For every NYC trip I make these days. I always head down to C-l-e-a-r-i-n-g gallery on Johnson Ave in Bushwick. Aaron Garber-Maikosvka is new to the gallery and this first exhibition is quite the smack in the head to a lot of people.
First, upon entering the gallery and hearing someone yelling, I was like, "oh no, not more video art". But upon further viewing, and the fact that the work this gallery exhibits always gets me to spend some time and slow down and take in the work, I always end up finding work that intrigues me and keeps my brain thinking. Upon reading what the artist was accomplishing in this video, I immediately felt it to be better than 90% of the other video art I have seen over the years. His yelling and dancing were choreographed moves of a medicine man or other types of "creator-beings".
Side Note: While writing this, I suddenly felt the desire to put the headphones on and listen to some ELEH, which you too can hear here. As I often feel ELEH is also a "creator-being", but of the sound world.
As I sat on the gallery floor to partake in the viewing of this piece. I was at first very interested in the technical side of things, from the 4 cameras being used to film this, to how the editing plays out over the length of the piece.
Once beyond all the technical garb, I was able to get to the meat and bones of this film. What I perceived was a modern medicine man, at a hilltop Lowes business, and his constant barrage of sound and fury being a way to subvert big business and in some ways even to put a curse on said business. I couldn't help but laugh a few times as I was feeling the flow of Aaron's bombardment toward the sign and therefore the company. I remember telling the gallery owner how I felt he was putting a curse on Lowes and we should keep an eye out for that company to see if it works. Only time will tell, and we really won't know if it was Aaron's doing or not.
I don't know if this film will ever see a broader release, maybe something on youtube, but that would negate the value of the artwork, but I feel that if more people took the 10 minutes to check this out, they would being to want to learn more about these "creator-beings" and how they manifest their magic.
From the galleries press release: "Within the animist belief system of Indigenous Australians, a songline, also called dreaming
track, is one of the paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) which mark the route
followed by localised ‘creator-beings’. The paths of the songlines are recorded in traditional
songs, stories, dance, and painting. When Aaron Garber-Maikovska sets out to make
a video he packs a van with equipment and a cameraman, leaves his studio in
Gardena, LA and heads East. He drives in search of frontiers between the urban
landscape and the Californian desert, a spot where he can position himself, center of a
makeshift stage, surrounded by the attributes suburbia, and record himself forging a
new song, story and dance. Every video is shot in a different location and form a sort of
mapping of the Inland Empire around Los Angeles."
Check out the video AND the work by Zak Kitnick "C&D" until June 26th. So there is still plenty of time. Though I wouldn't wait too long, there is a good chance that upon first view, you might get the desire to visit again and you don't wanna be too late for that second viewing.
Be sure to read the full press release before partaking in the exhibitions, they will give you so much more to think about upon viewing than regular press releases do. These ones actually help.
Cheers.
Jeffrey