the daily razzler

Mondays Marks--With the monumental sale of a Roy Lichtenstein painting at Christie’s contemporary art auction last week ($42, 642, 500 to be exact) it seemed a fitting time to explore a contemporary art venue. The New Museum, on Bowery and Prince, currently houses two exhibitions: Free and The Last Newspaper. Both were insightful, at times upsetting, but ultimately engaging, explorations of the ideological properties of the daily news. At a time when we are inundated with information on all fronts—the reconstruction and reinterpretation of media—both social and original press—was hugely eye-opening. The works spanned about 40 years, the most recent being an installation of collages/paintings updated with new pieces whenever he was inspired by the news, by Nate Lowman (ironically a sort of media magnet himself, known almost equally well for his art as his relationship with Mary Kate Olsen and appearances on the New York social circuit).

Both exhibits tapped in to the collective experience that the news creates—and focused on how these ties and disconnects have been heightened by the “freedom” that comes with social media and the internet. The most striking of these was Lisa Oppenheim’s “The Sun is Always Setting Somewhere Else.” (2006) Created from Flickr images of sunsets she pulled from US soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and then re-photographed against the backdrop of her own horizon in New York—the forged connection we can make with each others experiences stood out as simultaneously painful and beautiful. In The Last Newspaper, artists used everything from mixed collage to complete re-creation: Alexsandra Mir redrew the front pages of tabloids like The Post, the bad news of the day appearing in almost child-like scrawl. Hans Haacks’ piece, News (1969/2008) made only from a RSS newsfeed, paper, and printer, was humming and hah-ing in the corner as we perused—tirelessly spitting out the minute by minute tragedies and triumphs of our world—creating a giant heap of paper on the floor. While the works in these exhibitions are not necessarily visually striking—their message is powerful. So much so that as I walked out I couldn’t help but notice a wall of advertisements, graffiti unceremoniously sprawled across—looking almost identical to some of the pieces within the show. Bottom line; check out the New Museum because this is one artistic discussion we are all apart of.
deep thoughts for your monday :) MSS