Storm King Turns 50

First published in The Daily Beast on June 4, 2010. Read the original, with photos, here.

In putting together Storm King Art Center’s 50th anniversary exhibit 5 + 5, David R. Collens faced a difficult task: designing a show that celebrated the sculpture park’s storied history, while also laying out a road map for Storm King’s next five decades.

Collens, who has been the director and curator of Storm King for more than 35 years, admits to not having done many group shows. For the anniversary, however, Collens worked with 10 artists—five with major exhibitions at Storm King already under their belts, and five mid-career sculptors whom he hadn’t shown before. The resultant exhibit, on view now through November 14, is filled with work by some of today’s most well-known outdoor sculptors.

Alice Aycock , Chakaia Booker, Mark di Suvero, Andy Goldsworthy, and Ursula von Rydingsvard represent the park’s history. To anyone acquainted with modern sculpture, their names conjure up distinct images: Booker’s repurposed tires and wearable pieces; di Suvero’s large-scale steel constructions. But it took more than just name recognition to secure a place in 5 + 5.

“I selected those five artists to represent people who really understood the landscape at Storm King and did something very different,” says Collens. With 500 acres of manicured grounds in the rolling Hudson Valley, Storm King offers a wide variety of sites for installation, yet many artists go no further than the area around the museum building. Collens looked for those sculptors who would do something more innovative.

Goldsworthy has taken one of the park’s existing stone walls and used it to create one of his natural compositions. Visitors are invited to walk the length of the wall (which Storm King calls a “sketch in stone”) and observe the way in which Goldsworthy seamlessly blends natural dilapidation and ephemeral construction.

But Collens’ curatorial vision shines brightest in his selection of the five new artists—John Bisbee, Maria Elena González, Darrell Petit, Alyson Shotz, and Stephen Talasnik. “It was time to pass the torch to a younger generation,” says Collens, an idea with which all of the more experienced artists in the show agree.

5 + 5 brings in not just new sculptors, but ones who embrace daring forms, innovative uses of the space, and original concepts for what outdoor sculpture can be. The show is stretching the dimensions of Storm King and playfully changing the ways in which works on display can coexist.

Sixteen platforms were designed by González to be arrayed throughout the grounds. When viewed from one, visitors on another will look to be part of sculptures in the permanent collection. For instance, from the vantage of platform three, visitors on platform four will look to be perfectly balanced atop Menashe Kadishman’s Suspended sculpture as González incorporates observers into the roles of artist and art.

In Stream: A Folded Dream, Talasnik has created a 12-foot-high, 90-foot-long structure made of more than 3,000 bamboo rods. Throughout the exhibition, it will serve as a backdrop for both music and dance performances, something Storm King hasn’t done before.

“It’s quite a counterpoint to stone and steel and other materials we have,” says Collens. In curating 5 + 5, he wanted to avoid just bringing “more metal into Storm King—[as] we have plenty of it.” The 10 selected artists use everything from metal nails, cedar, and granite to reflective plastic, rubber, and earth.

5 + 5 is as diverse for its sculptors as it is for its works. Talasnik, a visual artist by training, has only been showing sculpture since 2000, while di Suvero had his first museum pieces in 1959. And while the recent documentary Who Does She Think She Is? laments the woeful underrepresentation of women in most major museums, half the artists in 5 + 5 are female.

When asked if this gender parity is purposeful, Collens says: “From my perspective, I’m trying to find the best I can in terms of sculpture, male or female, national or international.” Though if there is one way the exhibit is lacking, it is in terms of geographic and ethnic diversity. All of the artists are American, Canadian or European (though di Suvero was born in China, and Gonzalez in Cuba), all but Goldsworthy live in the United States, and only two are people of color. Storm King, like the art world in general, still has some distance to go.

“I think we need to adapt and change like all institutions,” Collens says. If 5 + 5 is any indication, Storm King’s next 50 years are up to the challenge.

Storm King Art Center is located in Mountainville, New York. Visiting hours are Wednesday-Sunday, 10:30 a.m.—5:30 p.m. More information is available at www.StormKing.org.

Posted on June 9, 2010 to The Daily Beast
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Pigs’ Blood in Cigarettes?

This gallery was originall published on The Daily Beast on 5/25/2010. Read it in its entirety, with comments, here.

As Vegetarian Week kicks off in the U.K., it’s more difficult than ever to observe it faithfully. From horse fat in fabric softener to crushed insects in fruit juice, Hugh Ryan locates animal products in 11 unlikely places.

