The courtyard has been the exhibition hall for the winner of the Young Architects Program. In its 10th year, this year's installation Afterparty and designed by the firm MOS installed with the help of students from Yale and Harvard is an oversized tent topped with hairy palm fibers which is a reminder of the thatched roofing used in rural Asia. The tall tent poles hold the dark brown furry covering that should provide shade for the outdoor summer Warm Up parties at the museum. Modern .... yet primitive. Very interesting.
Having had enough of the planet-of-the-apes-looking structure, I headed inside to view the current exhibit, that of the Argentine Leandro Erlich : Swimming Pool. Defying the law of physics, it is a disorienting visual trick fashioned by the artist. He installed a full-size pool complete with its trappings, deck and ladder. When approached from the first floor, it's surreal. People, fully clothed, can be seen walking, standing, beneath the surface of the water. Viewed from the basement gallery, one will see that the pool is empty. Laminated glass spans the pool and suspends water above it creating an illusion of a real swimming pool. How cool is that?
After an hour of roaming the corridors of P.S. 1, I sat outside trying to absorb the theme of these creations. I was joined by a couple of young Japanese students, who casually handed me their cameras and posed for their NYC memento. Not in this neck of the woods one should do that - trust a perfect stranger with your camera. This is industrial NYC, filled with rows of abandoned buildings, warehouses - not fashionable at all.
Put a lid on those spray cans.
After an hour of roaming the corridors of P.S. 1, I sat outside trying to absorb the theme of these creations. I was joined by a couple of young Japanese students, who casually handed me their cameras and posed for their NYC memento. Not in this neck of the woods one should do that - trust a perfect stranger with your camera. This is industrial NYC, filled with rows of abandoned buildings, warehouses - not fashionable at all. Stepping out of the museum, two blocks towards the subway entrance, the facade of a building caught my attention. Writings on the wall! This must be what I always see looking out from aboard the #7 train on an elevated platform - 5 Pointz. This must be that artist studio where once a concrete stairway collapsed, the proving ground for graffiti artists who are always ready to pull that trigger on a spray can and use the walls of a building as the medium.
What do I think of it? I walked away filled with curiosity. Who gets to decide who sprays what? And what is trash versus "legal graffiti"? Scribblings and murals I could hardly label as "art", they are more of an eyesore. Graffiti, art or no art, has no place on the outside of a train car, the exterior of a building or walls of a fence.
Put a lid on those spray cans.
