Continuing from Part 1, here’s Part 2:
- Thomas Houseago
His sculpture Baby was wonderful– simultaneously sweet and a little threatening. I also loved the appearance of being partly drawn/two-dimensional. About 8.5ft tall, it kind of reminded me of Grendel.
Baby, by Thomas Houseago
- Kate Gilmore
The other video installation of which I took note, I really fucking loved her piece titled Standing Here. There was a drywall pillar that had been constructed around Gilmore, who then kicked and punched her way out, while wearing heels and a polka-dot dress. The video was taken looking straight down into the pillar, from above, during her escape, and the destroyed pillar was in the room where the video was playing. Self-referential, site-specific, feminist, some “literal” deconstruction. I could have spent hours with this piece. - Lorraine O’Grady
Photographs of Baudelaire and Michael Jackson juxtaposed. Kind of interesting, but also fell a bit flat. - Bruce High Quality Foundation
Oh whoops, here is another video piece. Well, three out of eighty million isn’t bad. And it wasn’t just video, it was a video being projected onto the windshield of a 1972 Miller-Meteor ambulance/hearse. Like the David Adamo piece, this was also very clearly post-Beuys– the title, We Like America and America Likes us, is even a direct Beuys reference, and the video being projected onto the windshield had footage of Beuys being transported to said performance. And, uh, footage from Ghostbusters. It was better/creepier/more moving in person, but Bruce High Quality Foundation has uploaded it to Vimeo for your benefit: - Lesley Vance
I’m sure that every single reviewer of Lesley Vance has used to the word “luscious” to describe her paintings, but I can’t help doing the same. They’re a nigh-perfect manifestation of the word. She photographs still lifes, and then abstracts them into paintings. I wish I had an image of this from the side to show you– the paint is so thick, just smeared around with palette knives, and beautifully luminous.
Untitled (14), by Lesley Vance
- Charles Ray
I’m more familiar with Ray for his sculpture, but was struck by the number of giant drawings of flowers that were exhibited. Basically, I just wanted to note: Charles Ray also draws flowers. Pretty ones. Like from the 1970s.
Tags: Bruce High Quality Foundation, Charles Ray, Kate Gilmore, Lesley Vance, Lorraine O'Grady, Thomas Houseago, whitney biennial
