[note: photo removed due to agreement with artist]

Takashi Murakami (left) with Paul Schimmel, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Photo by Mami Kato. Flower Matango (b), 2001-2006 and Cosmos, 2003. Artworks ©Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
I am most excited about the nitty-gritty details which make for an interesting installation period at the Museum. This multi-faceted exhibition fuses art with design elements, and Murakami has designed custom carpets and wallpaper to serve as the backdrop for his lively pieces. The effect is quite marvelous! Lately I have been consumed by the carpeting, for which a delicate installation plan had to be developed. As always, our primary goal was to achieve a seamless, flawless look for the exhibition. But there were other concerns as well; namely, ensuring that a temporary install would not permanently damage our original granite flooring while simultaneously guaranteeing that the bonding method would withstand heavy traffic. I think we’re there; the carpet looks wonderful.

[note: photo removed due to agreement with artist]
Installers from Carpet Resources, Ltd., work with Ken Moser, Chief Conservator (right) to determine an appropriate installation plan for the carpet. Photo by Tamara Schechter. Artwork ©Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

As you can see from the first photo in this post, Murakami sees the gallery space itself as an extension of his artistic presentation, meant not to fade into the background but rather to contribute to the overall atmosphere created by his work. Through the use of carpet and wallpaper, Murakami turns the very walls and floors around his art into works of art themselves. We have had plenty of experience installing fine art wallpaper; many of you may remember this element in the presentation of Global Feminisms. In addition, artist Ghada Amer has also explored the use of wallpaper in her work; you can check that out in Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, currently on view in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

Murakami’s mesmerizing patterns are meant to overwhelm the senses and stimulate a greater connection to his work, and our first-class wallpaper installer, Amir Hasan, worked diligently for two weeks to ensure that Murakami’s intricate patterns matched seamlessly.

[note: photo removed due to agreement with artist]

Amir Hasan, installer extraordinaire, hangs Murakami’s wallpaper. Photo by Shelley Bernstein. Jelly Fish Eyes, 2001. Artwork ©Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

This presentation will be stellar, and I hope these images have sufficiently whetted your appetite, but, be aware, when the show closes the images within my post will have to come down along with the exhibition. Many thanks to Takashi Murakami and KaiKai KiKi for allowing us to share these images with you during the run of the show! © MURAKAMI opens on April 5^th!

Packing up: The artwork from Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art is crated in preparation for shipping.

The show had a great run, and encouraged much enlightening discussion that will surely continue for years to come. It was a real privilege to be a part of that groundbreaking exhibition.

But, no time to dwell on nostalgia! One of the great things about working at the Brooklyn Museum is how quickly projects develop. We’re always working on something new, and this month is no exception. It’s time to make way for ©MURAKAMI!

Roughly half of the show’s participating artists are back in town for this evening’s Members’ reception, as well as to participate in various panels and discussions taking place at the Museum over the next few weeks. Festivities and events include, of course, our next Target First Saturday on October 6^th. That weekend will feature many programs and activities focusing on Infinite Island, so be sure to stop by!

Annalee Davis, one of our presenting artists, installs Just Beyond my Imagination at the Brooklyn Museum.

The artists’ return to Brooklyn also offered a great opportunity to organize an informal artists’ talk in the galleries tomorrow, Friday, September 21^st. Do you have a question about a work in Infinite Island? Would you like to meet your favorite artist in the exhibition? Beginning at 12:30 PM tomorrow, over a dozen Infinite Island artists will be on-hand in the galleries, ready to discuss their work and receive your questions and comments. One artist will present every half-hour through closing at 5:00 PM, and talks will occur simultaneously on both floors of the exhibition. When you arrive, you can find the final schedule for tomorrow’s talks in the Lobby, or ask for more information at our Visitor Service desk. We look forward to seeing you!

Remy Jungerman installs Sometimes Travelers Don’t Come Back… at the Brooklyn Museum. Hear Remy discuss this work tomorrow!

