MAD: Slash

Museum of Arts & Design
Slash: Paper Under The Knife
October 7, 2009 - April 4, 2010

Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection
September 30, 2009 - January 31, 2010

Sunday was my last full day in New York, & the only thing I cared to do was take a pleasant stroll in Central Park. But this being New York, I also ran into a parade on 5th Avenue, & then I was lured into the Museum of Arts & Design's new building, which seemed to be saying "HI" to me.

As advertised, the exhibit Slash: Paper Under The Knife featured a lot of elaborate paper cuttings & books with things cut out of them. My favorite work, however, was Chris Gilmour's The Triumph of Good & Evil, a large sculpture of St. George slaying the dragon, all made from cardboard boxes. It's probably 5 feet high & has incredible detail, down to individual scales on the dragon.

I also liked Oliver Herring's life-size sculpture of Alex, a young fellow with tattoos & surgical scars. The artist took photographs of every surface of the subject's body, cut the pictures into shard-like shapes, then pasted them onto a Styrofoam core. The colors are not true to life but instead are bright greens, blues, reds, oranges & yellows. Alex's short haircut is naturalistically represented by thin strips of shredded paper. The effect is simultaneously realistic & abstract, & it is definitely a bit freaky.

Several of the pieces are still being installed, & in at least one case an artist was busily working on a piece right in the gallery. I suppose this is what happens when you turn in your homework late.

On the 2nd floor I discovered a baffling display of large pins worn by Madeleine Albright in her official capacity as Secretary of State. These pins are enormous pieces of jewelry, in often insinuating animal shapes. Butterflies, spiders, & stinging insects seems to be well-represented.