Mended Spiderweb #8 (Fish Patch), 1998, Nina Katchadourian.

“In the forest and around the house where I was living, I searched for broken spiderwebs which I repaired using red sewing thread. All of the patches were made by inserting segments one at a time directly into the web.

The morning after the first patch job, I discovered a pile of red threads lying on the ground below the web. At first I assumed the wind had blown them out; on closer inspection it became clear that the spider had repaired the web to perfect condition using its own methods, throwing the threads out in the process. My repairs were always rejected by the spider and discarded, usually during the course of the night, even in webs which looked abandoned.”

(via smalljoys)

I’m a huge robbinschilds fan (they performed at Ballroom in 2007 with Japanather for Deep Comedy, and I loved their video installation C.L.U.E. at TBA Portland 2009). They have a new show at Art in General, I came here on my own., which began on a residency in New Zealand, where the pair encountered John Mulgan’s novel, Man Alone (in which a solitary man leaves society to seek refuge in nature). robbinschilds’ rework this trope, using a four-channel video installation, undertaking two mirrored but separate journeys that reframe and subvert the classic male journey myth. Check it out if you’re in New York, up till December 15.

Image captions: robbinschilds. I came here on my own. 2012, Video still. All images courtesy of the artist.

For our 2012 spring exhibition Data Deluge, artist Jennifer Dalton created Marfa Info Station, which displayed graphical information about Marfa. As part of the installation, Dalton included surveys for visitors (“What’s the best thing about Marfa?” “What’s the worst thing about Marfa?” “Name one of your favorite artists”), the results of which she’s charted below. More info available on Dalton’s website.

Jennifer Dalton’s Marfa Info Station, 2012. Courtesy of the artist and Winkelman Gallery, New York, NY. Photography © Fredrik Nilsen

Jennifer Dalton’s Marfa Info Station, 2012. Courtesy of the artist and Winkelman Gallery, New York, NY. Photography © Fredrik Nilsen.

Courtesy of Gabrielle Plucknette/The New York Times

Courtesy of Gabrielle Plucknette/The New York Times

Courtesy of Gabrielle Plucknette/The New York Times

Don’t miss Yayoi Kusama’s Fireflies on the Water, which is at the Whitney until October 28. As The New York Times explains, “The installation, ‘Fireflies on the Water,’ consists of a small room with mirrored walls, two inches of water on the floor, a raised platform for a viewer to stand on and 150 colored lights dangling from the ceiling. Only one person is allowed in the room at a time. Once the door closes behind you, it’s like you’re suspended in outer space. An infinity of lights surrounds you.” An infinity of light. Take the chance while you have it!

Leo Villareal’s Hive (Bleecker Street), 2012. Courtesy of the MTA.

Leo Villareal’s Hive (Bleecker Street), 2012. Courtesy of the MTA.

Check out Leo Villareal’s new work, Hive (Bleecker Street), commissioned by the MTA and unveiled at the Bleeker/Lafayette subway station last month. Love it. Public art 4ever. Don’t miss the other permanent art installations at the MTA, which include work by Ballroom alums Mel Chin (F train, Broadway-Lafayette) and Robert Wilson (F train, Coney Island) and non-Ballroom alum Sol LeWitt (A/C train, Columbus Circle).

Live from the Texas Contemporary: Here’s our Executive Director, Fairfax Dorn, and our Exhibition Coordinator, Rosa McElheny, installing Agnes Denes’ Pyramids of Conscience. Denes created the four languid, eight-foot tall pyramids — each referencing some kind of liquid — for Ballroom Marfa for the 2005 exhibition Treading Water. For the original installation, water was collected from the Marfa tap and the Rio Grande River south of Marfa; for the Texas Contemporary, water from the Houston tap and the Gulf of Mexico will connect the pyramids to their new site (see previous post for details on how we wrangled the water).

The fair opens Friday (the opening night party is Thursday night), so please stop by and check out the pyramids, and swing by our booth, #807, to see a new body of work by Liz Cohen, a new print by Raymond Pettibon and pieces by Simone Leigh.

Live from the Houston Tank Depot: Here’s our Exhibition and Program Coordinator, Rosa McElheny, and Associate Curator, Erin Kimmel, learning new tank skills, in preparation for the Texas Contemporary, where we’re presenting one of the fair’s public centerpiece exhibitions, Pyramids of Conscience by Agnes Denes (photo coming soon). The fair opens tomorrow, so stop by and see what all our work with tanks and hoses has wrought.

I love these prints from Sonnenzimmer’s test print sale, where you can see the traces of our Marfa Dialogues poster. A test print, according to Sonnenzimmer, is “a term used to describe a single sheet of paper used at the beginning of a print job. These sheets are sent through the press before a job starts, in order to make sure everything is printing properly. Overtime, the prints accumulate layers and layers of art, resulting in colorful patchwork of random images and colors, creating new compositions as a result.” Cool. Sale lasts until September 24. –NI

Daniel Perez came out of the car holding one child and followed by anotherWhat Sport Tells Us About Life isn’t quite the “dazzling intellectual tour de force” the exuberant blurb proclaims this sort of thing has been done before, and better, by Franklin Foer in the excellent How Football Explains The World.
These women are wearing real hooker shoes.
And we had nowhere to go to spend our days without much money.
A 400 year old vampire, vowing centuries ago to protect mankind.
Some have misunderstood our research to say that two thirds of cancer cases are due to bad luck.
(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jordan Verlage)

Displaced residents sleep on cots at the arena in Blackie, Alberta on Friday June 21, 2013 after the Highwood River, overflowed its banks Thursday.

Elmgreen & Dragset, the artists who created Prada Marfa, have a new show, Harvest, at Victoria Miro in London. The show opens 21 September and runs through 10 November 2012. –NI

Just got a slew of Prada Marfa photos from visitors and friends — these are two of my favorites, courtesy of Raymond Merrill, from August 2007. And below is a sentimental favorite — a family portrait (Volvo included) of our former Gallery Manager Hilary duPont (when she was just a wee intern for us back in 2009). Check out all the great photos here, and if you have shots of Prada Marfa, send them to [email protected]. –NI