HOLIDAY WINDOWS
November 19, 2005 - January 1, 2006
In the spirit of the
holiday windows featured in New York’s major department stores, Exit
Art has commissioned ten artists to create installations in its eight
storefront window spaces. Viewable twenty-four hours a day
through the 10th Avenue and 36th Street windows, each display expresses
a unique take on the holiday season and spirit.
In FLUX, Emptying Karen Dolmanisth creates a surreal, dreamlike
installation. Utilizing objects found in nature at this time of
the year, such as berries, nuts, leaves, pine needles, and sand, and
festive household items such as silverware, mirrors and glass;
Domanisth invokes a magical, symbolic environment reminiscent of old
Christmas traditions.
Taking inspiration from historical Japanese prints that depict
powerful, winter landscapes, Hector Ducci recreates Niagara Falls using
overhead projectors, silk fabric, fans, glass, mirrors and running
water. Niagara Falls is the biggest producer of electricity in New York
State, producing 2.4 million kilowatts, which is enough to power 24
million 100-watt light bulbs at once. Niagara Power Plant reminds
us that during the holiday season, electric consumption raises
substantially in order to light up pine trees, living rooms, red
plastic toys and store windows.
Kate Gilmore and Anne Spurgeon’s window installation, With Love, Anne
and Kate, humorously addresses Christmas overconsumption. Remnants of
torn gift boxes and destroyed Christmas ornaments fill the window
display while a video documenting the cause of the chaos, a fight
between the two artists for gifts, plays on a large monitor.
Charles Juhasz-Alvarado’s installation features a festive scene filled
with sparkling holiday colors, strings of lights and traditional
children’s Christmas gifts. One of the gifts, a dollhouse,
depicts the murder scene of patriot Filiberto Ojeda Rios. Ojeda
Rios was a Puerto Rican nationalist leader killed by the FBI with a
single bullet in September 2005, he was wanted for his role in a 1983
Connecticut bank heist. Flying around the house are wooden
helicopters and scattered around the base is a stolen breathless
trumpet (Ojeda Rios was a salsa musician), dollar printed pillows and
toy pigs. A tall syringe-shaped sculpture filled with lava-lamp
motion liquid will tower over the gifts, surrounded by paper lanterns
in the shape of a heroin molecule.
nicoykatiushka’s Lighting From the East, is based on a religious sect
who believes that the second coming of Jesus happened 33 years ago and
is embodied in a Chinese woman. This woman, who has never been
photographed, lives hidden in the mountains of China. Her faction,
Lighting From the East, spreads the word of her existence to more than
300,000 followers. nicoykatiushka honor her by creating a bubble gum
nativity scene for her, all of the objects used in their installation
were made in China.
José Letelier and Jimmie Stone’s installation Due Date, presents an
oversized translucent egg being broken out of by an old man. The
installation reflects on some overarching concepts surrounding the
holidays including the passing of time, faith and new beginnings. This
project exposes the idea of rebirth and the hope that is implied by it,
while being confronted by the presence and fear of death.
Seth Weiner’s installation, Brooding, fills the window with an array of
250-watt ruby-colored heat lamps. Commonly used on farms, the lamps are
also referred to as "brooding lamps" for hatching or incubating eggs
and young animals. The thermal array produces a glowing field of
infrared radiation that passes through the clear glass of the window to
warm people outside the building.
Commodification of the holidays is at the crux of Saya Woolfalk’s
window display, To Us, From Them (from me, to you). Holiday windows are
typically a place where toys, jewelry and other goods are made
desirable. Woolfalk’s installation is about her interpretation of the
holidays as a time when corporate interests outweigh the giving intent
of the season. Woolfalk’s installation features a hand-sewn
indigenous looking doll bearing gifts of boxed bananas.
CURATORS
Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo
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