david grainger: Independent Fair 2010

Independent Art Fair 2010.

For those of you maybe not aware of the scene here, the Independent Art fair was put on as extension of a year long project spearheaded by gallerist Elizabeth Dee entitled X Initiative. For the past year, this space has been used for shows, lectures, and events in a cooperative spirit with artists. A lot of it had a stick it on the wall kind of feel, the final show was an open BYOA (bring-your-own-art) event.

The space they have taken over is the old Dia building in Chelsea, which was one of the first Chelsea art pioneers. Robert Irwin's 98 installation 'Homage to the Square3' at the Dia was 0ne of the most moving, life-changing works of art my then young eyes had seen.

So, now we have Dia sadly gone, and the Independent carrying on the tradition in a brave new economically shook world. Much of the work was less immediately marketable - scatter art, large installations, performance, and collaborations replaced paintings. And very few of the paintings were pretty or effusively polished like you would see at any of the other fairs.

As you enter, a neon sign, of desperation or hope?:

Bruce High Quality Foundation

The rat, usually reserved for union strikes and set up on the sidewalk. Here it took a break from the street, but not from complaints. BHQF provided a soundtrack of complaints and snarky comments for the visitor on the first floor. The arms moved mechanically, and he occasionally deflated, during which time the abusive soundtrack stopped. A lot of the work of "Bruce ..." I don't have a problem with. Some of it I really like, like the recent Off-Broadway (but Broadway, Brooklyn) production of 'Cats, Bed-Stuy Do or Die'. The video of a slacker, dopey theatrical perfomance is interspersed with interviews of the players - residents of the neighborhood talking about the changes effected by gentrification. Like much of their work, it is smart and doesn't try too hard to make its point.

Rirkrit Tiravanija

The first floor only has a few pieces. There is also a coffee bar, fingerfood, and books for sale. You can play ping pong on this table, which happens to be a piece by Rirkrit Tiravanija

Its surface is mirrored.

Much of the work was hung in a way that made it difficult to tell when one piece ended, and another began. This seemed to change floor by floor, with the top floor being the most traditional. Here on the second floor I found this piece of yarn suspended tightly in the air, somehow creating tension among the loosely gathered items all over the floors and walls. It was held tight by a near invisible piece of fishing line, a metaphor for how the show itself was held together by the gossamer of just enough effort and time.

I liked how it referenced Fred Sandback's yarn pieces, but changed them a little. Here is a music staff of 5 strands, nearby an artist sat with a laptop tweaking knobs and making some live noise music. Sorry, I couldn't figure out who was responsible for any of this.

The thread hung in the air...

Bosco Sodi

I'll call these the lava paintings, because that's what they looked like. I'm not sure I liked them, but they stood out as paintings in a fair of other things.

Bosco Sodi

Lava paintings, there were four, they all looked like this.

If you walked through this corridor, the dude leaning against the wall would tell you the floor is the piece, rip a page from a book he had and give it to you. It turned out all the pages from the book were the same.

Neon Sculpture

Lisa Anne Auerbach

These were nice. The artist knit these outfits, subtly changing the words in commonly worn slogans.

Lisa Anne Auerbach

the one on the left has Metallica lyrics.

Ryan Trecartin

There was all of this stuff nicely placed in the environment where his video played. It was not crowded like in the Younger than Jesus show. It was relatively spare, and the items he chose were nice to look at. That foot is cast plastic around seashells. It sits in a sand box with some chairs.

Ryan Trecartin

Actually I didn't even watch the video, the sculptures were good enough for me. Also, I find his videos give me a wierd feeling. When I watch his work, I get tired and strung out, like I actually become one of his generation Y characters who needs a Red Bull.

Ryan Trecartin

Sorry my iphone made this photo blurry, I will take a real camera next time, promise! The glass is shattered from this cabinet, and is arranged underneath it like its being hidden or contained by the case itself. Liked that.

Strange sculpture that I found interesting. Wood and hinges.

Stuff cut up and propping up sheets of glass.

Eva Rothschild

Okay now we're getting into identifiable objects with some space around them. That means I can (successfully?) take pictures of them. Here's Eva Rothschild with an upside down tree looking thing.

Eva Rothschild

Ricky Swallow

First thought, its a paper sculpture. a closer look reveals its carved wood. OK, got it.

Ricky Swallow

A side view reveals the sculpture represents a skull in the paper bag (that's actually wood). The gallerist didn't seem to acknowlege that this form was a skull, but it was obviously clear to me.

