Site specific art works at art fairs. Can they be successful?
I visited at least 5 of the 8-or-so art fairs that were inNew York in early March. As always, I am in search of great site-specific art,as well as installation work. It is tough when you walk up and down the aisles of similarly-sized square and rectangular booths to find truly innovative examples of site-specific work. My favorite three were Jessica Stockholder in (or should I say above) Kavi Gupta’s booth at the Armory; Rachel Mica Weiss’ piece in the lobby of Pulse; and Diana Kingsley in a room of Spring Break Art Fair that was curated by Chris Bors. Successful installations that take up an entire booth (or room) are more prevalent, a little easier to do at an art fair and really pack a punch in the midst of all the other cubes selling various pieces. My favorites were Simon Schubert for Foley Gallery at Volta, Brandon Ballengee in Ronald Feldman’s booth at The Armory, Franklin Evans in Steven Zevitas’ booth at Volta, and Visual Pilots’ Luminessenz at Spring Break in the room curated by A. Moret. Then there are the works that just do a fantastic job of occupying a space or wall. Adam Parker Smith at Spring Break in the room curated by Erin Goldberger and RJ Supa; Brent Birnbaum at Elizabeth Denny also at Spring Break and Mike Cloud in Thomas Erben’s booth at The Independent are a few great examples.
Site-Specific pieces:
Jessica Stockholder at The Armory
Rachel Mica Weiss at Pulse
Diana Kinglsey at Spring Break -
Eat In, A silent video projection, projected on the floor. Subtle and slightly hidden.
Room Installations
Simon Schubert at Volta
An alcove of three walls, wallpapered with the artists works on paper, white wall to wall carpeting and dealers who dressed the part.
Brandon Ballengee at The Armory
Ron Feldman’s booth was dedicated to Ballengee’s series Frameworks of Absence (and a selection of his other works). The booth took the form of small museum depicting the disappearance of animals in the Americas over the past four centuries. As response to the current mass extinction event, referred to as the Holocene or Sixth Great Extinction, Ballengee physically cut images of missing animals from actual historic prints and publications printed at the time in history when the depicted species became extinct. The resulting image minus the subject is what he refers to as a Framework of Absence.
Franklin Evans at Volta
Visual Pilots at Spring Break
Working with Visualpilots, a collective based in London and Switzerland founded by Christoph Thüer and Simon Haenggi, A. Moret presented Luminessenz: Space is Only Noise inspired by a song of the same title by artist Nicolas Jaar. Transforming a ubiquitous room using a projector, a single PA system and systematically arranged strips of suspended heavy duty cloth, Visualpilots created an environment where time and space are suspended and the visual and auditory experience were distilled and shared.
Show-Stopping Space Occupiers
Adam Parker Smith, Spring Break
Brent Birnbaum at Spring Break
Mike Cloud, The Independent
One Big Installation:
The whole vibe at Spring Break was one of an installation and performance. The fair itself was one site specific project located at Moynihan Station above the Post Office at 34th. It was formerly located in an Old school House near Spring Street. I don’t think I have missed one of their iterations.