Chelsea Gallery Hopping

On the subway ride to Chelsea Monday I had a chance to read one of the five or so articles that were handed out in class prior to departure. The article was "iHappenings: Slicing Art Out of Life," the New York Times review of Lucas Samaras' show at Pace-Wildenstein Gallery (pictured: Lucas Samaras self portrait). His became the show I was looking forward to the most and ultimately was my favorite by far.

From the article I learned that his exhibition would include many short films, each about five minutes long, composed in iMovie. As you may know and may or may not remember, I'm intent on sharpening my prowess on all things Mac lately, so the article immediately spoke to me. I love the idea that with enough skills I can create something just between me and my computer and whatever content necessary.

Samaras took exactly this realization and went all over the place with it. Topics range from slicing turkey to ariel time-lapse to the artist himself juicing breakfast. Samaras takes his footage and usually uses iMovie to add some little touch. For example, he runs footage of partiers raining toilet paper rolls down on a parade backward, making the toilet paper rolls look like white snakes slithering back up to the balcony. The highlight of the show features Samaras stripping down naked and assuming different poses in a chair. The added "bump filter" creates a 3-D bulge in the middle of the image, distoring it just enough to allow the 72 year old man's ballet to be a joy to watch. From the New York Times:

"His forearms bulge like Popeye's; his chest swells as he lounges like an odalisque; his belly balloons, as if in pregnancy. Toward the end he regarbs himself and hunches over, head in hands as if aping Rodin's 'Thinker' pose."

At times, recent generations fall under the spell that media art needs to be ever more complex and flashy to be valuable. Maybe it takes a man who is 72 to contribute something so sublimely simple. Although, I must say that I'm not sure anyone younger would get an exhibition out of it!