Ongoing Installations

March 6 to March 23; Daily 12–8 pm. All work collection of the artist unless otherwise noted.

Matthew Brannon»

The last page in a very long novel., 2008
Words on a page, ink on paper, and hours in the dark
Courtesy Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles
LOCATION: SECRET
Brannon composes a “haunted house” film script based on recordings made during the night at the Armory. When the exhibition closes the pages are buried in a secret location within the building’s walls. While the text remains eternally inaccessible, the recorded sounds are released as an album. Courtesy Creative Link for the Arts

Bozidar Brazda»

Our Hour: Radioff, 2008
Mixed-media installation
Courtesy Bortolami, New York
COMPANY ROOM 1
Representing the physical aspects of radio, Brazda hangs an inverted antenna-like chair from the ceiling and installs a microphone in the room. Pre-recorded song requests made by artists and musicians fill the room while the microphone picks up ambient sound from visitors, challenging the definition of “live” radio. Courtesy Diane Ackerman

Olaf Breuning»

Not yet titled, 2008
Gelatin silver print
SECOND FLOOR HALL
The Army, 2008
Mixed media
COMPANY ROOM M
Breuning restages a 1931 photograph of architects dressed as the iconic New York buildings they designed. In a separate sculptural installation, thirty soldiers with identical Chinese teapot bodies and different heads represent a dysfunctional army.

William Cordova»
&Leslie Hewitt»

I Wish It Were True, 2004-
Screening and installation
SUPERINTENDENT'S ROOM
Cordova and Hewitt curate ongoing screenings from their evolving archive of bootleg independent and alternative films representing Black and Latino consciousness. Sculptural stacks of their VHS tapes are also displayed in the room.

Dexter Sinister»

True Mirror, 2008
Mixed media, multiple parts
MULTIPLE LOCATIONS, PARK AVENUE ARMORY, WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
Dexter Sinister occupies the Commander’s Room releasing a series of parallel texts through multiple channels of distribution which reflect on the show. More information is available on the True Mirror website.
True Mirrors (TM) courtesy True Mirror Company

Gardar Eide Einarsson»

Black Suit (Sic Semper Tyrannis), 2008
Found suit, framed
LIBRARY / SILVER ROOM
Come and Take It (contemporary verstion), 2008,
Cotton duck
Courtesy Team Gallery, New York
NORTH HALL
Einarsson titles this work with the phrase made famous by Marcus Brutus upon his assassination of Julius Caesar: sic semper tyrannis (thus always to tyrants). Referring to accounts that John Wilkes Booth shouted the same phrase after shooting Abraham Lincoln, who was wearing a Brooks Brothers suit when assassinated, Einarsson encases a suit by this label in a vitrine. Installed nearby, the artist’s hanging flag contests notions of the Armory as a place of protection, inviting visitors to “come and take it.”

Gang Gang Dance»

Not yet titled, 2008
Mixed-media installation
Courtesy James Fuentes LLC
COMPANY ROOM G
After performing on March 9, Gang Gang Dance leaves behind their stage and a recorded video from the event

Rawshan Griffin»

Untitled (W, SW, NE) for L.D., 2008
Speakers and debris
COMMITTEE ROOM
Continuing his exploration of dislocation and memory, Griffin’s installation includes a live audio feed from a field in his native Kansas, transmitting this particular location through time and space. This simple gesture links the artist’s rural childhood with his current urban environment, functioning as a sort of self-portrait.

MK Guth»

Ties of Protection and Safekeeping, 2007-08
Braided fabric and artificial hair
Courtesy Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, Oregon
LIBRARY / SILVER ROOM
Guth’s ongoing interactive sculpture engages viewers in an experience of exchange. Participants answer the question “What is worth protecting?” by writing on strips of flannel, which are then woven into a growing braid of artificial hair. At specific times throughout the first ten days of the exhibition, the artist braids with visitors in the Library/Silver room. On Sunday, March 16, the artist completes the project’s interactive component, draping the work throughout the room. Courtesy Creative Link for the Arts.
Friday, March 7 at 2pm
Saturday, March 8 at 2pm
Sunday, March 9 at 2pm
Monday, March 10 at 1pm
Tuesday, March 11 at 1pm
Thursday, March 13 at 2pm
Friday, March 14 at 1pm
Saturday, March 15 at 1pm

Ellen Harvey»

The Inevitable Failure of Restoration, 2008
Looped video, flat-screen monitor, gold frame, and wall label
Courtesy Luxe Gallery, New York, Magnus Müller, Berlin, and Galerie Gebrüder Lehmann, Dresden
MARY DIVVER / RECEPTION ROOM
An elaborately framed flat-screen monitor hangs across from a wall where Harvey has exposed the original decoration obscured by many generations of paint. Considering art’s potential and its limitations, the artist presents a video depicting her inadequate attempts to re-create the original wall treatment.

