Today we went to the MoMA’s PS1 location in the Long Island City portion of Queens. The location, which used to be a public school, featured an exhibition that runs every five years entitled “The Greater New York.” The show aims to capture the modern world of art, with a number of artists and work, ranging from installation to mixed media pieces. It also includes a number of multi sensory pieces of film and video. Upon walking into the first floor of the exhibition one is greeted with a wire frame wall covered in T shirts. On closer inspection it becomes clear that these T-shirts are misprints and misspellings of elements of popular culture (such as Hello Kitty) as well as luxury brands (Channel, Louis Vitton etc..) Continuing on there is a video instalation shown on a pile of oysters entitled “Midden.” There is not much else on this floor but there is much more on the floor below and the two floors above. The floor bleow featrured a whole room installation. It almost looked like a gallery or a merket that you might find on the streets of New York City. It was full of cardboard with art, coins, t-shirts and little tiny trinkets. The top floors contianed a few rooms with instalaltions and scultptual peices. One notable peice was a circular group of dirt stones. As an archaeologist, it made me think of a dig site – though that wasn’t the piont of the peice. Just attached to this section was a room with a red strobe light. I couldn’t help but think that this peice was a waste of space. It didn’t have much impact but took up a lot of space. The second floor also contained a really interesting installation about New York City and Covid-19. Walking into the space was off putting. The viewer is hit with a rush of color witht the walls being painted blue and print with many different flags pasted around the walls. I also really liked how this peoce focused on the immigrant population within the city, especially becuase New York is coloqually known as a “second Puerto Rico.” The third floor, was my favorite. It featured the most diverse peices with work ranging from Japanese artists to Nigerain artists. It also contained a range of work with video, photography, painting, drawing and sculpture. My favorite peice on this floor, was the series of scultptures that utlized everyday objects, even trash, to make a calander. While somewhat gross to look at, as a result of using objects that have been picked up from the streets (such as hair, ketchup packets, jewelery, dirt and more) it makes an interesting commentary on everyday life and the value of objects. The whole echibitoin felt somewhat fragmentary and even though there was a central theme, it didn’t feel as though there was one. Maybe this is becuse the building showcased 47 different artsits, however it is interesting to not that this is a smaller number of artists than previous years.
Another thing I found really interesting is the location. Despite the fact that this was once a public school, it felt very much like walking through an art installation. Even the graffiti throughout the building felt like it belonged. It was interesting to see the juxtaposition of the building with the design of the art. The building felt very old (seen in the architecture and the building design as well as the creaking of the floor) however, the art was very modern and very conceptual. It reminded me of the kind of spaces we saw in the Chelsea galleries.
