Spring Break 2010

While my break may not have been as "wild" as the traditional Cancun drunkfest, I was able to do a little New England museum tour of sorts that was quite satisfying. During the past week I made it to:

• the deCordova sculpture park and museum in Lincoln, MA
• "Nari Ward: LIVESupport" installed at Lehmann Maupin in New York
• "2010 Whitney Biennial" at the Whitney Museum in New York
• the Neuberger Museum at SUNY Purchase
• MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA
• and a whole mess of galleries that opened in Chelsea this past Thursday in New York

Highlights included watching Tania Bruguera eating dirt while only wearing a lamb carcass around her neck at the Neuberger and viewing Pawel Wojtasik's engulfing video elegy for New Orleans entitled 'Bellow Sea Level' and Guy Ben-Ner's humor at MASS MoCA. Disappointments included everything that I saw in Chelsea except for Nari Ward.

After everything, I don't even know where to begin. Well, the 2010 Whitney Biennial is exactly what I expected (trendy, nothing really remarkable), but I have to give it another chance because I moved through the show pretty quickly due to time constraints. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the Neuberger, despite a rather weak collection of modern art, they have a beautiful permanent installation of traditional African art. And it was rather interesting to see objects from African masquerades and accompanying video in one room and in another Tania Bruguera in action surrounded by props scattered around the gallery from her other various performances.

The deCordova's sculpture park is beautiful and a rather different viewing experience. The museum sits atop a hill overlooking a pond, with the sculptures strategically installed around the central complex. The best part of the park is that you are allowed to touch many of the sculptures, there were even children climbing on some of them. It was a nice departure from the usual separation of viewer and object in the white box. The most memorable piece from the collection was 'Requiem to the 20th Century' by Nam June Paik, which is a 1936 Chrysler Sedan with video monitors in the windows. And I got to watch a couple take wedding photos with a professional photographers in front of the car. how cultured.

I would like to say more than a couple sentences about my visit to MASS Moca, but I think that will require a later post. But I will say that the experience was worth the trip, and the drive through the berkshires was an adventure.

--- All around pretty successful week.