A long time ago in a gallery far, far away…

The last time we left our friends aboard the Millennium Falcon they were hurtling down yet another wormhole and narrowly escaping a terrible demise on the Planet LeWitt. Now as they are helplessly and blindly traveling through this wormhole they can only pray and hope that their destination is peaceful, calm and serene.

Upon exiting the wormhole they find that their prayers were answered being thrown into a vast uninhabited planet. Threepio informs the crew that the planet they have entered is Planet Starling, known for its desolate terrain and existence of two massive silver outcroppings and one even larger gateway. Read the rest of this entry »

We  did not get the Starling film about his trip down the Hudson as expected today. We are optimistic it will arrive Tuesday which means you can see it in the Building 5 gallery on Wednesday.  We’ll hope to see you then.

In a somewhat serendipitous set of circumstances, the beautiful Hudson River figures prominently in two events/exhibitions that will be here in the end of October: Simon Starling’s new film Red Rivers (In Search of the Elusive Okapi) is on view in the galleries from October 17 through November 1 and the film Against the Current, screens here on Saturday, October 24, as part of the Williamstown Film Festival. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been way too long since I have posted a Flickr Finds blog. I’m going to try to make it up to you by posting two this month. For this first Finds I decided to collect photos of Simon Starling’s Nanjing Particles, which will be closing on October 31.  I love the way the reflections in the silver particles distort the interior of our building.  Enjoy!

Please note all photos shown in Flickr Finds blogs retain the copyright of the original photographer. To learn more about the photographer and the licensing of their images, click on the photographer’s name to visit their Flickr profile or webpage.

Akemi Ueda

anobjectn

aperf8ectcircle

senatorfrisky

skissel

trailerfullofpix

Range of Light

hargo

Cheers,

Brittany

P.S. If you would like to see your photos featured here make sure you add them to our Flickr Group for consideration.

MASS MoCA Director Joe Thompson also spent some time on the Hudson River with Simon Starling.  Here he details his role in the creation of the second phase of Strip Canoe.

My job was logistics support on Friday, Day 2, from Hudson to Kingston: actually, my job was to provide lunch.  I had the brilliant idea of using a high tech rotomolded sit-on-top 17′ Hobie cat, which boasts outriggers and a 17′ self-furling mainsail and would allow me to run 2009 circles around those canoeists, caught up in 1909.

But it didn’t work out that way.

No wind.  Not a breath.  The Hudson was like glass for most of the 25-mile trip.  Which meant I worked my tail off trying to keep up with the old technology, and even then failed.  Simon and Dante were polite and kept their boats in eyesight, or maybe this was  because I had the food.

We had a great time: hawks, eagles, herons, and lots of fish hitting at the surface.  The bridges from below are magnificent: Rip Van Winkle, in particular, is a structural marvel.  We noticed that 9/11 angst has infiltrated the river in the form of signage threatening 5 years imprisonment or a $50,000 fine for loitering under the bridges.  Strangely, the closer you get to NYC, the cleaner the river seemed.

This was the only part of the trip that I participated in, but there was one lesson I’ll never forget: on the river that flows both ways, it’s all about the tide.  With the draining tide, we made our first 22 miles in about 4.5 hours, and were still pretty fresh.  We lost the ebbing tide during lunch, however, and the horrible flooding tide slowed our rate to 2 miles over the next 2 hours, and we weren’t loafing.  I bailed at that point, on the north side of Kingston, and the canoeists carried on for another mile or two to complete the Hudson-Kingston reach.

Dante Birch, our production manager for visual arts spent the last week travelling down the Hudson River in a canoe with Simon Starling.  No stranger to canoeing, Dante has been on serious backwoods trips where they drop you by helicopter in Canadian wilderness but he didn’t expect that experiences gained in northern waters would ever come to bear on his currrent position in a contemporary art museum.  He was mistaken.

Little did I know…… I thought it was going to be a show in Building 5: fabrication of two monumental sculptures — behemoth upscale versions of stereoscopic images (from 4.5inches to 25 feet) — organization of borrowed works from abroad. There were the models, international travel, electron microscopes; Simon’s wife was having a baby in the midst of everything. General fare at MASS MoCA for a show in the largest gallery in North America, I guess. But then there were murmurings of a canoe trip……..elusive African animals…… a natural history museum in NYC……?

It was a great concept, Simon’s work Strip Canoe is a metaphysical manifestation of the okapi and it wanted to go to the natural history museum in New York City. This was the home base of Herbert Lang, the individual who photographed the okapi in Africa. Ah a trend, photography, journey, the spirit of discovery and curiosity….. It was starting to become clearer….. Simon is a genius.

But a canoe trip from MASS MoCA to New York City, Really?

As plans progressed it quickly became evident that this was going to be a happening. The project unfolded and soon the notion of the process being integral to Simon’s work revealed itself. Even our director, Joe Thompson joined in sailing a Hobie along with us. I know the guy is fearless but when he decided on a game of chicken with an oncoming barge — well, the image says it all!

The history and the passage through time on the Hudson is amazing. Traveling on the water gave new relevance and understanding. There was a sense of adventure at every turn and paddling all the way through it proved humbling.

As we moved forward, the river grew and so did my appreciation for Simon and what he was trying to achieve. It wasn’t just about the product, it was about the process as well.

Amazing vistas opened before us and the river seemed to have no end.

We moved under the GW Bridge and the visa of the Manhattan sky line opened before us. We finally had our goal in site. And, all that was left was the portage through the Upper West Side.

What a hoot, sore, tired we paddled on. And then it hit me I’ve been to a lot of museums and many of them chronicle the history of art but here at MASS MoCA we have the opportunity to make it. I think that’s why I love this place!