You love their installation here (which incidentally is closed for the next two days for some much-needed upkeep), but check out what Miss Rockaway Armada is up to now floating down the Hudson.

News from Joseph Smolinski whose Tree Turbine is spinning away generating electricity in Courtyard C as part of Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape.

Mixed Greens is presenting his first solo exhibition in New York. He will debut a series of graphite drawings, sculptures and a video commenting on the contemporary landscape. It opens September 4th from 6-8pm at Mixed Greens which is located at 531 West 26th Street in Chelsea.

Joseph’s view of the landscape changed the day he spotted an enormous fake tree used to camouflage a cellular communication tower. This “Franken-Treeâ€� has since triggered images of a biotech future where parasitic microwave transmitters use the trees inhabiting suburbia and apocalyptic gardens as their hosts. A large-scale rendering of an apple tree in the Garden of Eden, reminiscent of a Durer etching but complete with cell tower, will be shown as part of a series of masterful graphite drawings. The fine lines and textures are mesmerizing in their detail; each intricacy lures the viewer into contemplating the intersection between technological advancement and naturally occurring phenomena.

On an optimistic note, Smolinski has developed Tree Turbines which, like the cell tower trees, camouflage technology to blend into the landscape. A functioning electric wind turbine was first envisioned in the concept video Tree Turbine, that animates the landscape with a forest full of majestic, artificial pine trees powering a cabin, an electric car charging station and an entire city. Presented along with the video are a series of sculptures, drawings and documentation of the 20-foot tall prototype currently on view here.

Curator Denise Markonish reports:

From July 14 – 21, 2008 I was in New Orleans with video artist Pawel Wojtasik working on a project for my upcoming exhibition called These Days: Elegies for Modern Times (a group show also including works by George Bolster, Chris Doyle, Robert Taplin and Micah Silver) which will open April 4, 2009.

Pawel’s project, titled Below Sea Level, is a panoramic video being filmed in New Orleans in collaboration with the composer Sebastian Currier. The finished piece will project on a 36-foot diameter circular screen that is 12-feet high and it addresses the relationship between New Orleans and its surrounding waters, focusing most specifically on the effects of industry on the disappearing wetlands (for more information on this please check out Pulitzer Prize Winning journalist Bob Marshall’s devastating account of the wetlands.

While on site in New Orleans we filmed in the Lower Ninth Ward (the area most devastated by Hurricane Katrina, which is just now, three years later, slowly being rebuilt); in New Orleans’ amazing cemeteries; in Bayous Gauche just outside the city (where we saw alligators), at an alternative arts space utilizing abandoned homes called KK Projects; throughout the Gulf of Mexico; along the Mississippi River and more.

Gian Pablo Villamil, a recent graduate of NYU’s ITP Program was with us serving as panoramic guru and tech assistant on the project. Check out his blog with images and details about technical side of filming a panoramic video using the Ladybug 2 camera. Pawel and Gian Pablo head back to New Orleans this week where they will finish up filming (they are planning a trip to an abandoned Six Flags Amusement Park, a canoe trip through a forest of dead trees and many other adventures), and after that the editing process will begin. Come to MASS MoCA in April to see the finished results!

One of our devoted tour guides, Karen Matthews, recently went on an expedition behind The Clark Art Institute in search of the first generation of upside down (now right side up) trees from Tree Logic. Not only was her search fruitful, but she wrote an excellent article for The Advocate to share her findings. If you’ve ever been curious about the trees, be sure to check out Karen’s report.

Cheers,

Brittany

Here at MASS MoCA some of our recent visitors might have noticed a new installation in our lobby, a plastic bag donation center courtesy of the artist Jennifer Zackin. This installation is titled Plastic Bags: The Hidden Cost of Excessive Convenience.

Throughout Jennifer’s many travels, she was struck by the use of natural-made, hand-sewn bags out of burlap, hemp, and other elements and how much more durable they were then our plastic counterparts.

The aesthetic used for the donation bin replicates her grounded pod sculpture in the Berkshire Botanical Garden (http://www.berkshirebotanical.org) exhibit Cultivate, the sister show to our own Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape.

Bags will be collected until September 1, and then re-used and made into art by none other than Zackin herself. So please feel free to donate your plastic bags next time you are in the neighborhood, and also go see how Cultivate corresponds so nicely with Badlands. Enjoy both exhibitions!

Looking forward to a more eco-friendly future,

Jordan (Box Office Intern)

A few wishes from the Miss Rockaway Armada installation.

“I wish that my children would not grow up so fast, or, barring that, that someone would come up with a way to preserve touches (hugs especially) the way we preserve sight with photographs.”

“I wish I could click my fingers and be anywhere I wanted to be, but here’s pretty good for the time being.”

“I wish to be content with not having all the answers.”

Cheers,

Brittany