Pinar Yoldas, Ecosystem of Excess, 2013-ongoing. Courtesy the artist.
Little disasters pop up in our lives whether we notice them or not. They may be as mundane as getting stuck in traffic or a cycle of negative thoughts that manifest as poor decisions. Can these be avoided? Or is it that the tides of chance turn, and not everything is kismet? In considering this question and Art21 Magazine’s theme of failure, I turned to Phong Bui and Pinar Yoldas, artists who are considering disaster on much larger scales.
Bui, publisher of the Brooklyn Rail, is curator of the Come Together Hurricane Sandy anniversary show at Industry City in Sunset Park (on view through December 15, 2013). The enormous exhibition brings together more than one hundred fifty artists. Like the way Hurricane Sandy threw itself at New York City, Bui’s Come Together attempts to throw back the energy of the art community now, nearly one year later—and Bui did it all in three months. “It was like creating a Woodstock for the art world,” says Bui.1 “It seems chaotic, last minute, and ultimately it is about love and peace, not art and politics.”
The full story is available in the December 2013/January 2014 “Failure” issue of Art21 Magazine: http://blog.art21.org/2013/12/09/emergency-response/#.UqaH2GRDuKY
