|
|
Volume
II
Issue 11 March 2000 |
|
|
|
Memo from the World: The Kids in the Basement by Anna Roxas During the busy month of February, many New York art collectors and dealers try to balance their time among the Armory Show, the galleries on 57th Street, in Chelsea and in Soho, and the Antiques Fair at the Javits Convention Center. It is also likely that each one is hoping to chance upon a fresh crop of artists, perhaps to match the roster of Charles Saatchi. As if the art shows in grand settings were not enough, there are also a number of newer galleries, such as Williamsburg's Pierogi 2000 Gallery, which houses hundreds of fine portfolios waiting to be leafed through by these now travel-weary art connoisseurs. New York's vast browsing choices can be quite overwhelming. However, for those who want to remain in Manhattan, there is another option. The Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue, with its row of world-class museums, continues to provide art and culture lovers a taste of both the historic and the contemporary. In the lower galleries of the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103 Street, is a modest group exhibition of emerging artists in the guise of sixty high school students who have documented their surroundings through a photo show, Kids Make History, where kids are making history. Initially, I am drawn to a black-and-white photograph reminiscent of vintage New York scenes - like the Brooklyn Bridge, by photographer Sherril Schell (c. 1930), available in reproduction at the gift shop. Yenssi Diaz, like Schell, shares a fascination with one of the stone-clad steel towers supporting the Brooklyn Bridge, with its soaring archways and heavy masonry. He uses the tower to fill his picture plane with the suspension cables, which seem to stretch out their multiple arms to the viewer. There is a feeling of the sublime as I am confronted by this massive structure. However, this feeling may only last for a few seconds, for I am quickly pulled back to reality by Yenssi's photographer buddy, who is posing right smack in the center of the bridge, focusing his eager lenses on us. He, too, is on the same school assignment. Geometric Lines, another work by the same artist, is also a black and white photograph of urban architecture. This time Diaz turns to the zigzagging fire-escape ladders of a brownstone building. With the repetition of lines and play of light and shadow, Diaz again transforms a manmade structure from a mundane eyesore to an aesthetic view of real estate safety regulations. It is quite evident that this artist wishes to pursue the cityscapes that form around him. Had this been a solo exhibition, it would have been quite interesting to see how this young adolescent, asked to document his community by way of camera-clicking, might have guided us with his mastery of his newly found medium. But there are 59 other artists to view, and so I must learn to move on. The exhibition, of which Diaz's work is a part, is supported by the New York Council for the Humanities. Launched in September 1998, Kids Make History invites high school students to participate and learn to "document their own neighborhoods and communities." The exhibition is the culmination of months of photography instruction and seminars with scholars and artists discussing the history of immigration and ethnicity in New York. "More than 350 students are now documenting their own neighborhoods, conducting oral histories of residents, and writing about what they have seen and learned." [Quotations are from the exhibition materials.] Harsh lighting and straightforward signage may occasionally intrude on your viewing pleasure of these various interpretations of growing up in a migrant community. The intrusions are soon forgotten though, as I look at each photograph, unique and diverse as the one beside it. Avoiding too much text and following the basics of exhibition design (often dictated by availability of space), the show installs the images in two rows, one above the other, sometimes offering a juxtaposition of two very different cultures. There is a caption for each work bearing title, place where the "documentation" occurred, the name of the photographer, and the school the student attends. The students' ages are not listed, although it certainly would be interesting to see the difference in thought between someone in their early teens and someone graduating this May. A written piece about the intention of the student photographer might have been useful, too. Although some of the photographs make excellent portraits, viewers tend to be at a loss with nothing but a brief caption, keeping them guessing about what it was the student was actually documenting.  A Bensonhurst Bike Shop, Bay Parkway & 65 Ave, Brooklyn by Mike Shoykhid, Edward R. Murrow High School. Photo courtesy the Museum of the City of New York and New York Council for the Humanities On the other hand, what you see is raw reality as observed by young and curious eyes. The budding photographers avoid popular culture icons and instead are drawn to scenes that portray a certain characteristic of a particular heritage. As mentioned, the placement of photographs created interesting relationships that occur in the exhibition and perhaps in the lives of the people depicted, as well. One example illustrates two different beliefs. The first photograph is titled There is no god but Allah, by Emmanuel Joseph from Long Island High School. His photograph shows the front of Mosque at 12th Street in Long Island City, Queens, with the title painted on a sign to mark the mosque. Hanging below Joseph's work is St. Margaret Mary's School Church, Staten Island, by Brent Denoon from New Development High School, which depicts the church in the background, with a crucifix and a sign mounted on a pole in the foreground. The sign states, "Let the preborn babies live." Having these two photographs next to each other clearly shows the intent of the curator to entice a dialogue. The museum guard shared his opinion with me on the photograph of the mosque, expressing his dislike of it. He said, "I don't like that photograph, it's wrong to think that way...." Looking at him, I might have thought that with his olive skin, he was a believer in Allah. Instead, he turned out to be a former sailor from the American Navy, who had served at Subic base, Philippines. I found myself thinking twice about the two photographs. Both spoke about freedom of life and religion, but at the same time, each also shut out those who did not belong to their communities. And yet, they are embraced by the idea of a global community willing to tolerate and understand their tight grasps on deep-rooted beliefs and traditions. One of the goals stated by NYCH for this program is to "...build awareness and understanding among students of various ethnic cultures, of each others' differences and of how, in the context of these differences, they are all a part of New York." A sensitivity to their surroundings indeed seems to be present among the photographers, judging from the different images of urban life, laborers, boarded-up warehouses, and homeless people that are featured in the first section of the show, Walking Our Streets. There are hardly any photographs of familiar landmarks except the Brooklyn Bridge. A Kosher Chinese Cuisine restaurant serves as a backdrop for a portrait of a biker posing by his motorcycle. Martin Luther King is the only familiar face in this whole show, his portrait painted on a steel screen, in I had a dream, by Sheena James of Bread and Roses High School. The photograph was taken on 125th Street in Harlem. Covering the painting are television sets and audio equipment being sold on the sidewalk with for-sale signs. There are no big malls or department stores in this series of photographs, but several works illustrate that sidewalk retailing has become an alternative source of livelihood for immigrants. 
