Day 6. Strike 6. SCOPE
Ahh Scope.
The end of the day but still more art to see. I was on a mission--a march of fun and it wasn't going to end until I soaked up as much inspiration as possible. We still had 2 hours before SCOPE closed for good. Enough time to see 5 floors and 70 exhibitors? Yes.
As soon as I arrived at the Townhouse Hotel--the space that hosts and is completely consumed by SCOPE--the warm and fuzzy memories of last year's show came flooding back. SCOPE takes art and intimacy to a whole new level. Each gallery/art collective rents a room in this small boutique hotel and does with it what they think best for the 4 days of the show. The visitors enter the hotel and are welcome to peek in, or spend as long as they like in someone else's bedroom. The rooms are not large and once you step in, it is you and the curator, or you and the artist, or you and the gallerist immediately hanging out together. I love the earnestness of exploration in this show's pieces. I love how many different things can be done with 4 white walls, a white epoxied floor, and a reasonably sized bathroom.
Video was much more prominent this year than last. Everyone and their mother had some sort of moving image on display, be it coming from a portable DVD player in a sink full of rocks, or a 42" flat screen playing a film of a teenager putting on make-up while a man has his way from behind, or a 2"x2" screen nestled inside a diarama of a sex shop. When a room was completely still and none of the art moved, it was almost novel, refreshing. Over stimulation is almost a standard at this point.
Admittedly a sucker for folk tradition and craft, I couldn't help falling in love with Greely Myatt and Memphis' David Lusk Gallery. Greely explained that the origin of his wooden quilt for the hotel room bed was a Tennessee grant application that called for collaboration. Since Greely is not one for collaboration, he decided to submit a proposal with his dead grandmother. She was a quilter and had inspired him to take quilting in new directions. Now he uses industrial detritus to create "quilts" that hang on clotheslines, drape on beds, or serve as rugs. Quilting got him into washboards.
Jill
More photos here. Or slideshow here
The end of the day but still more art to see. I was on a mission--a march of fun and it wasn't going to end until I soaked up as much inspiration as possible. We still had 2 hours before SCOPE closed for good. Enough time to see 5 floors and 70 exhibitors? Yes.
As soon as I arrived at the Townhouse Hotel--the space that hosts and is completely consumed by SCOPE--the warm and fuzzy memories of last year's show came flooding back. SCOPE takes art and intimacy to a whole new level. Each gallery/art collective rents a room in this small boutique hotel and does with it what they think best for the 4 days of the show. The visitors enter the hotel and are welcome to peek in, or spend as long as they like in someone else's bedroom. The rooms are not large and once you step in, it is you and the curator, or you and the artist, or you and the gallerist immediately hanging out together. I love the earnestness of exploration in this show's pieces. I love how many different things can be done with 4 white walls, a white epoxied floor, and a reasonably sized bathroom.
Video was much more prominent this year than last. Everyone and their mother had some sort of moving image on display, be it coming from a portable DVD player in a sink full of rocks, or a 42" flat screen playing a film of a teenager putting on make-up while a man has his way from behind, or a 2"x2" screen nestled inside a diarama of a sex shop. When a room was completely still and none of the art moved, it was almost novel, refreshing. Over stimulation is almost a standard at this point.
Admittedly a sucker for folk tradition and craft, I couldn't help falling in love with Greely Myatt and Memphis' David Lusk Gallery. Greely explained that the origin of his wooden quilt for the hotel room bed was a Tennessee grant application that called for collaboration. Since Greely is not one for collaboration, he decided to submit a proposal with his dead grandmother. She was a quilter and had inspired him to take quilting in new directions. Now he uses industrial detritus to create "quilts" that hang on clotheslines, drape on beds, or serve as rugs. Quilting got him into washboards.
Jill
More photos here. Or slideshow here
Labels: 2005, Art, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, Miami Beach, Photography, Photography Art Basel, Photography Tomas Loewy
posted by ArtBaselDaily.com at 08:31
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