[note: many, if not most, of these links may no longer be working, but such is the nature of the digital. hopefully, the url and context are enough to help you find any further information you want. if not, feel free to contact me, and i’ll try to help.]
sgosto 2016
¡hola, difus@s!
apologies in advance for the brevity of this month’s e-pistle. i’m still on the road… july was rather bleak, especially in terms of domestic and international politics, and i saw hardly enough art to buoy my spirits. the coincidence of the closing of the democratic convention and the blooming of the new york botanical garden’s corpse flower, however, did strike me as divine humor and cosmic critique…
what little i did see was generally good, particularly the rachel harrison and bouchra khalili shows at moma. i’d seen parts of the latter at marian goodman years ago, so it was great to see more of it so beautifully installed. perth amboy was entirely new to me, and, while i found the installation generally effective, the photographs have stuck with me most. small mouth sounds is wonderfully inventive, delightfully entertaining, and ultimately quite affecting. i’ve found myself thinking about the characters and their struggles (and ticks) far more than i’d expected in the month since i saw it.
august is the year’s quietest month, with most of the art world on holiday and most performing spaces dark. there’s still some good stuff to see, mostly in the cinemas, but generally, it’s a fine month to relax and rest up before the fall season arrives in september.
film: nearly all the best goings-on this month take place in the cinema, starting off with derek jarman’s almost unseen will you dance with me?, part of metrograph’s “dim all the lights: disco and the movies” series and a terrific complement to anthology’s “things: a queer legacy of graphic art and play: curt mcdowell, tom rubnitz, and robert ford” series. anthology has another very important (“urgent” seems a woeful understatement) feature playing later in the month, lampedusa in winter. preceding werner herzog’s much-anticipated lo and behold, reveries of the connected world (which i’m particularly eager to see), ifc presents a fantastic retrospective of his work, “ecstatic truths: documentaries by herzog.” bam begins a two-month retrospective of robert frank’s films, and the museum of the movie image begins a series of contemporary brazilian film. on the lighter side, metrograph has assembled a series of madonna’s films (!!!), and bam begins a series of mgm musicals. among the month’s other notable features are multiple maniacs (early john waters!), nanook of the north, ixcanul, kate plays christine, and the seasons in quincy: four portraits of john berger.
performance + theater: joe’s pub has two shows by artists i’ve been meaning to see for some time, ryan rafferty and pam ann. new shows are a rarity in august, but quiet, comfort at jack and uncle tom vs. uncle sam at symphony space both strike me as timely and worth exploring. among the quality shows continuing through the month are sense and sensibility, small mouth sounds, and the effect.
music: my number one priority this month is pj harvey, who just added a second show because the first sold out so quickly (months ago). i’ve seen her perform at least five times before, and she’s never delivered a bad show, ever. given the political content of this latest album (as well as its predecessor, a veritable masterpiece—and, for the record, she foresaw the brexit vote in 2011 with “the last living rose”), i’m quite excited to see what she does with this one on stage. earlier in the month, paola prestini premieres the hubble cantata / tigue at the prospect park bandshell, where andra day plays a week later. another premiere well worth catching is david lang’s the public domain. more squarely in the approval matrix’s southeast quadrant, my guilty musical pleasure this month is the gogo’s farewell tour at the stone pony.
dance: fortunately for dance lovers, both lincoln center and the joyce keep their stages going all year long, so you can see mark morris at the former and balletx at the latter. if you need more to get you through to september, you can always watch dv8 physical theatre’s enter achilles, dead dreams of monochrome men, and the cost of living.
art: though many galleries shutter for the latter half of august (and many museum shows start to turn over), there’s still plenty to see. vito acconci: where are we now? (and who are we anyway?), diane arbus: in the beginning, early liturgical textiles from egypt, 200–400, phil collins: how to make are refugee, and the keeper are at the top of my museum list. among the gallery shows i want to see before they close are bas jan ader, jessica stockholder, john akomfrah, lucas samaras, blackness in abstraction, and paul outerbridge. i’d also like to check out the renee and chaim gross foundation (thanks to this article in artnews) and, weather-permitting, start working my way through the parks department’s map of public artworks (which is probably the closest i’ll get to pokemon go!).
as always, the full monthly calendar follows, which shows just how quiet this month is relative to the rest of the year. you can also share the information with those you love here.
abrazos,
p
agosto / august
1-: the effect (theater)
1-: sense & sensibility (theater)
1-: small mouth sounds (theater)
1-: voyeurism, surveillance, and identity in the cinema (film)
1-8: ryan raftery’s watch what happens – live on stage! (performance)
2: beirut (music)
4: run lola run with live score by the bays / joan as police woman & benjamin lazar davis (film, music)
4-: the films of robert frank (film)
5-11: neither heaven nor earth (film)
5-11: will you dance with me? (film)
5-11: dim all the lights: disco and the movies (film)
5-11: multiple maniacs (film)
5-18: little men (film)
5-28: uncle tom vs. uncle sam (theater)
6: the hubble cantata / tigue (music)
10-16: an art that nature makes: the work of rosamond purcell (film)
11: nanook of the north (film)
11-16: quiet, comfort (theater)
11-18: things: a queer legacy of graphic art and play: curt mcdowell, tom rubnitz, and robert ford (film)
11-20: pam ann: summer of pam (performance)
12-18: disorder (film)
12-18: shall we play a game? (film)
12-18: the last arcade (film)
12-18: ecstatic truths: documentaries by herzog (film)
13: andra day / son little (music)
13: the public domain (music)
15-16: pj harvey (music)
16-21: balletx (dance)
19-21: lampedusa in winter (film)
19-25: ixcanul (film)
19-: lo and behold, reveries of the connected world (film)
19-: o brasil: contemporary brazilian cinema (film)
24-27: mark morris: mozart dances (dance)
24-30: kate plays christine (film)
26-: that’s entertainment: mgm musicals part i (film)
27-: body of work: a madonna retrospective (film)
31-: the seasons in quincy: four portraits of john berger (film)