By Katarina Hybenova
Summer doesn’t end just because the calendar says it’s Labor Day on Monday. But one has to admit that it certainly feels a little different. Whether you like it or not it’s time to wake up from the summer romantic dreaming and GO! …or drift…
While the past weeks floated by sweetly in the form of watermelons and on tops of the roof, the upcoming week is filling me with great expectations and just a (lil), pointy anxiety as is always the case when the number of art openings in the hood exceeds 10. Not only is virtually every gallery in Bushwick having an opening, it’s also a time for two bigger events to happen. Go! Brooklyn and citydrift will both happen next weekend.
Go! Brooklyn is an all Brooklyn open studio event organized by Brooklyn Museum. “Open your studio and wait for the votes from your visitors,” says Brooklyn Museum. “If enough votes are casted, and if you’re lucky, you might get a show at Brooklyn Museum.” In other words, Brooklyn Museum says that you better send out at least 5 emails to your contact list; create that Facebook event and buy 6 bottles of Trader Joe’s wine, to ensure that people come and vote, because a lot is at stake. I have to appreciate the lesson in self-promotion Brooklyn Museum is trying to teach us here. Yes, it is important to let people know you exist because if they don’t know you exist, does it even matter that you create? Interesting conversation about Go! Brooklyn had this week Jen Hitchings with a married artist couple Jane Fine and James Esber, who have been collaborating for years and even share a studio, yet Jane decided to Go! and James decided not to Go!
…the whole “People’s Choice” award thing, a curated show, is a bit bogus and isn’t going to work, because not everyone gets the same foot traffic… – James Esber
It’s beautifully organized, and it’s not that we should’ve been a priority, but it was just a bunch of emails, and why didn’t anyone get some of us on the phone instead? Is their intention to make it a success and then in the next years everyone wants to be a part of it? – Jane Fine
On Monday, we had Peter Hopkins from The Bogart Salon and the brain behind another big event next week, citydrift write about the concept and his inspiration. In his essay he pronounced a couple of amazing quotes on creativity and innovation that I wish we all pondered a little longer than usual.
The lessons I learned from these and the other things I saw were, first, to look for “the future” in unlikely places, places most everyone else had decided weren’t worth paying attention to, and second, to not try to replicate other past successful platforms, but instead “let go” of pre-conceived ideas and let your mind…drift. – Peter Hopkins
I consider myself a Buddhist, and I like citydrift better. Much smaller budget, much smaller PR, much more concept to it. citydrift invites us to come to one of the participating galleries and join one of the drifts that will go on a walk around Bushwick. Each drift will consist of a small group of people, like 7 or 10, and will have more or less concept to it. What all the drifts will have in common is that you will be encouraged to experience, to perceive, to see, to feel, to drift… Whether it’s an intentionally placed art installation or an accidentally discovered beauty, citydrift is essentially a trip back to the beginning where we ask: Why art? Why feel? And most importantly, it places the emphasis on the experience of art that should bring joy, pleasure and happiness. Because no matter what they tell you, a show at Brooklyn Museum will not bring you happiness. It will bring you societal recognition, but not happiness. Because happiness is your state of mind when you feel and create out of the pure desire of heart and the only approval that matters is your own.
Anyway, I wish you an amazing “last” summer weekend. Enjoy and next week, back to work!