School started at 9am, a class called “Look into Music,” taught by performance artist Connie Beckley. She shared with us visual and musical works by artists from around the time of the Bauhaus movement, such as Oskar Schlemmer, and also shared with us a personal encounter she had with John Cage.
This was followed by a class called “Junior Seminar” – my teacher Jeanne Silverthorne gave me back my exhibition review with notes. Our next assignment is to write our own artist statement. The class ended early; I had a one and a half hour break before starting work at 3pm, so I decided to check the galleries in Chelsea. It’s just a five-minute walk from my school.
Walking from 19th Street to 24th Street, between 10th and 11th Ave, I checked a few galleries. My main goal was to check out Doug Wheeler at David Zwirner. Doug Wheeler is one of the renowned California light and space artists from the 70's. That group includes artists such as Robert Irwin, Larry Bell, and James Turrell (he has nothing to do with Drake's Hotline Bling music video. Ok, Drake just “got inspired” by Turrell).
Doug Wheeler's exhibition is about the experience of space, and I was amazed once I stepped into the showroom. With the space created by the white light and the white wall, I felt as if I saw the illusion of mist in the air. Can art change the world? I guess at least it can change the way we sense reality.
Back to school at 3pm and I started working at the Digital Library. Between helping check-in and check-out the cameras and other digital devices, I enjoyed the freedom to browse the Internet. So I Googled the young Dutch artist Guido van der Werve. He was going to have a talk that night at Parsons. I had just seen his show last week at Luhring Augustine. His video work was still bouncing around in my head, so I was definitely intent on not missing his talk.
His video and installation work is an epic combination retelling the things we sort of know – different states of mind. The three-channel video installation showed three groups of people. On the left hand side, a group of naked old men and women, eating cake and fruit, taking a nap, and sitting on the floor staring at nothing; in the middle, a group of different aged people wearing all black, meditating, laughing, and breathing; and on the right hand side, a group of naked young people searching, touching each other, kissing, having sex, and then resting. There was a piano in the center of the room, playing a classical song composed by the artist, with the piano keys moving up and down by themselves as if played by an invisible spirit.
I left school at 6.30pm and arrived at Parsons at 7pm. The night ended well with close up contact with an artist that I dig. New York, you just have too much to offer. You keep my eyes wide open and constantly in a state of discovery. I hope it will be a long time before I see the day when I grow too tired to keep up my curiosity.
P.S. I will participate in a group photography exhibition in OxWarehouse in March. Hope to see you there!