Masterpieces of Everyday New York
dal 26/6/2013 al 3/9/2013
Segnalato da
26/6/2013
Masterpieces of Everyday New York
Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries C. Johnson Design Center, New York
Objects as Story. 62 objects selected by designers, artists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, writers, musicians and others
The exhibition excavates daily life in New York through the stories of the simple, and not-so-simple, objects that are part of the collective experience of its more than eight million inhabitants, from historical curios to sidewalk debris. For this summer show, curators Margot Bouman and Radhika Subramaniam challenged the diverse faculty at The New School, which includes architects and philosophers, historians and designers, musicians, sociologists, anthropologists and artists, to select objects that brought to life aspects of New York, from the iconic 1972 subway map by Massimo Vignelli to a hand grenade savings bank from 1918-19, which was distributed to children at Armistice celebrations as a way of promoting investment in war bonds by New York financial institutions. The exhibition features 62 objects in total, accompanied by stories by their respective contributors. Acknowledging the justifiably famous British Museum exhibition and radio program A History of the World in 100 Objects, the exhibition situates objects as narratives of their time. Objects range from icons great and small from the celestial ceiling of Grand Central Station, Lever House and the Empire State Building, to food carts, subway tokens and the ubiquitous black umbrella (coined "umbrella furvus ubiquitous"); from gum dots on city sidewalks and the makeshift homes of homeless people, to ghost bikes and a small 9/11 memorial placed on a tile at the Union Square subway station. It also includes immaterial ones such as pedestrian walking patterns, the sounds of downstairs neighbors or a morning coffee exchange. Curated by Radhika Subramaniam and Margot Bouman.