Hell Is Other People: Armory Show 2011

As every year, I was really looking forward to this year's Armory Show. On Saturday I made it over to the West Side round about 3pm, which evidently was critical mass at Pier 94. It remained at that level of crazy crowdedness until I had made it through the entire show at 6:30.


Sometimes it's hard to look at and appreciate art when there are swarms of people and all their opinions bumping you in the shoulder as they walk past (as anybody who's been to a Van Gogh show at the MoMA can tell you).




"Hmmm, yes yes, quite."


And in the midst of it all, someone decided it was a great opportunity to sit a group of kids down on the carpet in the middle of the walkway and have a lesson about contemporary art.


But anyway. As always, the great part about the Armory Show is the immense volume of art you see, up close and textural.






Mirrors... always a common theme.






This year wasn't the best year I've seen at the Armory... it wasn't terrible art (as has happened in select years past), but it just seemed as though there wasn't a lot that was really original or particularly inspiring. But there were some things I liked. Namely:










This was really cool - a giant scream scene that actually was three-dimensional.


Which was hard to capture, but you get the point...


This was creative and beautiful... cut out faces of African-Americans from vintage magazines with wild watercolor hair.


My hair kind of looked like this guy's that day.


White-on-white, one of my favorite aesthetic choices (I've been going through a bit of a white-on-white phase myself in the last year).


I like when somebody has the bravery to do a giant, complicated, swirly hanging sculpture like this.




This artist was fantastic in ways that are hard to describe on a blog. Peter Liversidge had several clever pieces, such as this semi-dazzling piece. I say semi- because you were only allowed to see a sliver of it.


Yes, thank you:


This was part of a series of tiny, intricately cut photos of bridges and industrial scenes. I mean, incredibly intricate.


Don't know why, but these two pages, in a wall series by Bernardo Ortiz, really really moved me. Two pages, in which the lyrics to Lou Reed's "Why Do You Talk," are separated, into the word "you" and everything else.




I liked this mixed media piece comprised of paint and colored plastic.




A lovely box filled with vials of water from holy sites around the world.










This was from a piece comprised of dedication pages from books.






Ah, loved this full room by Pae White. A font-lover's dream, or a gold-lover's, or a paper-lover's.






Mr. Steven Bindernagel is doing some stunning things with watercolor. I looked at his work for the longest time.


Soo Kim is doing some stunning things with paper cutouts, slicing delicately and letting the paper hang over itself.




This was weird and cool... porcelain statues hung upside down, from some kind of machine that would quiver every few seconds and make the statues break a bit each time. And make the people standing near it jump with a start.






And, of course, my favorite, Mel Bochner. Seen his work at every Armory Show of the last three years. I think it's high time I contact this guy.


That painting pretty much sums up Armory 2011. Still worth it!

love,
*jenna*