Incredibambool

You can place this in the "wasn't expecting that" file:  The Starn Brothers' Big Bambu transformed into bamboo logo on for the Times Style Magazine.

Images from Big Bambú party, May 17, 2009

Here are some images from the scene of Sunday's Big Bambú party hosted by Mike and Doug Starn.

When I first saw the work in early December, I was most struck by the contrast of the giant dirty box of the building harboring this living form rising to challenge the cold harshness of the space. But seeing Big Bambú again on Sunday, I was struck by the qualities of the bamboo as it's dried during these months. Like some agent of alchemy, the process of dehydration has transformed that irrepressible living form into an inert building material complying to the nature of its industrial environment.
It's funny that I hadn't thought to consider the process that organic matter would be subjected to in its role as an artwork. As a static work, the difference is startling. But as a work that is intended to move - or be moved, I expect there might be added significance to the work in the transference of that life force from the bamboo itself to the climbers who will affect its progress through the nave of the foundry building as they move over and within the tangled scaffolding like the colonies of organisms that life in and off of the husks of expired trees.

Big Bambú party update: May 17, 3:30-7:30 pm.

FYI, the time of the Big Bambú party being held on Sunday has been pushed back an hour to 3:3o pm and continue through 7:30 pm.
In an earlier post I mentioned that visitors would be asked to sign a waiver. This is no longer the case. Climbing of the work by visitors will definitely not be allowed, and it will be clearly posted thusly.
RSVP for visiting the site is not needed, but if you'd like directions to Big Bambú, or if you'd like to receive updates on Big Bambú activities, feel free to email bb[at]starnstudio.com.

Also, Big Bambú will be open to the public on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays (not Sundays) in June, July and August.

More Big Bambú info: Reception to be held on May 17 beginning at 2:30pm

In an earlier post I mentioned that Mike + Doug Starn will will be opening the Big Bambú to the public this coming weekend. There will actually be a reception held on Sunday, the 17th starting at 2:30 3:30 - 7:30 pm.
The Starns ask that if you are planning on visiting the project, to send an email to the studio at bb[at]starnstudio.com letting them know. If you send an email, as I did last week, you'll receive a reply with directions to the old Tallix building in Beacon. The email also informs you that you'll be visiting a working environment and although they'd like to permit climbing on the structure by members of the public, the chance of that opportunity is unlikely given issues of liability, and as of now, upon arrival visitors will be asked to sign a waiver stating they will not attempt to climb the work.
Update: Visitors will not be asked to sign a waiver to see the piece. Climbing of the work will not be permitted. RSVP is not needed if you want to visit, but if you'd like driving directions and if you'd like to be updated on Big Bambú goings on, feel free to email the studio: bb[at]starnstudio.com
Also, Big Bambú will be open on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays (not Sundays) in June, July and August.
Taking pictures and video of the work is welcome.
Big Bambú is located at 310 Fishkill Ave. The project's location is marked on the google map of Beacon Art Venues that lives in the sidebar.
Vernissage.tv recently posted a two part video of a talk with Starns gave in Beacon. Here's Part 1 and here's Part 2.

The Merry Month of May(kr)

May: a month so full of new and exciting possibilities that they just had to name it after this blog.

Storm King has awakened for the season and on May 9 will officially open Maya Lin's new Wavefield to the public. The third of a series of such earth works created by Lin, Wavefield is a four acre array of grass laden waves. Last fall the work seemed to be fully formed, but had only irregular patches of grass on the peaks and valleys and muddy tire tracks from the earth moving equipment still traced their way around the entire area. An accompanying exhibit of Lin's work is on view inside the park's gallery.
Here is Holland Cotter's NY Times write up of Wavefield (5/8/09)

The weekend of May 16 and 17 has several things going on.
That weekend essentially marks the sixth anniversary of the opening of Dia:Beacon (the museum opened on May 18, 2003). On the 16th, Dia:Beacon will be hosting the final Merce Cunningham Dance Company's event in the company's two year residency at the museum. As with all the other MCDC's events before it, this performance sold out quickly, so if you have no ticket by now, you still won't have one on the day of the event. I have not yet seen any last minute scalpers standing outside the museum hawking any extra tickets.
Also on that weekend, the museum will be opening a new exhibit of work by Antoni Tàpies "The Resources of Rhetoric" which is installed in the galleries that formerly housed multiple exhibits of Agnes Martin's work since the Riggio Galleries opened in 2003. The selection of Tàpies strikes me as a little odd, but I'm very interested in seeing it in relation to the museum's other work. The exhibit is the first in a series of institutional exchanges between Dia and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid. Tàpies' work will be on view through Oct 19, 2009.

May 15-17 marks the first of several weekends that Mike and Doug Starn's Big Bambú project will be open to the public. Between 11 am and 4 pm on each of those days, visitors are welcome to come by and see the work. If you're planning to visit, you are asked to send an email to the studio. The email address and driving directions are on the Starn's website. Big Bambú will be open to the public every 2nd and 4 weekend in June, July and August.

