"Counter Culture" on the Bowery and vicinity

When you move to a new home, it's friendly to introduce yourself to the neighbors. With the exhibition "Counter Culture," curated by Melanie Cohen, the New Museum of Contemporary Art did just that before construction of its new facility at 235 Bowery had even begun. (The building on Broadway closed in June.) Five artists and an artists' collective, each in cooperation with a local business, devised site-specific pieces based on the history of the neighborhood and the idea of exchange.

Some projects actively engaged Bowery denizens. Marion Wilson set up an art-vending cart outside the Bowery Mission, an organization for the homeless. She made small sculptures from common objects cast in resin. Embedded in the resin were items acquired from people she met at the Mission. One collaborator sold Wilson his mass of dreadlocks. She put sections of his hair in the sculptures and used it as the stems for boutonnieres. All works were for sale, and proceeds were shared with the Mission.

Julianne Swartz ran a PVC pipe outfitted with mirrors from street level to the second-floor lobby of the Sunshine Hotel, a no-frills rooming house at 241 Bowery. Passersby and hotel residents were able to have conversations through the tube. Swartz created a conduit for interactions that otherwise would have been unlikely to occur.

Ricardo Miranda Zuniga's contribution focused on the documentary. He interviewed various people who work or live in the neighborhood, including residents of the Sunshine Hotel and Anton of Bari Restaurant Equipment. The soundtracks from the discussions were coupled with 3-D animations of the subjects' faces. The artist displayed them on a Web site and in an installation at SILO gallery, located on Freeman Alley off Rivington Street. A recurring topic of the interviews was the change in the neighborhood over the last 20 or so years, from skid row and junkie hot spot to a partly gentrified area with trendy clubs and shops.

In the forecourt of the high-end restaurant Public, on Elizabeth Street, Jean Shin created a wishing well out of stainless-steel kitchen sinks, the type found at the restaurant supply shops on Bowery. The basins of the sinks held a continuously replenished supply of thick soap bubbles into which you were encouraged to toss a penny and make a wish. The collective Flux Factory, which currently has 13 members, created a whimsical, interactive project titled Secret Spaces. The artists, who include Morgan Meis, Stefany Anne Golberg and Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria, constructed a hidden cardboard compartment in the back room of Bowery Martial Arts. Humorous videotaped messages presented instructions to participants for secret missions. The assignments ranged from the simple (pick up a piece of trash on Bowery and bring it to Elizabeth Street) to "special ops" (go to Canada and conduct surveillance). Raul Vincent Enriquez gave the show its overall identity by creating a graphic logo, a map and a clever audio tour that could be downloaded or purchased for $2 on CD. Based on comments by locals gathered on the show's closing day, "Counter Culture" was effective in bridging the distance between the museum and the community. Until the museum's building is complete in 2006, exhibitions of a more traditional sort will be held at the Chelsea Art Museum on West 22nd Street.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group