THE REALLY BIG SHOW

This week and weekend I'm preoccupied with the Orphans Film Symposium (dinner pictured above), and I've got a helpless case of the March Madness. You can read our Orphans blog here and check out our Flickr page too.

The big art show this week is the Armory Show. And I'm writing to say - don't do it. Don't go. The whole art fair thing has become incredibly bloated and boring. There is now a glut of international art fairs and, somehow, despite countless galleries and countless artists, one can never leave one of these exhibitions feeling satisfied - it's like a meal of tapas that just don't add up. As Roberta Smith's NY Times article states - "even without the falling dollar and nervous hedge funders, there is a point at which critical mass fosters inertia. There is nothing wrong with art fairs that fewer of them wouldn’t cure." The Armory Show has now bred nine simultaneous, self-contained, satellite art fairs spreading like so much mold under the kitchen counter. The 2008 Armory Show has mercifully shrunk in size, now occupying one pier instead of two, but they've increased their admission price - $30 for general admission. There is still too much on display. You never feel inspired or impressed. You end up just feeling exhausted, shoving through the crowds in search of some mythical special piece that can speak through the congestion and the noise. The most you can hope for is spotting David Byrne, as I did one Armory year. He seemed just as lost and puzzled as I was. What exactly were we doing there?