Art in New York - in DUMBO

Many of you have heard about DUMBO, Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, but how many of you have ever been there? Did you know that the corrugated cardboard box we know today was devised there by Robert Gair in 1890 - and that the community was so famous for his creation it was then originally called Gairville?

Cardboard boxes are still with us, of course, but "Gairville" is not - except as signage on certain of his buildings. One of them, however, is certainly visible and even famous: the Clock Tower (not to be confused with Watchtower! Wait for another post about that - in a few months) which is visible to the left as you cross from Manhattan on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Instead of cardboard boxes being made in this building and many of the others, they are being received by new residents who have moved into these buildings, making them their quite fashionable homes in one of the thriving and comfortable residential mixed use areas in this city.

But the primary attraction in DUMBO is the galleries and studios of the artists there. In fact, once these buildings had been abandoned by the manufacturing companies 20 and more years ago (Brillo was also made here, and you can still see the railroad tracks coursing through the streets), artists had moved in, many of them from SoHo who were being priced out by up-scale retailers and condo conversions.

DUMBO has been more fortunate, and has retained a large number of galleries, and it's one of them I want to direct you to today: The Dumbo Arts Center (DAC) at 30 Washington Street.

On January 9 I witnessed the opening night of an almost astonishing installation there called Pixelville, curated by my high school friend Peter Frank. As he describes it:

Pixelville is the collaborative project of the sculptor Nivi Alroy and new media artist Shirley Shor. As Israeli women close in age, Alroy and Shor share many experiences and observations, but discovered their common aesthetic and social purpose only recently, once both had relocated to New York.

Immediately, I knew I had to see it - New York helped make it happen!

When I walked in, and I walked from the subway with Peter whom I met by chance right there on the platform, I went right on in to the art. (Peter knows everybody, so he was immediately talking to an artist named Nelson who creates art by cutting hair - yes, it's true: Electric Chaircut.)

At first - what to make of it!

Certainly unusual, and I wasn't the only one curious and perhaps confused. But I have learned that I should reserve my "judgement," and let my feelings inform me before I start to put words and "understanding" to work. I looked at more of this installation.

What is that - a boat? Hmm. I walk on ... I even see some sand at the bow ... I feel there's something like an analogy at work here ....



Good grief! What is this, I asked myself.





And then there was this:

Very very interesting. Now I'm beginning to understand the subtitle to the art: An urban concept in real time.



But there's more!









What I've seen so far is the art of Nivi Alroy, but the art of Shirley Shor seems quite different. Look at this centerpiece of the installation: it's a sandbox, with multi-colored lights projecting an ever-changing constellation of colored lights down onto it - representing, I later learn, the border lines on territory over time as they change with populations building and re-building - and de-building, if you will - over time.

On the left, let's say, the outline of geographical areas; right - people building; center - all over the place!

There are wall-hangings too, some seeming to be two dimensional, but the digital insert changes in time, so in fact it's three dimensional - but with time instead of depth.

And others were three dimensional in the way we easily understand, like this one.

Yes, by now I was beginning to get the feeling that I could appreciate this art. It is conceptual, not really abstract, and it could easily be articulated into a narrative if I were to want to do that.


There is a lot more, and it rewards examination with attention, but with a loose sensibility; let the art work on you. Don't try to work on the art. It will come, I guarantee. Let's meet the artists.

Peter Frank, Nivi Alroy, and Shirley Shor
Pixelville, at the Dumbo Arts Center
30 Washington Street, Brooklyn

So go, visit DUMBO, and see art at the Dumbo Arts Center - and many other places too!

See the world, and Manhattan, from a different perspective.

The Brooklyn Bridge, from DUMBO