Today @ Landmark Sunshine
Sex addiction in New York City is laid bare in award-winning artist-turned-feature-filmmaker Steve McQueen's Shame. Michael Fassbender, who teamed with McQueen on his 2008 Bobby Sands biopic, Hunger, stars as Brandon, a handsome and successful 30-something with a secret life consisting of random souless sexual encounters, internet porn, and a number of restroom jerk-off sessions. A surprise visit from his equally emotionally hampered little sister Sissy (played by Carey Mulligan) serves to agitate Brandon's austere and well-groomed universe. McQueen's highly stylized, NC-17 rated psycho-drama succeeds in presenting a stark and unrelenting portrait of the intimacy-challenged.
Coming Up
Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch
Today @ Issue Project Room
Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem and filmmaker and guitarist Jim Jarmusch have collaborated in the past. You may have caught their show at ISSUE last October. They're at it again, and this time around, the performance marks the release of their collaborative effort Concerning The Entrance Into Eternity. We never imagined the director of Down By Law would be part of anything called 'Chamber Music Month,' but we're always open to surprises. Check out a sample of their sound here, and come prepared for some expressive and minimal strings.
Today @ David Zwirner Gallery
Doug Wheeler has achieved something that defies comprehension in his illuminating large-scale installation currently housed at David Zwirner Gallery. Along with James Turrell and Robert Irwin, Wheeler, age 72, is considered a pioneer of the light and space movement that took place during the 1960s and '70s in southern California. Dogmatic to a fault, Wheeler has turned down numerous offers from galleries and museums to represent and exhibit his work. As a result, New Yorkers are sadly Wheeler-deficient. SA MI 75 DZ NY 12, named to reference an earlier work he erected in Milan in 1975, is the fourth "infinity environment" created by the artist. The cerebral piece places limited quantities of gallery goers (if the artist had his way it would be one at a time) in an all-white room where day-to-night lighting is simulated in continual succession. While it doesn't sound like much, the costly-to-produce piece is incredibly provocative and must be experienced to be believed. A word of warning: the wait can be grueling, so mid-week viewing is suggested.
Today @ New World Stages
Freud's Last Session is a battle of the brains, with plenty of wit and thought-provoking dialogue. Two brilliant actors, particularly Martin Rayner as Freud, discuss the existence of God, the meaning of life, love, and sex. High-brow? Yes, and on top of that, you can't just sit there, you will probably need to focus. But, hey, you might learn something.
Today @ MoMA PS1
Anthology is a new project by artist Clifford Owens that merges photography, video, and live performance. For this show, Owens' first exhibition at a New York museum, Owens has enlisted the contribution of twenty-six major African-American artists who composed scores —written or graphical instructions for actions— for his performances. Most of these artists, including Kara Walker, Glenn Ligon, Coco Fusco, and Shinique Smith, composed new work specifically for Owens' show. The result is a highly personal and historic take on African American performance.
