Picture this: you’re walking through New York City’s Madison Square Park this summer, when an array of vibrant colors surrounds you and becomes more and more intense the farther away from the street you get. Is the much-anticipated End Of The World happening? Perhaps because a factory of printer cartridges somehow received excessive radiation exposure?
I mean, let’s not discount the possibility of that scenario…but, more reliably, what you’re experiencing is probably the new Prismatic Park exhibition from MacArthur Fellows grant recipient Josiah McElheny transmitting color in just the way he intended, with sculptures made of painted wood and red, yellow, green, and blue prismatic glass serving as summer-long performance spaces for local artists-in-residence. (Don’t even think about using your fear of bad acid flashbacks from Lollapalooza ‘94 as an excuse to get intimate with these individual pieces.)
Specifically, a “reflective green floor” in the park will be the site for vanguard dancers; a red & yellow pavilion will host talented poetry slammers straying from iambic pentameter; and — most relevant to TMT — a “translucent blue sound wall” will serve as the backdrop for experimental musicians, including, most notably, Joe McPhee & Graham Lambkin, Matana Roberts, and Lea Bertucci. The whole thing is curated, presented, and organized by Blank Forms, Danspace Project, and Poets House. It doesn’t appear as though there’s a schedule yet for when these artists will show up and perform, but know that the exhibition overall will last from June 13 through October 8. Compelling people to stumble upon some kick-ass artistry seems to be the name of the game here.
Speaking of which, stumble over here for more info (yes, a park has its own website and Twitter handle, so what?) and scope out some choice vids from a few of the participants down below.
More about: Graham Lambkin, Lea Bertucci, Matana Roberts
