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Photos: Spring/Break Goes Wild With Maggot-Eaten Texter, VW Bug And Other Art
By
Scott Lynch
Published Mar 6, 2014
Modified Mar 6, 2014
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Scott Lynch / Gothamist
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By
Scott Lynch
Published Mar 6, 2014
Modified Mar 6, 2014
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NYC's annual Art Fair Week kicks off today with the opening of Spring/Break, a "curator-driven show" at that old school (which is actually called Old School) on the corner of Prince and Mott Streets.
Now in its third year, Spring/Break takes over almost the entire space, filling the one-time classrooms, cloakrooms, hallways, and bathrooms with new works from over 100 artists. Each area is assigned to a different curator—there are 40 in all—who is then allowed to do whatever they want with the space. There are performance pieces and installations, paintings, sculptures, video art, photographs, drawings, mixed-media assemblages... pretty much the whole contemporary art-world gamut.
The theme for Spring/Break 2014 is PUBLICPRIVATE and, as you can imagine, you will likely be engaged, annoyed, amused, disgusted, inspired, indifferent, depending on the room.
A few works of note:
Sigrid Sarda's "Rule 34; Charm", which is basically a half-rubber, half-worm-eaten woman checking her texts. As I entered the space, the curator happily announced: "The bones and the maggots are real, if that helps".
"Private Drive In" by Fall On Your Sword and Sarah Bereza, a wildly-decorated VW Bug sitting in front of a looping supercut of various drive-in scenes. Get in the car and make the moves on your date. Don't forget to hit the horn!
Sean Fader IS the "Wishing Pelt". This interactive performance piece asks you to rub the artist's luxuriously hairy chest while whispering your greatest wish into his ear. For your wish to come true, you must take a selfie and send it to your favorite social media platform, #wishingpelt. So far this has NOT worked for me, but I am a patient man.
"Blood Illuminations" by Jordan Eagles, which uses classroom overhead projectors and photographs of blood (wet and dried) to splatter the walls.
Also: Azikiwe Mohammed's "Free Bieber" throw rug; Lia Chavez as the "Large Glass Bride", mediating in full train; Jean-Baptiste Michel's series using live tweets that start with "I Need", "I Want", and "I Love"; and Caroline Wells Chandler "Cowabunga Pizza" and "Selfie as Chocolate Chip Cookie" which, if nothing else, proved that almost anything can make me hungry.
Spring/Break 2014 at Old School is open this today, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from noon to 8:00 p.m, and admission is $5.
Tagged
armory arts week
art show
sculpture
spring/break
SPRING/BREAK Art Show
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Scott Lynch
Photojournalist, food writer, preschool receptionist. Love NYC.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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