Imag(e)ination

Blue sky today, no editing! (at Nyack, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnwTwRwB_Qw/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=143yx0hyglzis

Back in June, a memorable dinner with a great group of people in Venice, eating the best if Venetian cooking at one of its classic restaurants. Our friend, captain of the Eolo, and host for our evening, Mauro Stoppa is at the center. Swipe to see two of their dishes I wish I was having today. Baccalà Mantecato, whipped salt cod; and my my favorite critter out of the lagoon, the small soft shell crabs the Venetians know as Moeche, here with polenta. A platter of them is never enough. To Summer! #cruisingvenice #toitalywithjulia (at Antiche Carampane) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnMROqCBmdE/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=53urob64l16z

Photo: Nathan Hoyt, August 2014

In “Deep Economy”, Bill McKibben attacks the historical truism that “more” is synonymous with “better”, and postulated that in our post-industrial, post-peak oil economy, they have in fact become opposites. It was obvious Tuesday night that this line of thought figured not at all into MoMA’s apologia of its expansion plans presented by Glen Lowry and Liz Diller in a “Conversation” at the New York Society for Ethical Culture organized by The Architectural League, the Municipal Art Society, and the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter in response to the announcement of the Museum’s intent to demolish the former American Folk Art Museum building by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. (http://archleague.org/2014/01/a-conversation-on-the-museum-of-modern-arts-plan-for-expansion/) The discussion of the design’s primary need to create a circulation loop to move people through the galleries in the base of Jean Nouvel’s 1100+ foot high luxury residential tower which might be stymied were the AFMA building to remain, brought to mind the urbanistic proposals of Robert Moses for the expressway across lower Manhattan from an era of consumption, not one of social and ecological responsibility. After two hours of presentations and discussions, the takeaway was that there were plenty of other possible answers, but they were for questions that MoMA wouldn’t ask. Piet Hein once said that art is solving problems that cannot be formulated until they are solved. So what we get here is not art, but commerce, a preordained response to the requirement presented to DSR by MoMA that to save AFAM, the building must have a “productive” use. As I was heading home, this flyer caught my eye on a tourist kiosk at Columbus Circle, and it is a stunning insight into MoMA‘s corporate priorities that have created this sad prospect on 53rd Street.

As the new year begins, I will be sharing some images that I hope might engage your interest. This first one is from this past year's Bastille Day in Piermont, NY, which celebrated a community which was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy just a few month's later. A vibrant village right on the Hudson, Piermont is home to several of the best restaurants in Rockland, as well as galleries for artists and craftspeople. The town has pulled together, and worked hard to rebuild, and if you have the opportunity to visit, it's a short trip up the Palisades, and well worth the drive. Happy 2013!

(A personal note: I have owned a reproduction of the Nolli Map since the 80's, and it has hung in all of my living spaces save one since then. At almost 6 x 7 feet, it fills a wall and has limited my ability to display other works I own, but I never lose interest in it.)

Writing in “Treasuring Urban Oases” in The New York Times last December, Michael Kimmelman praised those often accidental spaces that encourage people to claim and activate their own little piece of the urban realm. Re-reading it yesterday, I was reminded of this couple we encountered outside of the walls of La Recoleta Cemetery when we visited Buenos Aires a month earlier. With a boom box for an accompanist, and passers-by for their audience, their performance of the tango transformed this little square of sidewalk into a theater of memories

In The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination, Jacob Bronowski describes how our knowledge of the physical world is shaped by our senses, and how the sense of sight dominates our outlook on the outside world. While an image is an object, imagination is an activity, the making of images in the mind. This uniquely human ability to imagine, which Bronowski considers the meaning of "free will," allows us to visualize alternative modes of being, and to choose between them. In the creative process, we constantly draw upon our visual memory to make connections which enlighten and expand our experience of the world. This idea that image leads to imagination is the inspiration for these posts to come, a collection of visuals that might somehow strike a chord, and lead to some unexpected road.

Salk Institute, LaJolla, May 2003