Friday, April 30, 2010

Photography exhibit focuses on Flushing River

From Urban Omnibus:

Spanish-born, Rotterdam-based artist Lara Almarcegui’s Guide to the Wastelands of Flushing River — at Ludlow38 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side — carves an interdisciplinary niche at the intersection of photography, urban studies, and performance — a terrain every bit as ambiguous and enticing as the urban spaces documented in her work.

Guide to the Wastelands is the main attraction here, but taken in context with the other works on display...the selection reveals a broader interest in the physical stuff that composes the built environment, and the voids that remain when it is removed. Mostly, this interest is communicated through photographic documentation. But the inclusion of a portable brochure reveals a hint of the political in Almarcegui’s didactic intent, as if to say “take a guide, get out of your apartment and go see the site for yourself — before developers drop cheap condos on it.”

This gesture places places the work in a lineage of conceptual artists who engage audiences by prompting behavior; Almarcegui’s approach is simply re-tooled for the soft-power, facebook era. The more we know about the Flushing River (or the Gowanus Canal or Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill), the more likely we are to advocate for its sensitive reweaving into the urban fabric of New York. Compared to the work of other international artists, Almarcegui’s work is not glamorous. But by exposing the forgotten spaces in our midst, it’s just might be more important.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Almarcegui’s work is not glamorous. But by exposing the forgotten spaces in our midst, it’s just might be more important."

Huh? Flushing River forgotten??? Go ask bovine Shulman and her crooked gang of thieves if they forgot the river. OK. I will admit that the river has a better scent than Shulman...and that's with remediation. The river, not Shulman.

Anonymous said...

Get the picture?

Unknown said...

I've been out there doing my own work a few times this Spring, and could never figure out what the hell that area was for. Art?

Damnit. I really thought it was some kind of shoreline reclamation. I hope they didn't damage or destroy the egret and turtle nests that are right there.

Anonymous said...

Maybe they can catch "granny" Shulman taking a wee-wee in the river.

She can't hold her water after those long Willets Point sellout meetings of hers and she's often been spotted relieving herself at the river's edge.

All the wildlife has taken flight at the sight of her granny panties!

WHAT A BUTT UGLY BUTT SHE'S GOT (or was that her face...hard to tell the difference these days)!