By: Melissa Shaw
Pulse? Yes, it had one, but the vitals were a little weak.
Before entering Pier 40’s Pulse exhibition, I was greeted by R. Luke DuBois’ installation Hindsight is Always 20/20 hosted by Bitforms Gallery NYC, presented along the perimeter of the walkway leading to the check-in gate. The viewer had the opportunity to peruse a series of Illuminated eye charts featuring the words of different State of the Union Addresses through time; the most frequently used words were shown large and bold at the top of the Snellien- inspired charts and the least uttered words down below in the spots where most of us have to squint to read. This was definitely one the strongest showings of the fair.
Once inside, having taken in what over one hundred galleries from around the world and the United States looked like, I abandoned any hope of a well thought out agenda and decided to adopt the tactic of “chance operations” by walking aimlessly around looking for whatever caught my eye.
Stand outs of the show included Clifton Childree’s Miamuh Swamp Adventure, a dilapidated shanty of an installation designed to feel, possibly, like an old movie theater. The ramshackle overgrown hut that was Miamuh Swamp Adventure played an old silent film, on a loop, about the “bait and switch” swampland property scheme that took place in Miami in the 1900’s. I liked this effort, particularly because of its relevance to the current clamor about real estate and ponzi scams.
Random Rules: A Channel of Artists’ Selections from YouTube curated by Marina Fokidis also feels particularly relevant in light of the viral obsessions of such hits as “David after the Dentist” and “Kittens Inspired By Kittens.” If you have not seen these gems I urge you to please Google them. Marina Fokidis put together set lists of different artist’s favorite YouTube videos and had them run on a loop. A description of her vision and all of the selections can be seen at www.youtube.com/randomrules09. Don’t miss “Stomping Phones with Climbing Irons.”
In the “Press and Collectors lounge,” I stopped for an espresso, and met a collector who said his overall impression of the Fair was that it was a little “amateurish” and somewhat like a High School art class showing. I could relate to what he was saying, some of the pieces I examined that weekend were reminiscent of the DIY punk flavor that seems to be predominant in up and coming art cities like Berlin, and the rough paper-cut stop animation of some of the videos also carried the loose illustrative qualities of someone’s sketchbook. I would not say it looked like people were just experimenting with “this art stuff” for the first time, but it seemed to me that the vibe of Pulse was at times raw, and at times a watered down version of a Whitney Biennial.
Nothing I saw at Pulse was going to change the Art World, but there was an inspired presence in Los Angeles based artist Ron English’s Post-Modern-Apocalyptic-Guernica-esque whimsied mash-up from Copro Gallery’s booth entitled “Old Skool Vs. New Skool,” Habana Gallery’s showing from Havana, Cuba and Catherine Clark Gallery from San Francisco. If you are ever in these cities, legally or not, I would check in on what they were up to next.
Next year, perhaps, there will be more at Pulse to raise the heartbeat.
Pulse is a venue for youth and expression, neither exclusively connotes talent.
Posted by: j.block | April 07, 2009 at 03:14 PM