SCOPE- A Video Walk Through

Finally! I took this video at SCOPE art fair's preview last Wednesday afternoon, and I am just now getting it up for your viewing pleasure. My original thought was to have it finished before the fair opened, so people could see if they were interested in attending but, alas, it was not to be. Better late than never!

If you did go, how did you like it? SCOPE was probably a favorite of mine, not only for the quality of work but for the manageability of the fair overall.

In Honor of Valentine's Day Weekend: A Paper Cup Romance

Fresh from Ravels In Motion studio, a classic homage to the trials and tribulations of love. This Paper Cup Romance will give you thrills and chills as Coffee and Tea meet--and part-- for the first time.

Art Under the Bridge, the Video

It's been a while since I made a video, so I was really excited to capture some of the projects at the Art Under the Bridge Festival this past weekend. It was a sunny Fall day, and a lot of people came out to stroll around. There was so much to see and do I'm afraid I don't give much information about individual projects. You can see a list of all the projects on the Dumbo Arts Center website. There was a lot of creativity and fun in the air, so I hope you get a sense of what it was like in this Ravels in Motion production.

High Times in Georgia

Consider this a temporary reprieve from another post about Hungarian art. For a change of pace and scenery, check out my belated video chronicaling my trip to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, its lukewarm exhibitions and its nice developing collection of contemporary art.



There's more on Richard Misrach here.

And yes, exhibitions can be described as lukewarm...I just can't think of another adjective right now...they're all being used on this stupid attempt at a novel.

Stupid novel.

Shakespeare in the Park's Twelth Night

I braved the rain this past Friday to stand in line for tickets to see the first play of the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park season, Twelfth Night. The experience both of getting tickets and seeing the play is unique. As I suggest in the video, the play is easily worth the process--I waited for tickets for only 3 hours!



I lucked out with clear skies and a faithful, delightful performance that had the audience laughing every other minute. The acting and the music was excellent, as I hope you can see in the video. Unfortunately, the Ravels in Motion crew is not used to shooting at night (and I was more interested in the play, to be honest) but hopefully you get enough of an idea to get in line at 8 AM in the upcoming weeks and see it for yourself.

Did I mention tickets were free? Anne Hathaway can sing? It's on the lake at Central Park?

Less Street, More Art: Whole in the Wall

Street art started out as graffiti in New York in the 1970s, but has developed and spread to be much more than that. This weekend the Ravels in Motion crew, and by that I mean myself with my new video camera, went to see Whole in the Wall: 1970 - Now, a large exhibition put together by the Helen Beck Gallery featuring some of the most prominent street artist from the 1970s onward. It's on through June 27 at 529-535 W. 35th Street, and it's really interesting both as a piece of New York history and in the way it presents street art as its seeming antithesis, fine art.

Human Carriage Gets Applause

Ann Hamilton created the site-specific Human Carriage for the recently closed Third Mind exhibition at the Guggenheim, and I wanted to share it with you because it was absolutely delightful. Her formal description of human carriage reads “Installation of cloth, wire, bells, books, string, pipe, pulleys, pages, cable, gravity, air, and sound.”



It was a playful and fun installation. It was also affecting: viewers clapped every time the book finally dropped. Every time. Once it got stuck, and I stopped in my tracks. What would happen now? (A museum worker with a pole pushed it along.)

The Guggenheim Museum described its working thus: “Hamilton devises a mechanism that traverses the entire Guggenheim balustrade, taking the form of a white silk ‘bell carriage’ with Tibetan bells attached inside. As the cage spirals down along the balustrade, the purifying bells ring, awakening viewers. The mechanism is hoisted back up to a post at the uppermost Rotunda Level 6, where an attendant exchanges weights composed of thousands of cut-up books that counter the pulley system that propels the mechanism itself."

Ravels in Review Friday

You'll be happy to know that dinner last night was delicious: tilapia, brussel sprouts, and potatoes; and a good time was had be all. (I know you were anxious about my entertaining abilities.)

As it is finally Friday, it's time for a Ravels in Review post. I think the week certainly started out on a good note with a long-overdue introduction.

• So if you had any lingering questions about yours truly, check out the video post in which I formally introduce myself.
  
• In another video post, I give you a glimpse into Nearly Ninety at BAM, at which Merce Cunningham, Sonic Youth, and John Paul Jones created an interesting collaboration.
  
• The performance inspired me to learn more about experimental composer John Cage.
  
• I discussed the Pulitzer Prize process (say that 3 times fast..) and Holland Cotter's win for Criticism.
  
• I shared some of my recent reading with a poem by Emiliy Dickinson.
  
• Yesterday, I left you with a To Do list of great gallery openings.

If anybody had a chance to check things out in Chelsea, let us know. Hopefully I'll follow that gallery list myself! Today is 70 degrees and sunny--what could be better?