Also on the 16, Olafur Eliasson's Parliament of Reality officially opens on the campus of Bard College. Eliasson will be facilitating a series of presentations and symposia which are scheduled to happen on the island forum he's designed. I caught a glimpse of the permanent installation when it was under construction earlier this Spring.
As part of the opening activities, a conference is scheduled for the 15th on the use of music as instrument of torture will be led by the Human Rights Project at Bard.The opening events are free and open to the public.
I'll post schedule information when it comes available.

More 'Bú

The Starn twins' Big Bambú wa mentioned in an item in this week's Times Sunday Magazine.
The video below posted this week on Vernissage.tv is a longish non-narrated document of the open house/preview held in conjunction last month as part of the Armory Show.

Big Bambu event

photo by Mark Roland
Mark Roland was on hand to witness the demonstration event hosted today for VIP Armory Show guests in the home of the Starns' Big Bambu project. Mark has description and a slide show on the Beacon Citizen Network site.
a climber ascending the bamboo. photo by Mark Roland.

Fair Deal

The fairs are in full swing now down in New York and I'm going to head down tomorrow to sample a few things. I'm particularly interested in checking out Rune Olsen's project at Samson Projects at Volta. I'm hoping to make it over to Pulse as well, but my stamina and my interest just ain't what it used to be.
Of local interest, Jaanika Peerna will be participating in the Broad Thinking Curatorial Project at Bridge.
Over at the Armory Show, Stockholm's Wetterling Gallery will be presenting work by Mike and Doug Starn including recent pieces that relate to their Big Bambu project in Beacon. Armory VIP visitors will be able to view the installation in Tallix's former building in Beacon on Sunday, March 8
Coolhunting.com's lates video features the Starn's MTA subway station commission in New York:
For those interested, full fair coverage has started over at ArtFagCity.
I will be heading over to the Artblogger Panel being held tomorrow at 5pm. at Platform Project.
Also happening tomorrow, the newly opened NY station of Ecoartspace is hosting an exhibit of the Habitat for Artists project. The space will be open tomorrow from 12-6. Ecoartspace is located at 53 Mercer St., 3rd Floor.
Sharon L. Butler, who I'm sure will be at the Artblogger Panel recently referenced Ecoartspace and the Habitat project in her guest post on the Art 21 blog.

Mike & Doug Starn's Big Bambu Taking Root in Beacon

image via: starnstudio.com

On Friday morning I met with George Mansfield at the former Tallix building here in Beacon to take a peek at Mike and Doug Starn's Big Bambu project. Press releases went out recently about the work that's been underway in Beacon since September (I first saw the p.r. on beaconite.ning.com).

Big Bambu is a matrix of bamboo stalks lashed together to create a structure that brushes against the 50ft high ceiling and pretty much fills the width of the main hall of the building. Construction began at the western end of the space, proceeding to the east for some length (to about a third of the length of the space?) where the top of the form overtakes the base, acquiring the aspects of the curve of a wave creating an arch as it curls to meet the floor. It will be from this point, when work resumes in the Spring after a Winter hiatus, that the whole bamboo form will begin "walking" or flowing onward. Piece by piece, poles of bamboo will be removed from the point of origin (now the rear) of the structure, and grafted onto the leading edge.
A dozen or so climbers from the Shawangunks are scaling and tying the poles together using their newly learned techniques implemented in bamboo scaffolding construction throughout Asia.
If you can't squeeze a discernible image from my description, check out the Starns' website. There are images and video of the installation and an animation that will give you a sense of the projected mechanics as this thing goes kinetic.

This thing is massive. The video give a better sense of the structure than the photos, but neither really captures the light organic messiness of the work that it has in person. Images capture the erector set-like geometry of the construction, but the varied widths of the poles and the addition of some with clusters of leaves on them softens the overall appearance. Some of the thinner poles have a bit of an arc to them as their ends bend freely in the voids and on the edge of the form . This is just enough to lend the appearance of being woven and pliable. Chris Burden's actual Erector Set Rockafeller installation from earlier this year was tame and lame compared to this invasive growth.
The cavernous space that surrounds Big Bambu is seeded with some of the artists' other works (ginormous framed photo/collages leaning or hanging at various heights as well banner sized digital prints on a translucent gauzy paper suspended from high up) in a very in situ kind of way created punctuated sight lines throughout. The naturally lit industrial space enhances the living, supple quality of the bamboo.

As I understand it, there's a possibility that the Starns will open up the project for public viewing in the spring.

Seeing this activity in this building serves as a reminder of the enormous amount of space of similarly extraordinary dimension that sits dormant in this city. It's amazing to think of the untapped architectural resources in the collection of factories and industrial buildings that could serve as the foundation for a wave of development and economic and creative activity - and perhaps one or two kick ass bars too.

Monday's NY Times is running an item on the Starns and the South Ferry Subway Terminal in NYC that they've been working on for the past several years.