Eve Sussman and Rufus Corporation

http://www.winkleman.com/exhibition/view/1627

Basically, the artists made a recreation of famed russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin's office. The real office is preserved as a museum. Yuri was the first person in Earth's orbit. Eve Sussman and Rufus Corporation have developed a travelogue and video in an attempt to address the artists' desire for space travel. Go Here to read about other projects, like their failed attempt to gain access to the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Eve Sussman and Rufus Corporation

Christian Frosi

His web site is www.slottttttt.net (with 7 t's, easy right?) So Christian was very nice to talk to. He explained the three works he had on view, in a manner that left a lot open to interpretation. His sculptures adapted themselves to word games; he titled the piece above before he made it: "Two Images, TwoBalls", and then used the title as the parameter of the piece.

Christian Frosi

Christian Frossi

Against the wall two slides support each other, with the remaining light shining on them. I couldn't make out what the images were.

Christian Frossi

He made this tube out of fabric and stuffed both of it's ends with umbrellas.

Christian Jankowski

This wasn't actually at the Independent Fair, but across the street at Friedrich Petzel Gallery. As I was talking with Christian Frossi, this work came up. Is called Strip the Auctioneer. The piece itself is being sold at Christies , whereby the man selling the work has to take off articles of his clothing, and put them up for bid, piece by piece.

Christian Jankowski

"These are a my favorite shoes"

Edward Lipsky

Some of the most traditional sculpture at the Independent.

Miriam Cahn

This really reminded me of Izumi Kato, who was in the Takashi Murakami curated Little Boy Exhibit at the Japan Society.

Christoph Weber

Aluminum scatter art.

I'm not sure if this was the same person, but it was nearby the aluminum.

Katinka Bock

Much of the work at this fair is so close to the line of being bad, that I'm not sure if I like it. Maybe that wasn't the point. Maybe the point was more about the open-ness in general, to accept more kinds of work. (Editor's note: I went back and looked at more of the artist's work, and she is fantastic. This piece is quite subdued by her standards, and maybe that fit the transitory nature and aim of this art fair better).

Katinka Bock

A notch in the rock holds the plywood.

Foam bust, reminds me of a Michelangelo face of Poseidon.

Virginia Overton

Here's a 'simple' idea, prints wrapped around flourescent lights. This piece was a nice surprise, the combination of light and texture of hair was mysterious. The artist has been recently displayed at the Sculpture Center.

Koji Enokura

McCaffrey Fine Arts presented a trio of little known Japanese artists working in non-traditional photography in the 70's. This was gem of a presentation, and I will do more investigation into these artists. Here's Koji Enokura's image of a knife flying through the air.

Jiro Takamatsu

This was from a series of images depicting the artist (I assume) numbering each rock in the terrain.

Jiro Takamatsu

As if they were being catalogued for a museum.

I didn't get the artist's name, but its a combine of spraypaint, wall, canvas, newspaper.

Felt and silk flags.

This show had lots of installations with little information posted around them.

Duncan Campbell

This was an advertisement for a film, not an actual piece. A complete DeLorean, with flyers for Campbell's film on the trunk. The film is about the rise and fall of John DeLorean, Irish manufacturer of the automobile.

Duncan Campbell

Boxes and bags deftly put in the passenger seat, as if it were in a parking lot doing some errands.

Jeppe Hein

This piece was also on display at the Sculpture center a few months before Olafur Elliason's mirror piece was placed in PS1 for his big MOMA/PS1 survey. It is very similar, as it is reflective milar stretched on a frame. Both pieces also spin slowly, turning and reflecting at the same time. I was glad to see this piece (in my mind the original) getting some more attention. I don't know who actually did which first, or even if it matters.

http://sculpture-center.org/exhibitionsExhibition.htm?id=10091

Jeppe Hein

The back of the device

Manfred Kuttner

This German artist was born in 1937. I say thumbs up to this painting.

Jamie Isenstein

This artist is also on display just down the street at Andrew Kreps. Among the work there are pedestals that are bare, except for a 'out to lunch' sign. She gives an video interview where her face is continually and cleverly hidden from the camera. Its on YouTube.

Alicja Kwade

Annette Kelm

When one picture of sunflowers doesn't do it, maybe four will. All of a sudden you have a field!

Annette Kelm

Andreas Bowers

This is all graphite on paper

Andreas Bowers

Here is a detail of the same drawing

Jordan Wolfson

So, in the last room, of the last floor, the best piece of the fair. A video, titled Con Leche, by Jordan Wolfson.

Digitally reproduced marching coke bottles with white liquid spilling out of their tops. The cokes walked though quiet streets and alleys, with the camera panning slowly.

the soundtrack was comprised of two voices, a woman's winding narrative on reincarnation, and an observer who occasional intervenes, commanding the talker to use more or less volume. The combinations of coke with milk, with crisp video and animation, with narrative and dream are unsettling and absorbing. The room was populated with a lingering audience, speechless and smiling.