‘Intangible’ light show now open at Chelsea Market
BY GABE HERMAN
An exhibition opened on March
3 in Chelsea Market’s ARTECHOUSE,
a digital media space,
which is abstract and creates an intense
audio-visual experience using moving
beams of light.
The installation, called “Intangible
Forms,” is by Japanese multimedia artist
Shohei Fujimoto. It features a light
show in the gallery space, which opened
last year after being converted from a
100-year-old boiler room in the building
at West 15th Street and Ninth Avenue.
Rows of red lights, generated by lasers,
move in geometric patterns across
the room, as ambient music plays and a
smoky haze fills the space. The result is
a visceral experience that can take the
visitor out of the thoughts and concerns
of everyday life, even if just for a little
while.
“ I’ve been trying to generate virtual
consciousness and, in extension, virtual
life in this work, triggering a deeper
sense of humanity in ourselves, ” noted
Fujimoto. “ I hope by the end of their
visit, the guests are able to focus on their
own universal sense of being. ”
Fujimoto’s works are meant to be
experienced rather than explained, according
to Sandro Kereselidze, ARTECHOUSE
founder and Chief Creative
Officer.
“ At ARTECHOUSE we continue in
our mission to connect audiences to
art in an entirely new way, stimulating
minds, emotions, and imagination
through multiple touchpoints,” said
Kereselidze in a statement. “Each exhibition
and installation on view is intended
to enthrall and challenge, simultaneously
and Intangible Forms is a really visceral
example of that ”
“Intangible Forms” is open until April
19. More information can be found at
artechouse.com/nyc.
PHOTOS BY GABE HERMAN
“Intangible Forms” at ARTECHOUSE in Chelsea Market.
Find rare treasures at Antiquarian Book Fair
BY GABE HERMAN
For collectors and the curious alike,
the New York International Antiquarian
Book Fair will be running
later this week on the Upper East Side. This
will be the 60th anniversary of the Book
Fair, which runs from March 5-8 at Park
Avenue Armory, 643 Park Ave.
The Fair will offer rare books, manuscripts,
historical documents, maps and
more, on a wide variety of topics and for
a range of prices, from over 200 American
and international dealers. It is sanctioned by
the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of
America (ABAA) and International League
of Antiquarian Booksellers.
“The New York Book Fair is probably
the most important book fair in the global
book fair calendar,” said Donald Heald,
Treasurer for the Mid Atlantic Chapter
of the ABAA. Ha said it’s the most highly
attended antiquarian book fair in the U.S.,
drawing about 8,900 people last year and
expecting a similar or higher turnout this
year.
Heald noted materials at the Fair will be
on a wide variety of topics and fields, and
not only older subjects but books on topics
related to recent decades and up to the
present day. “It’s a very interesting group of
people, the booksellers are very diverse,” he
Mrs. Tabitha’s Cats’ Academy, 1889, Louis Wain. Oil on canvas, 9-1/16 x 12-
1/4 inches. Depicting a “Schoolroom” following the 19th century genre of
“School in an Uproar” images popularized by famous artists Thomas Brooks
and Henry J Richter among others, which often parodied human behavior
and situations. In 1886, Wain’s first drawing of anthropomorphized cats was
published in the Christmas issue of Illustrated London News.
said. “It’s a great mix of material.”
“Whenever we hatched a plot, The Old
Man stuck out his tongue. But our old
(COURTESY NYIABF)
friendship, here and there, Has survived
all the storms. Comrade Ladenburg, With
heartfelt greetings, A. Einstein 1939.” It is
on a photograph signed to his early supporter
and friend, Rudolf Ladenburg.
While the fair draws plenty of serious
collectors and librarian groups, Heald
noted, different age groups attend and can
potentially find something to buy for as
little as $10, to go alongside more expensive
items like a signed book or item related to
Shakespeare or The Federalist Papers that
could go for hundreds of thousands of
dollars. “People of all ages come through,”
Heald said.
The first Fair was held in 1959, and has
now been at the Park Avenue Armory for
nearly 30 years. Despite all the potential
digital distractions of modern times, attendance
is up nearly 50 percent in the last
few years, Heald said, noting there is still
great appeal in handling items in person.
“There really isn’t a substitute of the serendipity
of going to a fair or bookshop and
looking through and seeing something,” he
said. “And suddenly you have a new interest
or you learn something.”
Heald added, “I see people coming
through that are younger and getting used
to looking at books in a different way, and
that there’s more than just looking at the
screen of your iPhone.”
More information can be found at nyantiquarianbookfair.
com.
Schneps Media March 5, 2020 21
/nyc
