"Falls As The Leaves Do Fall"

As I walked down the streets of New York in search of the "New Museum" raindrops bombarded me from above. The directions on my iPhone said that it would only be a few blocks more but I"m always cautious with trusting it because it has failed me in the past. As I turned onto the corner of Bowery I am taken aback at the sight of this huge gigantic oddly shaped building that seems completely out of place among the very tiny restaurants around it. The top of the building was hidden behind rain clouds making it look ominous. The structure of the building was very reminiscent of my childhood days stacking wooden building blocks as high as I could just to see them get knocked down for my enjoyment. In this case the building consisted of six rectangular cubes, all a different shape, stacked in a nonlinear fashion. The next thing that caught my eye was the phrase "HELL, YES!" lit up brightly with rainbow colors in an arc shape on the bottom right hand corner of the second cube. I immediately knew I was going to enjoy this place.

The 5th floor consisted of the exhibition Museum as Hub: In and Out of Context which they described as being, a partnership of arts organizations looking to pursue experimental methods of exhibition, communication, and collaboration, and considers the consequences of being part of a "hub" This idea intrigued me greatly as I am interested in evolving and interactive art spaces that change and grow through time and interactions. Also it is an idea that I would like to try and achieve with my own thesis project. The first piece I encountered was the two-channel video work by John Bock entitled "Para-Schizo, ensnarled". It consisted of two video projected onto two screens side by side that were visually connected to each other with characters converging between the two channels. It is described as having two figures on distinct but parallel paths converge, clash, destroy, and imitate each other in a cycle of mutual interplay and action that almost suggests a love story. Even though that sounds very interesting it actually just comes off as an absurd pretentious horribly experimental overly produced video installation that tries to hard to be edgy and fails miserably.On the other hand i did however like the sound installation by Rana Hamadeh intitled "INTERROGATIONS 1-5 when they ask me I"ll introduce them to you" which consisted of 5 small stereo speakers mounted on the wall next to each other in a row. I loved the presentation of this piece because of the way the dialogue from the speakers invoked you to put your ear right up to them, close your other ear, and try to listen attentively to what is being said whilst shutting out everything else in the room. This is something i would like to explore through my thesis project.

After having experienced the playful interactivity of the 5th floor gallery I set off to proceed to the next floor. The first thing I noticed about the room was the tall ceiling and a lot of open space causing every sound you make to echo throughout the space. This floor consisted of the photographic installation called "Intersections Intersected: The Photography of David Goldblatt"

I enjoyed this exhibit very much, as it has given me much inspiration as to what i would like to do in my own thesis project. The way that his old black and white photos of everyday people in South Africa during the 1970's complimented the newer larger color photos of present day South Africa in such a brilliant way. The more recent photos almost seemed like they were the "where-are-they-now?" versions of the older ones giving the viewer a sense of how the past and present are intertwined with the passing of time., which of course explains the title of the exhibit. The way that he presented them side by side juxtaposing them with similar framing, and subject matter has given me new ideas on how i want to present my images in my project and also what the subject matter could be as well. Another thing that goes along with my thesis idea is the fact that i could hear in my head the type of sounds that i would imagine hearing if i was actually in that space for real. One of my ideas for my project consists of gathering the images that i deem worthy enough and look at them very attentively and create a sound piece that best describes what i am imagining they would sound like. Which is a continuation of what i did last semester.

I guess i should stop rambling on now. I guess i had so much i wanted to talk about from my visit to the New Museum. It really was very helpful to my thesis and also a very enjoyable evening in the city. I hope you all enjoyed it as well.

In Song,

Jeffrey John Masino