Unbeige – Lions! And Tigers! And Rhinoceroses!
As little as we find ourselves in Harlem and then only when we’re sailing through on Metro North on our way to Annie Leibovitz’s upstate house, (we like the world of our mind much btter than the one of our reality), we’ve found something that might compel us to rappel out the train, or at least swing over the platform. Peruvian artist Grimanesa Amoros, who–full disclosure–fed us sushi and champagne last night, just finished a project, Frente Feroz, in the Lee Building at 125th St and Park Avenue. We like it because Frente means Ferocious. And we’re suckers for animals and astrology.
Frente Feroz was created by projecting colored lights in a deliberate, looped sequence controlled by a computer onto rear projection screens covering large windows. Over-sized silhouettes of animals made of foam board, painted black, create moving shadows in the windows. The sequence begins just before sunset and ends just before sunrise. The lighting controller calculates these astronomical events based on the location of New York City 40° 46’N x 73° 58’W) and its five time zone west difference from Greenwich Mean Time. As the seasons change, the controller tracks the exact times of dusk and dawn, as wells [sic] as accounting for Day Light Savings Time.
We’re going out on a post-critical limb and interpreting that the point of the artwork is to get people coming in on the train, or leaving on the train, or walking around Harlem, or who have eyes, to look. And notice. And see silhouettes of ferocious animals, and think to themselves “you know, self, this city is full of ferocity, and sometimes things are in public and sometimes things are in private, but generally everything about it is pretty darn swell.”
You want art criticism? We got it in spades.
Posted by Eva (Unbeige) | 02:42 PM | art