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01/05/2005: "Pittsburgh and Cincinnati"
Despite its rather lukewarm review in the New York Times, the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh is definitely worth the trip. If you’re heading east to Pittsburgh, you won’t regret stopping in Cincinnati to view the Contemporary Arts Center’s current exhibitions.
Pittsburgh:
Although one can also visit the Mattress Factory, the Andy Warhol Museum and the Wood Street Galleries, I ended up spending an entire afternoon at the Carnegie Museum of Art! A map on the wall of the Carnegie directs you to the other museums. Being a huge fan of John Bock’s, I made a bee-line to the 2pm viewing of Meechfieber (2004), whose translation is uncertain, though fieber means feverish. As with most Bock films, rapidly cut vignettes insinuate a magical story, this one concerning milk farmers, pharmacy dispensing tools and an artist’s wild pursuits on an overstuffed-afghan bicycle. Within the galleries, Bock reassembled several of the film’s hand-crafted props to make a two-story installation that marveled even viewers who missed the film. The photo of JFK embedded in this installation is ominous, since JFK appears in two other artists’ works.
Given Times critic Ken Johnson’s inability to find Maurizzio Cattelan’s sculpture, I made a point to begin enquiring about it when I arrived. Fortunately, Now (2004), his incredibly realistic sculpture of President Kennedy lying in state, was accessible during the Thanksgiving weekend, so I got to see it. I ended up spending about twenty minutes, since it was a totally amazing. Speculating with surrounding spectators, we wondered whether the chest wasn’t moving up and down, ever so slightly. I was particularly curious about Carsten Holler’s love-inducing greenhouse, Solandra Greenhouse (2004), since Johnson had doubted its effects. Each time I entered, I spent several minutes under its spell and exited in a state of euphoric abandonment. The mix of flashing green lights and Solandra maxima plants opens one’s heart to the possibility of love. Since Johnson didn’t get it, it must depend on one’s memories of “feeling in love”! Most people used it as a walkway en route to the museum’s exit, never even attempting to experience its effects. When I told them how it worked, some returned, but most seemed nonplused.
A fantastic survey of R. Crumb’s drawings demonstrates his critical insight into the male/female dynamic. Particularly funny and enlightening is his cartoon directed at feminists, in which he argues for art’s special privileges. Lee Bontecou, Senga Nengudi and Mangelos, a Croatian art historian whose absurdist manifestos amuse, are honored with surveys. Jim Lambie’s installation The Jesus and Mary Chain is among his best. Jeremy Deller’s videos presented on tiny flat-screen TVs in dollhouse-sized period rooms intrigue. The bookstore sells his plastic sacs and t-shirts quoting Biblical slogans. Some of Anne Chu’s best sculptures, totem-poll-like Four Mountain Views, are here.
A complete set of Rachel Harrison’s Perth Amboy photographs surround several of her inscrutable sculptures. Isa Genzken’s tragic-kooky, micro-installation/stage sets placed on pedestals are quite intriguing. Roundelay (2003), Ugo Rondinone’s video displayed in a hexagonal theater, inspires real hope for the subjects’ eventual encounter. Fernando Bryce’s Revolucion (2004) enlightens, since it features hundreds of hand-drawn archival materials that concern Pan-American relations during the Cold War. Yang Fudong’s visually luscious Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (Part 1 and Part 2) (2003) defies stereotypes of Chinese pragmatism. Check out the Public Forum on the web-site!
A museum docent tipped me off to Mel Bochner’s recently opened roof garden adjacent the Fine Arts Building at Carnegie Mellon University, just a stone’s throw from the museum. I recommend driving there, unless you know short cuts through the university. After eating chile and salad at a nearby pub (no beer- I still had a five hour drive home), I searched for the garden in the dark, which turned out to be great, since it was well lit.
Carnegie Museum of Art and Andy Warhol Museum- www.cmoa.org
Mattress Factory-www.mattress.org
Cincinnati
A few weeks later, the Contemporary Arts Center opened three new exhibitions. Multiple Strategies, a nearly complete inventory of 250 editions by 200 artists, will not only inspire artists to invent new strategies, but catalogs the strategies into six workable categories such as “Do It Yourself” and “Exhibitions in a Box.” Highlights include Jason Rhoades/Jorge Pardo’s dirt-bike messy extravaganza, Mike Kelley’s bowling ball, Kiki Smith’s glass sperm, many Paul McCarthy’turds, Marcel Duchamps’ Boite en Valise, ChanSchatz’s special project of custom-designed square pillows and Sally Alatalo’s installation that reproduces one of her book’s covers, so you can experience being there.
If you’ve never experienced the energy and political influence of Nigerian Afrobeat singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s music, this is your chance. Several music stations chronicle four-decades of his music, alongside the musicians who influenced him and the musicians he influenced, such as the Red Hot Chile Peppers (of all bands!). Having abandoned the silliness of British Pop in the 1980s, I too turned to African music for inspiration, so I was fascinated to discover his impact on visual artists! Taking Fela’s inimitable “call and response” strategy one step further, independent curator Trevor Schoonmaker found 34 primarily African and African-American artists eager to respond visually to either Fela’s political theories, lifestory or music. As sexy master of “erotic pantomime,” Fela conducted video-taped interviews wearing only bikini bottoms!
Highlights include Radcliffe Bailey’s painting No Nonsense, which materializes Fela’s polyphonic music by layering themes and motifs over an image of Fela at his nightclub, Afrika Shrine. Sokari Douglas Camp’s sculpture, Open and Close Chop and Quench, whose title stems from two Fela songs, is a decorated mechanical African dancer. Rich Medina’s mix CD, Kuti Especiale Part One, energizes the elevator with Fela’s music. A fantastic 53-minute film from 1982 explores the generosity of Fela’s music, political ideas and idiosyncratic style. Aime Ntakiyica’s Vote Game revisits Fela’s 1980s’ aborted campaign for Nigerian president, while Senam Okudzeto’s The Dialectic of Jubilation documents a 2002 African-dance workshop held in Basel. The most amazing contribution is Olu Oguibe’s National Graffiti (1989), a series of hanging, painted fiber mats, originally displayed only a few yards away from the Nigerian military dictator’s home, so this intervention most likely dismayed the military dictatorship.
The third exhibition is a twenty-year survey of Susan Unterberg’s photographs, including ten series of works, curated by recent interim director, Andree Bober.
The Contemporary Arts Center- www.contemporaryartscenter.org
