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 The Heat
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| July 4th fireworks display as seen from the Upper West Side. 10:00 PM. Photo: Jeff Hirsch. |
Friday, July 6, 2012. Heat. That’s New York right now, morning, noon and night. And from all the reports, a good part of the continental United States. Too much; whew.
But. A beautiful bright Full Moon last night, full with those smoky, thin, horizontal clouds hanging still, occasionally floating by, lingering behind as the moon rose.
This being a holiday weekend, our HOUSE Ladies, Sian and Leslie have taken a breather while photographer JH continues to stay on course with the NYSD. So we decided to do a look-back from our HOUSE series for those who might not have seen it back then (2008): photographer Ellen Graham in her Park Avenue apartment in one of the great Rosario Candela buildings.
Ellen and her husband Ian have been friends since my California days. They have a beautiful house in Beverly Hills where they spend their summers, and they often gave those cocktail parties which people don’t seem to have any more. You’d meet L A, Hollywood (there is a big difference as you may know), New York and an occasional European at the poolside under one of those luscious Southern California early evening skies.
I first became familiar with Ellen’s work in that house about 30 years ago. She had a room with just her photographs (which she refers to for a specific reason in this interview). I wish we could show you around that house because it’s spacious and elegant yet just right human scale. And simply glamorous. Like her photographs.
Her subject has often been the denizens of that community. The movie stars and their associates, relatives, children. Ellen’s latest book Talking Pictures came out last year. Looking at it you get the feeling she’s one of the neighbors in Beverly Hills and these are ... the neighbors. That’s because it’s true. Although these neighbors already know the quality of the photographer’s work so they’re happy to reciprocate. And you can see they’re enjoying it. Considering those whom I know or knew in these photographs, look most like the selves I knew. Ellen has a way of bringing out the best and they must know it.
This book, maybe more than any of Ellen’s volumes of photographs is beautiful but notable especially for what the photographs, the images say about an amazing time that has now passed. Not a memory so much as a grand finale of a media epoch. A lesson for someone’s future. The cover with Beatty says it all. He was one of the handsomest men in the movies, famous as a lover of beautiful (and often famous) women, a very big star, a compellingly charming actor, and the living essence of what I consider one of the two best films ever made about Hollywood: Shampoo. (The other is Sunset Boulevard.) If you ever wondered what it is really like out there, really like, stripped bare and bizarrely irresistible, Beatty and Shampoo are the story. Or were. Just like Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, their characters and the individuals who played them are protagonists of an epoch.
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The town is now very quiet, possibly for the last weekend for the rest of the summer, because so many left for the holiday earlier. One of the attractions to the city’s visitors, however, an attraction to anyone in the area, is the small private airplane that is mounted on a post just across the roadway from the General Sherman statue on 59th Street and Fifth Avenue.
I first spotted it coming down the avenue on my way to Michael’s one weekday a couple of weeks ago. Because: well, it looked like an actually airplane sitting above the pavement. And it was rotating. 360 degrees. I kept meaning to return after a lunch at photograph it although I had no idea what it was about. A plane in Central Park?
Wonder no more. Our associate editor, Jill Krementz, who misses nothing especially when it comes to artists, writers, culture and the arts, submitted these photos for our use yesterday afternoon. This is what I was talking about, except Jill not only photographs it but explains what it is that we’re looking at besides what we already know what it is. Now I get it ... |
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How I Roll by Paola Pivi
June 20-August 26, 2012
Fifth Avenue and 60th Street
According to a famous anecdote, three pioneers of modern art--Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, and Fernand Léger--are said to have visited the Paris Air Show. Observing a propeller, Brancusi said, "Now that is what I call a sculpture." A hundred years later, Paola Pivi's "How I Roll" suggests that the modern romance with industrial design lives on. |
Pivi's sculpture incorporates an entire six-seat plane that has been specially modified, enabling it to rotate through 360 degrees while held aloft on its wing tips. The artist's transformation allows this Piper Seneca to be seen in an entirely new way. Airborne but flightless, it's steady circular movement is mesmerizing.
The shift of context from airport runway to New York City plaza is dramatic. It creates the striking and surreal experience of a familiar object seen in an unexpected place doing a very unfamiliar thing. Like a child's dream come to life, "How I Roll" is typical of the artist's bold and playful imagination. |
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| In New York City people barely notice the juxtaposition of an Plane, a taxi and a pedi-cab. Most people are too busy texting to notice anything. |
Born in Milan, Italy, in 1971 and now based in Anchorage, Alaska, Paola Pivi's diverse artistic practice embraces sculpture, photography, video, and performance. Several previous works have also featured large machines, including an overturned tractor-trailer and a helicopter placed upside down. "How I Roll" is Pivi's first public commission in the United States.
The installation is thanks to the Public Art Fund. Nicholas Baume is its Director and Chief Curator. |
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