This installation reminded me of how much I hated that damn Peace Tower at the Biennial and the crushingly boring Thomas Hirschorn at Barbara Gladstone. Quite simply, this show delivered a body blow. Pun very much not intended. It affected me on a visceral level and it wouldn't let go.
In Dangling Between the Real Thing and the Sign in The Window, James and Barry curated a group of artists who I felt held the mirror to 06. It was funny, dystopic and experimental. I hope, in 07, they will do it again.
For years bloggers Barry Hoggard of bloggy and James Wagner of jameswagner.com have offered an invaluable, lively glimpse into their experience of the New York gallery scene and art community. This month at the request of Dam, Stuhltrager, they have taken an impressive inaugural turn at curating a group show of emerging (and as yet unrepresented) artists.The show?s title ?Dangling Between The Real Thing And The Sign In The Window? is derived from a 1973 address by the composer Morton Feldman and is reflective of the newly minted curators? perception of a tension on display in today?s art world between substance and superficiality. The curators? choices demonstrate that works of conceptual rigor and substance can be personal and lavishly beautiful with no diminishment of integrity.
Speaking of predictions, maybe it was the forecast that gallerists Edward Winkleman and Daniel Papkin recently gave to ArtInfo, or maybe it was the blaring media volume on the pending 9/11 anniversary, but when we joined the crowds in Chelsea, we were expecting to see a number of artists engaging with our charged political climate. And that did, indeed, prove to be the case at a few galleries. And, we?re happy to report, most of the work that could reasonably be read as carrying political overtones was well-crafted; there was little pat sloganeering going on (although there was some).
But while Chelsea had its fair share of political art, it was indefatigable gallery visitors who hit openings in Brooklyn on Friday who got to see an especially strong work that explicitly evoked the political climate. Susan C. Dessel?s installation, Our Backyard, A Cautionary Tale, in the sculpture garden at Dam, Stuhltrager, featured a series of white plastic body bags lined up on a patch of grass. To get from the back door of the gallery to the outdoor bar, visitors had to either navigate a narrow path or step over the body bags to reach the far side of the outdoor space. As the opening got crowded, it provided perhaps the most apt metaphor for why we may see more "political" art this fall?under contemporary circumstances, it?s simply unavoidable.