A few weeks ago I reposted pics from last year of the falcon that visits our office every summer. Well, guess who just showed up? She was nice enough to alight on the west side of the building this time, which made for more dramatic images.
We’re 50 floors up. Too high for sparrows and pigeons. Okay for falcons and helicopters. Look at her pose. What a diva. She knows she’s being photographed.
We know when she’s outside because we hear her screeching. She calls her chick and teaches her how to dive off the building and attack some poor, unsuspecting bird or rodent. Here, she’s scoping the area for lunch.
The following morning, a rare treat. The baby makes an appearance. This isn’t a great shot but she was only there for a few fleeting moments. Mom will perch outside our window for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. People line up to take her picture.
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This is an interesting piece. It’s a collaboration between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Pretty obvious who did what. It’s from Tommy Hilfiger’s collection and was sold in London in June. Call me tacky but I would totally hang this up.
Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat
New Flame
Est: £1,700,000—2,000,000
Sold for £2,408,750
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This is Ladder by Crazy Marina Abramovic. I saw it in a group gallery exhibit.
Last year she published her memoirs. It’s a hysterical example of tortured artisté navel-gazing and pretentiousness. As as child, instead of playing with toys, she “…prefered to play with the shadows of passing cars on the wall.” She made that up to sound cool, right? She didn’t actually do that, did she?
She was born into a wealthy Yugoslavian family and enjoyed maids, theater tickets, paintings, a grand piano. A world of privilege. All while the rest of the country scraped by in post-war poverty. Yet, she writes of the “…tyranny of support.” She complains about “…changing planes so often, museum and gallery openings, endless receptions…” What a loon. She should try the Port Authority bus depot at 6:20 a.m. My finest art.
She’s quite the gas bag but I *do* like her work. I saw her retrospective at MoMA in 2010 and loved it. Perhaps her odious comments are part of an elaborate performance piece. I hope so.
I ran my finger along the knife edge. They were dulled. Of course they were! What were you thinking?
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Morning meta moment. Walking down 42nd St. on my way to work I looked up and saw a billboard for an HBO series about 42nd St. Different era. Same pavement.
Exile on Pain Street 
“Life doesn’t imitate art, it imitates bad television.”
― Woody Allen
I’m hoping that’s not true. I’m hoping they didn’t mess up that series. But it’s a valid point.
Is this your first comment here? Dang. Thanks and welcome. Remember: there’s never a fee.
It is a great posting and I wanted to respond in some way. Maybe the Abramovics lived in Plato’s Cave? I enjoyed the photos of her ladder and your detail about the dulled edges.
You would’ve touched the blade, too. Admit it! It practically calls out to your index finger.
I am sad the blades were dulled. I like the piece but dulled blades take some of the bite out of it.
I can lodge a complaint with the gallery. Is it art if it doesn’t draw blood? You could say it is not.
Art does not have to represent anything recognizable to be art so I suppose it does not have to draw blood, either, even though it is sexier if it *could*. Maybe it was intended to look menacing without actually being so, neutered as a statement so to speak, rather than being done for the safety of any people who might feel tempted to check if the blades were sharp or not. Who knows.
That’s s good point. If being something recognizable was a requirement the museums and galleries would echo with emptiness. I did like the piece. I like a lot of her stuff. I just don’t want to have a beer with her. I’ll have a beer with you instead!
Maybe it only applies to writing:
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” – Ernest Hemingway.
Port Authority at 6:20 AM in the 70’s was my introduction to New York.
That’s some old skool shizzle. Wish you had some pics of that. The HBO series will look more like a documentary to you.
One old grainy pre-dawn picture done on a 110 Instamatic. The only neon is for Bond’s and you can see the Sony sign in the background. In the days of the 24 picture roll and development costs, I was saving my picture taking for other sights.
Abramovic can suck it. Trust-fund artists can have talent, produce amazing works, but to attempt to milk a tortured upbringing of wealth is bullshit.
It really is great to see you again. Boy, I’ll bet you’ve got some stories to tell. Some that aren’t even fit for public consumption. Some that can only be told in a bar.
That ladder seems a little passive-aggressive. Or maybe just aggressive. 😄
You’d be aggressive, too, if you suffered under the tyranny of support. Please try to have some understanding.
😁
Yeah, pretty Judgy McJudgerson there, Carrie.
You’d hang that Warhol-Basquiat crap? Really? Oh well, I guess if you spent all that money for it you’d have to hang it.
I’ll stick with Picasso.
And great falcon shots!You’re a lucky son of a gun.
I told you I was tacky! Truth in advertising.
After reading about Marina Abramovic’s upbringing and tyranny of wealth, I’m starting to wonder if the shadows of passing cars on the wall were generated by her family’s team of chauffeurs riding around in family’s limousines while a butler held a floodlight so that Marina could play with car shadows.
