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SPINOZA IN LAS VEGAS @ TATE Modern
by SturtevantSpinoza in Las Vegas was a half-hour long staged reading presented by the TATE in their Starr Auditorium theatre space. They should have been ashamed to charge money, no matter how little, to the event. Elaine Sturtevant is a fascinating woman, sure. An entertaining art personality, absolutely. What Sturtevant is not is a writer, director, or actor, that's fer darn sure. She has made a career out of recognizing talent in iconic artists (Warhol, Duchamp) ahead of the mainstream, and then copying their work in great detail. If only she had copied some of the more innovative theater pieces of the past fifty years with as much gusto, perhaps I would not have been alternately laughing my ass off and scratching my eyes out. Yes, this is a casual and catty review-- but to be fair, it is in this spirit of the show. Informal, insulting, and, praise the lord...brief.
MARK ROTHKO: THE LATE SERIES @ TATE Modern, London September 26th, 2008-February 1, 2009Exhibition Includes: Four Darks in Red 1958, 8 of The Seagram Murals, The Black-Form Paintings, Untitled 1964, The Brown and Gray Paintings, The Black on Gray Paintings
The current Rothko exhibit at the TATE focuses mainly on his work in series (1903-1970) and is the first major collection of his work to be featured in the UK for the past 20 years. It is a rare chance to see some of these pieces united, hailing from diverse homes including the MoMa in New York City, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Kawamura Museum of Art in Japan. There is a large focus on the Seagram Murals, a series comissioned in 1958 for a dining room in The Four Seasons, there is a sort of mythos hovering around the paintings that Rothko later withdrew from the project, deeming a dining room an unsuitable place to display his work. The current display of the Seagram paintings has been meticulously put together by the TATE to be as close to the orginal wishes of the painter himself as possible, and is a long gallery with a lovely amount of breathing room between pieces.
There is something about Rothko that attacts me partiularly from a lighting design standpoint. His use of color and texture is a tangible (although not really, they arrest you for that sort of thing...) example of what we strive to do every day on the stage. Although this could be a metaphor from everything from text to design, it particularly resonates when discussing light. I first started looking at a lot of Rothko images when working with New York lighting designer, David Lander, who was usuing a painting as inspiration for his cyc in a production of King Lear. It has struck me ever since that Rothko has in fact laid out the groundwork for nearly perfect lighting designs. Seeing these peices in person is invaluable. I cannot stress enough that nothing but reality can do remote justice to Rothko technique-- it is imperative to see each available brush stroke. It is a brilliant example of the amount of work that goes into something that appears on a quick glance to be starkly plain-- As we in the theatre know, this is ever the hardest thing to accomplish! In Rothko, something that is black is actually seven shades of purple.
I spent maybe 5 minutes in the Black on Black room completely alone. (Lucky scenario at the TATE on a weekend!) It was incredible to sit quietly, with the paintings, no other person to put meaning or judgement on either them or myself. All art that challenges us and our perspective changes us, and hopefully as we change and deepen, so does our craft.
CILDO MEIRELES @ TATE Modern, LondonOPENING OCTOBER 13, 2008October 14 2008-January 11 2009Exhibit Includes: Eurka/Blindhotland 1970-5, Through 1983-9, Mission/Missions (How to Build Cathedrals) 1987 (SEE TOP), Red Shift 1967-84 (SEE BOTTOM), Fontes 1992/2008, Babel 2001, Volatile 1980-94, Southern Cross 1969-70, Glovetrotter 1991, Money Tree 1969
I had the extraordinary luck to be allowed to tag along to the Opening of the first Cildo Meireles exhibit in the UK at TATE Modern on Monday night. The artist himself appeared a zen-seeming man with cheerful Buddha eyes. I can't imagine an experience closer to that of Christmas morning. A wonderfully curated, interactive experience, the exhibit includes one room of Cildo's early work including recycled Brazilian Coke bottles silk screened with almost unnoticeable dexterity with phrases including "Yankee Go Home!" There are also several examples of the "Zero Dollar" in both Brazilian and American currency (terrifyingly apt at the current moment) and "Liberty coins" that have "In God We Trust" on one side and a Coca Cola on the other. Important to note that these are not only pieces of art, but pieces of political unrest that made made their way onto the streets of mainstream Brazil.
While it is important to see the artistic climate that Cildo has emerged from, it is his (sometimes) less blatantly political installation work that makes the best impression at the TATE today. I could gush embarrassingly over the giddy joy that I felt getting to experience a hands on exploration of my personal favorites (Volatile, Red Shift, Through, How to Build Cathedrals, Fontes) but I nearly cringe at not letting you experience the work yourself. In brief- Volatile is a sensory explosion involving a very dark room, three people you've never met, and talc up to your knees. (Word of advice- Don't wear the boots! It is integral to feel this on your bare skin!) Red Shift allows seven people into a series of three gloriously vermilion rooms that tell a story as theatrical as any I have seen onstage (Be sure to look in the refrigerator!) Through has been "safe-guarded" with a layer of plexi over the satisfyingly shattered glass, but retains enough crunch to keep it's dark danger, while Mission/Missions (How to Build Cathedrals) -both a tribute and a curse to the Jesuits who lost their lives in missions throughout Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay- seems untouched since the original installation. It is haunting, simple, and beautiful. I experienced the most joy exploring the clock and ruler maze of Fontes, and encourage everyone to find the center of the spiral before falling into the following UV version of Canal-street inspired installation, Babel.
This is an exhibit not to miss. I believe next stop is a tour to the permanent home of Mission/Missions (How to Build Cathedrals) at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, USA.
