Wednesday December 5, 2007
Art Basel day 1
The gates open at noon sharp on Wednesday for the uber-elite guests. Here they are moments before, crowded into the convention center’s lobby. The regular-elite get in at 2 pm, the merely special go to the Vernissage at 5 pm, and the riff raff gets in starting Thursday.
I bring this one up because my man Wolfgang Tillmans is one of the big photographers at the fair. I saw Nice work by Candida Hoffer and Gursky as always, but Tillmans was all over the place. The far wall in this picture shows one of his quintessential photo arrangements, albeit all in frames. The still-lives absolutely slay. (neuger-riemschneider gallery)
The usual suspects at White Cube were rounded out by a huge nazi/horror movie diorama by Jake & Dinos Chapman.
Two magnetized cubes suspended in a corner. Jeppe Hein, 303 Gallery NY.
At von Senger, a concrete-drawing robot. Not a very smart roboy (they had to re-position him once in a while), but he makes up in art brawn what he lacks in brains, yes?
Lara Favaretto. Yes, she wrote that on a wall with a marker and called it art. What are you going to do about it? (“Dimensions variable,” of course.) This is at Galleria Franco Noero, where I also very highly recommend Simon Starling’s “Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Twenty Five,” A projection of a film made by a motion-control camera panning around an exquisite chair, and accompanying diagram. Don’t take my word for that one — check it out.
Last one from Noero — Andrew Dadson’s flowers in black water. Do try this at home.
Arshile Gorky (from 1946) at Matthew Marks Gallery.
At De Carlo gallery, they are probably hating having installed this fake ATM with abandoned baby in silicone. Not to disapoint, attendees kept trying to use the ATM, and ignored the baby in a basket. Hey! How are you so sure that one’s real and that one’s fake!?
George Herold’s paining, Acrylic and bricks on canvas (with, I’m assuming, some sort of Herculean frame and substructure). Aizpuru, which also had more of that rockin’ Wolfgang Tillmans.
At maccarone, an installation dedicated to the Mass MoCA / Christoph Büchel fiasco, mostly framed court documents, e-mails, and a printout from NYTimes.com.
Also there: huge chocolate Santas with dildos butt plugs. also available in a convenient 1’ size. Yawn.
New this year: Art Supernova, a separate little section where each gallery’s art is separated from their storage and office areas, resulting in supposedly a more museum-like atmosphere. Well, slightly. Anyway, here’s a guy who’ll be performing hair sculptures all week. Stop by for a trim.
Nina Katchadourian’s Continuum of Cute. You’re not seeing the whole thing, but it goes from left to right and from top to bottom. Not sure if you can rearrange them to your liking.
A couple of Felipe Barbosa’s soccer ball sculptures. Too many people to get a good photo of his great wall-hanging.
ShanghART never disappoints. This year: Xu Zhen’s reconstruction of an Asian market. Far as I can tell, stocked with real groceries.
Update: Rather then do a new post, here are pictures from later in the day, NADA and the Stooges show:
Note: this is an animation! Three of these in a row, with discretely concealed projectors, at Vacio 9. Very nice.
This spaceman was part of an interesting installation at Ballroom Marfa.
Wilfredo Prieto’s El Tiempo es Oro/Time is God, at Martin Van Zomeren — this watch, suspended from the ceiling by a very long chain, in an otherwise empty and gray-painted booth. Appears to be accurate.
Gnarly balsa-wood sculptures at Roebling Hall. Yes, it’s about cutting wood, but it’s also about the 16 oz. beer can.
Yuken Teruya.
Blow de la Barra’s radiant booth.
Latest from Ian Burns. If you’re not familiar, it’s live video that’s generated by contraptions made from household objects. This one is a jet (Air Force One!) flying through a storm. It involves a tiny camera, live feed, a toy airplane, spinning background, haze effects (a spinning plastic cup between the camera and airplane, and several motors to make the whole thing shake and jostle for effect. Mesmerizing.
Graham Hudson’s Five Tools, which requires no explanation except that the tape measure at the bottom is about a quarter inch from the ground.
André Ethier, at Derek Eller Gallery.
I was required to post something from this gallery because it’s Czech: Jan Kotik, Coat of Arms of Le Sievr de la Mothe Cadillac (1658-1730), Hunt Kastner.
Yes, it’s the Stooges. They were really great, and it’s difficult to imagine Iggy ever in his life having less energy then he had last night. Another thing I learned — lots of kids are into the Stooges way more then I am. They were psyched.
Some well-orchestrated “mayhem.” Folks were invited onstage for one number, then invited back off before the show continued. Still not bad, and people were rowdy! I got hit in the head with a stray flying bottle, which some kid promptly dove for and threw back in the direction of the stage. Also: I think the Stooges played ‘I wanna be your dog’ like three times.
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How did a riff raff like you get in Alesh? :)
Duran~ I’ll tell you if you tell me how to get on standing-guestlist at PS14, Pawn Shop, and Studio A.
Easy, don’t make friends with promoters, get to know the owners or general managers of the venue, because promoters come and go.
That Iggy show f’ing rocked the bells. The sound was good too, which I wouldn’t expect due to the outdoor location.
I am linking to this post Alesh.. hope thats okay?
Good stuff! Can’t wait to check it out this Saturday.
Good stuff. I love this time of year in Miami; free champagne and Christmas. (No snow, but we get robotic installations.)
Oh, the Shanghai Arts market could more simply be called Chinese rather than Asian since the language written on the sign in Mandarin-simplified Chinese. I can’t see the last character on the sign, but the first two 春格, mean “spring style.” I believe this is a Shanghai-specific chain of mini-marts.
Okay, so I figured out the last character, 纳, not that it much matters since I still don’t get what the whole thing means…
Away, ignore this nerdy, student-y musing.
Ian Burns makes stuff i can get into quite a bit……worth spending time on for sure….
“I was required to post something from this gallery because it’s Czech: Jan Kotik, Coat of Arms of Le Sievr de la Mothe Cadillac (1658-1730), Hunt Kastner.”
What’s with the ducks on the Cadillac emblem?
I’ll do everybody a favor (beginning with myself) by avoiding Art Basel again.
They’re swans. Several people have approached me about this: “[I’m/my mom is/my grandmother’s half] Czech, too!” Bigups to all the Czechs! And in the spirit of unity, bigups to the Slovaks, too.