Chelsea Art, a Converted Sex Club, and a Handsome Blogger for Sale

New York City is for walking around. That is why living in a shoe box in that city is tolerable. You're not at home much.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, while wandering through the art galleries in Chelsea, we came upon some installations by Carolee Schneemann. This one is particularly amusing. Her work would have irritated me but I learned that she was making these installations forty years ago. A kinder, gentler, more naive time.




Later, in another neighborhood, we entered what had been a great sex club called El Mirage. It is now an art gallery. The video was bizarre, but would have gone over well with the previous clientele.



And earlier in the day, we were startled by the sight of a certain New York blogger friend. See the red dot next to his portrait? That's right, he's sold. I won't tell you his price.

Upside Down and Backwards

Yesterday, for no particular reason, we happened to stop by the Gladstone Gallery on West 24th St. They were exhibiting exactly one piece of art: Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla’s “Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared Piano.” (There are several performers who play in rotation. While we were there, a young man named Sun Jun, a Julliard student, was in the piano.)

C, who has of late returned to the keyboard, appreciated the difficulty of playing this Beethoven piece – or anything – upside down and backwards. I looked for meaning, about which I’ll spare you my snark.

It was nevertheless entirely entertaining and uplifting.

Later in the day, we went to see the movie Revolutionary Road in which Leonardo DiCaprio is trapped inside Kate Winslet while they play out their life upside down and backwards. Not uplifting.

See C

This afternoon we stopped by the Postmasters Gallery on 19th Street to see Jennifer and Kevin McCoy’s “I’ll Replace You”, a photography and video exhibit exploring the business of exchanging viewers, artists and critics with themselves (the real McCoys).

I was eager to see this because C is featured in a large composite photo in which Jennifer poses with a number of people who are wearing Kevin’s orange vest and a wig/glasses/stashe combination that mimics his look. (In an adjacent piece, Jennifer is replaced by people who pose with Kevin.)




Can you spot the boy, even as he recreates his pose, albeit in mirror image?



Here he is.



At another gallery we saw this, for which there are no words.