Benjamin Patterson, audience members participating in “Paper Piece” (1960), performed during Fluxus Festival/Theatre Compositions/Street Compositions/Exhibits/Electronic Music, Hypokriterion Theater, Amsterdam, June 23, 1963; gelatin silver print, 6 15/16 x 9 1/2″ (photographer: Oscar van Alphen) (The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift) (photo by Peter Butler) (via moma.org)
This week, performance lovers can choose between a Fluxus throwback and a contemporary multimedia rock opera; film buffs can check out documentaries and experimental animation; artists can contemplate the issues of digital media and the problems of fundraising. Fall’s in full swing, winter’s on its way, and the doctor hopes you’re staying warm and full of art.
Terms of Use
When: Tuesday, November 12, 7–9 pm
Where: Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center (Fashion Institute of Technology, Seventh Avenue at W 27th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
Digital art complicates a lot of standard, accepted concepts in the art world and market, among them authorship, copyright, tangibility, and salability. In other words, it’s complicated. This panel at FIT brings together a handful of artists, gallerists, and curators to tackle them. Don’t expect easy answers, but the discussion should be good.
Fluxus Scores
When: Tuesday, November 12, 8 pm ($20)
Where: Roulette (509 Atlantic Ave, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn)
One of the more art historical events on Performa 13′s forward-leaning schedule, Benjamin Patterson’s Action as Composition: A Retrospective Concert will feature the Fluxus member performing a first-ever retrospective of some of his groundbreaking, innovative work. Among the performances is the serendipitous ”Paper Piece,” one of the first Fluxus works to incorporation audience participation, a signature of the Fluxus movement, and subsequently, of much performance art of the future. —JP
Understanding a Photograph
When: Wednesday, November 13, 6:30 pm ($5 donation)
Where: Aperture Gallery and Bookstore (547 W 27th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
Geoff Dyer and a panel featuring Christophe Agou, Wendy Lesser, and Lawrence Weschler will discuss seminal art critic John Berger and his writings on photography. What’s missing? Well, Berger himself. But that’s about all that’s lacking from this sage-studged discussion, scheduled to coincide with the release of Aperture’s new publication, Understanding a Photograph, by Berger. At least he’ll be there in book form. —JP
Find Money for Your Art
When: Wednesday, November 13, 6–8 pm ($10)
Where: Queens Council on the Arts (37-11 35th Avenue, Astoria, Queens)
The title of this event is completely self-descriptive: Find Money for Your Art will, hopefully, help you do just that. The panel features representatives from New York Foundation for the Arts and City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer’s office, plus artist Mark Salinas, discussing grant writing, funding sources, and everything in between. Wednesday’s event is part 1 of a two-part workshop. RSVP required.
Rachel Mason, “Through the Mountain at the Center of the World” (image via Facebook)
Multimedia Rock Opera
When: Thursday, November 14, 8–10 pm & Friday, November 15, 8–11:45 pm ($8 each night)
Where: The Silent Barn (603 Bushwick Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn)
Performa may be the official visual art performance biennial, but if you want experimental performance year round, there’s no need to look further than our home borough. The Silent Barn is a good place for that, and it’s also home to the Center for Strategic Art and Agriculture, where Rachel Mason has been a resident for two months. This weekend, Mason will stage Through the Mountain at the Center of the World, a multimedia rock opera “in which viewers take part in a shamanic journey of dreams, spirit-finding, aleatory chaos, and destruction in a luminous landscape of sound, voice, movement, and collective action.”
Absolute Event
Liz Magic Laser, “Absolute Event” (2013), performance and six-channel video installation, approx. 25 minutes, featuring Gary Lee Mahmoud and Daniel Abse (via paulacoopergallery.com)
When: Thursday, November 14, & Saturday, November 16, 7 pm
Where: Paula Cooper Gallery (197 Tenth Ave, Chelsea, Manhattan)
Liz Magic Laser’s newest show befits her name. Combining audience participation, live performance by two former congressional staffers–cum–actors, Cyrano de Bergerac, network news, and American politics, Absolute Event promises to be a transcendently digital transmission. Laser will create the video installation during live performances on November 14 and 16 at 7 pm. It will then be on view at the gallery through November 30. —JP
Documentaries for Days
When: Thursday, November 14–Thursday, November 21 ($17 per film)
Where: IFC Center (323 Avenue of the Americas, West Village, Manhattan) & SVA Theatre (333 W 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
DOC NYC is formidable. It brings together some of the most-talked-about documentaries of the year — including three we’ve written about at Hyperallergic: The Act of Killing, Stories We Tell, and Dirty Wars — along with lesser-known international picks, fantastic-sounding premieres, and documentaries about art and design and music. There might actually be something for everyone. Get thee to the theater.
Experimental Animation
When: Friday, November 15, 8 pm & Saturday, November 16, 5 & 8 pm ($10–25)
Where: Pioneer Works (159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn)
You might say that the other end of the film spectrum, from documentaries, is experimental animation (although the two are not irreconcilable). If that’s more your style, head to Pioneer Works this weekend for the Eyeworks Festival. The lineup features a mix of old and new shorts, plus one feature. We’ve never been, but with animator Alexander Stewart and cartoonist Lilli Carré co-directing, we have high hopes.
The Kabakovs
When: Saturday, November 16, 5:40 pm ($12.50)
Where: Film Forum (209 W Houston St, West Village, Manhattan)
The USSR was a perverse intellectual nursery. It created generations of brilliant minds it could only disown or stultify, or, failing that, murder. The documentary Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here profiles the celebrated disowned art couple, finding in their life and work a bridge across Russia’s traumatic history. The film opens at Film Forum this Wednesday, November 13, with select shows featuring introductions from Emilia Kabakov and a Q&A with the filmmakers, including the early Saturday screening. (Work by the Kabakovs can also be seen at Pace Gallery through December 21.) —JP
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With listings by Mostafa Heddaya and Jeremy Polacek