1) Fabric Softener
What could possibly make your sheets feel more Downy fresh than a nice schmear of rendered animal fat? Dihydrogenated tallow dimethyl ammonium chloride—a roundabout way of saying fat from animals like horses and sheep—is used by some commercial fabric softeners to coat your clothes with a soft, fluffy layer of lipids.

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Posted on May 29, 2010 to The Daily Beast
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The Books Powerful Women Love

Originally published on The Daily Beast on 4/27/2010. Read it in its entirety, with comments, here.

In a few days, one of America’s most beloved teens turns 80. Nancy Drew, girl detective, first appeared in print on April 28, 1930, in The Secret of the Old Clock. With her two best friends, George Fayne and Bess Marvin, she tooled around River Heights in a dark blue roadster, solving crimes, exploring secret passages, and foiling bad guys.

Three hundred books, a dozen video games, five films, and two TV series later, Nancy’s still at it. These days, she drives a sky-blue hybrid and carries a cell phone, but River Heights still depends on her to prevent everything from identity theft to political assassinations. Her books don’t follow any of the hot trends in young adult fiction: Nancy fights no zombies, owns no designer clothes, and lusts after nary a vampire. Yet each new book has a print run of 25,000 and, cumulatively, the books have sold more than 200 million copies. It’s hard to imagine another cultural icon that could bring together Sonia Sotomayor and Laura Bush, both of whom cite Nancy as an inspiration.

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Posted on May 29, 2010 to The Daily Beast
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New Booking Site for Down Under

Originally published in The New York Times on 3/29/2010. Read the original here.

Need to get from Alyangula to Wagga Wagga?   A new online travel site, Wotflight.com makes it easier to search for flights within Australia.

Started last month, Wotflight searches for flights among Australia’s 100 or so commercial airports, including domestic airlines like Aeropelican, Brindabella, Airnorth and Skywest that other booking sites might miss.

In some cases, it seems to find better deals.  A recent search on Wotflight for a one-way ticket next month from Canberra to Newcastle found on Brindabella fare for 199 Australian dollars (about $180).  Kayak’s lowest was a $232 flight on Virgin Blue.

“We have a real focus on regional Australia with one of the biggest ranges of Australian airlines available to book online,” Megan Magill, a Wotflight spokeswoman said in a statement.

But Kayak fared better in other cases.  A search on Wotflight for a roundtrip ticket from Sydney to Melbourne in April found a Virgin Blue flight for 181 Australian dollars.   Kayak found a cheaper ticket, 144 dollars, on Jetstar, an airline Wotflight does not currently search.  Wotflight also adds a booking fee of 16.95 Australian dollars.

Posted on May 29, 2010 to New York Times
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Zipcar Expands to London and Beyond

Originally published in The New York Times on 4/23/2010. Read the original here.

Zipcar members will soon be able to cross the Atlantic and unlock a fleet of cars parked throughout London and other cities in England.

Earlier this week, Zipcar, the car-sharing company based in Cambridge, Mass.,  that lets members reserve a car for one-hour slots, acquired Streetcar UK, a similar company based in London.

The acquisition will give Zipcar members access to the Streetcar’s 1,000 vehicles in Brighton, Southampton, Maidstone, Guildford, Cambridge, Oxford and London. Streetcar’s 80,000 members will also have access to Zipcar’s larger fleet in more than 50 North American cities and 100 campuses.

The transfer is expected to take months to complete. While the new vehicles are not yet bookable from Zipcar’s Web site, the company has set up another Web site, Zipcar UK, to answer questions.

The company says prices are not yet available, but Streetcar UK currently cost about £4.95 to £8.95 an hour, which is roughly in line with Zipcar’s rates, which cost about $7 to $15 an hour, depending on location, type of car and day of week.

Posted on May 29, 2010 to New York Times, Uncategorized
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Delta Resumes Nonstop Service to Valencia, Spain

Originally published in The New York Times on 4/21/2010. Read the original here.

This spring, Delta Air Lines resumes seasonal service to Valencia, Spain, with four weekly nonstop flights from New York City. This is the third year Delta has offered this route.

Service begins May 28 and goes until Oct. 30. A recent search found a $978 round-trip fare for travel in early June.

Valencia is on the Mediterranean coast and is the third-largest city in Spain.  It is home to the City of Arts and Sciences, a sprawling complex of museums, performing-arts venues and architectural attractions that opened in 1998, as well as an extensive public waterfront that was restored in 2007.

Departing flights are overnight on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Return trips are on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays and arrive the same day.

Posted on May 29, 2010 to New York Times, Uncategorized
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