The Landscape and Garden Blog
Apr
24
Some people call it the worlds busiest arena. It calls itself the worlds most famous arena. The locals call it The Garden and the world calls it Madison Square Garden . The building that stands on 8th Avenue between 33rd Street and 31st Street is the fourth building to carry the name. The arena was built over the Pennsylvania Station when the station tore down the above ground buildings but kept the underground train station. The train station was a Beaux-Arts historical building and the people of Manhattan were not very happy to loose the historical sight so the dispute lead to the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
People come and fill up the quality hotels all over Manhattan just to see a sports game or other event at the Madison Square Garden. It is the home of the New York Knicks as well as the Rangers. Even the ladies get their game on when the New York Liberty basketball team gets their spot light at the Garden.
The venue also has many other events going on so there are over 300 events taking place at Madison Square Garden each year. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus comes to this arena each year. The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show shows up the talent in this arena. It has also hosted both Republican National Conventions and Democratic National Conventions. It used to be the place to hold the NFL Draft each year. The show list goes on for ever. Major concerts ranging from Elton John and the Police to John Lennon’s final concert before his death. There are also some smaller venues inside the Garden such as the WaMu Theater which seats any were from 2,000 to 5,600 people for smaller concerts, meetings, ceremonies and stage shows. It looks like they are getting ready to renovate Madison Square Garden in the next few years. Time will tell how they will improve on perfection.
Apr
12
New York City’s great works of art are stacking themselves up in the museums of New York City, hiding themselves behind each other because there is no place left to hide except for behind each other. The great works of art in the past are lining up like old lonesome soldiers, making themselves known in the world through their attention to line, and in this, there are interventions to ask questions of how this came to be, and one of the interventions comes in Waltercio Caldas , whose works are on display in MOMA’s permanent collection.
This is one of the places for a painting or a sculpture to exist without having to confine themselves to stacks, and here they can ask questions of why and how. There are thousands of works that it might stand in for, in place of, and there are more than thousands waiting to occupy its space if there is ever time or room. This is where people come, leaving gorgeous hotel rooms to discover beautiful works of art that have made people all over the world wonder, in order to experience something that happens in time and space. People like to experience things in time, and in space, and sometimes the works of art make this transparent.
It’s a delicate relation, to speak to the moment at hand in terms of the precepts and perceptions of the moment, but the Brazilian artist is able to make this relation come to light. Here it is in the moment, positioned somewhere between the elegance of the city, and the catastrophe of contemporary realities. Born after the war, he is a postwar artist, and seeing the work in its real position between time and space, one wonders if Richard Foreman’s dreams are not inspired by his work. One wonders about the painting, and the stacking, and the way we speak to each other, inside the museum, or on the streets of the city that are forgetting their own names.
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