workworkworkworkwork Works For Me

As the world’s most well known designers begin to unveil their latest creations in New York this Fashion Week, Bostonians can see some extraordinary designs on a much smaller scale thanks to an exhibition dedicated to artist Charles LeDray at the Institute of Contemporary Art.

Again, it’s on a much smaller scale.

No…much smaller.

Smaller than that.

Charles LeDray, MENS SUITS. Photo Courtesy of the ICA, Boston

The small scale sculptures included in workworkworkworkwork bucks “the bigger, the better” trend so popular in today’s contemporary art scene and goes far beyond small scale haute couture. Miniature bound books, beautifully glazed thumb-sized urns and small scale replicas of antique furniture carved from human bone are all on view.

LeDray, a native of Seattle, learned to sew from his mother at age four, and could knit and macramé by 10. He received no formal fine arts training and briefly worked as a security guard at the Seattle Art Museum. "Many nights I would leave the museum with a burning desire to make something -- anything -- inspired by spending the day with great works of art," LeDray told the Seattle Post Intelligencer in a 2003 interview.


One of the installations, Throwing Shadows, features more than 3,000 black porcelain pots. Displayed in a row of three jewelry cases, the harsh museum lighting creates thousands of shadows from these tiny ebony figures, doubling the already vast number of handmade creations.

Charles LeDray, Throwing Shadows. Photo Courtesy of the ICA, Boston

In a world of mass market disposable fashion, where knockoffs of $4,000 Hermès Birkin bags can be bought from the trunk of a Chrysler in Long Island City (one in black and one in red, Bitches!), Ledray’s one of a kind handmade pieces are almost too good to be true. In this month’s ARTNews, artist Nari Ward writes “The aspect most relevant for contemporary art is figuring out how to take a formal language and push it as much as possible.” By taking a men’s blazer and recreating it on such a small scale - the almost microscopic buttons, epilates and patches all created from hand - Ledray forces us to reexamine the countless items we surround ourselves with on a daily basis.

workworkworkworkwork is on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston until Oct. 17. After its debut at the ICA, the exhibition travels to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Nov. 18, 2010—Feb. 13, 2011) and to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (May 8—Sept. 11, 2011).

For more information, visit the ICA’s Web site here.

Editorial Disclaimer: The author of this post received discounted or complementary admission to the above mentioned exhibition, courtesy of the host institution, organization or gallery.

Walking in the Park with a Hollow Leg

I was in New York this past weekend and desperately wanted to see Miranda July’s “Eleven Heavy Things” which has been installed in Union Square Park. So, on Saturday morning, after a long night of red wine, good food, wonderful friends, laughing, laughing, laughing some more, disco dancing, half of a roast beef sandwich at some diner in Chelsea and a “nap” in the back of a taxi, I peeled my wide-eyed and legless body from my friend’s air mattress and made my way downtown.

July’s “Eleven Heavy Things” was originally created for the Venice Biennale in 2009 and is comprised of eleven cast fiber-glass, steel-lined sculptures designed to serve as picture props: pedestals to stand on, tablets with holes for body parts, and free-standing abstract headdresses.

Sponsored by Deitch Projects, the Union Square Partnership and NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, artist, author and filmmaker July says, “Though the work begins as sculpture, it becomes a performance;” a far cry from that gargantuan vandalized statue of that American revolutionary (what’s his name again?) that sits in the park across from your office huh?

So many of us are guilty of failing to appreciate and notice pieces of public art. The countless bronze statutes that dot our squares and the attempts made by cities to integrate large scale works on our streets often become just blips on the landscape of our commutes and/or meeting points for the derelicts that exist in my nightmares. But July’s approach encourages us to interact with the work that truly exists between sculpture and performance art. It also serves as a reminder to take a second glance at the pieces we live with everyday.

Below are some more photos from the day. I’ve looked better, that is FO SHO.

Send photos of the public art you encounter this week to: ClarkCrowley@gmail.com

Miranda July’s "Eleven Heavy Things" is on view in the center lawn of New York City’s Union Square Park until October 30, 2010. For more information on the installation and to read the artist's bio, go here.

She really is.

It sure isn't and it sure won't be.

It's what I always look like. That's why I'm so good at it!

Sober and slender and sincere.

So I asked this man to pose with me. He had to think long and hard. I shook his hand and introduced myself. His name was Andrew. We hugged. We did not touch pelvises which I HATE. And then he quickly walked away. Just like the piece instructed him to do.

"Her career as an example of perseverance in the face of neglect"

Sculptor Louise Bourgeois died yesterday in New York. She was 98. You can read Holland Cotter's obituary for The New York Times here.

"Young artists have moved on, but the Turner Prize jurors are looking in the same places."

The BBC's Will Gompertz examines a few theories as to why only artists in their 40's were included in this year's Turner Prize shortlist.

"One of the glories and terrors of working in public is that you do see if your output means anything to anyone"

Jenny Holzer talks with Jori Finkel of the Los Angeles Times about receiving a distiguished women in the arts award from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

"We are in some ways lucky to be living in the era of art museums as big-box stores."

Kyle Chayka examines the recent flurry of museum expansion plans in an article for The Atlantic online here.

I have a birthday coming up...

Just saying.

Anish Kapoor for Bulgari via The Moment.