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Favorite Website of the Moment...
By ludak on Fri, Feb 8, 2008 4:47 pm
del.ico.us
reddit!
http://www.sylvia.org/home/2000plus.cfm
...oh Sylvia, you slay me.
She couldn't even keep Montel (the show, not the person) alive.
Axiom Rocks My GoldToe socks
By ludak on Fri, Feb 8, 2008 2:31 pm
I recently wrote a round up article on alternative art venues in Boston/Cambridge. Here’s a little excerpt here, now, dontcha know (be kind, it’s still in first draft form and I'm having issues with the blog's text format):
Most people in Boston are very aware of Boston’s three major art venues: the Museum of Fine Art (MFA), The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), and the Isabella Gardner Museum. However, for those with a more alternative spirit, Boston also contains a variety of other spaces in which to not only view art, but to also interact with it.
Unfortunately, these spaces seem to come and go, such as I discovered when I went in search of the Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge. After walking past the place where Zeitgeist was supposed to be (three times), I realized that it did not exist. Instead, I was met not with a building filled with paintings or photographs, but a house containing a conglomerate of offices and businesses including Ashtanga Yoga Boston.
In an article in the Boston online art magazine “Big, Red, and Shiny” written in February 2004, Meg Rotzel discussed the state of alternative art venues in Boston. Among some of her conclusions was that capitalism is to blame for the slow but sure destruction of spaces devoted to the new and progressive works of Boston artists. These non-profits are unable to pay increasing rent costs and are therefore forced to either relocate or forfeit their place in the community.
Whereas Rotzel’s article and her opinions are four years old, the idea of the decline of alternative venues in Boston is still pertinent. Proof comes in Rotzel’s eerie foreshadowing, “Non-profits like Mobius, the Revolving Museum, and The Little White Box are all but gone while the Oni and Zeitgeist are fighting admirably against all odds.” Mobius and The Revolving Museum are still in existence, but both have been victims of relocation. The Little White Box, Oni, and, according to the unfortunately metamorphosed building I encountered on Hampshire Street, Zeitgeist, have all disappeared.
But there is still hope for those searching for an alternative to the major museums, and for those that are unimpressed by the trend towards redundancy in the Newbury Street galleries. I have compiled a few options for the more adventurous. All of these venues are easily accessible, in Boston or Cambridge, free, and more than welcoming to the wandering art fiend (even if you’re wearing jeans).
Axiom. When I read that this gallery was connected to the Green Street T-Stop I got really excited, assuming that I would be able to make some comment about an “underground art venue that was literally underground.” But to get to this gallery, you actually have to go up and out of the T station and make a quick right. The disappointment that came with the realization that I wouldn’t get to be as witty as I had first believed, was the only unfortunate aspect of my experience with Axiom. It was the first gallery that I visited, and also my favorite.
Axiom has three walls covered in windows, which creates a very open feeling to the space, but also gives the visitor a preview of the art she’s about to see before she even enters the building. I was hesitant at first because, upon approaching the gallery, all I saw through the windows were blank walls.
Nevertheless, I sauntered in and was immediately greeted by a thin woman with naturally orange hair twisted into a pseudo-dreadlock-turban holding onto the red leash of an impish-looking gray dog. She invited me to take a map off of the podium next to the door. I did, but then stubbornly proceeded to walk through what appeared to be an empty gallery assuming that I could figure out what the hell was going on all on my own. I was wrong. Turns out the exhibit, “Some Sort of Uncertainty” is an exploration of the revocation of traditional art displays. In other words, it offers a chance to experience art that isn’t conveniently draped in golden frames on pristine white walls. It is an exhibit that defies conventions.
Axiom is a small space, so it didn’t take long (after I acknowledged that I was helpless without a map) for me to cover its ground. Heidi (the woman with the dog and curator of the museum) was excited to show me all the “hidden” elements of the exhibit. This included mini figures hiding in holes in the plaster of the center wall of the gallery and a message found only by spraying the front window as if you were going to clean it. It was a fun exhibit to be a part of, and afterwards I wandered back down to the T thoroughly satisfied.”
....I highly suggest that if you’ve got some free time and four dollars or a nifty monthly T-pass that you head on out to the Green Street T-Stop (orange line) and check out Axiom’s current exhibit. It won’t take much of your time, and it’s a creative and free thing to do on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
P.S. Hurry!!!!!! It’s gone on the 17th!