Contact tamara.schechter@brooklynmuseum.org with any questions about this event.

This piece is comprised of 200 drawings on paper, each 9″ x 7″ and hung in a grid, secured to the wall with binder clips and simple pushpins. It is a fairly straightforward installation, and yet preparation for it began months ago with the selection process for proper hanging hardware. I even sent a sample pushpin and clip overnight to Cozier in Trinidad; we wanted to be sure everything was in line with his vision for the completed piece.

Ultimately, we decided to invite the artist to complete the installation here at the Museum, since his preferred placement of each drawing is ever-changing. Though he had shipped the piece to us months ago, he arrived with a stack of alternate drawings to work with so that he would have more variety in creating the final layout. It took the artist two days to construct the grid of drawings.

Drawings to supplement the completion of Tropical Night, by Christopher Cozier.

The completed piece, though installed with everyday office materials and almost childlike at first glance, is actually a complex narrative about repression. It is at once understated, accessible, and very beautiful in its subtlety – and one of my favorite pieces in the show. I’m thrilled to share it with you, and look forward to seeing and hearing your reactions to it.

Christopher Cozier constructs the grid for Tropical Night.

Infinite Island opens this Friday, August 31^st. We look forward to seeing you there!

1200 AA batteries are used to light Bounty, a series of light boxes by Deborah Jack.

As mentioned in earlier posts, in many cases, I have been called upon to shop for materials, a task that can be simultaneously fascinating and frustrating. But at the end of the day, if the artist is pleased with what we have found, then all the hours of phone calls, internet searches, jaunts to thrift stores, and long truck rides out to New Jersey are worth it. Some of the items we collected are pretty extraordinary, and the way the artists have manipulated them for the finished pieces, even more so. Read on.

A wall of real leaves hangs behind Kuku (Kitchen), by Marcel Pinas – shipped to the Museum directly from the forests of Suriname.

The biggest challenge, in my opinion, was coordinating the delivery of 70 used car and truck tires for Kawtchou by Maxence Denis. You might have heard a bit about this from Nicole Caruth’s blog earlier this month, but I think the sheer magnitude of this task warrants another mention. The artist had specified not only the total number of tires he needed, but also the required diameter of each tire – ranging from 13″ to 26″ – and these precise instructions made it much more difficult to locate exactly what he wanted. We were very lucky that Anton Junicic Ent., Inc., a Brooklyn auto parts shop, was willing to collect the tires for us, and made three trips over with our big truck to transport them to the Museum. Special thanks to Robert Barclay, our dedicated truck driver, for all his help with this! The artist was very pleased, and so were we. The finished piece, which incorporates audio/visual elements, makes quite an imposing statement.

Tires for Kawtchou, by Maxence Denis, fill the Brooklyn Museum truck.

Another great accomplishment involved furniture-shopping for Spirit of the Caribe, an installation by Tirzo Martha. For this, all the credit goes to Dasha Chapman, our wonderful research assistant with an eye for a bargain. Like Kawotchou, this installation was completely recreated for the exhibition, and the artist needed new materials that matched his vision for the piece. Kudos to Dasha for biking around Brooklyn on the hottest day of the year in search of the perfect chair, loading coffee tables into the backs of cabs, and riding the truck out to New Jersey to pick up the bed frame she found on Craig’s List.

Chair and rug for Spirit of the Caribe, by Tirzo Martha.

Art handlers assemble the bed, to be used in Spirit of the Caribe, by Tirzo Martha.

Though this post focuses mainly on raw materials, I would like to include a sneak peak of the installation of Tirzo Martha’s work – I think you’ll be surprised to see what became of that bed:

Installation detail of Spirit of the Caribe, by Tirzo Martha.

That’s right; all the furniture now hangs on the wall, creating a vertical bedroom 12 feet high. I will leave the rest of the piece to your imagination for now; come and visit us to see the completed piece!