That seemed liked a lot to go through but just look at Marina today. A successful, respected, wealthy contemporary artist. Meanwhile, I post this from my evening bus commute. I blame my pops for not throwing shadows on my wall.
I hate me some tyranny of wealth. So happy I never had to suffer through such an ordeal.
It would ruin you. You wouldn’t be so delightful.
Yeah, I think only about 1% of the US is potentially at risk.
Jesus wept.
Or maybe that was just me.
xoxox
(it’s hurricane humor)
If Jesus wept a hurricane it’s because of all the terrible things done in His name.
True Dat
The ladder is nice and all but isn’t it a little, you know, obvious? Where’s the ambiguity? It’s like Pink Floyd lyric.
Actually, I was thinking of the song ‘Knife Edge’ by Emerson Lake and Palmer. Seriously. Looking at that pic gives me an earworm from way back.
True confession: I played with shadows on my walls. Cars would come down the hill and project their headlights onto the slanted bits by the dormer. When I was little, I drove my sister who shared the room nuts trying to catch them. As I got older, I created fantasies of where they were headed. They never involved knives or ladders.
Love the falcons. Much better than the vultures that visited my old office.
I used to make hand shadows of birds flapping their wings. That seems pretty pedestrian. Nothing like what you two were up to.
The pictures are giving me some angina. If you click on them they are sharper. I’ve played with different image sizes but can’t seem to make them sharp in the post. I gave up. Because I’m a quitter.
Or because folks need to see them for themselves. Party at Mark’s office!!!
Nice pics of the peregrine Falcon. I must say that has to be a great diversion for office workers. I have a question. How long is the elevator ride to the 50th floor?
Thanks. As I just said above, If you click on them they are sharper. I don’t know what I did wrong. It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve ever posted pics.
It’s a super-fast elevator ride. 20 or maybe 25 seconds? It’s kind a miraculous.
The elevator sounds like it is super sonic. I would say that is miraculous!
I’ll give her ten minutes one afternoon with the shadows of cars, tops. It was most certainly not a choice made often enough to justify it taking up ink on paper. But the blades, though. I wonder if she tried orienting them all the same way.
The ladder would’ve been more interesting if the blades were razor sharp. That would’ve gotten everyone’s attention.
I love the falcon photos. They’re so great.
Thanks. Click on them and they’re a bit sharper.
Great falcon pics. Good post overall.
Glad you liked it. We aim to please.
Great shots of the falcons and views over the city. Love them! Take them to the gallery immediately!
Well, of course you ran your finger against the knife blades…Now if the artist had been smart, one of those 9 blades would have been lethal. Twisted? Maybe.
Next time you pass through town I’ll bring you up for a look-see. Was going to last time but we ran out of time.
You described Russian roulette with knives. That’s a new twist.
Right, you’re on. I’d love that. 🙂
Great photos, especially the first. Something about the juxtaposition of the huntress and the steel buildings seems to scream New York.
“Morning meta moment” has a really nice ring to it. 🙂
Click on those puppies. They’re sharper. Wait till you see the pic I got this morning. A very young bird looking me right in the beak.
Morning Meta Moment is the name of my new album. As soon as I get a band together. After I learn to play an instrument.
Details…
It’s possible she tried to play with the shadows of passing cars, but it makes her looks stupid not cool. Most children would get bored in 10 seconds after realising that shadows don’t interact with them.
That falcon is too cocky for my liking. How about trying to unsettle it by showing it a picture of an eagle or something?
But saying you played with shadows instead of toys as a child makes you sound like a SPECIAL FLOWER. I’m not sure she intended to look special in a negative way, which is what happened.
I’d like to put a hunk of liver pate on a stock and feed her but, unfortunately, our windows don’t open.
Happy Anniversary to you and your lady.
Thank you, sir. That is very kind. We went to dinner and a play on Saturday night for our anniversary. I picked up the tix at the box office. Row B. Seats 9 and 11 of course.
I’d hang it, too. And there are a few people I’d lend that ladder to, but I’d sharpen the blades first – or maybe just one to lull them into a sense of false security.
Great falcon shots, including the one of the chick.
You’d hang that painting because of the way it looks or you’d hang it because the canvas was touched by two greats? I’m about half and half on my rational. Not that it’ll ever matter.
If you’re going to sharpen blade, it’d have to be the top one, right?
I took an even BETTER shot of a newborn falcon. Just wait until next post!
Because of the way it looks, I love both artists, but have a real soft spot for Basquiat.
It would really, I had thought the second top for some reason, but I think you’re right.
I’ll be checking back all the time till you post it!
Nice pictures and a photograph of the ladder with knife is simply unimaginable thought! Very relative to a thought