ps1 and the palace at 4 a.m.: "amazing!"

even though it's pretty fast and easy (the 7 or the e train gets you a block away) scoboco's only made the trip to ps1 in queens on "warm up" summer saturdays, when we can combine our art-viewing with some thumping bass, serious snacking, and hipster people-watching.

but we made the journey to the borough today because jon kessler's huge, site-specific, kinetic-sculpture installation "the palace at 4 a.m." is only around until february 6. and it was SO worth the trip! all three of us just walked around smiling and impressed and entertained and... i don't know... "moved," maybe? co kept saying "it's amazing..." and that about sums it up.

basically, kessler has taken over most of the third floor with maybe 100 surveillance cameras and their corresponding monitors. the cameras are all aimed at something... usually something in motion, or something that alternates with other objects or images, or the camera is in motion, or you become part of the image, or "live" shots are embedded into photographs, or any number of other clever, creative, interesting things.

kessler's message is obviously something about the media and spying and the portrayal of war (especially the war in iraq), and politics, and women, and advertising, and consumerism. but i'll leave that to smarter people to figure out. what i do know is that i'm so glad we didn't miss it.

oh and we enjoyed several other things there, too, at ps1. like "the painted world" exhibit, and the reindeer on fire in the musuem's front entrance, and this incredible cityscape by someone vanderbeek, constructed entirely out of the sunday new york times.