From 1200 batteries to 1000 feet of black cord, 85 cubic feet of packing peanuts to 7 cubic feet of beach sand, Infinite Island certainly breaks ground in its ingenious use of materials. We have just a few finishing touches to put on the show before we welcome you this Friday, August 31^st! Mark your calendars for the opening!

Last week we welcomed Charles Campbell, a Jamaican-born artist living in Canada, who was here to install his work Aperture – Middle Passage. The installation of this work began with a transparency, which the artist first projected onto a wall (see image below):

Artist Charles Campbell centers the projection of his work Aperture – Middle Passage.

Once projected and sized, the image was painted directly onto the wall using tempera paint. It is roughly 13 feet high and took the artist three days to complete.

Campbell paints the projected image onto the wall.

Using geometric patterns and symmetry in this piece, Campbell fuses the image of the mandala, the traditional Buddhist and Hindu symbol associated with harmony and equilibrium, with that of a slave ship, representing violence and suffering. In combining these two opposing ideas, Campbell’s work aims to confront and reconcile the past.

Detail from Charles Campbell’s Aperture – Middle Passage.

I won’t show you the finished work – yet. You’ll have to visit the exhibition to see it….

Matthew Yokobosky, Chief Designer at the Brooklyn Museum, consults with an art handler in the 4^th floor galleries.

As the Curatorial Assistant for the Exhibitions Division, I have been assisting in various capacities as needed. I communicate with the artists daily regarding their installation schedules and the materials they will require to complete their pieces here at the Museum, and relay to them any information or questions from the registrar or designer. I also work alongside the conservators to schedule mock-ups, audio/visual testing in the galleries, and to source and order all installation materials – everything from glue guns to tires, pushpins to plastic skeletons.

Tumelo Mosaka, Curator of Infinite Island, and Kenneth S. Moser, Chief Conservator, test and measure the projection of a transparency by artist Hew Locke. The finished piece will be roughly 18′ high x 13′ wide.

The image above encapsulates much of what I have been working on. Here you see the beginning of a work by Hew Locke, entitled Vita, Veritas, Victoria (Life, Truth, Victory). A transparency provided by the artist is projected on a wall, traced in pencil, and covered entirely with cord. Finally, strings of beads are hung on the wall, creating an incredibly large and intricately detailed installation. It will take roughly ten days to complete and we have appointed a team of four art handlers to assist the artist when he arrives later this month.

In order to fully realize the artist’s vision, we also needed to assist in finding and purchasing approximately 1000 feet of black polyester cord, to be stapled to the wall over the tracing. Mr. Locke had a specific cord in mind which is no longer available for purchase, and so he sent us a few samples from London, hoping that we could find a match.

Samples of cords and beads from artist Hew Locke.

Lisa Bruno, Objects Conservator for the exhibition, searched around and called in several suitable replacements to compare with our preferred sample. Though we did not locate an exact match, one was quite close. We brought it back to Mr. Locke and awaited a verdict….

Looking for a close match to Hew Locke’s cord sample, at bottom.

Success! The sample was approved and we ordered the required 1000 feet of it – nearly 1/5 of a mile! The next time you see it, this raw material will be adhered to the wall creating a work of art nearly 18 feet high. Hew Locke is one of 45 artists participating in this exhibition, and we strive for this level of exactitude with every installation.

In addition to Vita, Veritas, Victoria (Life, Truth, Victory), be sure to keep an eye out for El Dorado, also by Hew Locke. It is the signature piece for the exhibition and graces the cover of the accompanying catalog.

The exhibition catalog for Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art

As a relatively new member of the staff, this is my first major project at the Museum and it has truly been an eye-opening experience for me thus far. Much time and energy goes into the preparation of each installation long before the artist arrives, and I do my best to ensure that the process is smooth, both for the artists and for all Museum personnel involved with the exhibition.

I’ll be back with more behind-the-scenes tidbits for you as we continue the countdown to opening day!