Hrag Vartanian

Veken & I trekked out to Astoria yesterday to attend a friend’s (Linda) opening and realized it had been a while since I made the trip to that little swathe of green on the East River known as the Socrates Sculpture Park.

Braving the heat and humidity, here are some thoughts I conjured up in the shade:

• Ken Landauer’s “King” was extra soothing and particularly poignant on a steamy day like Sunday–I overheard him say he even rigged the box with ventilation to avoid condensation–brillant!;
• Linda Ganjian’s dreamy “Bountiful LIC Memorial Carpet” was filled with some not-so-famous items from LIC’s industrial past, including Big Bird’s costume (who knew), ice cream cones, poultry (yuck), car parts and tassels;
• Horisaki’s “Social Dress-New Orleans” may not have been part of the exhibit, but it fit nicely with the other works;
• Caroline Mak’s”Root Architecture” was not easy to like but its burst of color in an obscure part of the park made me stop and think;
• Tim Clifford’s “Absentia” seemed to camouflage itself too well (it was hard to tell if it was art or outhouse)…subverting a slice of the banal; and
• the award to most convoluted title goes to Changamire Semakokiro’s “Mama I wanna do the damn thang B fresh to def N let my balls hang“–now, that’s a whopper!

All my photos from Socrates can be found on Flickr here.