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Arts & Culture
05/23/13 10:00am

The Rain Room at MoMA [Photos]

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rain room nyc untapped cities jane hu 1

If you haven’t gotten your fill of spring showers, head over to the Rain Room at the MoMA, a magical place where you can walk through a rainstorm without getting wet. Picture a pitch black room with a singular bright light source illuminating millions of drops of water falling from the ceiling into the grates below your feet. The collective sound of those drops is surprisingly loud, masking your own footsteps, making you feel disconcertingly invisible. But it doesn’t compare to how otherworldly it seems to calmly walk through the spigots of water only to have them cease above your head, to be surrounded by the rainfall literally in all directions.

The Rain Room is the brainchild of design studio rAndom International, who first debuted the installation last October at the Barbican in London. The British unsurprisingly glommed onto the spectacle of indoor rain, with queues reaching a record-setting twelve hours in length by the time the exhibit ended in March. Just a few weeks into our run across the pond, lines are already approaching serious commitment levels—anywhere from 2.5-6 hours on weekends. Museum members have priority access and a special members-only hour from 9:30AM – 10:30AM, but even they are looking at multiple hour waits. Regular visitors should add an additional two hours. Reason for the outrageous wait time? The exhibit admits anywhere from 8-10 individuals at once with no maximum stay length. Most people leave in under 15 minutes, but you can see how this can easily add up.

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Pro tip #1: follow the MoMA on Twitter (@MuseumModernArt) for the most updated wait time estimates; don’t bother trying to call the switchboard.

Pro tip #2: Check out the the live stream photographs of the Rain Room at MoMAPS1.org/expo1.

Pro tip #3: If you get there and give up on the line, we highly recommend hopping on the E train for a quick 12-minute subway ride to the MoMA PS1 across the river. Even though the Rain Room is housed at the MoMA—or, more accurately, a lot next to the MoMA—it is part of the PS1’s well-curated Expo 1: New York, which ambitiously includes a school, cinema, colony, pool, and much more, all tied together under a common environmental theme.

Or, pack a book and a lunch and wait in the midtown line. Either way, it’s shaping up to be a great summer for contemporary art in NYC.

The Rain Room runs from May 12 to July 28.

Get in touch with the author @plainjanehu.

Architecture
05/23/13 9:00am

Traces of Chelsea Market’s Industrial Past in the Meatpacking District

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© Jamestown Properties

Chelsea Market © Jamestown Properties

Chelsea Market was once part of a sprawling complex owned by the National Biscuit Company. Nabisco, which produces everything from Oreos to Saltines, remained in the complex from 1898-1959. While the Chelsea Market is more of a paradise for gourmands than a factory these days, its pride in its past ensures that historical remnants are readily accessible to the casual visitor. Join us as we take in everything from its steampunk-chic aesthetic to the memorabilia on display throughout the market!

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Arts & Culture
05/23/13 8:00am

Daily What?!: Yarnbomb Crochet Picnic in Union Square by Olek

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Yarn Bombing Picnic in Union Square, photo by John Black Photography

Yarn Bombing Picnic in Union Square, photo by John Black Photography

This is taking the yarn-bombing trend to the next level. Yesterday we showed you Knit the City, a group of girls yarn-bombing South London, but right here in New York City is one of the inspirations for this trend. Olek, a Polish-born costume designer turned set designer turned guerilla artist, is perhaps most recognizable for completely crochet-ing the Wall Street Bull and Astor Place Cube in 2011, but she’s taken the movement to the next level (with an accomplice it seems).

Moving from objects to people, Olek’s latest work covering people (friends and strangers) in yarn, like in the picnic captured by our friend, photographer John Black in Union Square, have been popping up on Instagram since April. Those in the know have been tagging oleknyc and olek in the photos. Instagrammer 4rilla, meanwhile, took the chance and “picked up some wild hitchhikers and brought them to Central Park.”

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Arts & Culture
05/22/13 4:00pm

Yarnstorming by Knit the City Brightens London

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If you haven’t heard of yarnstorming, we’re here to enlighten you. The website of its perpetrators, Knit the City defines it as “the art of enhancing a public place or object with graffiti knitting.” Also called yarnbombing, the streets of South London were treated to knitted flowers, bees, and beaming suns this spring, continuing into summer. The four girls behind London’s lifted spirits operate secretly, knitting, releasing their creations upon needy street corners.

