Ethnic diversity is a little like art — you can acknowledge it or you can ignore it. But if you’re the Queens Museum of Art, and your institution sits in the shadow of a grand symbol of diversity like the 1964 World’s Fair Unisphere, you’re very likely going to recognize and embrace cultural differences without any trepidation.
Which is exactly what the Queens Museum of Art is doing. The works in QMA’s current exhibition, Queens International, were created by over 50 artists whose places of origin dot the whole steel surface of the Unisphere, but whose homes or studios are now all one and the same: Queens.
Multiculturalism was the key word in the 1980s art world. But in Queens, multiculturalism is an everyday fact of life. With about 160 languages currently spoken in the borough, it comes as no surprise that Queens weighs in, according to recent Census figures, as the most culturally diverse county in the nation. What does that say about the art that’s being made?
The question is easier to answer on some occasions than others. For painter Augusto Arbizo, who hails from the Philippines, the answer is easy: snow. Arbizo’s three large (70-plus inch) canvases indicate the fascination and wonder an individual from a warm climate can demonstrate when he experiences his first snowfall. Although Two Trees, Snow is a more conventional approach to the subject, Snowfall I and Snowfall II really bring home the feeling of dancing around in snowflakes; completely abstract, they offer a sense of snowflakes falling directly against the viewer’s eyes and eyelashes, with the flakes round and translucent, emphasizing their watery and magical character.
The manmade, rather than the natural, is largely the fascination for Chinese-born Danwen Xing in Sleep Walking. The installation (which uses DVD technology) focuses on the environment of the city by projecting a pair of black-and-white images — one onto the darkened gallery wall; the other into the bottom of a Plexiglas box fashioned with an antique-looking lock, handles, and hinges — and linking them by a continuous series of dissolves and fade-outs. The effect, which takes some time to appreciate, provides a whirlwind but cherished just-got-here-not-too-long-ago impression of New York.
Danwen Xing’s installation, although difficult to warm up to at first, is one of a number that both kids and parents can get a kick out of. The most enjoyable for kids, however, is probably North Carolina native John Norwood’s colossal mixed media piece, Wall, and James Johnson’s extraordinary achievement, Copper Airplane.
The inexplicable Wall, at 83 feet in length and six-plus feet in height, offers one of the things kids love best: miniatures. Looking something like a shook-up futuristic world, the mostly grayish piece would take years to fully view. Making use of as many diverse items as there are artists in the show, Norwood incorporates sunglasses, miniature people, toy cars, used tubes of glue, dentures, model train tracks, cassette tape and even dollar bills. The piece is crazy and wonderful, a kind of Blade Runner-ish world. (And for those who really love miniatures, a visit to the museum’s famous “Panorama of the City of New York”, located smack in the center of the museum, is absolutely in order. Video artist Michael Rakowitz uses the famed miniature panorama as inspiration for his multi-monitored work, which includes sound bites from films such as Manhattan and Ghost Busters).
As for Copper Airplane, it’s exactly what its title says. Johnson, unquestionably a tremendous craftsman, monopolizes an entire gallery with the nearly 30-foot craft, whose “skin” is grafted from hundreds of pieces of studded and decorated copper. It even has an engine and a huge wooden propeller. Like Wall, it’s unfathomable but fun. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear they landed it there.
Talent has no real border. Anyone with an admiration for talent will leave Queens International impressed.
Info:
Where: Queens Museum of Art, New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens
When: Through November 3. Hours: Tuesday-Friday. 10am-5pm; Saturday-Sunday, noon-5pm.
Admission: Suggested contribution of $5 adults, $2 seniors and students. Children under 5 free.
For further info: (718) 592-9700; www.queensmuseum.org
