This Sunday: Joshua Kirsch Fills Art Mana Fest With The Sounds Of 'Sympathetic Resonance'

In 2010 Joshua Kirsch turned the 3rd Ward lobby into an incredible musical instrument with his interactive installation Sympathetic Resonance. We actually asked him to install it again when we curated Wired Magazine's holiday pop up store that winter. So for those that may not have caught his work in our lobby (or those that just want to see it again) Kirsch will be presenting Sympathetic Resonance once more this Sunday as part of the Art Mana Fest in Jersey City.

"I had a blast deciding where all the different marimba key modules would go," Kirsch says of his time with us back in 2010. "The 3rd Ward lobby provided an excellent canvas in which to explore the different possibilities." Since that installation, Kirsch has had the chance to overhaul and refine the piece to improve the functionality and durability of Sympathetic Resonance. "Also, I've added the ability to fine tune the angle of each module to a degree hundreds of times more precise," he says. "This allows me to create installations with perfectly sweeping curves, something which would have been impossible before."

For the Art Mana Fest he will also present Oculus, which features 18 leg-like extensions that can all be manipulated by turning a central hub. "I knew it would work, but I did not know exactly what it would look like until the piece was finished," Kirsch says. "What resulted in the end was something that resembled an 18-legged spider a lot more than I expected, which I really like."

For his exhibition's opening, which takes place this Sunday, March 11 from 1-5pm, Kirsch will perform a three-minute piece that he composed specifically for Sympathetic Resonance, and jazz and classical musicians will also use it in ensemble performances. "Of course, a lot of the afternoon will be left available for guests to try their hand at playing the installation," Kirsch says. "From experience, I can tell you that some 'heart and soul' will definitely make an appearance or two."

Sympathetic Resonance will be on display through April, and musicians can even enter to win a $1000 cash prize by performing their own music on Kirsch's sculpture.

-- John Ruscher

Essential Event: Six Decades Of John Chamberlain's Sculptures Loom Large At The Guggenheim

John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

While you're planning your March museum outings to check out MoMA's Cindy Sherman retrospective or the Whitney Biennial, we highly recommend adding the Guggenheim Museum's John Chamberlain: Choices to your list.

Chamberlain, who died in December at the age of 84, began his career as a sculptor in the mid 1950s, following four years of service in the Navy. He became known for forging sculptures out of automobile parts, which brought Abstract Expressionism into three dimensions and blended elements of Pop Art and Minimalism. "His astonishing, balanced sculptures stressed the deep volumes and eccentric folds that he managed to achieve by squeezing or compressing the metal and then welding the disparate elements into highly developed, collage-like compositions," says the Guggenheim.

Choices, which "pays tribute to the artist's process of active selection, or choosing, that is fundamental to his practice," is installed chronologically in museum, with his long career unfolding along Frank Lloyd Wright's upward spiral. C’ESTZESTY (2011), "a nearly 20-foot-tall work of painted and chromium-plated steel and stainless steel" is also installed along Fifth Avenue.

John Chamberlain: Choices is on display at the Guggenheim through May 13. Hit the jump to see some of the works featured in the exhibition, and as you do, meditate on a couple quotes from Chamberlain:

Kline gave me structure. De Kooning Gave me color. But I only agreed with him because the auto color was the same. It had nothing to do with being derivative. De Kooning knew about the color of America. The color of America is reflected in their automobiles.

One day something—some one thing—pops out at you, and you pick it up, and you take it over, and you put it somewhere else, and it fits. It’s just the right thing at the right moment. You can do the same thing with words or with metal. 

Fantail, 1961 Painted and chromium-plated steel 70 × 75 × 60 inches (178 × 190.5 × 152.4 cm) Collection of Jasper Johns © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Jerry L. Thompson.

SPHINXGRIN TWO, 2010 Aluminium 192 7/8 x 165 3/8 x 145 5/8 inches (490 x 420 x 370 cm) Private collection Installation view: John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim FoundationUntitled, ca. 1960 Paper, metal, painted and printed tin-plated steel, printed paper fabric, and paint on painted fiberboard 12 × 12 × 5½ inches (30.5 × 30.5 × 14 cm) Private collection Photo: Kristopher McKayC’ESTZESTY, 2011 Painted and stainless steel 238 x 67 x 67 inches (604.5 x 170.2 x 170.2 cm) Private collection Installation view: John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim FoundationShortstop, 1957 Painted and chromium-plated steel and iron 58 × 44 × 18 inches (147.3 × 112 × 45.7 cm) Dia Art Foundation © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New YorkLord Suckfist, 1989 Painted, chromium-plated, and stainless steel 83 3/4 × 57 × 56 inches (212.7 × 144.8 × 142.2 cm) Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Sammlung Brandhorst © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Courtesy The Pace Gallery

-- John Ruscher

The Two Sculptured Sides of Barry X Ball and Matthew Barney

There are two things you may not be able to tell from looking at the above picture of "BXB Dual-Dual Portrait," by Barry X Ball. Number one: those are the faces of sculptor Barry X Ball and "Cremaster"-maker Matthew Barney. Number two: both hanging sculptures are made out of portoro marble and solid Portugese gold. Not surprising when you look through some of Ball's previous works (he even breaks down the steps of his process here); he's known to make solid stone look like a translucent veil. Still, there's something about the texture of this particular piece that made us initially think it was papier-mâché.

