibility that has been his trademark. Not quite psychedelic, these pictures swirl with the compression-expansion of a sunflower and each canvas works this tension masterfully. The paintings have well-worked surfaces that are pleasantly surprising close-up. They also make nice reference to earlier modern masters of color such as Matisse, Delauney and Redon. Accompanying these paintings, up the street, is Winter's "Notebook" installation, a series of notebook paged collages that appear deceptively simple and give us a peek into the artist's process. DEFINITELY WORTH A VISIT! 
Up until April 14th 2012.

Tessellation Figure 7

Dan Walsh @ Paula Cooper (534 W 21 St) - Another show of luxurious abstract work. Ranging from unbelievably bright and colorful to deep and brooding, Walsh's cumulative process of layers creates opulent surfaces that dazzle the eye. Structural formality is countered with small details that have the decorative  depth of Aboriginal art. Do not miss the drawings in the front gallery. As a confessed "gold slut", I loved theses drawings! Worth a visit!
Closes April 21th 2012.


Georg Baselitz @ Gagosian (522 W 21st St) - This German master presents his largest canvases to date in this Barn of Art. I was pleasantly surprised by this show. Eschewing his preferred "upside-down" orientation, these portraits a split horizontally with the upper half featuring a close-up of the subject done with large patches of color similar to the Color Field painters that are embroidered with fine lines that bring detail to the face, and the lower half the rest of their body, often in a combination of motion and memory. Also featured is a black wood sculpture of a man and a woman arm in arm. I've often found Baselitz's work aggressive and deliberately ugly, but I found a genuine love and delicacy in these works. Bravo.
Up until April 7th 2012.

Georg Baselitz, installation view

Jonathan Lasker "Early Works 1977 - 1985" @ Cheim & Read (547 W 25th St)  - Speaking of abstract painting, the title says it all. Early works by one our better know abstract painters today. And indeed these are early. One can see the artist struggling to find a way to confront the concept of painting NOT being dead yet finding a clear and viable voice. The show is set up nicely, so by the time you get to the last gallery there's some nice resolution going on with three very satisfying canvases.
Ends March 24th 2012.



Also seen:
Anne Truitt @ Matthew Marks (525 W 24th) - A nice survey show of drawings dating back to the early 60's. Truitt's minimalist nature is overshadowed by phenomenal sense of color and line. Deceptively simple, another luscious abstract show! Loved it!!
Until April 14th.


Catherine Opie @ Mitchell-Innes & Nash (534 W 26) "High School Football - Opie continues her study of the structure of space and the development of community by turning to an all-American pass time. Large format landscapes dominate the back of the gallery while touching portraits of players grace the front. Don't miss Football Landscape #9: a masterpiece. Worth a peek. 
Until April 14th.


Sarah Charlesworth @ Susan Inglett (522 W 24) A show of new work entitled "Available Light" by a master of the photo-object. Light blue predominated especially in a charming striped piece. Nice to see her back.
Until April 14th. 



Melanie Willhide @ Von Lintel (520 W 23)  Mash-up meets Zen. Working with images retrieved from her stolen, formatted hard drive Willhide creates some very amusing and disturbing images. Think Lillian Bassman meets Weegee!
Closes March 24th.

THE VENEER OF THE ORDINARY: "Michael" at Film Forum

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

We'll never know how The Shadow knew, but these days when evil, unthinkable events unfold we desperately try to reason them out. Though we think we can "sympathize" with certain crimes perhaps, generally no one can or wants to relate to the pedophile. First-time Austrian director Markus Schleinzer makes an audacious debut with his drama Michael, the story of a timid 35-year-old insurance salesman with a dreadful secret: he's holding a 10-year-old boy, Wolfgang, captive in his basement. Schleinzer has the cold, critical eye of Hitchcock or Chabrol that produces the appropriate cringe factor for such a story, which is told through the title character over a period of five months. What unfolds is a bleak tale of ordinariness gone wrong. Michael's exterior life is a dull as his work and his office. He's closed off and tight, yet receives invitations to skiing weekends and promotions at work. When told by his pals on their trip that the barmaid has eyes for him, he almost dutifully remains behind listening to her tales of single motherhood and then, rather embarrassingly, attempts to have sex with her. 


