If you find yourself travelling to New York City anytime over the next couple months, here’s a new installation exhibit you might want to check out.  It’s called Playing the Building and it’s the second such sound installation from Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.  (His first such exhibit was unveiled in Stockholm, Sweden back in 2005).

In a nutshell here’s how it works.  By retro-fitting an antique, wooden organ [seen above], Byrne has transformed the Battery Maritime Building in lower Manhattan into a musical instrument.  The organ is wired to different parts of the building’s infrastructure (radiators, steel girders, and plumbing pipes) and each time a key on the organ is struck it creates an entirely acoustic sound by activating small, pounding hammers, whirring motors, or by forcing air into pipes throughout the building’s 2nd floor gallery space.  Making the experience even more interesting is the fact the sounds seemingly go from high to low along the organ’s keyboard.

The Playing the Building sound installation began on May 31 and continues through August 10, 2008.  The exhibit is open Friday - Sunday from noon - 6pm and there is no admission charge.  For a better idea on how the Playing the Building exhibit works check out the video after the jump.  A very fascinating concept indeed, but I wouldn’t be looking for a “Building Hero” video game anytime in the near future. »Read More

Popularity: 49% [?]

We begin our weekend preview with a plug for a group of our cvilleMUSE buddies who will be making their live debut in Charlottesville on Saturday night. We think you should check ‘em out. The band is called The Moses and it features one of our own amongst its membership (that would be NewmaN for those who haven’t been following along). The Moses part the rock n roll waters on Saturday, June 14 at Saxx Jazz and Blues Lounge in Belmont. Joined on stage by The Vamanos (more friends in this one too) and The Raquellos (you guys can be our friends if you’re not already), doors open at 8pm, show starts at 9pm. Cover is $5 at the door.

[The Moses photo by Tom Daly]

For the rest of the weekend goodies… »Read More

Popularity: 48% [?]

I stumbled across an article in the Yale Daily News, titled “For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse.” The article, as you may guess, discussed the use of abortion and art to make a statement.

Senior, Aliza Shvarts, shockingly, has documented a 9-month process in which she inseminates herself while taking abortifacient drugs to cause miscarriages. She will display the “exhibit” as video recording of the forced miscarriages as well as collected blood from the process.

The ethical and graphic issues associated with this “exhibit” will certainly catapult Aliza into international notoriety, but, I wonder as an artist or an violator of ethics? Aliza explained that the art is intended to spark a conversation about art and the human body.

The Yale Daily news describes the upcoming exhibit:

The display of Schvarts’ project will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall. Schvarts will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around this cube; lined between layers of the sheeting will be the blood from Schvarts’ self-induced miscarriages mixed with Vaseline in order to prevent the blood from drying and to extend the blood throughout the plastic sheeting.

Schvarts will then project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. These videos, captured on a VHS camcorder, will show her experiencing miscarriages in her bathrooom tub, she said. Similar videos will be projected onto the walls of the room.

I could only find one of Aliza’s pieces on the internet, but perhaps it sheds a light on the why.

Aliza Shvarts. Disarticulation, 12 in. x 12 in. x 24in. Plaster, vaseline, towels, rubber bands, latex gloves

[credit: Dimensions Magazine]

Has this gone beyond art in order to offend as many people as possible?

Update: Max Bacon points out that this a hoax.  From the Yale website:

Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art.  Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials.  She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages.  The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.

She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.

Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.

[via Yale Daily News]

Popularity: 65% [?]

The one thing I love about Charlottesville is driving around and BAM! there’s a little art in your face. It’s bad though because I’m always trying to check out one of these awesome sculptures and not really focusing on the wheel. But from what I’ve quickly gawked at as I zoomed around the Ville, there are some talented sculptors in this area. »Read More

Popularity: 33% [?]

The Washington Glass School has three directors who are coming to Charlottesville to display various glass art pieces. The Washington Glass School serves as a mid-Atlantic mecca for glass loving artists. Their mission:

introduce artists in other media to the depth, processes and joys of glass

Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers and Michael Janis, very well known in the glass arts world, will open their exhibit in the Migration Gallery on April 4th from 5:30- 8:00pm. Make sure to ask them lots of questions.

So, when you wander around for First Friday’s make sure you stop by and tell them that MUSE sent you. Their art will be on display through April 30th.  Here are some images of the art:

Silent Spring by Erwin Timmers

WaitingForAMiracle by Michael Janis

Call For Redemption by Tim Tate

Popularity: 36% [?]