Without further ado, here is Gelya Robb's field report from the January 16 opening of Doug Aitken's ambitious new public art film Sleepwalkers:
Debuting last week, Doug Aitken's Sleepwalkers is running on the exterior of the MoMA for 28 evenings during two of New York's most bitingly cold months. As a multidisciplinary videographer (amongst various art installations, he's also directed music videos for the likes of Interpol and Fatboy Slim) Aitkin's continues to explore his fixation with the interaction of art and urban architecture in Sleepwalkers.
The piece, a joint commission for Creative Time and the MoMA is comprised of a rotating loop of five 13-minute, large-scale projections covering the exteriors of one of New York's most spectacular structures. With less of a punch than his 1999 award-winning Earth Electric, Sleepwalkers is a beautiful series of moving portraits that is perhaps garnering most of it's attention due to the allstar cast including Donald Sutherland, Tilda Swinton, Seu Jorge, Chan Marshall (Cat Power), and Ryan Donowho (The OC, Broken Flowers). Its bleak illustration of a day in a life of a New Yorker makes you wonder if the California boy should have have cut the piece LCD Soundsystem's "New York I Love You" ("...but your brining me down") or maybe added a pop to his mix of characters (a business man, office worker, electrician, and bicycle messenger) by pounding the pavement with one of the Rotten Apple's hard-working party kids.
Goodness knows, last Tuesday's crowded opening reception- thankfully held inside the MoMA- was a bit of a yawn and a lot bumping shoulders with the city's established art and graduated hipster scenes. Fortunately a bit of excitement was supplied by the live tunes of Sue Jeorge himself, who wowed the audience clad in a stylish purple jumpsuit. Thanks to biting cold and record crowds, the opening event became overfilled almost instantly. Luckily there was an afterparty featuring the disco stylings of LA and NYC DJs Doug Lee, Lovefingers and Speculator to help shake off the chills.
The exhibit, an edgy step for the MoMA, is projected to have the most visitors in the museums history. With the pervasive nature and immediacy of the current interactive culture, Sleepwalkers won't be the height of the digital art age, but certainly merits a trip up to Midtown despite the cold temperatures.
Visitor Info:
Sleepwalkers - Doug Aitken:
January 16th- February 12th 2007
5 - 10 p.m.
The Museum of Modern Art:
11 West 53rd St. btwn 5th & 6th Aves
Free to the public
Visitor Info according to Nonstarving Artist:
Doug Aitken: Sleepwalkers will be viewable from West 53 Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues; West 54 Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues; from an open lot adjacent to the American Folk Art Museum that can be entered from either West 53 Street or West 54 Street; and in MoMAâ??s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, whose gates on West 54 Street will be open to the public from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. nightly. The last entrance to the Garden is at 9:45 p.m.
