{"id":570,"date":"2008-04-17T12:12:31","date_gmt":"2008-04-17T17:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/the-bomb\/2008\/04\/17\/dan-colen-nate-lowmanwet-pain\/"},"modified":"2008-04-19T01:48:44","modified_gmt":"2008-04-19T06:48:44","slug":"dan-colen-nate-lowmanwet-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/the-bomb\/2008\/04\/17\/dan-colen-nate-lowmanwet-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"~DAN COLEN & NATE LOWMAN\/WET PAIN"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAN COLEN & NATE LOWMAN – ‘WET PAIN’ – aka – ‘CLO$ING DOWN $ALE’
\nMARCH 28 – APRIL 26, 2008
\nMACCARONE GALLERY in collaboration with PERES PROJECTS Berlin\/Los Angeles
\nMACCARONE GALLERY – 630 GREENWICH ST – WEST VILLAGE – NYC<\/p>\n

‘WET PAIN’ = STATIC ELECTRICITY<\/p>\n

This is an interesting exhibit in terms of how static it plays out – especially for an exhibit that aspires to be so in flux. Even the title seems to have been changed at some point, the show being called ‘CLO$ING DOWN $ALE’ on the invite\/poster & now, ‘WET PAIN’ on the gallery website !!<\/p>\n

It was RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA who made the momentarily startling and absolutely correct observation, when happened upon in the show on a recent Saturday – (see previous post) –
\nthat for a ‘slacker’ aspired show of spontaneous & deconstructionist ambiance – actually everything – every element of the show – had a deliberate and controlled placement & final visual effect. even the cardboard boxes supposedly jumbled into the window and the clothes seemingly picked thru and randomly arrayed on the metal clothes racks. This is not<\/em> a value judgement – nor a critical assessment – its just an interesting and ironic fact. (after all, static can<\/em> be electric !!) Particularly given the source. though it might have been a critical assessment by Rirkrit – in his mind. It’s compelling to contemplate the paradox: how casual and thrown-together\/at-the-moment, in-the-moment, organic – Rirkrit’s installations are – even though they are generally speaking much bigger and more involved productions, such as re-assembling an apartment, or re-creating a Thai Kitchen performance\/installation, and actually sheds a more intimate light on Rirkrit’s own work – in that – the element of spontaneous placement & organization – is actually – probably – very much more of a carefully considered (and beautiful element) of the overall design – than one might have formerly realized . . . and, easy to overlook, or under-estimate in the over-all schematic impact. <\/p>\n

Its kind of funny to think of the paradox – that Rirkrit’s academic & intellectual or polemic leanings, produce work that seems freely, really – organically – is the best word – evolved structures, rather than deliberately hyper-designed ambiences – and, the seemingly random thrown together casual ‘slacker’ output of ‘WET PAIN’ – especially as defined by the little narrative story, presented as a ‘stage play\/theater’ script’ that accompanies the show,
\n (see: gallery website\/PRESS RELEASE\/’WET PAIN’<\/a>)
\nassembled by DAN COLEN and NATE LOWMAN – has such a careful and static rendering. <\/p>\n

In retrospect, that ‘static’ placement constitutes an interesting, invisible torque – to how these 2 artists are trying to make a statement about their <\/em> particular brand of culture – celebrity tabloids, street smarts, male angst & hard partying – almost in direct opposition to Rirkrit’s ‘cultural’ territory – which tends to be more of a global ‘higher’ ground projection. kind of like The National Enquirer vs. The New York Times !! <\/p>\n

‘WET PAIN’S’ static dynamic also helps the exhibit manage a kind of artistic ‘get-over’ – 2 hard partying guys – who just<\/em> managed by the skin-of-their-teeth to pull off a full fledged exhibit in such a huge & serious exhibition space – while actually interpreting the space in a deviously deliberate, and yet, seemingly raw way. The stark empty spaces between the sparse works is actually very fine tuned. or at least they hoped to hell, you’d think so . . the whole idea being to be ultra stylish and ambitious – while seeming casually at play.<\/p>\n

. . . in ‘WET PAIN’ (get it ? – ‘WET PAIN-T’) – DAN COLEN and NATE LOWMAN by playing the creative ‘chaos’ element – low-profile and very contained . . just like dropping that extra ‘T’ – achieve a kind of static ‘electricity’ . . and succeed as this generation’s ULTIMATE ‘POSERS’.<\/p>\n

\"Rirkrit
\nthis is an archival RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA installation shot – ‘untitled (Demonstration No. 3)’, 2001
\ninstallation, van, diverse utensils, 8 monitors – on the videos there were sequences of the artist’s journey\/IMAGE COURTESY:YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE 2001<\/a><\/p>\n

pix from the current MACCARONE exhibit: DAN COLEN & NATE LOWMAN – ‘WET PAIN’:
\nPHOTOS: NANCY SMITH<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\nRIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA tours the DAN COLEN\/NATE LOWMAN collaboration – ‘WET PAIN’ ….<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\nthe boxes could be seen from the street – at the bottom of the big display windows<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\nthe view from the street<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\nthe show’s over-size posters in the window. what we’re trying to get at – devilishly deliberate detail in the ‘spontaneously’ effected lettering, which becomes ‘static’ design in the repeat !!<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\nthe first view of the installation<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\na traveler’s ‘sunshade’ !!<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\n“dude its about your mama”<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\n“Dude, you got the joke wrong”<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\n“LIFE’S A BEACH”<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\n“PEACE, MAN”<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\nJaguar, electronics and sound system, Christmas tree<\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\na jumble of home-made video loops on small monitors & assorted electronics filled the interior haphazardly, seemingly held together by packing tape.<\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\none of the small interior monitors spooled a Mexican band – while a Spanish street beat\/sound loop played<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\nin another room, in the vast MACCARONE space – “it’s about rape”<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\ndetail, bottom previous painting – “damn!”<\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\n“STOP & THINK”<\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

\"Dan
\n“Easy Japanesy”, 2008, Steel I-beam. metal, tire, aluminum rim, drywall, dimensions variable … drywall? guess, therefore it comes with the crashed-in wall !!! <\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

see: recent pix of DAN COLEN & NATE LOWMAN, RYAN McGINLEY OPENING, APRIL 3, 2008
\n<\/a>
\nMACCARONE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAN COLEN & NATE LOWMAN – ‘WET PAIN’ – aka – ‘CLO$ING DOWN $ALE’ MARCH 28 – APRIL 26, 2008 MACCARONE GALLERY in collaboration with PERES PROJECTS Berlin\/Los Angeles MACCARONE GALLERY – 630 GREENWICH ST – WEST VILLAGE – NYC ‘WET PAIN’ = STATIC ELECTRICITY This is an interesting exhibit in terms of how static […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}