The 2008 Whitney Biennial expanded to the Park Avenue Armory to host multiple installations, performances and events. The Armory is a huge 19th-century clubhouse originally used by the Seventh Regiment as both a military facility and a social gathering place. A designated historic landmark today, the Armory is full of dim hallways, crumbling period rooms, marvelous antique furniture and portraits, and walls mounted with giant animal heads. For artists, it must be exciting and challenging to produce site-specific installations and performances here. And indeed the selected artists presented the viewer with a wide range of ideas and executions. It includes dance parties (Agathe Snow), burlesque performances, a gypsy banquet, a slumber party with cots, blankets, snacks and ambient music (DJ Olive), and a real working bar serving homemade tequila (Edwardo Sarabia).


 

 

The overall impression of the installations mounted at the Armory was Bohemian, DIY (found materials were favored), and a tangible engagement with political and current affairs, which, in a way reflects the mood in the art world today and the American society at large. This should not strike as a surprise, given that the Biennial co-curator Henriette Huldisch also curated the exhibition Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era at Whitney last year. In that matter, the historical references of the Armory building provides a powerful (and curious) contrast, reinforcement and some light-hearted irony to the guilt-free hippy pleasure embraced by the Biennial curators. While it is dramatic or even theatrical to patron a flashy stereotypical tequila bar or to watch a hypnotizing rock music video inside the magnificent yet decaying Armory, only a few works can truly go beyond making superficial connect or suggestion to the Armory's unique spatial qualities and historical references.

 

Michael Queenland's ping-pang balls chandelier in a period washroom and the adjacent Ellen Harvey's The Inevitable Failure of Restoration (2008) installation were my personal favorites. Queenland's chandelier, despite its humble materials, was exquisite and elegant. Hanging from the high ceiling, it perfectly matches the checkered tiles and an old-fashioned bathtub in the washroom. By crafting a sophisticated and beautiful chandelier out of unadorned materials, Queenland courteously compliments the former grandeur of the Armory while poking a slight mockery on the prevalence of cheap products and the old glamour that will not return, certainly not under the shadow of a recession. Ellen Harvey's video installation re-creates how generations of paint were added to the original patterns in the wall. By revisiting the historical manual labor process and arriving at its present state, Harvey reminds us that what we see today is an accumulative work of art not only created by generations of artists but also by time, and what cannot be restored is the latter. Yet watching the wall and the video side by side, the viewer cannot help wondering whether technology will one day free us from the gravity of time and space, or condemn us into perpetual memory loss and confusion. Both pieces of installation echo with the theme of the 2008 Biennial-the ephemeral nature of art, time and memory. They do not intrude or clash with the Armory's architectural style and spatial conditions. Nor do they employ the space merely as a superficial signifier. The artists respect the beauty and history of the building while bringing in fresh and contemporary ideas and forms, and invoke reflection on the passing of time, the remaining and the lost.

 

One obvious disappointment is Olaf Breuning's installation of twenty or so teapot soldiers representing a dysfunctional army. At the first glance, the installation and the site do not respond to each other. The artist's effort to adapt the work to the site of the Armory is almost invisible. Frankly, it could have been mounted in any other museum or gallery without changing its presentation or context. In fact, that could arguably have been better. Furthermore, the implication of the war is more than clear, yet the political message remains ambiguous or shallow. What is dysfunctional is not the army but at the decision-making level. And politics is not as cute as Chinese teapots.