Chelsea, 7:11pm

I couldn’t believe someone left a key perched on a street lamp at the corner of 26th & Eighth.

Photograph at Armenian Genocide Protest Outside 92Y in Manhattan

Photo of Armenian Women from Trabizond all murdered except for second from left (seated), c.1915. The protesters are speaking up against ADL Executive Director Abraham Foxman’s speech tonight at the 92Y. Foxman and the ADL refuse to support the Armenian Genocide resolution in the US Congress, citing bogus excuses, including the “safety” of Jews in Turkey. For more photos from the protest visit here & here, and for background on the issue, visit here.  Jewschool has some great pics posted on Flickr.

The photo is a reproduction of an original image archived at the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan, Armenia.

My New Banner (Second Life)

Under the guise of my Second Life (SL) avatar, Ari Montreal, I went gallery hopping in SL for months. It was often hit or miss, but art was all around and there were some interesting things to see. My SL art experience culminated in an article about SL’s art scene for the Brooklyn Rail in April 2007.

But, after a few more months I stopped going, realizing that I didn’t have time for a three-dimensional cyber-life. Though I hope to revisit SL again…time will tell.

My new banner marks those months exploring SL’s art scene…..and it is my way of saying a special thank you to all the SL artists, critics and users that helped me find the treasures that lay within.

Fortune-teller

 thanks Debra

The Armenian flavor of West Asian Photography

Last year’s YEAR OF ARMENIA in France, called “Arménie, mon amie” (Armenia, my friend), was a coup for Armenian cultural awareness in the West…well, at least in Europe.

One of the most interesting exhibits from the French festivities, and there were tons of crappy ones judging by the web, was the Armenian photography show at the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) in Paris.

Thankfully, the IMA (which is a great museum in an amazing Jean Nouvel building) does a great job documenting its shows and in this case, a webpage and brochure exist online for posterity.

Focusing on work from North Africa (Egypt) and West Asia (Turkey, Israel/Palestine, Iraq), the show spanned 150 years of Armenian photography. Armenians had a seminal role in West Asian photography.

In places like Jerusalem, Armenians were the pioneers of the medium, while in Cairo, Baghdad, Beirut, Aleppo, Istanbul & Tehran most famous photographers were Armenian.

Admittedly, some photographers are more gifted than others and many tend to be to documentarian, but the Egyptian Armenian photographers are the exception and come across as artists—Van Leo, Angelo, and Katia Boyadjian are the crème de la crème of that creative flowering.

Perhaps one day, the other branches of Armenian photographic history (like Soviet & Anglo-American) will be given their day in the sun.

While I’ve posted half a dozen images from the exhibit here, check out the original exhibit brochure for more images from the IMA show (.pdf).

Boston Common & Public Gardens, 1:47pm

Local photographers display their work during an unorthodox exhibit in the scenic public gardens of Boston Common.

Another movement gains speed

Under Eighth Ave. on the 1 train

The other Sag Harbor

Nowadays, it’s easy to forget that Sag Harbor was the working man’s Hamptons.

Sag Harbor Oasis

Most people who know me, know that I am helplessly a city boy. So, it is rare that I venture to quieter pastures unless dragged there by friends or family eager for my company in the countryside.

Fortunately, a good friend suggested a foray to the haven of Sag Harbor, NY, which has a notable and storied history (writers Herman Melville, John Steinbeck, James Fenimore Cooper, Truman Capote, Betty Friedan, E.L. Doctorow and others have all lived or live there, and legendary mail artist Ray Johnson drowned there after jumping from the Sag Harbor-North Haven bridge).

So, I admit it, while the thrill of visiting the store (Schiavoni’s Market) that inspired Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent drew me to Sag, as soon as I arrived I realized I was onto something quite beautiful. The poetically situated hamlet (can a place be poetically situated?) seemed a perfect retreat from New York City’s sweltering summers.

Little did I realize that I not only had a come across a delightful little town but the home I was invited to stay in was an oasis of Americana dripping with the quirky character that makes America’s storied past intriguing.

Camera in hand I instinctively snapped pictures of the beach front cottage just outside Sag Harbor, NY. Thankfully, a historian already documented the house and I read that the residence was established in the mid-fifties when two older buildings from Sag Harbor were relocated, combined and expanded by the mid-20th century owners.

The entrance signaled the entry into a magical abode. It is dominated with a tree mural that careens past the wall, up behind a metal bench…onto the ceiling…engulfing a metal light fixture forged with vine and bird forms. Primitive grass sprouts from the floor onto the walls and birds are drawn onto the sky-colored walls, eternally frozen mid-flight.

Folk art painted carpets lead up to the guest rooms. Every corner is filled with curiosities–tramp art, wooden ducks, quilts and framed silhouettes.

The couple who owns the home preserves, and I’m sure have contributed to, the integrity of this oasis of Americana. Unlike the other homes in the neighborhood, the estate doesn’t embrace the shore and seems to step back in a contemplative contrapposto.

Trees grow all around the perimeter and only a small stone paved pool punctures the green of the rolling lawn. The facade is serene and the tight spaces are not luxurious but rich in textures and warmth.

Spending a few days in this place was sheer joy, breathing in the illusion of a colonial home made me think about the beginnings of America. About a place that began as a provincial backwater and eventually flowered into the crossroads of the world.

Sag Harbor gave me a chance to think about that beautiful journey. I posted my images (with the owners’ permission) for the world to see, enjoy. Complete photo album.

For the text-inclined, here’s a brief literary history of Sag Harbor (courtesy Newsday)

Sag Harbor, 4:12pm