A DAY AT THE NEW MUSEUM

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Last weekend I was in New York City, where I caught three exhibitions at the New Museum before they closed: Camille Henrot, David Horvitz, and Ragnar Kjartansson.

I was very taken with Camille Henrot’s piece Is It Possible to be a Revolutionary and Like Flowers? (2012-14), where the artist translated books from her personal library into ikebana arrangements. The work was very poetic, beautiful, and at times humorous.

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I have always loved David Horvitz’s work, which occupied the back staircase and small adjacent gallery. A series of vessels were made of broken glass Horvitz collected on the shores of New York, melted down, and handblown into these new forms.

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These two iPhones displayed recordings of the sunset taken by both Horvitz and his mother on the same day.

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In 2012, Horvitz uploaded this self-portrait onto the Wikipedia page for “Mood Disorder” and it has since circulated and been used in multiple articles online related to mood disorders, depression, sadness, etc.

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Ragnar Kjartansson’s installation featured work made with, and about his family. His parents were both actors in an Icelandic film where they make love on the kitchen floor, and as rumor has it, conceived Ragnar. In his installation he presents this scene from the film along with a live performance by musicians who play a song by Sigur Rós.

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