Time Out in Times Square: Kimsooja’s Performance and Video Work Brings a Few Moments of Tranquility
Michael Rose
Images courtesy of the author.
If you find yourself in Times Square between now and June 10, and it happens to be the 59th minute of the hour, take a look up at the NBC Astrovision screen. Instead of seeing a promo for Hardball with Chris Matthews, you’ll see the enigmatic video work of Kimsooja, the Korean-born, New York-based artist. The one-minute long films feature Kimsooja in various meditative poses: sitting beside a tranquil river, her long hair in a ponytail down her back, or sitting amid a crowd of people in Cairo, or lying gracefully on a rock, her back always to the camera, her body ever still. The videos provide a few fleeting moments of tranquility in the middle of cacophonous Times Square — that is, if you have the time to look up at them.
But on Friday, March 11, Kimsooja took this project, called Conditions of Anonymity, a step further. She took a group of about twenty-five performers — nearly all of them women — and arranged them on a subway grate in the middle of Times Square, at the intersection of Broadway, 7th Avenue, and 46th Street. She placed additional performers at Broadway and 45th, in front of the Marriott Marquis. The performers, who were mostly young, arranged themselves in a triangle, and assumed a dignified beggar’s pose: sitting cross-legged on the ground, with one hand extended to the right side, palm open. They sat placidly that way for about an hour.
The public’s response was mixed. Many were dismissive of the performance, or ignored it all together. Times Square is, after all, home to the naked cowboy — a man who plays guitar in a Stetson and his underpants — and various other oddities; maybe a bunch of people sitting still doesn’t really seem that out of the ordinary. People pretty much took it in stride, and indeed, over by the Marriott, more people were watching a group of break-dancers than Kimsooja’s performance.
It seemed that most of those who were captivated by the performance were either friends of the artist or of a performer, journalists, or they were people who had wandered over from the Armory Show a few blocks away. Passing tourists looked befuddled by proceedings, and one even placed a wrapped stick of gum in one of the performer’s hands, as if he just didn’t know what to do.
It’s too bad that the performers were positioned about two blocks away from the NBC Astrovision screen that was showing Kimsooja’s films. It was easy to miss the connection between the video work and the performance piece. To fully appreciate both aspects, you needed to know beforehand what was going on. Luckily, representatives of CreativeTime, the group which organized the event as part of its ongoing 59th Minute project, were around to pass out pamphlets and answer questions. But a typical Times Square tourist or harried New Yorker didn’t have the wherewithal, or the inclination, to actually seek them out.
Those who did pay attention to the performance had an opportunity to savor a tiny pocket of atmospheric calm in the middle of Times Square. Stillness is a precious commodity amid the noise and frenetic traffic. The piece called for slowing down and thinking about those around us who may be unseen, such as the homeless — beggars — who, figuratively if not literally, usually have their hand out — just not so much in Times Square these days.