Lucky Dragons»

Lucky Dragons Video Program, 2008
Video projection, color, sound
Congratulations, 2008
Laser prints
NON-COMPANY STAFF ROOM
Lucky Dragons gives away poster-sized prints showing images of their performances that isolate and magnify the points of contact between audience members playing the touch-synthesizer. A looped video projection is presented in a nearby hidden room decorated with flowers and rocks. Pre-recorded animated patterns provide a record of touches and movement.

Olivier Mosset»

Untitled, 2007
Polyurethane sprayed on canvas, nine parts
Courtesy Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York
MAIN HALL
Mosset’s nine-panel monochrome painting replaces the historical portraits that traditionally line the Main Hall.

DJ Olive»

Triage, 2008
Mixed-media installation
COMPANY ROOM L
Using a room-sized white tent furnished with cots, DJ Olive (Gregor Asch) creates an environment of deep ambient sounds with his most recent composition from the Sleeping Pill series, Triage. The artist encourages visitors to quietly listen to his work, providing a respite from the external chaos of the city.

Kembra Pfahler»

New York, New York, New York “Actresstocracy”, 2008
Mixed-media installation
Courtesy Deitch Projects
COMPANY ROOM K / WOMEN'S BALCONY
Pfahler installs posters of The Girls of Karen Black dressed as historical female characters on placards in the women’s waiting room and balcony. Well-known for their campy, glamorous outfits, which often include stiletto boots and black underwear, these domineering women contrast sharply with the women who waited for men during drill practices.

Michael Queenland»

Untitled, 2007-08
Ping-pong balls, plastic filament, acrylic, and lamp hardware
Courtesy Harris Lieberman Gallery, New York, and Daniel Hug Gallery, Los Angeles
FORMER LADIES' WASHROOM
Queenland shifts traditional symbolic associations as he abstracts familiar objects without eliminating their original forms. This chandelier, made from ping-pong balls, retains an aura of elegance despite the humble materials used, subtly calling attention to the former grandeur of the Armory.

Bert Rodriguez»

In the Beginning ..., 2008
Mixed-media installation with performance
COLONEL'S ROOM: MON-FRI 1-6 PM
Rodriguez holds daily “therapy sessions” inside a minimalist white cube. Based on these sessions, he assigns “patients” art projects to complete as therapy, casting himself in the role of healer or shaman. Rodriguez later broadcasts recordings of the conversations outside his “office,” obscuring the sounds to a faint, incomprehensible murmur. While commenting on conventional readings of minimalism, Rodriguez engages the healing power of art. All sessions have been booked. Courtesy Randy Slifka and Frederic Snitzer Gallery

Marina Rosenfeld»

Teenage Lontano/16 Channels, 2008
Mixed-media installation
BOARD OF OFFICERS' ROOM
Featuring speakers staged diagonally across the room, Rosenfeld’s Teenage Lontano/16 Channels creates a complex sonic field. To make the initial recordings, teenage participants performed individual scores, creating tone clusters that Rosenfeld mixed into a larger composition of pop song-length tracks. Each speaker emits a unique recording, offering every visitor a different audio experience as they pass through the space. Rosenfeld debuts a live performance of Teenage Lontano on March 8. Courtesy Alltronics Technical Systems and Randy Slifka.

Lisa Sigal»

Women’s Balcony, 2008
House paint on wall
Courtesy Frederieke Taylor Gallery, New York
DRILL HALL
Sigal uses paint to visually and symbolically connect the two “female” areas of the Armory—the women’s balcony, where historically viewers were allowed to watch men drilling, and the more recently established women’s shelter, which is housed on the Armory’s fourth and fifth floors. Courtesy Allison Sarofim

Gretchen Skogerson»

Not yet titled, 2008
Neon tubes
DRILL HALL
Responding to the devastation in Miami in the wake of Hurricane Ivan, Skogerson focuses on tattered neon signs as physical and symbolic traces of the wreckage. Skogerson’s installation of five re-created and fragmented neon signs examines the aesthetic paradoxes of disaster.

Mungo Thomson»

Silent Film of a Tree Falling in the Forest, 2005-06
16mm film, color, silent; 7 min
Courtesy Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, and John Connelly Presents, New York
DRILL HALL / BUNKER
Thomson depicts six trees falling in the forest, the classic example of a chance occurrence whose encounter depends entirely on circumstance. Footage of each falling tree is separated by clear leader running through the projector—Thomson’s reference to Nam June Paik’s seminal work Zen for Film. Screened in a bunker on the east side of the Drill Hall, the installation, like the subject of the film itself, can easily be missed.

Mario Ybarra Jr.»

The Scarface Museum, 2008
Mixed-media installation
Courtesy Anna Helwing Gallery, Los Angeles
VETERAN'S ROOM
Ybarra creates an homage to his friend Angel Montes Jr., for whom Al Pacino’s character in the film Scarface represented a model of success. Comprised of film memorabilia inherited upon Montes’ incarceration, The Scarface Museum reflects on the story of the fictional gangster/drug dealer as an embodiment of the American Dream, however flawed. Visitors are encouraged to donate to the artist’s evolving Scarface collection, emblematic of Ybarra’s continued engagement with the public. Courtesy Creative Link for the Arts.