ROAR

Aah, the dulcet sounds of 10 crotch rockets revving, spinning, whining in the Armory... the smoke. Aaron Young created a ne plus ultra perfor- mance (overheard: is this the largest painting ever?), a floor piece involving the drawing power of, yes, said vehicles. 288 sheets of plywood were nailed to the floor, painted in layers of fluorescent yellow, lime green, orange, pink, topped by a couple of coats of black. The artist-choreographed skid marks left a depression of wildly colored circles, swirls, zigs, the streaks frosted with burnt rubber. Those neons swagger across the black: a loopy road map, or a snake orgy. The performance was thrilling, gorgeous, visceral, powerful, grand. Gleeful. With a salaam to Jackson Pollock, it's titled "Greeting Card;" an action painting using a Matta-Clark ethos "completion through removal." Way to go...

The performance was yesterday, the video of it, plus the painting, will be on view until 9/23. After that, twenty of the panels will be sold. The original configuration of this work will, more than likely, never again be visible after the show closes.

Goes with: cartwheels and Steppenwolf.


Aaron Young, "Greeting Card"
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue
212-616-3930
through Sept. 23


your scrappy correspondant wasn't one of the invited 500 to view the event, so I saw it through the chain link fence on the Lex. Ave. side. As the lyric goes, maybe next time...