A: Is The Museum that helps young artists excel

The Whitney houses approximately 12,000 works of twentieth-century American art encompassing a broad range of mediums, and it is still growing. The Museum, making the most of its resources purchases works of living artists, particularly those who are young and unknown. It has been a long-standing tradition of the Whitney to purchase works from the Museum's Annual and Biennial exhibitions, which began in 1932 as a showcase. A number of the Whitney's masterpieces came from these exhibitions, including works by Gorky, Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois and Jasper Johns. Classical Masters such as Donald Judd, Georgia O'Keeffe and the now exhibiting Edward Hopper round out the mix. Continuing the tradition of celebrating young artists, on view is Taryn Simon: An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliaron. Born in 1975 Simon examines culture through science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security, and religion. Transforming the unknown into a seductive and intelligible form, Simon confronts the divide between the have and the have not's. Most effective is the glow of Cherenkov radiation. The pool of water serves as a shield against radiation. A human standing one foot from an unshielded capsule would receive a lethal dose of radiation in less than 10 seconds. This exhibit is highly moving. Completing the new comers Lorna Simpson well known for her photographic and film works, examines racial and gender identity. The new installation in the Whitney's Lobby is Terence Kohon monochromatic environments vieing for dominance. This is his first solo museum show in the United States. Kohon's gestures evoke isolation and secrecy, but also protection and ecstasy. It seems to me that the Whitney is focusing more on the digital aspect of art. Lights, Camera Action: Artists' Films for the Cinema is the documentary of Gordon Matta Clarkon. During his brief life he exerted a powerful influence on artists and the architects who knew his work. However the reason I picked the Whitney was my friend Robert sent this notice asking me to participate in an art project called Dreams and Possibilities. Upon reading the curriculum vitae so to speak I became intrigued. It told me to enter a dreamy landscape of surreal houses that would be installed at Whitney's adjunct Altria, and that viewers would become cast members of a feature film in the making. Praxis Studio (Delia Bajo and Brainard Carey) the husband-and-wife art collaborative, working with an extended team would be the directors, editors and all the behind the scene staff. Using a hybrid process they call Metalobe, Praxis blends web technology and traditional film industry techniques to establish a new form of film making with user-generated content. At scopeMiami, Praxis previewed much of this work in progress. In order to understand the process I auditioned. First given a script I was to memorize 5 lines while I was sent to
make-up to become
"Dramatic". A staff of 6 make-up artist from Aveda lent their skills. When finished I waited to be interviewed. The head of the project was behind the lens and as I was asked a series of questions. I was asked if I sang? Yes! What was my favorite song? And I stated mine. I am in the process of writing several songs and if you don't love what you create then why do it?. Anyway since I opened my big mouth, I was asked to sing one. Now I have never been shy and I sang a song I wrote called "Flight". I guess when people say they do things they don't mean it because whenever I say I sing people look at me like yeah, right. Then I sing and they are stunned into silence and make remarks like "You really wrote that"? or "Why don't you sing more"? I wouldn't be surprised if "Flight" makes its debut at the "Whitney". I still had the monologue to perform so ala Ingrid Bergman I did. To find out what happens next you have to see this most interesting exhibit playing on u-tube and until the 22nd of March and thats a F.A.C.T.

http://twobodies.com/metalobe/

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=BrainardandDelia