X On.

There was a woman being interviewed on the NYTimes show on NY1 this weekend (Hey, NY1. Maybe you'd want to put some info on your site.). She was of a certain age, and she was an architecture critic (I think.). She had seen the city go through a number of changes. In other words, she had the long view. With the proper qualifiers, she was talking about how she was always amazed at the crowd that tried to hold onto what the city was NOT anymore. It's in the city's nature to change. It's like language.


Mika Tajima

It made me think of X's taking over the old Dia space on 22nd Street. I was (and I don't think I'm the only one) a little bummed out by the move. Not so much because somebody was coming in and doing something with that space (I mean, seriously. YAAY!). No. It was more about the fact that it really meant that that that Dia was gone, daddy, gone. Gone away.

Dude to self: Get over it. I went for my first visit this past Saturday. Mika Tajima's built up and broken landscape was a lively introduction to the space. Angles and mangles make for some trippy viewing. And it's a nice play on the absence of Jorge Pardo.


And then, HELLO. Three floors of early Derek Jarman films. Too much for one visit, but that's OK. I'll go back. Again and again. When I saw some of the films at Elizabeth Dee the other month, I wanted nothing but more more and more. This is that and then some. A couple highlights . . . Seeing TG Psych Rally in Heaven. The rhythms of the work reminded me of Bryon Gysin's Dream Machine. Plus, it was great to hear TG's more abrasive soundtrack rubbing hard up against the Simon Fisher Turner soundtracks that were filling the rest of the room. Of course, that was a highlight as well: Simon Fisher Turner's music. Whew. So gorgeous, and so very generous. And this is gonna sound goofy, but I liked the placards. Enough info without keeping me from the art. Well done. One thing I noticed a couple times was reference to Jarman's running films at different speeds. It reminded me of Brian Eno's Discreet Music where he gave instructions to a string quartet to play Pachelbel's Canon at various tempos. The space felt so alive and jam packed with action and, well, love. An overwhelming embrace. Too much was not enough.

So, yeah. Dia is gone, but the space remains and has been unlocked by X. Let it rip.