"The death of so-called site specific art came in 2004, at a talked-about show most people never saw. The concept was that artists would 'respond' to Eero Saarinen's somewhat overwhelming 1962 terminal building at Kennedy Airport (considered high Modernist kitsch by some architects), an activity with roughly the same significance as small lice-eating birds 'responding' to a rhinoceros. It consisted of such obvious and expected gestures as running political slogans on the defunct terminal's arrivals and departures board, piping sound art through the intercom, and so forth. Once admitted to this vast playground from their usual physically constraining warrens in Chelsea and Williamsburg, and perhaps because the art was so familiar as not to hold anyone's attention, the artists went berserk at an opening night party and trashed the terminal."

This post is so much better than my post on this fiasco.
- twhid (guest) 10-07-2004 11:58 pm

Hey Tom, is your ass sore? Just wondering if this "riot" was the avante garde.
- joester 10-08-2004 9:42 pm

In case anyone is wondering, joester isn't insinuating that I bent over for Hilton Kramer (at least I hope he isn't) but rather is alluding to a blog discussion of a recent panel in Toronto where a local beard said he didn't know if he'd recognize the avant garde anymore. I said I thought I could identify it (I mean, c'mon) and Sally said, 'Yeah, if it bit you in the ass." I'm not linking to that discussion until someone starts talking about some actual work.

The avant garde, if you must know, was recently on display in the BitStreams show, the 2002 Whitney Biennial, and other fine, cuttin' edge compendia curated by Larry Rinder. He was so avant garde he no longer has a job at the Whitney.
- tom moody 10-08-2004 10:04 pm

Are you going to link to the thread where you called joester a SNAG? That was a favourite of mine.

Abstraction and the avant garde aside: I can't comprehend this Terminal 5 event, despite all the good links and chat at Schwarz. How does a youngster curator manage to pull off a gig like this: Vanessa Beecroft, Jenny Holzer, massively high profile and challenging exhibition space....and does this apparent schism actually have anything to do with the party getting rowdy? It's not really party-planning skills that we normally expect from seasoned curators, but rather critical context and the pullin' of financial strings for flashy catalogues and such. And why do the media not seem to notice that these are freakin' major artists? And how rowdy was it? Grrr! It's so surreal. See this quote from thread at Archinet:

"On a guilty note, I admit that I was one of the people smoking at the Friday party. I assumed (wrongly) that this was part of the 60's revivalism... remembering the days when we blessed smokers could do our deed indoors."

in this age of hopped up homeland security, dont fuck with the port authority NY/NJ.
with people running on the tarmac, indoor NYC smoking, stealing booze, tagging the walls, upchucking and sundry rowdy acts (obviously you dont need a liquor license to give away free grey goose vodka but you need good sense on how to distribute it) im sure the PA just ran down a laundry list which went well past a one strike and your out of here tolerance for american airport behavior.

i dont know the curator but it sounds like this thing was her baby. I think her inexperience led to many nubie party management oversights, particularly security and house keeping. it sounds like she was very ambitious, well connected and anxious to grab the best of both art worlds. that played out nicely with the well heeled patron class preview party but crashed and burned on the opening hell night on friday with a big turn out of the art hipster steerage element. they remind me of the drunken sot types from the 80's LES rivington school but are probably better educated and should know better.


- bill 10-09-2004 8:37 pm

Based on what we know as after-the-fact researchers (thanks for digging) and promoters of a legend, I'd say that nails it. Ward's resume lists "working with private collectors" as one of her jobs (I notice she did a project with Olivier, too). She handled the heady part but lost control of the plebes.
- tom moody 10-09-2004 8:51 pm

thanks Bill! You provide exactly the perspective I was craving.
- sally mckay 10-09-2004 8:59 pm

Hi - This is Rachel. Thanks for the praise and criticism...such is art. For the record, I have a graduate degree in art history and have been working in art since 1999 - collectors, galleries and non-profits. Terminal 5 was a volunteer effort to present contemporary art and open the landmark. We were hoping for a great response and I now personally face more consequences that can be named here, mostly legal and will no longer be working in art...thank you...
- anonymous (guest) 2-05-2005 3:46 am