C.C. makes a New York Times debut!
So we’ve been following L. Ro.’s ArtsBeat coverage of Performa 07, as you know. And we were moved, for various reasons, to address some…concerns we’ve been having. Long story short, we posted this hot comment, and they actually published it! It totally relates to our last post. And we’re fired up over it all!
Basically, we feel that, in all of the talk about Performa and performance art and dance’s place in the art world, Chez Bushwick is getting way left out of the conversation. So we stepped up to point out a few things. We also think this is representative of a general dismissive attitude to younger work and efforts made by young artists to create new models for performance presentation that really deal with today’s economic environment.
I encourage any and all to join the fray. Comments are the best part of blog culture. Well, the best and worst.
Here’s our full comment:
Why is nobody talking about Chez Bushwick?
They have successfully forged a relationship with the Ronald Feldman Gallery. In December of 2006, they presented “Salon”, a series of three performances by artists including Ann Liv Young and Michael Portnoy (both art-world favorites). Chez Bushwick is even hosting their annual benefit at the gallery this weekend.
Even in this line of discussion that bemoans the passing of the 60s, which many of us are very bored by, no one has brought up that Chez Bushwick has, in a very new way, carried on the tradition of collective efforts toward progressive performance. Yvonne Rainer has even performed at Chez Bushwick. To list all of the artists that have passed through Chez Bushwick’s halls (even if they were the halls of a gallery, a gutted warehouse deep in Bushwick, or its own studio) would make this a very long comment. (You can see the ridiculous list here: http://chezbushwick.net/artists/history.html)
What makes it new? Chez Bushwick understands the time in which it exists. The creative community in New York is a business-run community. Dancers and choreographers seem very left behind in this reality. Chez Bushwick has managed to find a sustainable way to address financial needs of artist (everyone who performs there gets paid) without sacrificing an openness to new work, which has included people pissing and vomiting on the floor, a notorious lecture on how to cook a lobster that inspired a mini riot, to Ann Liv Young shoving a broom up her everybody-knows-what.
There are artists carrying on the spirit of experimentation in New York. And there are choreographers who have found galleries that are receptive to hosting dance. They’re simply being overlooked: Because everyone is looking backwards.
— Posted by Counter Critic
1 Comment(s)
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Work it out CC!