Tag: Queens Museum of Art

Mierle Laderman Ukeles at the Queens Museum of Art

Since the 70s, conceptual and performance art pioneer Mierle Laderman Ukeles mopped museum steps, shook the hand of every sanitation worker in New York and devised plans for the public to engage with the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, all in an effort to revalue the labor involved in maintaining our city, offices and homes. At the entrance to her 40+ year retrospective at the Queens Museum of Art, Laderman Ukeles plants this arch – made of donated work gloves and other items from local and federal agencies – as celebration of and homage to the work of keeping things running. (Through Feb 19th).

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Ceremonial Arch IV, 5,000 + gloves donated from 10 urban organizations, in steel cages and on steel rods, situated over six columns wrought from materials donated from local and federal agencies, 1988/1993/1994/2016.
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Ceremonial Arch IV, 5,000 + gloves donated from 10 urban organizations, in steel cages and on steel rods, situated over six columns wrought from materials donated from local and federal agencies, 1988/1993/1994/2016.

Duke Riley at the Queens Museum of Art

Located in the same room as the Queens Museum’s model of New York City’s water system, Duke Riley’s ‘That’s What She Said’ is a commissioned work warning against misuse of a precious natural resource. To the left, an Egyptian goddess creates the waters that flow down into a landscape destroyed by power plants and the indifference of its inhabitants. (Through Jan 1, 2017).

Duke Riley, installation view of ‘That’s What She Said,’ at the Queens Museum of Art, July 2016.
Duke Riley, installation view of ‘That’s What She Said,’ at the Queens Museum of Art, July 2016.

Hiroshi Sunairi at The Queens Museum of Art

Hiroshi Sunairi, Elephant, 2010, pruned tree branches and mulch from Flushing Meadows Corona Park and Cunningham Park, Queens, twine.
Hiroshi Sunairi, Elephant, 2010, pruned tree branches and mulch from Flushing Meadows Corona Park and Cunningham Park, Queens, twine.

“Only Queens Museum would have a pile of decomposing tree trunks and branches out front instead of a piece of contemporary sculpture,” I thought outside the QMA the other day.  Signage quickly proved, however, that the pile is a sculpture titled ‘Elephant’ by NYU professor Hiroshi Sunairi, one of whose major projects has been worldwide distribution of seeds from trees that survived the Hiroshima bombing.  These trimmings come from Flushing Meadows/Corona Park trees, however, and take the rough shape of a reclining elephant (the trunks are its legs).  They not only take on the form of an animal known for its good memory, they create a new, mini ecosystem which, it’s hoped, will house new trees of its own.  Click here for an installation video, drawings, photos and more as the piece has evolved in the last two years.