Last week, PICA’s Victoria Frey was in New York, attending the Under the Radar Festival with Jessica, Kristan, Erin, and Cathy from the PICA team. We posted her day one wrap-up last week, and now we share the run-down from her breathless weekend trying to catch as much art as she could:
Friday starts later because I skip out on the APAP Conference morning sessions. I have time to catch the Urs Fischer show at the New Museum. Really interesting. He photographed the walls, the ceiling, and all the details of the 3rd floor gallery and made wallpaper to cover the space as itself. A lone melted piano sculpture sits in the middle of the room. The 2nd floor gallery is installed with his mirrored cubes.
I walk all over the Lower East Side, the Bowery, Chinatown, Little Italy, and Orchard Street on my way to Brown restaurant on Hester. My first show is Chekov Lizardbrain by Pig Iron Theater from Philadelphia. Good production and accomplished actors. Great characters and ideas but it somehow does not all come together for me. I sit with David Henry from Boston, and we have the same schedule, so we decide to travel together. We walk up toward our next show, the Richard Maxwell piece at PS122 called Ads. We end up nearly sprinting to make it as I lead David the long way there. This pace, the sense of adventure and the camaraderie are what make the festival format so much fun.
Next we have to get all the way to 3LD in the financial district for Gin&”It” directed by Reid Farrington. This is a work-in-progress that will premeire at the Wexner in March and is based on Hitchcock’s Rope. It’s an inventive work based on a great film – I would love to see the finished work.
Now back uptown to the public for the late show at the lounge. Each night I have told myself that staying up really late is also part of the experience but tonight I am too tired to stay past 1. Kristan is crashing at our hotel tonight so there may be a slumber party after all.
Sunday morning. Waiting for the car service. Exhausted but exhilarated.
I have seen 15 shows in 3/12 days, plus the several shows at the lounge and late nights out with our friends. Oh, and the meetings, convening, and a symposium. I gain sympathy for TBA festival audiences as I run from show to show, although I realize that this is much easier in Portland where getting around does not take 3 trains and miles of walking. Yesterday, Cathy, Erin, Kristan, Jessica and I met for brunch in Soho to talk shows and TBA. Then Kristan took me on the fast tour of TopShop before we began the insane journey to The World Financial Center to see MK Guth’s project. Navigating the streets down there is not easy. Winding our way West to get the pedestrian bridge over the West Side Highway, we must walk right by the pit that was once the towers. Now it is a wrapped construction site with dozens of cranes and thousands of tourist paying homage to 9/11. MK’s piece was quiet and somber in this environment.
Afterward, I try to get to midtown for Connor Lovett. I don’t make it in time and so I begin the sprint to see if I can catch LA PARTY at HERE Art CENTER, back downtown and over on 6th Ave. This was a bad day to wear my boots with heels; I have walked miles and it isn’t yet 4pm. LA Party was a great piece conceived and directed by Phil Soltenoff and written by David Barlow. There was little time to celebrate or talk about the show if I was going to get back to the Public Theater for a 5:30 show. Jessica and Erin were with me and we decided we needed food perhaps more than another show. We stopped in a small Italian restaurant on Mulberry for wine and pasta before splitting up for different performances. While Erin and Jessica hit Nature Theater’s Romeo and Juliet at the Kitchen, I walk swiftly over to PS122 to see Jerk, a hauntingly dark piece with Jonathan Capdevielle. I walk out of Jerk dazed and in that conflicted state of having loved something astounding with brutal content. Now it is time to catch Peggy Shaw’s show MUST at the Public. This is a master. She stands at the door to the theater and greets you. She shakes my hand as I enter. I feel lucky to see this work.
Since Saturday is our last night in town, I feel I should go back to the LuEsther Lounge for the late night but MUST get back to the hotel to pack and sleep. Jessica and the rest decide “why not just stay out?” She arrives back at the hotel at 4am: the witching hour of our trip all week.
Sunday morning I have time to walk up to Union Square to pick up something for Julien at Forbidden Planet, pick up breakfast on the run, and pick up coffee for Jessica. We all have afternoon shows. I see Versus at the Public and get my chance to say goodbye to Mark and many friends before wearily walking back to the hotel to write this and wait for my car service. I leave New York and Under the Radar grateful to Mark for such a good experience, but ready to get home!
