Exercises in appropriation

When I visit Marc in NYC we barely ever go into Manhattan. Why would we? Brooklyn is ten times better--cheaper food, easier mis-en-scenes, nicer boys, cuter cafes, more trees and parks. It's always seemed more real to me, whereas with Manhattan you are never quite sure if the tableau on the street in front of you is made up people who truly belong there. Manhattan seems like an amusement park for people rich enough to take part in a fantasy lifestyle based on a placed called Manhattan.

So when we do go to Manhattan we go for a specific reason and I make sure we never stay longer than we have to.

Yesterday we went to check out the New Museum in SoHo which was a pretty fantastic building and is probably going to be one of my regular stops whenever I am in town. With only a handful of galleries it's very manageable and while there are a few confused Midwesterners ambling around wondering what the hell they're looking at there's certainly fewer then you'd find at MoMa or whatever.

I simply had to check out the Paul Chan exhibition, which was truly mesmerizing. I first saw one of his simply-animated projections at the Whitney last year but this was an entire floor dedicated to the full seven-projection sequence of apocalypse and rebirth. Cars, cellphones, and spectacles floated into space while bodies fell and telephone wires danced in the air. Leaves on trees danced in the wind while an army with banners made out of laundry passed by underneath. Bowls of fruit ascended out of the painting's frame. I could stare at them endlessly; they never seemed to end and when they did resolve themselves it was into sunsets that became sunrises for the next day's rapture. You can check out some YouTube videos of Chan's work here and here and here.

Less satisfying but still interesting in some places was a joint exhibition of works by Daniel Guzman and Steven Shearer. Guzman's half was mostly composed of transparent hipster goof-offs but Shearer's work was more interesting, exploring 80s heavy metal culture, 70s teen heartthrob Leif Garrett, and contemporary internet archives of the everyday. I was captivated by gigantic collages of thumbnail photographs culled from the Internet grouped around particular themes--heavy metal, people sleeping--but at the same time it's like, I could do that.

Okay so I am going to change the subject here. In looking for a link for Leif Garrett I've discovered all kinds of interesting websites. See for instance his an official website that showcases his music career today, one of the many contemporary freaks who are still in love with the androgynous kid, a Q & A on the USA Today website, and a mugshot of Garrett from 2006 after an arrest for heroin possession.