From the blinding fabulousness of the Art Stars below to the burgeoning vision of the emerging artist above
l love New York. I hate New York. I live in New York and I love to leave New York, at least once a month. I've been back in New York for a week now but it was not until last night that my mind , or to be more precise : the unconscious processes of my mind , reconciled themselves to being back in New York. I had come home from MDC exhausted but my best friend , artist Jayson Keeling rang up asking if I wanted to pop by his studio fora quick tutorial on using my new Lumix. Jayson's studio is walking distance from my flat in a space provided by the LMCC program . The studio was situated on an abandoned floor of a massive office tower on Church Street. From the windows of the office you could look down into the lobby of a building that boasted a big Koons red heart while the electronic aphorisms of Jenny Holzer swirled all around the layered panes of glass. Jayson's current work included one piece that included glitter words on mirrors. From the blinding fabulousness of the Art Stars below to the burgeoning vision of the emerging artist above all was ablaze with refracted light. I looked at the glitter/mirrors again. It was so glamorous and brash and New World. So gauche....full of everything that I feared and never want in my house...glitter on glass evoking parties and abandon and narcissistic solipsism. I wanted to buy that piece because of my attraction/repulsion. It cost $3,500. I'm going to work hard on some side gig so I can afford it, even if by installment. On my way back home I came across a walkway with bands of light embedded into the concrete. I found it to be so beautiful. Public art work or superior city planning, I know not which. I did the Micheal Jackson walk from " Billie Jean" across it just for fun. And then stopped to take in the expanse of all that glittering night glass before me. I snapped what I saw and went home to sleep happy in the thought that it is the artists who are going to save New York.
Where is this?
Where is this walkway with the bands of light? Downtown somewhere, right?
re: location of park
broadway and trinity pl.
a thought
the love hate relationship becomes more pronounced once you have larger tastes of other lives in other more civil cities.I mean cities that are not considered babylonian freaks by there own nation,so theyre inhabitants do not have to overcompensate by being self-alienating and telling themselves they are more special than there fellow countrymen.Literally prettier cities,because honestly there are prettier cities than new york.Paris ..shit Boston even...New Orleans...What New York had ,other cities will develop
Brooklyn is working on.I am not sure if artist will save new york,I think art right now is suffering from what the economy is suffering from, a sort of ennui and a realization that
we can no longer look to our past notions of reality,we are ready to live outside of the consumer culture we created and we cannot bring ourselves to acknowledge that.We have gone past religion,past materialism and the next hurdle is past technology by going through it,it is science and technology that is our church .The opium of the capitalist masses for the last few years have been the cell phone and ipod.Art here lives in a bubble,the bubble travels the world,the climate in that bubble is constant,so it is easy for the inhabitants of that bubble to believe they will live that way for ever ,but as the american approach spreads worldwide ,so will its attitudes towards art.Please note that america's support of there own artist has been less than positive since after the war.How can artist save what has worked towards there own marginalization,what see's them as circus performers or pulp fiction or pornography instead of contributors to the nation.I dare not say culture..because culture here is an expletive.We like to pretend we have no history just technology and explosives and fame.Lots of shine no substance.This pretense comes from a deep feeling that we should not look at the past it is way too ugly,do not communicate with one another too dangerious,and certainly do not analyze ones culture too "femenine" .Whats fascinating is that this approach can only last for so long before a nation has to grow up and part of growing up is coming to peace with ones past so that one can live in the present.to me In order for art to save new york it would have to reflect the world outside back at the viewer,acknowledge its history and serve the artists individual voice all at the same time.
101%
Hey Wayne,
I left NYC for good in Oct cos I couldn't get a freaking work visa, but I miss it dearly... I really do... I think about it day and night... like what my friend said, "NYC can be addictive... once you get a taste of it... you either love it and yearn for more, or you hate it and never wanna touch it ever again..."
And yes, I agree with you 101%... arts and artists are often undermined, but they are - we are - the people who will save a city... artists paint a city - whether in black, white or in color, it doesn't matter... artists illuminate... artists hide... artists express... and artists escape...
I am always soooo inspired by the images you take, your writing and your observation... Thanks...