Aside from materials, we thought we had this piece pretty much digested--as in: the two-tone, happy face/sad face speaks to the duality of man, no? Well here's Ball's take:

"The composite figures richly embossed, in a manner reminiscent of late-renaissance milanese parade armor, with a cornucopia of silhouetted motifs: abrahamic ecclesiastical symbols, animals, decorative flourishes, and protuberant, warty, half-spheres...differing surface treatments keyed to the corresponding swag-draped corporeal flay strata: a glistening sheen for the splayed entrails, miniature horizontal flutes for the mid-level viscera, and gnarled, ridged, sfumato-esque soft-focus ornamental relief for the epidermis, with eyes, oral features, and the mutilated face gleaming, respectively, with a moist, lachrymal/salivary/mucosal polish, with mannered, attenuated, crown-like cranium-top shatter-burst exit-wounds." 

Maybe it helps to see it in person? You can in Paris next month; Ball has a solo show at Galerie Nathalie Obadia from March 17 - May 16, 2012.

Ahem, though maybe not planning on being in Paris next month but want to take a stab at one-upping Mr. Ball (and subsequently, his muse Mr. Barney)? 3rd Ward's got classes for that.

Meanwhile, hit the jump now for a couple more crucial shots of the piece.

SCULPTURE SCIENCE // 3D Print In Flight

Thinking of how best to conceptualize yourself a mindblowingly complex flying apparatus this year? Or maybe just on the prowl for something visually stunning to help get your inner-designer in gear? We believe we've found your answer--and it comes in the form of collaborative artists, Heather & Ivan Morison's floating 3D sculpture deemed Little Shining Man.

Unreal-looking in the literal sense, Little Shining Man is comprised of 1,700 3D printed connectors, cuben fiber aerospace fabric and carbon fiber rods (their words, not just our astute observation.)

According to the Morisons:

The design of the structure is based around the tetra kites of Alexander Graham Bell, multiplied out into colliding cubes that take their form from the cubic formations of the mineral Pyrite. A double wing module has been duplicated and arranged into a tight cellular structural arrangement that appears as a heavy, un-flyable mass. Utilising lightweight materials and the symmetry of the module and composition, it is able to fly freely and steadily.

Now take 3 minutes and watch an ethereal, completely inspiring document on the sculpture's evolution from fruition to flight:

Of course, if you think you can rival that (and we think you can) take a quick look at our design and sculpture classes and get your ideas off the ground.

BEAT NITE // TONIGHT: 3rd Ward Teacher Robin Grearson Presents 'Is Between' During Bushwick Art Crawl

Artworks by Sarah McDougald Kohn (left) and Liz Ainslie (right).

Tonight the Bushwick art scene will stay up late for the fifth installment of Beat Nite, a bi-annual "half art stroll, half bar crawl," with local galleries and art spaces open from 6-10pm. There's lots of cool stuff going on, but we're particularly excited about Is Between, an exhibition curated by 3rd Ward teacher Robin Grearson at The Active Space.

The follow-up to Grearson's curatorial debut during Bushwick Open Studios back in June, Is Between will feature work by Brooklyn artists Liz Ainslie and Sarah McDougald Kohn. We caught up with Grearson before she headed off to start installing the exhibition and asked her what's in store for tonight. Hit the jump to find out.

The choice of pairing Ainslie and McDougald Kohn was a natural one, not merely because they went to grad school together, but because they share similar creative approaches. "Liz and Sarah work intuitively and make decisions in the moment, but what's exciting to me is having the opportunity to show the results of their decisions, side by side," Grearson says. "The relationships the artists discovered between their work was found, not created, and I think it will be interesting for a viewer to discover these relationships too."

Both artists deal with objects in unconventional and unexpected ways. "Sarah’s sculptures are really fun; to me, many of them challenge our either/or thinking about objects as being either artistic or functional," Grearson says. "And Liz’s paintings invest shapes and lines with a sense of volume, despite the fact that the shapes are actually abstract and incompletely rendered, "she adds. "This forces me to consider the source of my impressions."

That unique, intuitive and artistic approach is also reflected in the title of the exhibition. "Is Between describes the liminal nature of the objects depicted and created by the artists," Grearson says. "It is a sentence fragment that exists in the present tense but is unresolved. This language felt right to all of us as a way to communicate something specific about the paintings and sculptures."

Look at a couple more images of work by Ainslie and McDougald Kohn below and check out the exhibition tonight from 6-10pm at The Active Space (566 Johnson Ave). Also, Grearson will be at 3rd Ward next month to teach the class Learn to Love Your Artist Statement (or at least make friends).

Liz Ainslie

Sarah McDougald Kohn

-- John Ruscher

PUBLIC ART // Miquel Barceló's Gravity-Defying "Gran Elefandret" Sculpture at Union Square

Miquel Barceló's "Gran Elefandret" in the Union Square Triangle.NYC's Union Square has long been a destination for loitering and people-watching, but it can occasionally be an unexpected avenue for impressive public art.

Sure, the statues of George Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, Abraham Lincoln and Mahatma Gandhi are nice, and Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel's "Metronome" is fascinating. But we're talking about the temporary installations that have been popping up. Last year there was Miranda July's "Eleven Heavy Things," a series of interactive fiberglass installations. Earlier this year Rob Pruitt's chrome Andy Warhol statue appeared at the northwest corner of the park and quickly attracted inevitable offerings of Campbell's soup cans.

Now Spanish artist Miquel Barceló has brought "Gran Elefandret," his 2008 sculpture of an elephant balancing on his trunk, to the triangle at the southwest corner of the park. Though some passers-by have expressed concern about what a strong gust of wind might do to the seemingly precariously placed pachyderm, Barceló has made sure it won't come crashing down. The sculpture is hollow in the middle and supported by a strong steel beam. "It can support very, very strong winds," he told BOMB Magazine. "It might move a little bit," he concedes, but that's all.

"I always say it's a self portrait, because it's like an artist in difficult times – we're always balancing on our trunks," Barceló told WNYC.

You can check out the 26-foot tall "Gran Elefandet" at the Union Square Triangle through May 2012.

For more, watch BOMB's video interview with Barceló after the jump.