It's a good fit for New York, a place that privileges tensile strength.
October 21st, 2013, 5pm
It was 16.7°C.
And a fitting exhibit for the New Museum, with its disorienting acoustic design and layout. I’m outside the museum for a second visit - staring up at his Ghost Ship that hangs over the Bowery, a street that is already confusing at most hours of the day and night.
Inside in a new piece, Chris Burden has balanced his 1974 Porsche with a 400 lb. meteorite bought off eBay. Obviously related to his 1974 performance art “Trans-fixed” where he was nailed to his Volkswagen, the new piece reminds me of the Hanging Man in the Tarot deck. The card can be dealt either way, so the character is either balancing with one knee up in what looks like an active yogic meditation or hanging from one foot. In Norse mythology, this figure is Odin and his expression is closer to the ecstasy of knowledge - he receives the runes while he is suspended - than anguish. Odin dies, but the knowledge brings him back to life. Some say the knowledge saves him. Perhaps it’s that he made the decision that knowledge was worth death, there was joy in the transmission of the runes, and letting go of one life meant another one was possible.
There are absurdly small victories grabbed for at the street level: correct coffee orders, a seat on the train for a few stops. We could let go. See if we know what clutch really means.
Filed Under
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