RIGHT OFF THE BAT . . both shows, were more<\/strong> what you would call ‘PRODUCTIONS’, as opposed to straight-forward exhibits, such as . . paintings on a wall, drawings in frames, sculptures on the floor, or projections looping on the wall. <\/p>\n BOTH EXHIBITS . . were ‘experiences’. more than say, strictly being about viewing & contemplating. ‘The Grey Planet’ . . was about being immersed in the non-stop, strobing, room-filling . . colored ‘light’. that said: there is no peace . . but the non-stop & experience that outer state, now. until you exit the gallery. I HAD THOUGHT . . . well, that was well-meaning, but in fact . . a no-go. start with . . Color.<\/strong> Color in Studio Ghibli . . takes you places, and informs your emotions. beckons and teases, like a poem. and, whenever<\/strong> I got to that point, in the essay I was<\/strong> going to write, all thoughts of Studio Ghibli evaporated . . like a monster Spirit hovering over your shoulder as you wait for a train, and all I could think of was . . LUKE TODD & BOBBY VITERI \/ ‘Meditations’ felt . . industrial. and so funny re: its title \/ Inner Peace (!!) ‘Meditations’ felt . . very how to say: meditation manual \/ scientific . . but brought my imagination alive \/ it was sparking . . sci fi. science fiction scenarios left & right, what with Luke Todd’s .. matrix \/ birth . . ‘Rose Extruder’ & the hand of man in creation & computers (it was programmed to some great effect), and could: wipe-out, too. whereas, KINETIC \/ MOVING \/ BOTH INWARD & TECHNICALLY. MOVING PARTS \/ & MOVING ART THEORY – FORWARD.<\/p>\n ‘Meditations’ took me on a ride,<\/strong> not so much as with regards to ‘inner peace’ – but as to . . future thought (?!!) ‘New Grey Planet’ – stopped me in my tracks.<\/strong> and all I could feel was one sensory signal: STRUGGLE. ‘Meditations’ was so . . Mind blowing.
\nboth involved to differing extents: computers \/ digital programming. sensory expectation – toppling, is best I can say it.
\nordinary objects – made . . new. but not like in surrealism. more like in sci fi. more like in surfaces – seen in a different . . light.
\n‘The Grey Planet’ being . . about a lot of light.
\n‘Meditations’ being about the light that’s shone, by a new . . ‘concept’.<\/p>\n
\nfiercely projected ‘light’ . . was something you – moved through. and overtook . . your ego (!!).
\n‘Meditations’ . . was about the ‘light’ that goes on in your head \/ as you try to get your head around; the newness of expression that lies before you, and beckons: understand me, give me your hand, come trip the inner Peace (!!).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/BLINN-LAMBERT-Microscope-gallery-1.gif\")
<\/a>
\nBLINN & LAMBERT \/ NICHOLAS STEINDORF & KYLE WILLIAMS
\n‘New Grey Planet’
\nDEC 15, 2017 – JAN 14, 2018 \/ the show is still UP !!!!!<\/strong>
\ncatch the REAL ‘REAL’ – while you – can !!!
\nMICROSCOPE GALLERY<\/a>, 1329 WILLOUGHBY AVE, 2B, BUSHWICK BROOKLYN <\/p>\n<\/a>
\nLUKE TODD & BOBBY VITERI
\n‘Meditations: A Study On Inner Peace’
\nNov 17, 18 & 19, 2017
\nPOP-UP \/ PETER SUTHERLAND’S RAW CHINATOWN STUDIO \/ Blink & you missed it.
\nbut, don’t worry, these dudes ain’t going nowhere – but up.
\nthey are already popping up in other spaces & places.
\nP4TG \/ PRAY FOR THIS GALLERY, 83 Canal St, Buzzer 200, Chinatown, NYC <\/p>\n
\nthe concurrent ‘STUDIO GHIBLI’ ANIMATION RETROSPECTIVE at the IFC CENTER<\/a> would be the perfect head-on crash type of launchpad to get right into . . whatever was going to be served up by BLINN & LAMBERT in ‘New Grey Planet’.
\nthe thinking being: well, BLINN & LAMBERT is all about ‘digital’ projection \/ perhaps some CGI animation \/ whereas STUDIO GHIBLI is only<\/em> about hand-drawn \/ traditional storyboard story-telling . . animation, no digital sequencing \/ though both are about . . . projections \/ projected images. a tight corner of ‘conversation’, perhaps.
\nbut that was the point !!<\/p>\n
\nthe more I thought about the raw comparisons, but esp . . after I had actually<\/em> gone . . to the BLINN & LAMBERT opening & seen<\/strong> the show . . what really started to rub against each other in my mind like 2 quarters, you know, when you get change for everything that costs $1.50 \/ was ‘New Grey Planet’ vs. ‘Meditations’.<\/p>\n
\n‘Studio Ghibli’ . . is not anything, if not color-saturated & color-obsessed \/ whether futuristic rain forest bold, or retro watercolor wispy. ‘New Grey Planet’ is so<\/strong> color-saturated & color-obsessed \/ it actually becomes the . . ‘subject’ !! no joke.
