Its crazy how some things can be so different, yet the same simultaneously.
Are the Chelsea galleries that much different from the Lower East Side galleries? No. Now that answer my surprise some people. Why? Well, the Lower East Side Galleries were made for, what it seems to be, a younger crowd. The three galleries I focused on were Reena Spaulings', Joe Sheftel's and Miguel Abreu's.
Theres this new term i've personally been working on. I call it "New Religion". Sounds buttery right? What I mean by the term is, we as human's, though faithful to our respective religions and customs, have learned to come up with our own. In specific, American culture has been pushed and grown from our television sets. Sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows, etc. The television set stands as our cross which we pray to for hours upon hours of our day. We are faithful to it. We learn from it, we discover ourselves in it, we unleash our emotions for it. Television has taken a life of its own.
This is what i find true for all three exhibits. In Reena Spaulding's "As it Lays", we get a glimpse of the religion we follow (which seems to be an Oprah Winfrey styled talk show set). In Joe Sheftel's piece "Deep Space", we see the vessel in which we practice that religion. If actually being in the presence of the set would be church, the television would be a cross (for Christian/Catholic readers at least). In Abreu's piece "After Troy 1", we see where all three pieces come together.
In "After Troy 1", we get to see Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni work meeting the modern world. His image of God is broken into simple lines, differing in colors. What I perceive this to be an image of is our own memory loss when it comes to what it is that is supposed to drive us. TRUE religion. Not the "gods" we view through light bulbs and glass.
To reiterate, do I see differences between the Lower East Side Galleries and Chelsea Galleries? Of course. But the similarities were even better. What I feel is the greatest similarity is both sections account on how they feel certain periods of times and cultures are in a snapshot. The Chelsea galleries are more geared to cultures not familiar with our own (and if they are, time periods that are not of our own) and LES is more geared towards our own time (and if not, pieces that are not inspired by our time have a modern twist).
"As it Lays"
"Deep Space"
"After Troy 1"
Make love, not war.
