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The Herpes of The Art World Closed Last Week

by Paddy Johnson on November 9, 2010 · 10 comments

After its scheduled run, Meulensteen (formerly Max Protetch) took down their Oliver Herring show last week to the delight of neighboring gallerists. Many were complaining that Herring’s bags of glitter were the cause of stray glitter making their way into their spaces. “We’ve mopped twenty times” one gallerist complained, noting that it was also a conservation nightmare as the material was getting stuck on paintings. This prompted a story regaled by a friend in which a receptionist at D’Amelio Terras responded very nervously to her observation that the gallery had a significant amount of glitter on the floor. “Look, we’re aware of the glitter” she told the friend, “and we’re doing everything we possibly can.” I made mention of this ruffling of feathers over twitter recently, and had many a tweet returned with the sentiment that glitter is the herpes of the art world.

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  • someone

    All that glitters is gold.

  • Jssp

    Would someone be willing to give a few more details about the exhibition? I couldn’t find pictures online and I am wondering how the glitter was used, what kind of glitter it was, and how much of it was there to warrant enough complaining to take down the show. I’m also surprised the gallery chose to take down the show rather than “protecting” everyone from it by cordoning it off (Ai WeiWei/Tate Modern/Sunflower seed style).

    • Mynus

      The glitter was literally everywhere. It was scattered around like sand, in that ‘oh god it’s on my shoes’ way that makes me think it was walked all over the place instead of thrown around. The exhibition had, as one person said, screens places randomly around the room showing past performances, and in the center of the rectangular space (when i went there anyway), two live nude models being covered in paper by the artist. Along the right wall was some sort of small viewing cave, made of dark paper and littered with all kinds of odds and ends: glitter, bits of paper, metal, cardboard. The room seemed cluttered to me, and with the “art” everywhere, it was uncomfortable to walk through. There was a back room though, once you got through all that, with a rather nice installation back there (i remember liking it but i can’t for the life of me remember what it was).

  • Anonymous

    The show wasn’t taken down due to complaining. It closed after it’s run. I adjusted the post so there is no confusion.

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  • http://hypothete.blogspot.com/ Hypothete

    @Jssp: I visited Chelsea the week before last, and happened to take a peek at this exhibition. When you enter the gallery, you turn left and go up a short staircase. About 6 feet from the end of the staircase was essentially a 3×3′ sandbox overflowing with piles of rainbow glitter, like on the woman in the picture.

    The walls and front windows were spattered with what looked like different colors of food dye. Short looping videos documenting the spray of food dye from performers’ mouths were running on several TVs. Several “shields” – my term, essentially plastic windows on wheels – were placed haphazardly in the space. These looked like they were for protecting audiences or cameras from the sprays. Additionally, there were two mannequins on plinths covered in floppy silver mylar sheets, and a color-coded poster detailing the schedule of performances in the exhibition, one for every day of October.

    When at the gallery, my viewing buddies (Tom Moody and Frankhats from dump) and I were lucky enough to catch a performance in action. Shivering in a corner, two actors were wearing white clothes wet with dyed water, jumping around to keep warm as they waited for a cameraman (the artist?) to end what looked like a long, boring conversation with a patron. The cameraman then began to direct one to spit dye onto the other actor’s hands as he slapped them against the wall again and again. All in all, it was great entertainment for an afternoon.

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  • http://twitter.com/kristagargano krista gargano

    pictures of the show???

  • http://www.bankruptcyquestionsfaq.org/chapter-13-bankruptcy-questions.html Mouth Herpes

    Glitter = Art
    Herpes = disease

    then,

    Herpes Glitter = Art of Disease ?? XD

  • http://www.facebook.com/terryward7 Terry Ward

    glitter as herpes

    waa ha ha ha ha ha ha
    : )

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