Look Again
Fusion Arts and the Unbearables at Space Womb Gallery on Jackson Ave. in Long Island City. 3/24/2012
I took too many pictures on Saturday. I mean seriously too many, to the point that I have enough photos that work to do a half dozen projects and they'd all have too many pictures in them to expect that anybody with anything better to do would scroll through all of them, let alone spend time looking.
So what's a fellow to do?
There are options. Option number one is to do nothing, just put the damn things up they way they are and walk away. But that's not me.
Option number two is to spend hours - and I mean lots of them - picking out ones I like and then editing them to look the way I want them to look. That might be what I'd do if there weren't so many photos of so few performances and performers. At the Space Womb gallery in Long Island City there were seven performance artists (I think - I'll check that later) and six readers/reciters (including me, ad libbing a story I'll get around to writing one of these days.) I already spent a couple or three hours doing a first cut that resulted in about 600 photos. Uh-uh; no way José. That just won't work.
Option number three is to say fuck it and just pick out one or two of each performer and reader, a few set-up shots, and a few audience shots and get it done. That will work.
But, and there's always a but - I got enough photos of a couple of the performances to want to feature them, and that's going to take some time to put together.
So tonight, comedy.
The streets of New York City - and though many don't think of it this way, including the Bronx, Staten Island and Queens, of which Long Island City is a part - is my favorite stage. One of the artists took his show out of the gallery and onto the street. You'll see that in a subsequent post. I got these passerby's, each of them an actor in their own show, taking a bow for me and my camera.
There were a lot of "what the fuck!" expressions on people's faces, and more than a couple of huhs, but that's what happens when performance art spills out of the enclosed performance space and into the open.
The woman above's expression was more "why the fuck are you photographing me" than "what the fuck," but what the fuck, I'm using it anyway.
And if the woman to the left sucked any harder on her lips, her face might turn inside out. Now that would be performance art worth watching! But for her sake, I'm glad it didn't happen. With portfolio firmly clasped under one arm, and cell/smart/whatever phone - I believe it's an iDevice because that sure looks like a iDevice port on the visible end (click the photo to make it larger - she was determined to not be nonplussed by the scene, and keep on going wherever she was going.
And how about this guy? He saw something happening - he wasn't sure what it was but there was a crowd, and a weird looking guy in the middle of the street swinging an empty paint can on the end of a rope - the was David Rodgers - so it must be a party so let's party! He's got the moves. And his buddy, not to be out done gives the high sign. Oh, if only the guy with the camera wasn't in the way.
This guy was mildly surprised, put off and not going to get involved. That's an old NYC tradition. Be cool. Nothing untoward is going on here. I've got my take out food in my bag, so I'm going to get out of here before something else happens
And these two guys, they should've seen it coming. They must be from somewhere else, and they're just pretending to be New Yorkers. Well, they aren't fooling anyone, especially me.
