A CHELSEA GALLERY WALK

Let's go!



Sam decided it had been too long since he'd had a good downtown adventure, like in the old summer days of Central Park, beaches, the zoo, museums.....

So Grandpa and Aunt Desiree traveled with Sam to an afternoon of art gallery hopping.

First we stopped off at Uncle John's video store. Sam was a bit suspicious of the blatant capitalist iniquities going on there, under his very nose. He was glad that John was keeping him safe from temptation.

We met Grandma, hopped the bus to a part of New York, midtown, near the Hudson river, known as Chelsea (not sure why). It used to be a meatpacking area, with slaughterhouses galore. Now it's full of very expensive lofts, and galleries. Visiting the galleries is a great (and free) way to spend an afternoon.

First stop was the David Zwimmer gallery to see the works of a fellow named Jason Rhoades.

A lot of it involved neon signs.



Not surprisingly Sam loved it.

Along with the neon, Rhoades apparently is particularly enamored of Legos. Unfortunately, my camera went on the fritz before I could get a good picture of the Lego house under construction (it took up most of the gallery floor and you can see a partial view of it on the web site link above). It's being constructed of more than a million Legos.

Next stop was the Gagosian gallery, where we met Mom, to see a new show by one of my favorite artists, Richard Serra. It was Serra's huge cor-ten steel structures that we saw at the Dia Beacon, where Sam was attacked by the wasp (see the Aug 31 entry).

It's hard to describe the size of these things. Imagine a battleship in your living room and you have a sense of the material used, and the intense feelings the sculptures generate.... One of the largest pieces was essentially a 15 foot high, 75 ton maze. The walls curve and lean into you, and it's an unusual sensation, to say the least, when you are in a tight space with that battleship-in-your-living-room about to fall on top of you.

But never fear. Sam beckons us in..



I was awed not just by the size and the power of these things, but also by the electric slashes, the welding marks on the steel (hard to describe, but this photo has a hint of them.

Sam takes a minimalist breather. He is walking on another Serra piece; this one a two ton slab of steel placed on small risers on the floor such that when you walk on it the steel vibrates and undulates. A steel trampoline.

The excitement of two shows left Sam in deep contemplation.