THE MORNING AFTER

This past weekend I visited the New Museum to see the exhibition entitled "After Nature." The title vainly presumes that humanity will finally kill off nature once and for all. It's another dire entry in the contemporary art world's backlash against biennials and big art market consumerism. Like the International Center for Photography's recent exhibition, the ironically titled Ecotopia, the New Museum's current morbid exhibition is slathered with pessimism for a world past salvation. This is plain acceptance of a bleak, barren and boring landscape free of human or animal life. Many of the works are too mundane to stir much interest, apart from the spacious fourth floor which houses a taxidermy horse body rammed into the wall, a frankenstein tree and tiny photographs of star light. All in all, another downer from the bowery's New Museum, home of the summertime blues. Never mind the building's shiny facade, the contents within create a feeling reflective of the neighborhood - the dirge of dingy and disposable modern life. Save your money and take a walk round the bowery at night for the same effect.

New York Times Review
New Yorker Review