Orchard St – Mapping, Anxiety & If You See Something…

Last night the Lower East Side was abuzz with gallery openings, and, despite the rainy weather, hipsters were spilling out onto the streets. Curious about when the LES became the go-to ‘hood for art galleries? Loren Munk is here to educate. His Location, Location, Location, Mapping the New York Art World, at Lesley Heller, is a quirky, skillful exploration and explanation of the history of the NYC art scene. Case in point: Village of the Damned 2004-2005 (below). As an added bonus, check out Munk’s website for his virtual tour series, The James Kalm Report, which is strangely engaging in its unpredictability and breadth of information.  

Next door at Scaramouche Seher Shah’s Object Anxiety is a starkly different type of show. It is a black-and-white study of the impact of Brutalist architecture on public space. As they stand, Shah finds these angular, concrete structures overly authoritarian. She delicately deconstructs and reimagines, breaking them down into striking geometric forms.

With a more direct comment on corruption, Invisible Exports presents Lisa Kirk If You See Something… From her paintball paintings to her video installations, Kirk creates and contemplates images of war and violence. To say the mood is unsettling would be an absurd understatement. In a silent video two stoic newscasters comment on a clip of footage eerily similar to that of abused detainees at Abu Ghraib. This is likely taken from Kirk’s Backyard Adversaries, currently screening on Governers Island, for which she filmed four children “playing Abu Ghraib.” How did she find children (and their parents!) willing to participate? She posted an ad on Craigslist.

Hopefully watching kids play “terrorist torture” hasn’t ruined your appetite. It is lunch, after all, and Little Giant (on the corner of Orchard & Grand) offers a delicious, freshly made, locally sourced selection of the S’s (soups, salads, sandwiches). The asparagus soup and red quinoa salad are personal faves, though you pretty much can’t go wrong.   

Ingredients:

Venues: Lesley Heller; Scaramouche; Invisible-Exports

Artists: Loren Munk; Seher Shah; Lisa Kirk

Streets: Orchard St between Grand & Canal Sts

Eats: Little Giant

Map: