Art Fag City at The L Magazine: Don’t Dial the Red Phone

by Paddy Johnson on July 16, 2010 · 18 comments The L Magazine

art fag city, nancy hwang

Nancy Hwang's Meet Me at Home

This week at The L Magazine I discuss Nancy Hwang’s work at the Kitchen, Meet Me at Home. I think I played the asshole.

A keypad-less red phone, just like the one you might imagine sends a line straight to the president, sits near the front of The Kitchen’s upstairs exhibition space. In actuality, gallery goers end up coordinating a visit at home with Nancy Hwang, the owner of said phone and a participating artist in curator Miriam Katz’s The Absolutely Other (through August 7). The piece is a logical inclusion in an exhibition that culls work some way informed by strangers.

A full review of this show will appear in my column next week, but since my experience of Hwang’s piece Meet Me at Home took me off site, I’ve decided to dedicate this week’s article to recounting that experience. It wasn’t good.

Hwang told me her house was nearby so I figured I’d try to keep an open mind and stop by on my way home from Chelsea. In as much as one can gather from a brief phone conversation, I didn’t get the feeling I’d found a new best friend, and the idea of two strangers meeting in a mutually agreed upon home as art annoys me. While I don’t mind considering the viewer’s exchange with an artist as a medium (which is what this is), there’s something mildly grating about a project in which the sole interest is creating a situation of such tepid risk. Inviting art strangers into one’s home isn’t the same as drawing them off the street. Further, the artist gets far more out of the piece because she’s the only one with amassed information from the visit. None of that experience is made communal, nor is there any attempt at reflection.

To read the full piece click here.

{ 16 comments }

collinlafleche July 16, 2010 at 10:38 pm

This is a ripoff of Yoko Ono’s telephone pieces, one of which is installed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and others which have traveled around.

What makes this weirder is that those photos remind me a lot of the Ono + Lennon Rolling Stone cover.

collinlafleche July 16, 2010 at 10:38 pm

This is a ripoff of Yoko Ono’s telephone pieces, one of which is installed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and others which have traveled around.

What makes this weirder is that those photos remind me a lot of the Ono + Lennon Rolling Stone cover.

collinlafleche July 16, 2010 at 10:38 pm

This is a ripoff of Yoko Ono’s telephone pieces, one of which is installed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and others which have traveled around.

What makes this weirder is that those photos remind me a lot of the Ono + Lennon Rolling Stone cover.

collinlafleche July 16, 2010 at 6:38 pm

This is a ripoff of Yoko Ono’s telephone pieces, one of which is installed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and others which have traveled around.

What makes this weirder is that those photos remind me a lot of the Ono + Lennon Rolling Stone cover.

Art Fag City July 16, 2010 at 11:18 pm

I think it’s different enough not to be a total rip off, but certainly she’s the precedent (admittedly I’d never heard of the Ono piece until you mentioned it). I think Ono’s piece is much better — the element of surprise seems pretty effective to me.

Art Fag City July 16, 2010 at 7:18 pm

I think it’s different enough not to be a total rip off, but certainly she’s the precedent (admittedly I’d never heard of the Ono piece until you mentioned it). I think Ono’s piece is much better — the element of surprise seems pretty effective to me.

Denise July 17, 2010 at 6:58 pm

I also was immediately reminded of Yoko Ono’s telephone peice, and then saw the bed photos, and was waiting for the Lennon reference, but it never came.

Denise July 17, 2010 at 6:58 pm

I also was immediately reminded of Yoko Ono’s telephone peice, and then saw the bed photos, and was waiting for the Lennon reference, but it never came.

Denise July 17, 2010 at 6:58 pm

I also was immediately reminded of Yoko Ono’s telephone peice, and then saw the bed photos, and was waiting for the Lennon reference, but it never came.

Denise July 17, 2010 at 6:58 pm

I also was immediately reminded of Yoko Ono’s telephone peice, and then saw the bed photos, and was waiting for the Lennon reference, but it never came.

Denise July 17, 2010 at 2:58 pm

I also was immediately reminded of Yoko Ono’s telephone peice, and then saw the bed photos, and was waiting for the Lennon reference, but it never came.

Barry Hoggard July 21, 2010 at 3:55 am

James and I are big fans of Nancy’s work. We’ve become friends and followed her since we first met at one of her social performances at White Columns years ago. This essay by Dan Cameron is a good introduction to her art:

http://www.kemperart.org/exhibits/hwang_essay.asp

Barry Hoggard July 21, 2010 at 3:55 am

James and I are big fans of Nancy’s work. We’ve become friends and followed her since we first met at one of her social performances at White Columns years ago. This essay by Dan Cameron is a good introduction to her art:

http://www.kemperart.org/exhibits/hwang_essay.asp

Barry Hoggard July 21, 2010 at 3:55 am

James and I are big fans of Nancy’s work. We’ve become friends and followed her since we first met at one of her social performances at White Columns years ago. This essay by Dan Cameron is a good introduction to her art:

http://www.kemperart.org/exhibits/hwang_essay.asp

Barry Hoggard July 21, 2010 at 3:55 am

James and I are big fans of Nancy’s work. We’ve become friends and followed her since we first met at one of her social performances at White Columns years ago. This essay by Dan Cameron is a good introduction to her art:

http://www.kemperart.org/exhibits/hwang_essay.asp

Barry Hoggard July 20, 2010 at 11:55 pm

James and I are big fans of Nancy’s work. We’ve become friends and followed her since we first met at one of her social performances at White Columns years ago. This essay by Dan Cameron is a good introduction to her art:

http://www.kemperart.org/exhibits/hwang_essay.asp

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