~MARTIN CREED vs GRAVITY . . CREED WINS

MARTIN CREED vs ‘GRAVITY’ the film ?

CREED wins.

HINT: it’s the silence. it’s the spaceship ambience. it’s the ‘bio’ ness of our fragile race. it’s feeling: lost in space.
it’s MARTIN is . . just an ‘A’ away from being: MARTIAN.
it’s MARTIN turns everything upside down, and comes up: roses.

which is just another way of saying . . .

in light of the great Brit success at Christie’s this week, and the beautiful, gorgeous sunshine streaming down on a brisk New York City today . . .

you might want to get yourself downtown, close to the open spaces of the west side . . and the water, where you can check out a Brit . . who not only comes with a strong secondary market already attached . .
but, who also happens to be more importantly, a bonafide: LIVE WIRE.

MARTIN CREED – GAVIN BROWN’S ENTERPRISE – 620 GREENWICH ST – DOWNTOWN WEST SIDE, NYC
NOVEMBER 8 – DECEMBER 21, 2013


FLASHBACK TO: JUNE 2010:
yep, that . . MARTIN CREED.
this was the first time I saw anything by MARTIN CREED, in person.
it was the summer of 2010, it was a real hot summer for art.
but this screening at GBE . . aced it.

it was absolutely jaw-dropping . . presented when GBE first debuted that new annex.
it was so ahead of the usual art game . . it was: SCARY.

oh momma, it was bold. it was silent. it was huge. it was vast.
it talked to space, and to .. bio-ness. the human condition, the human ‘creed’. and yes, you did feel lost in space.
the exhibition space was . . that huge and raw.
the gallery space still retained its original industrial rawness.

the looped footage was so primal, so graphic, so in your face.

it was: scary.

it was everything in 2 mins. that ‘GRAVITY’ in 2 hrs .. was NOT.

esp silent, and . . awesome.

GAVIN & CREED vs BULLOCK & CLOONEY, well you know who wins that.


I guess you could call it .. CREED RISING. it was a loop of you know .. what.
the force of nature, that opposes gravity. that ‘rises’.
that keeps us . . going. as a race. reproduction.
it was definite one of the top ten art events . . I’ve ever witnessed.


not that I haven’t seen a ‘dick’ rising in my lifetime.
it was the confluence of factors. esp the rawness of the yet untouched new space.
so industrial vs. the loop: which was so, bio.
the room would go completely bright, full of natural & artificial light, to stark and completely dark, and the single most important ‘cornerstone’ to human welfare . . would loop. no words. no soundtrack.
zero. no adornment of any kind.
I was speechless. I was completely dumbstruck.
it was very physical. but it was also absolutely . . conceptual.


there was a bunker mentality to the place, that reminded me of . . JOSH HARRIS and QUIET. ten years ago.
so it was an experience for me, that was both past and present.
and FUTURE .. with a really big capital ‘F’.

I would even say, the ‘space’ felt like QUIET did, more a ‘spaceship’, than a white box exhibit.


yo, when the security guard is alaughin’, and areading’ (!!) . . you know you are in the right place.


MARTIN CREED also had some small black ‘pyramid’ paintings on the wall facing the huge screen . . which made perfect sense, in that context.
the hugeness of the notion of ‘human’ creation vs. the smallness of the actual human ‘stab’ at creativity.
the struggle to articulate both the infinite principles we are subject to, and the finite properties of the life we live.

the humble ‘small’ gesture small paintings .. vs the huge primal ‘male’ principle of the universe.

the black and white paint echoing the black and white of the video loop ..

the ‘pyramid’ gradation of the painting, going to wider yet smaller bands, well you get the picture . . ‘rising’ !!
universal ‘principles’. duh.
or ‘doh’. whatever.
very: ZEN.

FLASH FORWARD:


MARTIN CREED also has a small ‘pyramid’ painting in the new show, 2013.
except this time . . they are in color.
very ‘plastic’.

I think the real beauty of the thing, the small paintings . . lie in their size vs the hugeness of the ‘cosmic’ principles, they imply.

art vs. the beauty of basic science.


MARTIN CREED, Work No. ___, (TBC). acrylic on canvas, 19-7/8 x 15-7/8 in.

I think this work, and the new show in total . . will resonate strongly with many young New York painters, as they seem to be very much into abstract art right now. and they are all also searching . . for when & how, that strict non-objective ‘spatial’ compositional dynamic . . takes a leap off the surface and becomes a .. ‘dance’.
a thing of the heart.
a live wire.

MORE PIX FROM THE NEW MARTIN CREED SHOW . . . TO FOLLOW.

ARCHIVAL PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH. JUNE 2, 2010, NEW YORK CITY.

CURRENT PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH. NOV 8, 2013, NEW YORK CITY.

PS: if you’ve got the time. we’ve got the pix !!

check out: What the hell – it’s one hot summer SCARY summer / on our ARCHIVES, 2010.