My iBook has been in the shop since last Thursday, so I’m not posting too often. I’m relying on my Dell desktop running, yes, Windows 98 until it comes back. What follows is a random assortment of my adventures and observations over the last few days.
On Sunday afternoon we went to Greenpoint to see Meredith Allen’s show of Williamsburg art world people at im in iL. Since the G is not a train to be used lightly, we took the L to Bedford and walked the mile or so to the gallery in Greenpoint. I hadn’t spent much time in Greenpoint, and was pleasantly surprised by the number of 19th century buildings, plus stores and streets that still have some integrity. We even saw a Greek Revival house just off Manhattan Avenue! There are several independent Polish language bookstores in the neighborhood, when Chelsea doesn’t even have one independent “new books” bookstore. Another cool discovery was “Java and Wood”, a furniture / coffee shop at 1011 Manhattan Ave. Check it out when you’re in the area.
When we were waiting in the subway, I saw a young man with sunglasses, Capri pants, and an Aunt Jemima-style kerchief on his head. Fabulous! It was a welcome antidote to seeing a Chelsea boy at the gym earlier in the weekend wearing a du rag with his Abercrombie & Fitch cargo pants. Ugh.
Recently seen art of note:
- Stas Orlovski at Mixed Greens
- “Undesire”, curated by Vasif Kortun, at Apex Art — great, great show. There is a video of two young boys singing and dancing in an ATM room, by an artist named Fikret Atay. He lives close to the Iraqi border in Turkey, in a depressed village called Batman. I had trouble tearing myself away from the video to look at anything else in the show. The video by the Irish artist Phil Collins (not the singer), titled Baghdad Screen Tests, consists of several citizens of Baghdad sitting silently, looking at the camera — filmed before the war started. It is accompanied by recordings of various pop songs, ranging from Elvis to The Smiths. Finally, the drawings of Dan Perjovschi, which you have probably seen on the invitation, are sweet and scathing at the same time.
- Carl Scholz’s flawlessly “smoothed out” Jaguar at Momenta
One last art item is Emily Noelle Lambert at the Mini minimarket at 218 Bedford (near Earwax, etc.). We walked into the shop for the first time, and noticed Emily’s work on exhibit in the store. After a few minutes we decided we had to purchase one of the (very affordable) works. I don’t see something too close to what we bought on the web site, but check out a few interesting things I found on her site: Castle, Bird, and Charles and Smokey.