The only times Michael opens up is when the metal window barriers go down on his bland suburban home and he ventures into the basement past the foam-covered door. Trying to create a normalcy with his victim, Michael sets the table for dinner as though his dinner guest doesn't lived locked in his basement. Turning on the lights in the boys prison is as everyday as eating and brushing his teeth. They watch TV together until Michael announces enough; the boy's straggling to watch for a few minutes more subtly covers the desire to forestall his fate of sexual slavery. Cut to the encounter being noted in Michael's diary. Though not a story of Stockholm Syndrome, the film documents the taut relationship of a victim and his kidnapper who both find themselves in a hopeless situation several months in. 

Schleinzer has done a remarkable job of creating a horror story out of the mundane. Lingering shots of fluorescent lights, office interiors, and car garages emphasize the ordinariness of Michael's life (and kept reminding me of photographs by Bernd and Hilda Becher) and he often just sets the camera down and lets the scene unfold in front of it. His years of being a casting director certainly worked to his advantage as well. Michael Fuith as Michael is an exceptional tightly-wound powder keg who, when he does go off, shows the hysteric desperation of a man who has dug himself into a deep dark hole and cannot get out. David Rauchenberger plays Wolfgang with an sullen authenticity that ups the creepiness factor of this film ten-fold. It's achingly honest and makes it well worth the price of admission. One does not want to reveal the end of this film but suffice it to say Schleinzer gives his tale enough quirky twists and splashes of dark humor to give the viewer a thoroughly satisfying cinematic experience.


Michael will have a two week engagement February 15 - 28 at Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street with daily screenings at 1:15, 3:15, 6:00, 8:00 and 10:00

Balance Out of Life

Balance Out of Life from Wyatt Hodgson on Vimeo.

NICELY NICELY: A Walk Through Chelsea

The thaw and the need to pick up art brought us to Chelsea today. While in the neighborhood we saw:


Joel Sternfeld "First Pictures" @ Luhring Augustine (531 W 24) - As the title announces, the photographs in this large exhibit all date from 1970 to 1986, many of which have never before been printed for exhibition, and set up the vocabulary the photographer would refine in later work. Nearly encyclopedic in volume, the prints themselves are modest in size; representing four separate "volumes" of work, there is a nostalgic, yet witty quality that makes you know you are looking at one man's work. I find the shore photos particularly charming and the show is a wonderful chronicle of some awful low-end fashion and styling. This show ends February 4th so catch it if you can!

Joel Sternfeld "First Pictures"

Shirin Neshat @ Gladstone (515 W 24) - Voluptuous large black-and-white photographs, mostly portraits, all inscribed with either text or drawings based on a classic Persian epic "The Book of Kings". A 3-channel video from 2010 entitled "Over-Ruled" runs in the back: A panoramic panel of a judge and his "assistants" is flanked by an oud player on one side and a singer on the other. I found the proportions of the work rather stunted and might work better as a larger projection. Closes February 11th.


Damien Hirst "The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011" @ Gagosian (all galleries) - The title says it all: a preposterous amount of dots shown in a preposterous way (the true Hirst-Heads can earn a free signed print if they make the effort to see all 11 exhibits before March 17th). Of the two downtown spaces the one on W 21 Street is the more intriguing selection; a wide selection of sizes and densities show the fun playfulness of this conceit (a small canvas packed with tiny spots is particularly giddy). The pretentiousness of the conceit comes to the forée on W 24th Street where too much of the same thing in the same room shows their vapid side. The most effective section here is the back gallery with the tondo paintings, circles on circles were a nice 60's flashback! In NYC until February 18th.

Hirst Spot Paintings on 24th St

Chris Martin @ Mitchell-Innes & Nash (534 W 26) Paintings - The third show by this Brooklyn-based painter at this gallery is a provocative mix of some of the painters earlier tropes with newer ones, including a grid of newspaper on the surface of the paintings, a Jamaican flag color palette, and curious cut-outs. The contagious silliness that drew me to Martins work previously is lacking in these new works, but still on view in some of the largest canvases. Don't forget to pat the lucky lawn troll in the corner. Worth a peek.



