The New Museum exhibits are free to NYU students. For my field trip I went to the nostalgic time capsule exhibit titled NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star.
In the museums own words:
“NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star” draws its subtitle from the eponymous album that the New York rock band Sonic Youth recorded in 1993 and captures the complex exchange between mainstream and underground culture across disciplines, which came to define the art of the era.”
Working my way down from the top, I SnapChatted the pleasant view that the observation deck affords.
One of my favorite pieces was the first contextual piece. A series of about 10 TV’s were lined up and displayed a rotation of facts about 1993 color coded in order to categorize them into world news, US/NYC news, and entertainment/pop culture news. Seeing as how I was 1 year of age during that time, this was the most informative and educative installation in the exhibit.
Aside from that piece, I must admit I don’t have an opinion on many of the other installations. There were, however, two clear interrelated issues at the forefront of many works: gay rights & AIDS.
It is crazy to me that homosexuals were treated poorly so recently in our nations history. Although discrimination most certainly still exists, the video installations as well as a poster (describing the murder of a gay man) in particular make me realize how far the LGBT community has come in a score of years.
The digital exhibitions did a good job of portraying the pain and effort that the gay community carried in order to have their voice heard, especially in the context of HIV/AIDS. Although my view may be biased by these works, I find it appalling how little sympathy the government extended to its own people.
Overall I enjoyed the digital works much more that the other alternative installations. Exhibits like this one make me realize the place that digital art may have in other museums in the future.