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In March 2012, two monumental kinetic sculptures, each about 7.5m tall, transformed a disused public space in Midtown Manhattan into an art piece by Josephine Meckseper. Though mirroring the forms and materials of the mid-century oil industry, the artist locates her work firmly inside the contemporary debate about American business, wealth and consumerism.

The Manhattan Oil Project is inspired by mid 20th century oil pumps the artist discovered in Electra, a boarded-up town once famous for being the pump jack capital of Texas. Each sculpture is fully motorized to simulate the motions of a working oil pump. Placed in a vacant lot next to Times Square, the black and red steel structures slowly creak in the ceaseless oscillations of phantom oil excavation. The pump jacks recall the ruins of ghost towns, forgotten monuments of America’s decaying industrial past.

This pairing of the pump jacks and the Times Square location merges a classic symbol of American oil production and wealth with the center of New York City commercial culture. The pumps are intended as ignition points for critical discussion engaged directly with modern life, as opposed to operating in the realm of disengaged abstract geometries. They evoke speculation about a functional reality and the notion of use value. I hope to draw parallels between the American industrial system, transitioning from a past of heavy industry, factories, and teamsters and the disembodied present of electronic mass-media, surface advertising, and consumerism – so clearly embodied in Times Square, explained Meckseper, The critical placement of the pumps is a conceptual gesture that raises questions about business and capital; land use and resources; wealth and decay; decadence and dependence.

Josephine Meckseper (b. 1964) has developed a practice which melds the aesthetic language of modernism with a profound critique of consumerism. Through her shop windows, vitrines, installations, photographs, films and magazine projects she draws a direct correlation to the way consumer culture defines and circumvents subjectivity and sublimates the key instruments of individual political agency. Her works have been included in international biennials such as the Whitney Biennial, the Second Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art and Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon. She has also had solo exhibitions at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst (Zürich, Switzerland), Ausstellungshalle zeitgenössische Kunst (Münster, Germany) and a retrospective at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. Her work was featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New Photography and at the Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Photos by James Ewing, courtesy of Art Production Fund

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How I Roll, 2012; Rotating Piper Seneca, steel supports, motor

How I Roll, 2012; Rotating Piper Seneca, steel supports, motor

For two months a small air plane was rotating 24 hours a day in summer 2012 in Central Park, NYC. Previous works by Paola Pivi have also featured large machines, including an overturned tractor-trailer and a helicopter placed upside down.

Born in Milan, Italy, in 1971 and now based in Anchorage, Alaska, Paola Pivi’s diverse artistic practice embraces sculpture, photography, video, and performance. How I Roll is Pivi’s first public commission in the United States.

(Photos by Attilio Maranzano, via)

Live at the Museum is Public Delivery’s next big project, done together with Andre Hemer. It is an international performance project and an on-going series of video works. So far it has been shot in various locations on four different continents.

More information next month, stay tuned!

After Hendrik Beikirch’s interview with 5Minutes, follow Nils Müller to Belgium and Paris and see spectacular airborne footage of graffiti writers in action.

(via)

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School Bus, 2012

School Bus, 2012

School Bus, 2012

Barbara Kruger wrapped a school bus, addressing the importance of arts education in Los Angeles public schools.

Barbara Kruger’s work is universally known for its bold, eye-catching design, and philosophical themes. The artist’s project for Arts Matter, a philanthropic organization, rendered in Kruger’s signature style, addressed directly and urgently the importance of education, especially in the arts. Kruger’s statement, Art is as heavy as sorrow, as light as a breeze, as bright as an idea.. emphasizes the fluid nature of art. At the same time, Kruger stresses that art remains a crucial, indispensible part of a successful educational system. School Bus also references an earlier bus wrap Kruger created for New York City’s Public Art Fund in 1997.

About Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger is an artist based in Los Angeles and New York and is one of the most renowned contemporary artists working today. For over three decades her work has encompassed a broad spectrum of contexts and scales, ranging from publication inserts to immersive installations that involve text, images, and video. Kruger’s work has appeared in museums and galleries worldwide.

> visit lafund.org for information about bus routes and Kruger’s billboards

(Photos: #1,2 by Steve Cohn, #3 by Joshua White)

After a previous interview with ARTE Creative in February make sure to check out the interview with Hendrik Beikirch done for the 5Minutes series, where he talks about his perception of Urban Art / Street Art after being active in the scene since the late 1980s.

5Minutes is produced by the team behind ilovegraffiti.de and gives an extended view on urban art.

> everything about the finished mural here or larger images here