A visit to the New Museum

I have a wonderful time babysitting Emma twice a week. We laugh, we cook, we nap and we visit museums. I believe at the young age of eight months Emma has been to MAD, the MET, the ICP, and the AMNH. To continue our weekly museum tour, we went to the New Museum to see the Ungovernables political art exhibit.

The exhibit was part of the New Museum’s 2012 Triennial show and featured thirty-four artists, artist groups and collectives who were born between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s. Many of the artists came of age in politically charged environments, where revolutions colored their view of the world. All of the art exhibited was connected to ideas of globalism, independence, history, economics and war.

The title, although it doesn’t roll off the tongue, was apt for show. The term “ungovernables” was pejoratively used by colonists and dictators to describe the native people of a country.

Here are some of our favorite pieces from the show.

O Século [The Century], Video

Cinthia Marcelle

Born 1974, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Emma was particularly captivated by this video of debris being strewn across an empty lot to symbolize labor riots and civil war. The sound track was a cacophony of thumps, screeches, smashes, bursts and booms.

Habemus Gasoline, installation

José Antonio Vega Macotela

Born 1980, Mexico City

Lives and works in Amsterdam and Mexico City

This piece is clever and controversial and Emma found the tubing intriguing. The artist statement for the piece was very well written, here is an excerpt.

"While Mexico is the sixth largest producer of crude oil in the world, more than one million barrels are exported to the United States daily where the oil is refined and ultimately sold back to Mexico as gasoline. This arrangement which disproportionately benefits US refineries, continues under the presumption that Mexico lack the facilities to manufacture gasoline domestically. With this installation, Vega Macotela offers modifications to local folk technologies used to make tequila, mezcal, and potable water in order to construct a makeshift refinery in the gallery."

A person loved me, sculpture

Adrián Villar Rojas

Born 1980, Rosario Argentina

Lives and works in Rosario

Emma and I enjoyed looking at this big robot sculpture. I wasn't throughly persuaded of the global and political significance of the piece, but it sure was impressive.

Emma and I worked up an appetite viewing all of that art so we walked to Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles in Chinatown for a bite. We then hurried home because Emma was catching the 5:21 train to Danbury, in a maneuver we like to call the Great Baby Handoff—and as a bonus, Emma was handed off with tender pork dumplings.