Yams Collective on Whitney protest and white supremacy in the arts

The Yams, On the Whitney and White Supremacy
by Ben Davis, artnet, May 30 2014

HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN? collective pulls work from Whitney Biennial

Artist Collective Withdraws from Whitney Biennial
by Mostafa Heddaya, Hyperallergic, May 14, 2014

She's back! Jaime Shearn Coan sees taisha paggett at the Whitney

taisha paggett’s Geography of We
by Jaime Shearn Coan, The Brooklyn Rail, May 6, 2014

The consequences of men: Gutierrez and Mahar at the Whitney

Dancers Mickey Mahar (l)
and Miguel Gutierrez (before he went fabulously blond)
(photo by Eric McNatt)

Some questions raised by an afternoon visit to Age & Beauty Part 1: Mid-Career Artist/Suicide Note or &:1/, a world premiere and Whitney Biennial commission by Miguel Gutierrez in collaboration with Mickey Mahar:

1. Do ten nails with freshly, perfectly painted "divine decadence" trump an offer of fluorescent hot pink polish?

Answer: Why, yes. They do. Refuse the offer.

2. Fluorescent hot pink strips pop off white walls and floors. Is this the queerest color of them all?

Yes. Inescapably so. Especially in a swimming suit and face paint on a newly bleached-blond, bearded choreographer.

3. Is 13 a lucky number?

Answer: Yes, if it's your 13th show.

4. I have a thousand and ten thousand things to say to you. My heart is full of futurity. What does this William Blake line (from a letter to Thomas Butts) have to do with anything?

Answer: We'll find out.

Some man got nervous--or something--yesterday at the Whitney, just as Miguel Gutierrez was winding down his affable introduction to Age & Beauty Part 1 in front of an audience jammed into a small, white-box performance space. The guy got up, mumbled an apology and left. Who knows why? Maybe all that gleaming white reflection was too much. Or maybe Gutierrez's hot (pink) look? In any case, he surely missed a thousand and ten thousand things.

The duet with Mickey Mahar launches a new area of investigation for Gutierrez and, he says, "deals with the challenge of being a mid-career artist and the attendant questions of longevity, sustainability, aesthetic signature and burnout."

Its opening passage gives us ample time to compare the two men--different in ethnicity, age, physique, skin tone and garb--as they move in strict unison. It is all parade, a mechanical display of hotness--shimmying and shrugging shoulders, deep pliés, gestures of arms and legs growing in kinetic and linguistic intricacy--in sync with blaring, pounding house beats. Mahar's light, precise and detached approach contrasts, interestingly, with the choreographer's self-presentation. Gutierrez inhabits the movements in a way that seems to contain and constrain a thousand and ten thousand things just below the surface. (You're in there, Miguel. We see you!) This goes on and on but, in a little while, both men will achieve some moments of intense and impressive physical control and physical inevitability.

Further along, the individuality of each performer becomes more pronounced. Gutierrez is like hard rubber tumbling noisily; Mahar, equally turbulent but still somewhat delicate, strangely graceful in his awkwardness, like a baby animal.
And Gutierrez's text--a trenchant cross between spoken word and art song--wrenches an audience in so many directions in so short a space of time that the only possible response is sweat.

Age and Beauty Part 1 feels like entropy--a copious, detailed, rigorous language devolving into common and familiar, if passionate, expression, Mahar slow, dreamily writhing on the floor while Gutierrez runs or flails or belts a song into a white microphone.

At the end, Gutierrez calmly dismisses the audience: It's over; you can leave now, or words to that effect. Yesterday, the audience took a while to get that he was serious and to rise and file out. How strange to be told to leave at the end of a presentation but, remember, it was also kind of strange for Gutierrez to personally welcome us and introduce his own show. The feeling? Good and more than a little not so good. Friendly and maybe not so friendly. What is the choreographer saying about who we are and what we've been doing--and watching--for the last 55 minutes?

I could be wrong but, just below the surface, a thousand and ten thousand things, barely held in check, all sound like: Get the fuck out!

With additional dance material by Christoffer Schieche and Roman Van Houtven; set design by Miguel Gutierrez; lighting by Lenore Doxsee; costumes by Dusty Childers

Age & Beauty Part 1: Mid-Career Artist/Suicide Note or &:-/ runs through Sunday, May 4. Advanced ticket sales are closed. If available, tickets will be released each performance date at 11am. A stand-by line will form one hour prior to each performance.

