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The Armory Show, 2009

Couple weekends ago I attended the Armory Show with Pooja.

I spotted these near Pooja's apartment actually.

Across the street from the show space, we spotted this...sandwich looking thing smashed against the window of the Audi dealership.

Yuck.

And after the jump, some of the pieces at the show that I appreciated. Warning: Lots of photos to follow.

Close up of above.

Close up of above.

Close up of above.

Inverted reflective bowl.

This is a vegetarian's nightmare.

Close up... (No, they aren't real flies).

Close up.

I loved this.

I'm going to buy this and just point to it if someone is annoying me.

This made me motion sick.

Pedestrians?

Nope. Globs of paint.

[flickr video=http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattrod/3341547984]

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Madoff Painting at Armory Show Goes Unsold

One of the paintings that caught my eye and made me chuckle at this year's Armory show was a a 60-inch-by-90-inch watercolor portrait (see my photo above)  of the now notorious Bernie Madoff, a finance genius who confessed to operating a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Painted by Chinese-born artist Yan Pei-Ming, it remained unsold at $100,000.

Given the economic crash, it was hardly surprising that no one wanted to pay six figures for a portrait of one of the most vilified figures in the world. Writing by e-mail from Paris, Mr. Yan said he had finished the painting in one day, and chose Mr. Madoff because he was “a kind of symbol of the economic crisis, a kind of personalization of the savage speculation, without control.”

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Brooklyn's Underground Zoetrope

Board a Manhattan-bound Q or B train from DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn (or on weekends, currently due to constructions, the R train runs on this track as well) and look out the right side just before the train emerges out of the tunnel onto Manhattan Bridge.

You'll see a unique and playful piece of urban art: an underground zoetrope ("a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures"). This is one of my favorite "hidden" treasures of New York City.

Created in the 1970s by Bill Brandt and titled "Masstransiscope," it fell into disrepair before being restored in November 2008 with no formal announcement.

The first time I noticed Masstransiscope, I thought it was just graffiti, but I was puzzled by why it was so brightly lit. And then when it registered that this "graffiti" was "alive" and moving with a specific intent, my brain exploded. I consider it a real treat that this is a frequent sighting in my regular commute and it never gets old. Vast majority of the people on the train never notice, but occasionally after the train passes this mass-transit zoetrope, I'll make eye-contact with a stranger whose eyes too were caught by Masstransiscope and we smile as if we just shared a wonderful secret. The reaction of little kids to it is particularly awesome. They respond to it like Christmas. "Mommmmm! Looooook! It's moving!!!!"

I'm almost hesitant to share a video of Brandt's underground work because I don't want to spoil it for you. I highly recommend everyone take this train to see it in person. That said, for my friends and readers who don't live in New York City, here it is:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IwVD5efXz0&fmt=18]

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Spotlight: Floating Logos by Matt Siber

Inspired by the proliferation of very tall signs in the American Mid-West, Floating Logos seeks to draw attention to this often overlooked form of advertising. Perched atop very tall poles or stanchions, these corporate beacons emit their message by looming over us in their glowing, plastic perfection. Elimination of the support structure in the photographs allows the signs to literally float above the earth. In some cases the ground is purposefully left out of the image to further emphasize the disconnect between the corporate symbols and terra firma.

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Art in the the Slums of Kibera, Kenya

2000 square meters of rooftops in Kibera, Kenya--site of the largest slum in Africa--have been covered with photos of the eyes and faces of the local women of Kibera.

The material used is water resistant so that the photo itself will protect the fragile houses in the heavy rain season. The train that passes on this line through Kibera at least twice a day has also been covered with eyes from the women that live below it. With the eyes on the train, the bottom half of the their faces have be pasted on corrugated sheets on the slope that leads down from the tracks to the rooftops. The idea being that for the split second the train passes, their eyes will match their smiles and their faces will be complete.

This will be viewable from high above with Google Earth. View more photos here.

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Photograph: Andy Warhol

This photo of Andy Warhol "shopping" for Campbell's soup is so meta. You should all be familiar with this. 1965, Manhattan, New York, New York, USA --- Andy Warhol looking at Campbell's soup cans in Gristede's supermarket near his 47th street studio called The Factory in New York. --- Image by © Bob Adelman/Corbis

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