This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Long Island Eclipses Manhattan

Susan Cianciolo’s career straddles film, design, installation art, and DIY publishing. Tuesday, she’s leading a workshop about collage and zine-making. The world always needs more zines, and there’s really nothing else to do on an August Tuesday in New York. Go make a zine!

Curated by Francisco Correa Cordero and Gabriel H. Sanchez, this exhibition hits close to AFC’s own heart. It’s all about cyberspace, and the artists who work within it. We’re huge fans of Dina Kelberman, and whatever this show ends up looking like, it’s going to be worth it for her work alone.

Daniel Gordon, Dina Kelberman, Craig Callison (pictured), Zoe Burnett, Ryan Duffin, Qiren Hu and A. Bill Mille

Last time I saw MV Carbon’s work, it was in a gallery, standing underneath “The Hone,” a spookily floating, black sculpture that showered visitors standing underneath with four channels of electronic music loops and field recordings that could be manipulated by turning knobs on a console. You were a cosmic DJ, hosting a one- person rave. This one-night event (in a church) is all music, with solo electronic sets from several sound/noise artists. Expect feedback loops, artist-made instruments, and ghostly synth sounds. That can’t be too far off, not when the event organizers have already promised a “dark cathedral, subwoofer, seating, and candles.”

When I was an undergrad, Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen’s Riddles of the Sphinx (1977) made a huge mark on me. We watched it in my intro to feminism and visual culture course, and one of the opening scenes still haunts me: I remember a grainy close-up of—of what I wasn’t entirely sure— zooming in and out, without the final shape being revealed. That’s when I got “it,” that the closer you are to something doesn’t solidify that you’re going to understand that thing any better; close or faraway, sometimes some things will always remain a mystery. Oh, and the film might help solidify your background in socialist feminism, the gaze, and the rhizome. So see it because it’s important. If that’s not enough, there’s a haunting synth soundtrack, by Mike Ratledge of Soft Machine.

MoMA PS1’s annual closing party for its Summer exhibitions promises to be epic this year. In part because there’s so much good work closing, from Cao Fei’s look at nerd culture to Meriem Bennani’s jet-setting video installations. We’re pretty excited Bennani is planning the evening’s programming… we love her weird futuristic hijab styles and witty look at globalized net/consumer aesthetics. She’s joined by a veritable “who’s who” of “hosts” that include Ryan Trecartin, Cindy Sherman, and John Baldessari.

Here are the exhibitions closing:

VITO ACCONCI: WHERE WE ARE NOW (WHO ARE WE ANYWAY?), 1976
FORTY
Papo Colo
Meriem Bennani: FLY
Deng Tai: Shadow
Cao Fei
Rodney McMillian: Landscape Paintings
Projects 103: Thea Djordjadze

Vector Gallery is one of those totally anomalous places that we’re shocked and delighted still exists in New York. And for a while, it sort of didn’t—its Lower East Side location shuttered last year, and fans of its peculiar brand of neon-and-mylar Satanic pop had to pilgrimage to pop-up outposts in Miami and L.A. But now they’re back …from outer space? Hell? A post-apocalyptic mall? Who knows?

We’re hoping this new location has everything that confused/enthralled/seduced us (and many a bewildered Chinatown bus rider) at the old spot, and we’re guessing there will be plenty of weird surprises as well. The event description, after all, promises “new installations by Crown Prince of Hell JJ Brine and sermons/performances by Ministers of The Vectorian Government.”

We’re a little surprised/disappointed the press release wasn’t just written in Wingdings.

BOFFO is kicking off a weekend of mostly-free performances in the legendary Fire Island Pines Friday night. It’s going to be far more epic than anything happening in the city this weekend, so we fully recommend getting some beach time in rather than sweltering while bored in the boroughs.

Friday night features performances from M. Lamar and Rupaul’s Drag Race star Pearl. It’s only the beginning, but boy… what a beginning!

Day two of the festival sounds even better than Friday night. There’s some pricey fundraisery stuff, but also performances from artists such as The Blow and punk/electronic/art/video genius SSION.

Here’s the full schedule:

12 – 8PM – TELFAR SHOP: MOBILE presenting TELFAR: CRUISE – The Meat Rack. Free

12-2PM – Carrington Estate Tour & Cocktails – 548 Beachcomber Walk. Join BOFFO, Fire Island National Seashore, and historian John Krawkuch to celebrate the Centennial of the National Park Service and visit the Carrington Estate. We’ll serve cocktails at 548 Beachcomber and give tours of the Carrington Estate to groups of 20 every 30 min. $50 Tickets

2 – 7:30PM – Eartheater, Fragile (Wolfgang Tillmans), The Blow, Ssion, Frankie Sharp – The Beach at Susan Walk / The Meat Rack. Free

7:30 – 8PM – Xavier Cha – The Beach at Susan Walk / The Meat Rack. Free

9PM – Casey Spooner Dinner – 214 Beach Hill Walk. Join us for a magical evening of storytelling and dinner – proceeds support BOFFO and our Fire Island artist residency program. Purchase of this ticket gives you access to Carrington Estate Tour & Cocktails on Saturday from 12 – 2pm. $500 Tickets

All day Sunday, unisex experimental fashion line TEFLAR, continues their “CRUISE” themed pop-up in the notoriously cruise-y “Meat Rack”, but the real highlight will be the 2 p.m. performance at The Pines Club. There, FLUCT (the collaborative name of dance-performance-art-multidisciplinary duo Sigrid Lauren and Monica Mirabile) will be wowing crowds with a piece that’s likely going to be strange and acrobatic but also totally accessible and oddly-pop-familiar. They’re so great.