A while ago I did a post about Ugo Rondinone’s love-it-or-hate-it “Hell, Yes!” on the façade of the New Museum of Contemporary Art on New York’s Bowery. And, in the spirit of democracy and artistic expression, one critic has succinctly let us know precisely how they feel…
This article also appeared on Josh Spear
My mind is jumping right now, and the culprits are South Korean internet art collective Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (YHCHI).
Taking Flash animation to a totally visceral level, their breakneck text-based works move so fast they look strobe-lit. Swinging from styles as diverse as gumshoe spy stories to sex-induced political upheaval (one of their most interesting works is called Cunnilingus in North Korea), the text drives the narrative while the original soundtrack and wordplay bring every mood to life without a single colour, voice, or picture.
Exploring the trove of work on their site, the constant visual and sonic barrage creates an almost physically hypnotic sensation. The relentless black and white lettering takes you on it’s own pace: sometimes you’re given time to take it in and sometimes it almost subliminally, Clockwork Orange-style, just speed flashes it’s meaning into your brain. Once stirred, it’s up to your imagination to complete the visual – instead of reading a book, it’s a lot like having one hurled into your face.
Their latest project, BLACK ON WHITE, GRAY ASCENDING, is a temporary installation in the lobby of the New Museum of Contemporary Art on New York City’s Bowery. This time they’ve upped the game from their regular one-screen format to a sensory-assaulting seven. Each separate story weaves together to tell different accounts of one violent abduction and assassination.
Like any worthwhile film noir, these are all best viewed alone in a dark room. But be forewarned, their site’s as addictive as whatever pill you’ll need to get to sleep once the thought-inducing onslaught is over.
This is so totally random that you gotta’ love it. That’s right… admit it. You love it. Don’t even try and convince yourself that you don’t, because deep down inside you know you do. It’s a big mother rainbow fruitbowl “Hell, Yes!” sign, and you wish it was on your own house.
The Bowery’s stunning New Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by Japanese architectural team SANAA, is the first museum in New York City ever built right from the ground up. In all of it’s new contemporary hyper-coolness, NMCA has attached Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone’s rainbow-brite 2001 Hell, Yes! to it’s outer façade. The New Museum’s website says that “since 1997, Rondinone has included the practice of making signs in his varied oeuvre. He takes phrases from pop songs and everyday exclamations and makes them into rainbow-hued, neon-lit sculptures that are joyous affirmations of love and life.”
Ugo sounds like a happy guy to me. All sunshine and lollipops and good times. And he made a colossal sign that looks like a school-girls barrette circa 1986. I love this man and desperately want to take him shopping.
shape+colour 