Also seen:
Bosco Sodi "Ubi sunt" @ Pace (545 W 22) The unique signature style of this Mexican-born, Brooklyn-based artist is hard-worn ugly deep-pile shag carpet. This work reminds me of Arte Povera surface paintings or Yves Klein texture paintings in colors that go well with peoples sofas. Ugh!!

THE WEDDING (THE WALKER EVANS POLAROID PROJECT) WITH RONI HORN/A curatorial composition by Ydessa Hendeles @ Andrea Rosen (525 W 24) A high falutin' show for a lot of mediocre SX-70 nicely displayed. Roni Horn should register a protest. It's closing SOON!!


Clay Ketter @ Sonnabend (536 W 22)  Lush, large-format color photo show of decaying Spain. Nice work from this photographer. Worth a peek.

HAPPY NEW STUFF!!

Welcome to 2012, the year we all die, according to Mayan prophesy!!


In the meantime, let's live, laugh and love! Since it is Winter and cold we are staying close to home these days. But I was lured out for dinner last week at Bin 5 (1233 Bay Street at Maryland), the new establishment that took over the space occupied by long-time Island favorite Aesop's Table. The new owners are part of the Da Noi Italian Restaurant group and what they might turn this charming dining spot into was causing me great apprehension.


I'm happy to report my fears were unjustified. The interior has been totally revamped, replacing the bright pressed-tin walls with dark wood and paneling. The bar area has (rightly) been moved to the front of the main dining room and the areas once taken up with tacky window arrangements has made room for cozy, romantic seating. The room has been transformed into a warm, inviting boîte. The menu has a foothold in Italy, but is brave enough to venture into other culinary worlds. The duck and scallion rolls with hoisin sauce aren't the most imaginative thing on a menu, but they were crisp and hot, the duck was juicy and the sauce didn't overwhelm the dish. Salad greens were crisp and clean. My entree of Veal Cannellini, veal scalloppines stuffed with white beans, was simple and flavorful, as was the nightly special of Shepard's Pie! There is an extensive bottled wine list, and the by the glass selections were very good! Looking forward to a return visit soon.

Last night was the first Second Saturday Staten Island of the new year and if it was indicative of what's ahead for the arts on the Island, then I foresee an interesting and provocative year. We were finally able to find the DOORWAY gallery where Gayil Nalls had an installation called "The Smell of a Critical Moment". The few grids of photographs showing people silk-screening and wearing T-shirts designed by Nalls identifying the wearer as part of the 99% does not prepare you for the impact of the main part of the installation. Nalls worked with Occupy Wall Street protesters, providing them with white cotton T-shirts to wear and adorn. Each shirt hangs pristine on a rack in the rear gallery, along with a tag that shares some of the wearer's experience. Nalls is an artist who has been interested in olfactory experience as art and after two minutes or so in the rear gallery you begin to fully take in the invisible ambiance that takes over the space. I appreciated the effort to collect a moment in time; the idea that the 99% is characterized by sweat and perspiration may not be new, but the slightly antiseptic showroom quality of the display, along with (some of) the wearers' tags helps to brings a face and focus to a movement many in the Media call vague.


At Deep Tanks (150 Bay Street), Island artist DB Lampman performed a piece called "Brain Furniture". I had encountered some of Ms. Lampman's work out at the Freshkills Park not long ago, but I missed the performance she did with the strained bio-morphic figures she installed there. Here, working in a small confined space, she interacted with four torso-like light sculptures. Dressed in a youthful pinefore, Ms. Lampman interacted with these objects, controlling their light levels, raising them up and down and generally exploring and creating a neural network. Well scored, the piece was bright, fun, and concise, all positives in the world of performance. The piece had a strong feminist voice that was neither strident or clichéd. Drawings and paintings accompanied the installation and performance. Brava!!