Nick Cave: Until was organized by MASS MoCA and co-produced by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art of Bentonville, Arkansas, and CarriageWorks of Sydney, Australia, with support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, Jack Shainman Gallery, and the Robert Lehman Foundation
NickCave: Until / Photo: Courtesy MASS MoCA
The Momentary last week announced some updates to their 2020 schedule, including plans to unveil some new work at the contemporary art space in the coming months.
The facility, a satellite of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, reopened to the public officially on June 10.
The galleries at the Momentary are currently hosting the State of the Art 2020 exhibit, examining contemporary art from across the country. That exhibit will remain on view through Sunday, July 12 at both The Momentary and at Crystal Bridges, and some works from the exhibit will remain on view at The Momentary through Aug. 16. Some of the State of the Art pieces at Crystal Bridges will remain on view through Nov. 2 as well. Check out the virtual tours available at The Momentary and Crystal Bridges to see the State of the Art 2020 works.
Starting in September, the Momentary will be home to Nick Cave: Until. The installation, considered Cave’s most ambitious yet, will take up the full 24,000 square feet of gallery space at the facility.
The exhibition, Cave has said, began with the question “Is there racism in heaven,” and his response is the work made up of thousands of wind spinners featuring images of guns, bullets, and targests along with “a cloudscape encrusted in ceramic birds, bearded flowers, and cast-iron lawn jockeys.”
Until has previously been on display at MASS MoCA of North Adams, Massachusetts, Carriageworks of Sydney, Australia, and Tramway of Glasgow, United Kingdom.
The exhibit will be at the Momentary from Sept. 12-Jan. 3.
Two new visual art projects were also announced last week, and are now on view at the Momentary.
Ivan Navarro: This Land Is Your Land. Image courtesy of the artist and Kasmin Gallery.
Photo: Elizabeth Bernstein
Brooklyn-based Chilean artist Iván Navarro’s series of water towers called This Land is Your Land is on view outside the Momentary in the north courtyard.
The piece, inspired by Woody Gutherie’s iconic 1940 song of the same name, examines the history of migration in the Americas and the United States. Navarro said water towers were a symbol of hope and opportunity durning the Great Depression for nomadic workers.
“Every time they saw a water tower, they jumped out of the train because it signaled economic activity in that town,” he said.
The three towers from This Land Is Your Land are elevated to a height above visitors’ heads, allowing them to walk underneath and look up into each sculpture to view repeated messages that are inspired by Navarro’s personal history as an immigrant. The interior of one tower features the words “me” and “we”, another the word “bed”, and the third displaying the image of a ladder—all of which are composed of neon light. According to the aritst, “Bed” recalls our most intimate form of inhabited space, the ascending ladder symbolizes progress, while the inverted words “me” and “we” reference Guthrie’s call for collective belonging.
The work has previously been on view in Madison Square Garden in New York, and at the Navy Pier in Chicago.
Also new at the Momentary is ‘The Momentary Flag Project, a series of rotating artist-designed flags raised on the original flagpole of the cheese factory in which the Momentary now calls home. According to Momentary officials, the series asks artists to explore the symbolic resonance of flags and consider how they shape our understanding of place and identity.
The first flag was created by artist Chrisopher Myers, a multimedia artist, author and playwright from New York. His flag, called Icarus Falling, is inspired by the Greek Myth of Icarus and his father Daedalus.
“These flags are a monument to our nation of Icaruses, of people who dream bigger than they are ‘supposed’ to, and who must find a way to celebrate not only our triumphs but all of the times we have soared so close to the sun, that we have burned our wings,” Myers said.
The flags will be changed periodically, with other artists scheduled to replace them with their own versions. The next one will be designed by California-based artist Gabriella Sanchez, and will go up Oct. 4.
Icaraus Falling 2020 by Christopher Myers
Image courtesy of the artist
