The
Blue Pencil Lunar Revue A spoof publication of the Red Hook Star-Revue, no information below is meant to be true or offensive.
APRIL FOOLS DAY, 2013 Contemporary Art: Finnish abstraction in Red Hook By Richard T. Shaw
F
innish Contemporary Artist Seppo Rankinininin presents his latest installation “Men At Work” in Red Hook. The piece which is mounted on Van Brunt from President to Union is symbolic of the struggles encountered by the artist to get his work displayed in the United States. Previous installations have been presented in Bangladesh, Uganda and Peru. His most recent pieces entitled “Lone infant’s chair on quiet urban street” mounted in quiet Scottish coastal hamlet of Inverary. When Rankinininin decided to create another piece of abstract he had no idea what he wanted to do. He only knew he wanted the location to do the planning and creating of his artwork for him. “When I get to the place, the place will tell me what to do?” So why Red Hook? Rankininininin admits not to have heard of Red Hook prior to it being suggested as the location of “Men at Work” by his agent and mentor. “I thought it sounded like a type soup or dishwashing detergent. You know like a brand you’d see at your local supermarket.” Indeed, it was the only location offering itself to showcase his work. He quickly became aware of the neighborhood long history of inspiring artists and writers and on arriving in Red Hook quickly fell in love with the neighborhood “As I walked the streets of Red Hook and saw it residents going about their business, I thought what better way to symbolize the spirit of this place by digging up a busy section of Van Brunt Street and placing 47 orange and white traffic cones around this huge hole in the ground I have created.” Throughout Rankinininin’s career
This is the previous work.
his work as site-specific art has intersected with land art, process art, performance art, conceptual art, installation art, institutional critique, community-based art, and public art. That is very evident in the piece here in our very own Red Hook. Local workers actually dug the hole. However the piece can be viewed as problematic as it does disrupt the route of the B61 Bus. Local resident and art critic, Barry O’ Meara points out “The sitting of this art is more than an artistic problem. If we are to examine site specificity as a complex cipher of the unstable relationship between location and identity in the era of late capitalism, then we will see that this piece is complete non-
sense. Try getting a bus at 6 in the evening.”
and nothing more but these people are not be heeded.
Regenerative art?
Rankininin’s “Men at Work” is open for viewing at all times of the day for the foreseeable future.
Is this what Rankininin’s piece is trying to say? Art is nonsense and purposefully disruptive to everyday life. I’m not so sure. I found the piece to be quite exhilarating. When you walk down that section of Van Brunt street you are immediately struck by the sense of urban renewal, like it symbolizes Red Hook regeneration into something far greater than even Cobble Hill. I recommend each and every Red Hook resident to take 20 minutes out of their day to witness this great piece of art. Of course, there will be skeptics who will claim it is merely a work site like any other
Eight Pages of nonsense (Regular stuff starts page 9) The
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