\nwhen you walk into the gallery venue, which is large and brilliant as a choice for this show, you are just hit head-on by vibrant neon light \/ as if you had walked into a tiny closet of a room, with a huge monster disco ball twirling in 3\/4 of the space. you were blinded – by the color. tghe color stream – was the animation. the room was black as night (in the rural countryside, lol) & streams of color ran through you like a high-end radar \/ cat scan. it didn’t really matter what was being projected on the walls, and over the real-life quasi-scientific nerdy objects, presented as ‘diaramas’ in front of each loop \/ what mattered was your total immersion in color, and your struggle to stay . . oriented.
\nthis is what I meant by . . experience. usually we go to shows that are<\/strong> all about the ‘plasticity’ of the art objects before you: their composition, their texture (thin or thick paint ?), their expressive brushstrokes or flat seamless spray paint. their material, paint, chalk, metal, wood. free-form, measured. their weight, their concept, their negative space. the hues, the palette. the romance. the joke. the Harlem dudes. the crazy-as-whack \/ symbolist cartoons.<\/p>\n
\nColor in ‘New Grey Planet’ . . becomes a means to its own end. it is the story-line. a bombardment of sensory pulses, that defy any story . . telling. ‘you’ . . maneuvering<\/strong> in the color – are the story.<\/p>\n
\nand how their<\/strong> show . . ‘Meditations: A Study On Inner Peace’, was so<\/strong> much about ‘Color’ as a Subject, too.
\nexcept it was the exactly the opposite \/ of Blinn & Lambert !!
\n‘Meditation’ was about . . non-color !! though it had plenty of color in it, just not the usual suspects !!
\nand it was this absence of color that struck me more than anything else . . after the show had settled down in my mind.
\nit was such a non-palette experience. there’s that word again. everything was about surface \/ from the rusted<\/strong> patina of Viteri’s copper electroplate on etched steel panel, to the disappearing ‘blooming flower grid’ of Todd’s white plaster ‘Rose Extruder’.<\/p>\n
\n‘New Grey Planet’ felt . . luminous. and so funny re: its title \/ Grey (!!) Planet<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nand, also of course, in his ‘blood bubbling – in a plastic tube’ \/ ‘Blood Rug’ Celtic knot on the floor.
\neven Bobby Viteri’s immensely mysterious ‘Cinderblock’ – crystal awakened primal \/ sci fi screamings.<\/p>\n
\n‘New Grey Plant’ – whose title spoke to sci fi … ?!!!!!!
\njust shocked me, plain and simple. there was no<\/strong> tripping into the future imagination, unless I guess Blinn & Lambert wanted to simulate you entering a . . transporter ???
\nI didn’t feel ‘lifted off’.
\nI felt small, and stupid, dumbstruck, and dysfunctional – which is in itself a very profound, and profoundly disturbing ‘situation’, is it .. not ?
\nit was less about sci fi, then it was about . . the present.
\nso outta control, so over-whelming, so vulnerable. inner peace, NOT.<\/p>\n
\n object contemplation. wonder. attraction. addiction. out of my body. spinning in the universe of art \/ and new age ‘plasticity’. the ‘umami’ of color\/non-color. the kinetic weirdness of the forms before me. and their newness. the awe of being in a room, in which the ‘infinite-ness of art’ is re-affirmed, and even in this, sends the poetic soul flying, esp the poetic souls . . that tetter – on the cutting-edge of the hardcore art scene.
\nkinetic within the artworks, again even the Bobby Viteri etched copperplate wall pieces were kinetic & . . and of course the Luke Tood kinetic sculptures . . were: kinetic. <\/strong>
\nwithin \/ and without \/ as in, concept.
\nis that . . Inner Peace ?
\nwithin \/ and, without.<\/p>\n
\nI didn’t<\/strong> care what those mundane pseudo-ordinary \/ scientific objects \/ or images were.
\nI could see them. I couldn’t break the ‘code’. I was immersed . . in spinning like a top.
\nI was struggling to breath in the . . the pulsing \/ hyper – kinetic light.
\nyou swam in the kinetic<\/strong>.
\nI couldn’t go anywhere in my . . mind \/ that I could stop, and understand. never mind, un-ravel.
\nI was already somewhere.
\non a . . new grey plant ?
\nwith not enough oxygen, and too much . . colored light ?
\ncolor separation – that cut into you, like a knife.<\/p>\n
\n‘New Grey Planet’ was so . . drop dead Optical.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nBLINN & LAMBERT . . ‘New Grey Planet’
\noptical – to the max. sensory overload \/ a kind of radical . . reality.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\ncolor separation – to the max. blindingly, so. programmed thus. non-stop.
\nhow to de-code ?
\nthe objects – when you are struggling . . to stand ?<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nhow to move \/ when the light is <\/strong>the room’s kinetic force-field.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nLUKE TODD, ‘Untitled (Rose Extruder)’ – ‘Meditations: A Study On Inner Peace’.
\nprogrammed – to rise, again.
\nkinetic.
\nRadical. Imaginary.<\/p>\n