By Holli Harms
“The Way touch gets amplified by an electric typewriter.”
“How do cats understand our turning out the light?”
“The way pitch gets higher as the water bottle fills up, is good for something.”
These are but three of thousands of prompts to be found on 3×5 index cards at artist Neil Goldberg’s new installation entitled: “Neil Goldberg: Vote In The Midterm Elections” at the Cristin Tierney Gallery in Chelsea.
It is a mix of photography, video and personal interaction. At the heart of it is Goldberg’s ongoing exploration project “Inhibited Bites.” It is this exploration that uses the index cards to spark thoughts and reactions, provoke digressions and transitions, engaging anyone who comes in to sit and take the time to have a chat with no distractions. Just you and whomever else shows up, and Neil, and the prompts. This is where process becomes performance. The process of conversation gives you an exchange and leaves you with a take-away.
The index cards are held in a large rectangular glass-enclosed contraption designed by Goldberg – something like a large bingo tumbler, but with words instead of numbers ready to be drawn at random creating not a winning card, but thoughts of life. The phrases and questions are part of Goldberg’s on going creation.
This idea of conversation is an extension of Goldberg’s relationship with his father – who is seen in one of the two videos explaining how he composed letters to the people who gave their condolences to him after the passing of his wife, planting seeds from father to son and tapping into an attention to the details of language.
The other video is of Goldberg sitting in a plastic bubble, wind generated 3X5 cards flying all around him as he grabs one and reads, and then another and reads, and another, and… The cards with questions, statements and observations ask the viewer to look deeper in to our every day and see the poetry that lives there. Like Emily in Our Town coming back after death to live one more day and suddenly seeing the details of life magnified, “Oh, world, you’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you.” So Goldberg is asking us to pause and see the details of life and he does so with these wonderful, often whimsical, index cards, and with his warm and present way of listening, talking and being.
Take a walk on our wonderful High Line to 28th street where the stairs down from the park will lead you directly to the Tierney Gallery and Goldberg’s exhibit. Step in, slow down and contemplate.
Neil Goldberg: Vote In The Midterm Elections
Closes December 15, 2018. Friday December 14th and Saturday December 15th Neil Goldberg will be at the gallery where you may join him in discussions prompted by the 3X5 cards.
Cristin Tierney Gallery 540 W 28th St, New York, NY 10001.
Note: The Cristin Tierney Gallery will close on December 16th and reopen On Monday, January 7th by appointment only at new address: 219 Bowery, New York, NY 10002.