For show information, click here.
For Biennial information, click here.
For general Whitney visitors information, click here.

2014 Whitney Biennial
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

She Gone Tarot: Flawless Sabrina reads Whitney Biennial artist

2014 Whitney Biennial artists Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst visit the apartment of drag performance icon Flawless Sabrina, who features in Drucker and Ernst’s video She Gone Rogue. Flawless Sabrina performs a Tarot reading for Drucker and the two discuss the pitfalls of success.

Watch video (2:36)

Saying yam in African: Working collectively towards the Whitney

Singular Art, Made by Plurals
Yams Collective Brings Work to Whitney Biennial
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, February 21, 2014

Alyssa Alpine on Michelson's "Devotion"

Devotion Study #1--The American Dancer
by Alyssa Alpine, Culturebot, March 9, 2012

Wacky Whitney pay-what-you-wish

Whitney Museum of American Art: Whitney Biennial: Open All Day and Night

From Wednesday, May 26 at 12am through Friday, May 28 at 11:59 pm, the Whitney Museum will remain open for three consecutive days as part of 2010 artist Michael Asher’s Biennial project.

Michael Asher’s initial proposal for the Whitney Biennial was to have the exhibition open continuously to the public twenty-four hours a day for one week (Monday, May 24 through Sunday, May 30).

Due to budgetary and human resources limitations, the Museum is unable to remain open to the public twenty-four hours a day for one week. As a result, the duration of this work has been shortened from the artist’s original proposal.

ADMISSION IS PAY-WHAT-YOU-WISH AT THE FOLLOWING TIMES:

From 12 am to 9 am on Wednesday, May 26

From 11 pm on Wednesday, May 26
to 9 am on Thursday, May 27

From 11 pm on Thursday, May 27
to 9 am on Friday, May 28

From 6 pm to 11:59 pm on Friday, May 28

Regular admission prices are in effect for all other hours. 

Visitor information, including directions

Sasamoto will take her "2010" turn

Join Aki Sasamoto and Culture Push for an experiential workshop at 2010, the Whitney Biennial:

My Turn: Aki Sasamoto and Culture Push at Whitney Biennial

Friday, April 16 -- 7:30pm

Free with Museum admission, which is pay-what-you-wish on Fridays from 6-9 pm; there are no special tickets or reservations.

My Turn invites artists to create programs for the Whitney’s public that are an extension of and informed by their own artistic processes and methods. Taking their contributions to 2010 as a point of departure, six Biennial artists explore key aspects of their practice to create distinctive evenings of performance, discussion, demonstration, and engagement.

Looking art in the eye

Marina Abramovic Faces Strangers Eye to Eye, for Art

by Jim Dwyer, The New York Times, April 2, 2010

Whirlwind "Twitter Tour" of Whitney's "2010"

Yesterday, I joined several social media colleagues for an exclusive (off-day) tour of the Whitney Museum's new Biennial--2010. Greeted by WNYC art critic Carolina Miranda and guided by Biennial co-curator Gary Carrion-Murayari, we wandered from floor-to-floor, gallery-to-gallery, tweeting madly, taking photos and trying to keep it all in perspective. I can't honestly say I retained enough of what was said or seen, but I do know the experience made me eager to explore the show with sufficient time and in sufficient depth.

Here's a link to some of my photos, posted this morning on Flickr, and you can catch up with all of our tweets by searching #whibi. (Request to follow @magickaleva to see mine.) I also managed to post some remarks to Facebook yesterday and posted my set of photos today. Enjoy!

More on tomorrow's Whitney Biennial tour

My fellow participants and their social media tags: Follow us all!

Original post

Touring the Whitney Biennial

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll be joining several other "social-media mavens" for an exclusive tour of the Whitney Biennial 2010, guided by co-curator Gary Carrion-Murayari.

Be sure to check here--and possibly on Twitter--later in the afternoon for my commentary.

Thanks to the folks at WNYC and the Whitney for this unique opportunity!

Strike a pose

Voguing at the Whitney

by Julie Bloom, The New York Times, March 4, 2010