NEW YORK’S ART SCENE: A KALEIDOSCOPE OF MIND-BLOWING ART!
Mary Jo Doherty recalls an unforgettable trip to New York, where the boys revelled in a full-HD widescreen snapshot of the city’s creative spirit and energy
N ew York’s art scene ‘served up a kaleidoscope of art that literally blew my mind’ was just one boy’s take on what would become one of the many defining moments of the Upper School Art trip to New York. Midtown’s world-class MoMA simply over- whelmed the boys with canvas after canvas of every art reference ever used in their collective creative journeys to date. Meanwhile, the sprawling Ed Ruscha retrospec- tive was a wonderful reminder of the graphic power of text, humour and the value of alternative art materials. Catching the E train from 5th Avenue/53rd Street across the East River, we arrived at PS1, MoMA’s sister space in gritty Queens, an area awash with uber-hipsters. We were there to explore five historical and participatory piec-
es, presented as a series of interactive ‘plays’ by Rirkrit Tiravanija entitled A Lot of People . The artist invited our students to play table tennis, make tea or participate as an impromptu band; ‘Pueri Alleynienses’ was pumping enthusiastically out from the top floor of this contempo- rary space in a re-purposed elementary school. Think Sesame Street meets QI and you get the idea. Meanwhile, downtown in the blustery Bowery district, the New Museum confused and provoked in equal measure as our students scaled the seven-storey contemporary space designed by Japanese architects SANNA. The exhi- bition ‘Herstory’ showcased Judy Chicago’s tremendous impact on American art and highlighted her critical role
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THE ALLEYNIAN 712
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