Review: Street Art Street Life at the Bronx Museum

Still from Yoko Ono and John Lennon's "Rape" (1968)

Street Art Street Life at the Bronx Museum
Sept. 14, 2008 - Jan. 25, 2009

First let's get the title out of the way. There's no "street art" on display at the Bronx Museum. OK, a few photos of some Basquiat "Samo" tags from the 80s, but there isn't a Banksy, Faile or Swoon to be seen. Instead, what we have is a 50-year look back at some established artists' takes on the urban experience -- with an emphasis on photography, performance and protest.

For street photographers, we start with the big three: Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander and Gary Winnogrand, and their magical images documenting the loneliness, romance and curious corners of our urban environs. The show's contemporary shooters mainly falls short, either too antiseptic -- Sze Tsung Leong -- or sloppy -- Xaviera Simmons. More satisfying is a collection by Francis Alys of several dozen black & white commercial street pics taken in Mexico City in the 40s, 50s and 60s.

The street is also a place for performance. The Fluxus collective pioneered a playful style of street theater in the 60s; the show has photos of a guided tour by Nam June Paik, and a ballet performed on a fire escape (wish there was video of this one). Other examples of street performance have a musical element. Most memorable is a joyful video called "Ear to the Ground" by David Van Tieghem showing him dancing and drumming on everything from streetlights to stop signs and payphones (check it out here). A video by Daniel Guzmán shows the artist and his friend doing a parody of a goofy 80s-style video set to the Ace Freely song "New York Groove" (it was also recently on display at the New Museum, and can be seen here). A David Hammons video is more foreboding: we see a dark screen with sound of him kicking a bucket down a street.

Other performances dealt with aspects of the urban condition. Taiwanese-American artist Tehching Hsieh lived on the streets of New York City for an entire year, following self-imposed stricture to never seek shelter, compromised only once when he spent a night in jail. The photos of Nikki S. Lee document her efforts to assume the identities of various urban subgroups, such as a St. Mark's punk and an Asian grandma. Artist Kimsooja takes poetic video of herself standing absolutely still in busy streets in Mexico City, London, etc.

There is more overtly political art on display, such as two slideshows: London-based Nils Norman's images of the "vernacular of terror" (images of CCTVs, car-bomb barriers disguised as planters, metal teeth on ledges designed to keep the homeless, etc.) and Allan Sekula's "Waiting for the Teargas," which highlights the drama of the "Battle for Seattle" protest against the WTO in 1999.

But most rewarding is the show's focus on the intersection of feminism and the street. This includes Valerie Export's actions where she leads a man on a leash like a dog and another called "Touch Cinema" in which she invites men to fondle her breasts. "Rape," a film by Yoko Ono and John Lennon, shows us a camera crew as they follow a women as if undertaking a sexual assult. Vito Acconci accounts in text and photos how he followed women and men for a period. Sophie Calle does the opposite, hiring a private detective to tail her for a day (the detective's notes and photographs are the piece). More contemporary is the the activist-oriented Blank Noise Project, which contributes a video work documenting "Eve teasing" in India. Two video monitors face off with opposing views -- women sharing how they had been harassed vs. men and and a few women blaming the women for wearing provocative clothing (more here).

I wonder if the show could have included something on that professional denizen of the streets, the prostitute. P.S.1's amazing feminist history of last year, "WACK!," featured Suzanne Lacy's "Prostitution Notes," which maps the artist's efforts to learn about the lives prostitutes.

"Street Art Street Life" addresses the unmediated experience of the individual with the street. No subways, stores or supermarkets. Also, no suburbs. But while the work pounds the pavement, it doesn't have much grit. Nearly everything has a careful conceptual framework or agenda. And because the show covers such a big subject and broad time-frame, it feels crowded with big names and greatest hits. These factors leave street romantics like Keith Haring and Swoon on the sidelines. That said, I enjoyed this show, which is anything but pedestrian.