Tag: september 2016

A strange looking Moonbird

The Humble FabulistLeave a comment

I (mis)took it for a Pokémon Go-ers meeting point until I discovered that it is actually Joan Miró’s Oiseau lunaire (Moonbird), or rather an enlarged version of the sculpture the artist created in 1966. I still think it is the perfect meeting spot for Pokémon Go-ers, although I haven’t seen any crowds appear from nowhere around it yet. It mostly gets ignored in favour of the nearby actual Pokémon hunters’ spot at the Grand Army Plaza or – for the rest of the world – the dazzling 5th Avenue shop windows.What

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Midtown Manhattan, Solow Building on 58th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.

September 11th, 2016

Rain of Light

The Humble Fabulist3 Comments

My title, not the artist’s. The artist left it untitled so I thought, what if I call it ”Rain of Light”, isn’t it more fitting? Presumptuous may be, but it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw it illuminating the stairwell, making it an integral part of the museum rather than a solely utilitarian feature. I instantly thanked myself for choosing to take the stairs instead of the lift.

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Ambience

Felix Gonzalez-Torres
”Untitled” (America), 1994

Twelve light strings, each with forty-two 15-watt lightbulbs and rubber sockets, at the stairwell of The Whitney Museum of American aRt.

September 10th, 2016

Melting away Standing

The Humble Fabulist2 Comments

Larger than Life.

wp20160910_202444Day in Night out.

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Recast and lit anew – the cycle of Life.

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Caption accompanying Standing Julian:

Standing Julian is a portrait of Urs Fischer’s friend and fellow artist Julian Schnabel. The massive sculpture is also a wax candle: lit every morning and extinguished each night, Standing Julian will slowly melt over the course of the exhibition. Although this candle will eventually burn down and be discarded – a process that evokes the inevitable transience of life – the sculpture can also be recast and lit anew. As Fischer explained, his waxworks allow ”materials and images take on their own life.”

That was Julian, captured in September. Is there anything left of him today, I wonder. Is he still turning into a puddle of soft wax? Has a new Julian taken his place?

Would I know if nobody told me?

Standing Julian, 2015
Wax, pigment, steel and wicks

Urs Fischer

September 10th, 2016 at The Whitney Museum of American aRt