Four
men, Tompkins Square Park by Charlie Ramos, East Side The second part of the show presents lighter and more playful images. The viewer is given a peek into the photographer's surroundings and neighbors, mostly men, pictured in the section Work and Play. In addition to the familiar shot of New York walls filled with graffiti, there are old men playing chess, children running around in a concrete park, and numerous deli's and storefronts. There are a number of nameless faces with eyes that hold the viewer's gaze. It felt like walking through a National Geographic Magazine exhibition. The group called Three Women, c-prints of portraits of women at various stages in their lives, included Woman from the Former Soviet Union, Bensonhurst Brooklyn, by Mike Shoykhid of Edward Morrow High School. Pilar Torres in Borough Park Brooklyn, by Robert Nuzzo of Edward Morrow High School, is a close-up of a Hispanic teen-age girl with her colorful hood almost covering her face. Finally,Young Girl by Shoykhid, again of Bensonhurst Brooklyn, features a little girl probably six years old, blond and blue-eyed, hugging a tree trunk. It is amazing that all these photographs are part of only one exhibit. Although quite diverse in theme, it does not seem odd that these images are what the young people see when walking around their neighborhoods. New York has long been seen as a kind of "melting pot" for cultures. Each image does not conjure a pretty portrait, posed and planned as you see in commercial advertising. Presented instead are vignettes of everyday life. In an alcove dividing the two main galleries housing the exhibition are three collages on the wall and two journals encased in acrylic stands. There is nothing new with the techniques used - in fact, they look like any other student art project. But after viewing the Kids Make History exhibition, this installation might well summarize the intention of the show. In all this diversity and tolerance, it is a cautious sense of freedom that is expressed. One collage by Sheena Jones has magazine clippings with images of black youths, Bill Cosby's face floating as if in an attempt to inject a kind of humor into the picture, and the New York police. I recall the Diallo killing, and the police officers recently acquitted. Unlike other photo exhibitions, this one in the Museum of the City of New York is presented by high-school students trained by professional photographer and photographic consultant Mary Rosenthal. In terms of content, the students were given a free hand on what to document. Unlike any other high school exhibition, these photographs took note of elements of composition and have a strong artistic quality about them, comments on valuable realities that are often taken for granted. It is history in the making, as these student photographers become part of the adult world that they are observing. Before that happens, what I would like to do next is to meet these talented and unpretentious young people and find out if any of them are interested in pursuing a career in art photography. The assembly of
photographs clearly portrays evolving communities and neighborhoods
teeming with all sorts of preoccupations. My own memories come to
mind, and particular experiences are recalled. These images on the
wall have now been immortalized - a part of the Kids Make History
project. They will be used to characterize what Manhattan, Brooklyn,
Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island were like back in the early
21st Century. For the moment however, they are a quick glance at
city communities, their diversity and vivid experiences. There is a
kind of tolerance for one another, and yet somehow a kind of
disconnection, a sense of isolation. Resources: The exhibition, Kids Make History, will remain at the Museum of the City of New York until 2 April 2000. Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue (at 103 Street) New York City 10029. Tel 212 / 534 1672 About our Correspondent: Anna Roxas is completing her Masters Degree in Gallery and Art Administration at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. This is her second Memo from the World for the Newsletter. Previously, she wrote Sensationalism, about the Young British Artists at the Brooklyn Museum, for Newsletter issue 8.
|
|
|
|
Email a friend or colleague about this article Subscribe to the Newsletter (at no charge)
|
|
