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My photography expresses the interactions of creative opportunity, exposure to the elements, and time. I seek to understand the psychic energy of a locality through the life cycles of its street art.

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26th May 2011

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Audio/Visual Design & Illustration: Diagram for ORFEO, by Angus MacLise This past Tuesday I checked out DREAMWEAPON, the Angus MacLise exhibit at Boo-Hooray. The exhibit was split between sound (which took place at Boo-Hooray proper, a compact top-floor gallery on Canal St between Broadway & Lafayette) and visuals (housed in a newfangled fancy storefront gallery on 23rd Street). It provided food for thought concerning the necessary balance between creative impulse and physical survival, and how many artists tend to pit the two against each other instead of having them flow into one current.Angus MacLise was the type of person who managed to facilitate and amplify the creative vibe wherever he went, but was either incapable or unwilling to make the creative life work for himself successfully. Of course, that depends on how one defines “success”; perhaps on his own terms he achieved it. He played drums for the Velvet Underground before Moe Tucker, and often collaborated with Ira Cohen (who recently passed away). From looking at the diversity of his work he was clearly very talented and had lots of fantastic ideas, but his resources were limited - and I can’t shake the feeling that it he preferred it that way. Purity in art is very seductive, but it doesn’t pay the rent.The 23rd Street gallery has all the visual art, and is arguably the better exhibit for that, but the space is extremely cold and uninviting, which jarred with the handmade aesthetic of MacLise’s work. The Canal Street space is much funkier and in sync with the vibe of the exhibit, but understandably was too small to showcase everything. The sound exhibit changes every day, if I understand correctly; I was hoping for some ecstatic trance drumming, but found drones and microtonal hums instead (not that I’m complaining - I got some quality meditative time out of it, and how often can you say THAT happens on Canal & B’way?)DREAMWEAPON is up until May 29th (this coming Sunday) - if you’re in NYC, definitely check it out.

Audio/Visual Design & Illustration: Diagram for ORFEO, by Angus MacLise

This past Tuesday I checked out DREAMWEAPON, the Angus MacLise exhibit at Boo-Hooray. The exhibit was split between sound (which took place at Boo-Hooray proper, a compact top-floor gallery on Canal St between Broadway & Lafayette) and visuals (housed in a newfangled fancy storefront gallery on 23rd Street). It provided food for thought concerning the necessary balance between creative impulse and physical survival, and how many artists tend to pit the two against each other instead of having them flow into one current.

Angus MacLise was the type of person who managed to facilitate and amplify the creative vibe wherever he went, but was either incapable or unwilling to make the creative life work for himself successfully. Of course, that depends on how one defines “success”; perhaps on his own terms he achieved it. He played drums for the Velvet Underground before Moe Tucker, and often collaborated with Ira Cohen (who recently passed away). From looking at the diversity of his work he was clearly very talented and had lots of fantastic ideas, but his resources were limited - and I can’t shake the feeling that it he preferred it that way. Purity in art is very seductive, but it doesn’t pay the rent.

The 23rd Street gallery has all the visual art, and is arguably the better exhibit for that, but the space is extremely cold and uninviting, which jarred with the handmade aesthetic of MacLise’s work. The Canal Street space is much funkier and in sync with the vibe of the exhibit, but understandably was too small to showcase everything. The sound exhibit changes every day, if I understand correctly; I was hoping for some ecstatic trance drumming, but found drones and microtonal hums instead (not that I’m complaining - I got some quality meditative time out of it, and how often can you say THAT happens on Canal & B’way?)

DREAMWEAPON is up until May 29th (this coming Sunday) - if you’re in NYC, definitely check it out.

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