Parts 1 and 2 of this multi-part Armory review post can be found here (part 1) and here (part 2). This post refers to the second section of the longest hall of Pier 94, including the Armory Focus: Berlin area.
Island + Venice Projects (here): Hitoshi Kuriyama (4), Koen Vanmechelen (4). To make the images at right, Kuriyama constructed an elaborate table, covered with a netting of small electrical fuses and wires. Depending on the amount of energy delivered to the fuses, they would blow at different rates or temperatures, creating the marks on the sensitive paper laid on top. These works seem to draw on a conceptual combination of Marco Breuer and Cai Guo–Qiang (and the process centric wing of contemporary photography more generally); regardless of their antecedents, the colors and compositions are bold and eye catching. The prints are priced at $4500 each.
Galleri Charlotte Lund (here): Maria Friberg (1). The image of the underside of a car at right was not made via clever Photoshop, but was shot from underneath a clear glass ramp, creating the illusion of the car floating through space (I was reminded a bit of Jeffrey Milstein’s images of airplanes). There is also a video, where multiple different cars roll over the glass ramp in succession, surrounded by a quiet whoosh of air. The individual prints are made in editions of 3 and are priced at $25000.
Honor Fraser (here): Jeremy Blake (1 diptych). The work at right is entitled Every Hallucination on the Sunset Strip. With a nod to Ed Ruscha, this wall sized mural captures a trippy montage of swirling neon lights, dark blurs of color, and night time sidewalks. The work is made in an edition of 3 and is priced at $55000.
Reception (here): Luigi Ghirri (9), Jens Ullrich (5). I very much enjoyed getting a chance to see some more vintage color work by the Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri. These small prints were priced between $13200 and $17500 (the excellent one at right, with its connections to Siskind and Migliori was at the lower end of that range). Jens Ullrich is a Düsseldorf graduate; the works on view came from two different series, bringing together appropriated images, art historical references, animals, and African masks.
