Thursday, November 12, 2009

Last Dance: Queens Museum Of Art [46]


Selections from A Book About Death at The Partnership Gallery in The Queens Museum of Art will close on Sunday, November 15, but not without  a party.  From 3 to 6pm you can join artist and curator Louise Weinberg (pictured here, waltzing with one of the artists) for a look at the installation and the more than 165 new works sent in for this exhibition. (Louise notes that no works will be returned to the artists).

The exhibition brought many artists from the original project in contact with nearly 200 more from all over the world who responded to Weinberg's call for new artworks.  These pieces, along with their envelopes, were installed in vitrines, on walls using a simple clothes-line system and in large glass cases in the gallery.


Many of these pieces were made by children in the workshop at the QMA, while others came from Europe, South America and across the United States. Votives and homage works for friends and loved ones, and even Neda, the young Iranian woman killed in the election battles in Tehran, came pouring in to the gallery.  Visual essays using collage, drawing and digital techniques took on the complex subject of death; but the works were unusually uplifting, particularly in their sense of humor and their head-on take-no-prisoner's approach to death, dying, murder and oblivion.

"It was a tireless but extremely rewarding experience," says Weinberg.  "Another chapter in a vast and wonderful collaborative project."

Other artists are currently working in Mexico, Montreal, São Paulo, Brazil, Belgium and even Beijing (where public Internet access to even this web site is prohibited) to put on the exhibition in new and varying ways, inviting the local community to contribute and dipping into the deep well of global collaborators to expand the venue.

Last days at the Queens Museum.  Closing November 15, 2009, from 3 - 6 pm: Queens Museum of Art, New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NY 11368.

[Installation shot above: Nora Gomez, all other photos: Louise Weinberg].

3 comments:

Pandora3033 said...

Thank you, Matthew. It's marvelous for a great exhibition! Louise

john ros said...

louise, well done!
your enthusiasm and commitment is inspirational. thank you for making this great exhibit possible.

Anonymous said...

i do not know if your book is the one i read in my daughters apt. but this is good. death intrests me i am on the edge and i have no way of legally desposing of my remains. if there is any way of making it a resarch. call me.