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Underground American Inginuity - Open City at Eyebeam (NYC)

Open City: Tools for Public Action opens this Thursday March 1st from 6-8pm at Eyebeam. The show "documents the ingenuity of artists, protesters, pranksters, graffiti writers, and hackers reclaiming the public realm." Stay Free readers should feel right at home. The show will include forms of documentation as well as the various tools and inventions (The Graffiti Research Lab's L.A.S.E.R. Tag for example) that shall, without a doubt, boggle the mind.

As an R&D Fellow at Eyebeam I've been able to get a sneak preview of some of the work in the show. I wont give it all away, but one I can't wait for others to see is a German artist, Matthias Wermke, who has expanded out from graffiti into some very poignant and entertaining directions. In one video, he hangs giant swings from various monumental and nearly impossible locations - freeway overpasses, the underside of famous German bridges, subway tunnels, public transit offices, and so on, and then videotapes himself simply swinging on the swing at heights of 50 to 100 feet above ground. It's a charming combination of child's play, acrobatics, and total disregard for authority. In another he carries around a bucket and squeegee and attempts to wash the windows of passing vehicles on street corners - but only the public busses. He then moves on to trains, then later attempting to wash the windows for subway drivers. He is met with a variety of reactions and the final two scenes in the video I just can't reveal here. The surprise is too good.  Don't bother searching the internet, these videos can only be seen at the show.

The show is up through April 7th but the opening should be quite an event. If you're at the opening say hello.