Roberta and I were in NYC last week (story on its way), where we rode our share of elevators through stacked gallery buildings. One of the elevators was plastered with postcards for exhibits–as well as this fast-off-the-press screenprint, Michelle O, by Mickalene Thomas, Camden-girl-done-good. The appropriation of her royal Jackie-ness and the appropriation of the “O,” now for the Obamas, rolled into one Warholian screen print seems pretty hilarious and perfect to me! I wouldn’t downgrade it one bit for all its slick simplicity.
The Ascension, hee hee, a photo I took in an elevator–the miracle of the flash.
In another elevator, I was taken with the wall material. This is the same style of embossed metal that’s all around Philadelphia, forming dreary protective walls over rail overpasses, and it’s the same metal that Kathryn Pannepacker has been painting on for her Wall of Rugs series of murals (post upcoming on that, too). Pannepacker takes advantage of the markings to evoke the weaving and stitching of rugs and fabric.
But here, with the polished finish, the material is quite seductive–the perfect foil for a religious symbol.
Zones and Me, the same elevator wall sans flash
That shiny surface also served as a swell mirror for inside/outside zones, the apotheosis of elevators as boxes for transport from floor to floor.