Happy Friday all!

Finally, a Formal Introduction

So I'm afraid I may have been rude, dear reader. All these posts, and we've never been formally introduced. So please, accept my apologies and watch this video:



It's been a pleasure to meet you. Leave a comment and introduce yourself.

Ravels in Review and GOODBYE

Click "Se Flimklippet" to see another video I made, that you can make too! The ModernaMuseet, or Modern Museum, in Stockholm has a fun program that lets you create videos on your keyboard, and then they are posted at the museum during an upcoming exhibition.

I said another video earlier because, as you might have seen, this week was the premiere of another Ravels In Motion production, of a recent visit to Chelsea to see painter Anne Neely's latest works. I think they're well-worth seeing if you have the chance. (Both my videos and her works.

For more great art, check out Melissa Meyer's dancing paintings and some intersting examples of what can be done in clay. If you feel a little tired of life during these dreary March days, see Doug Aitken's Sleepwalkers film and read about how it was installed at MoMA.

In addition to the good times, we've also had some disappointing times here during our ravels, and this week proved to be full of them. Not only was favorite author Milan Kundera shown to be a communist sell out and Shakespeare unattractive, but Alessandro Twombly showed some works recently that are distrubingly similar to his father's, painter Cy Twombly.

All these disaapointments in one week were too much for me! So goodbye, dear reader, and farewell!

I'm going to go drown my sorrows in the Costa Rican surf and chilly cervecas. (Because if you have to drown your sorrows, Costa Rica is the place to do it, no?) But fear not for I shall return to you in good time, specifically, April 6. Adios!

Anne Neely at Lohen Giduld Gallery

Ravels in Motion productions, as I like to call myself when I wield a video camera, had a busy time in Chelsea this weekend. Among the galleries I visited, I wanted to highlight the show at the Lohin Geduld gallery that will be on until April 25 entitled Where There's Water. These oil paintings by Anne Neely are landscapes that verge on colorful abstraction. I'm thrilled to share painter Anne Neely's work with you here, especially as the artist was in the gallery and speaks with us some about her work.


Enjoy!

Ravels in Review Friday

Hello bloggy reader! And welcome to another installment of Ravels in Review Friday. Although stupefied that on this Spring day snow is falling, I shall persevere. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor internet connection problems shall keep the blogger away.


We really were well-rounded artworld citizens this week, as we jumped from an informative post on Albrecht Durer's painting, which drew some admiring glances of the basest kind from readers, to current topics such as how fashion is (not!) art and whether public art becomes part of the landscape. (If art needs to be on a gallery or museum wall to be recognized as art, what does that say about the nature of art?) Then we had some laughs with the stellar cast of Blithe Spirit, currently playing at the Shubert Theater.

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, we have a video of Art Ravels on a trip to MoMA for the Martin Kippenberger exhibition! It's very exciting: there's music; there's lights; there's my voiceover; there's some shaky camera work. Let me know how you think it ranks next to another Martin Kippenberger at MoMA video.

Also, I would like to do another art video adventure. Does anyone have suggestions on where I should go?

Another Kippenberger at MoMA video?

Some might say I'm cannibalizing my own content value by showing you another, better (in some respects) video of the Martin Kippenberger exhibition. My video is here, by the way.

This video tour is by New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz. I knew something like this was in the works. When I was doing the a little video reconnaissance, I bumped into Saltz, a camera guy, and a MoMA employee. I followed part of their filming through the exhibition and really enjoyed listening to Saltz. Also, watching him stand next to the sculpture Martin, Into the Corner, You Should be Ashamed of Yourself was quite fun.

So in terms of video, let's see how things stack up.

Jerry Saltz's Video V. Art Ravel's Video

Non-shaky camera v. Some very wobbly bits
Clear sound levels v. Awesome soundtrack
Access to exhibition v. Difficulty getting images
Knowledge of artist v. Charmingly fresh perspective (?)

My gorilla effort may not have the polished production of New York Magazine's; in fact, it barely has transitions. Even so, I think between my music and my lovely self, it's a fun romp through the MoMA show. Perhaps I'm biased.

*Commenters who prefer my video will be sent a brownie.

Martin Kippenberger at MoMA

This is the first Ravels In Motion production, of many I hope, in which I visit the Martin Kippenberger exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Kippenberger was a prolific, short-lived artist who created an interesting, influential body of work. Hopefully this is a fun introduction to the artist and exhibition for you.

First "Ravels in Motion" Production!

We hard-working bloggers here at Art Ravels, by that I mean myself, rolled up our sleeves and created a art adventure video! Having just spent the day putting it together, I'm unduly excited about it. So excited I've planned the next 5 videos from Ravels in Motion productions.

Look out for it tomorrow. Let me know if you like it, and if anyone has some iMovie tips, please let me know.

Cheers,
Art