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Arts & Culture
05/22/13 2:00pm

Revolutionary War Re-Enactments on Long Island

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Re-enactment of the Battle of Ft. Salonga (courtesy of the Huntington Militia)

Re-enactment of the Battle of Ft. Salonga (courtesy of the Huntington Militia)

The South may be known for Civil War re-enactments, but Confederates aren’t the only ones who relive their battles. The Revolutionary War will be brought back to life on Long Island, with a model encampment by the The Order of the Ancient and Honorable Huntington Militia on June 1 at the Manor of St. George in Brookhaven, NY. The Order is a replica of the colonial militia that was established in Huntington, New York in 1653. Its members include locals of all ages who re-enact 18th-century American life, from Revolutionary War battles to daily activities such as carpentry and weaving. During the Revolution, the Manor of St. George was occupied by British soldiers and in 1780 was the site of one of the few battles to take place on Long Island. The free event on June 1st (open to adults and children) will re-stage the occupation with historic re-enactors, period trades and an open campfire.
Get in touch with the author @catku.
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Events
05/22/13 2:00pm

Top Ten Ways to Spend Memorial Day in NYC

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A member of the Coast Guard participates in last year’s Memorial Day events. Photo courtesy of  USCG News. 

Who doesn’t love Memorial Day weekend? The sun is (usually) shining, the weather is just rounding the corner of hot and hotter, and the city air is thick with the smell of rooftop barbecues. Street fairs and parades clog almost all of the main avenues, and the sidewalks swarm with sweaty tourists. (If you’re not a fan of bumbling tourists, you’ll really want to avoid the Midtown West area–the popular neighborhood heads up the the list of the top 50 Memorial Day destinations in the U.S., according to a recent Priceline.com analysis).

So perhaps not always the seasoned New Yorker’s favorite holiday. Still, there’s a lot of fun to be had, if you know where to look. Here is our round-up of this year’s top ten places to celebrate the national Memorial Day holiday in NYC.

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Architecture
05/22/13 1:00pm

Parco dei Monstri: Italy’s Renaissance Park of Monsters

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Bomarzo Parco dei Monstri Rome Untapped Cities E Ryan 11

In the northern section of the Lazio region, lies the village of Bomarzo and its wondrous Parco dei Monstri.  Accessible chiefly by car, the park is 60 miles north of Rome.

Parco dei Monstri was built between 1572-74 by Pier Francesco Orsini, known as Vicino Orsini. Orsini called the park his “boschetto” or little wood.  It was most likely created by Pirro Ligorio, a prominent architect and garden designer who also designed the Villa D’Este in Tivoli, near Rome.  Very little is known, however, about the sculptors themselves.  The figures are carved from tufo, the volcanic rock that blankets this section of Lazio.  A soft stone, tufo is easy to sculpt and rough-hewn in appearance. The scale is, well, monstrous and the figures loom in mute poses of victory, agony or imperious reverie.  Now mossy and softened with age, many still bear traces of their original paint.  Dragons snarl, Neptune reclines and nymphs beckon in this garden of unearthly sites.  (more…)

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Architecture
05/22/13 12:00pm

The Getty Museum Showcases LA’s Mid-Century Architectural Innovation

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Dorothy Chandler Pavilion by Welton Becket & Associates. Source: Getty Museum

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion by Welton Becket & Associates. Source: Getty Museum

Do we need anything more than the gorgeous J. Paul Getty Museum itself to illustrate the fact that Los Angeles is a a critical center for architecture? We didn’t, but for the skeptics, the museum is showcasing extra proof of it. Through mid-July, Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future will be on exhibition at the Getty Center Exhibitions Pavillion.

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Arts & Culture
05/22/13 11:00am

Art Nerd NYs Street Art Hotspots: PS Os Gemeos

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There is at least one work by the Brazilian twins Os Gemeos left in New York (not counting the splasherized ones in Williamsburg. Their collaboration at PS 11 with graffiti legend Futura still overlooks the playground a few blocks before the gallery madness of Chelsea takes over.

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Image © Lori Zimmer, Art Nerd New York

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