The exhibition is inspired by the Museum’s “gigantic miniatures”-the Panorama of New York City, the model of the Watershed, and the Unisphere in our front yard-which, when you think about it, are large and small at the same time. Similarly, in many of the artworks, opposites are intertwined–small organizations have global reach; cutting-edge technology requires hours of hand labor; objects appear alive, animals dead, and humans far from civilized. Taking its title from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ 1914 warning about the concentration of industry and finance in his era, Bigness also nods towards the Museum’s expansion project. QMA will add 50,000 square feet of gallery space by 2012-which, while obviously bringing new opportunities, may introduce new challenges as well.
But Brandeis was not just a nay-sayer. He believed in competition and initiative, and distrusted large organizations, whether government or business, because he felt their leaders could not possibly know everything they should about their own responsibilities. Most of the artists included here make their work out of the materials (and people!) closest at hand-and limiting their scope does not limit their ideas. Great Small Works makes its toy theater puppets from newspapers and magazines in order to talk back to those newspapers and magazines. Guy Ben Ner and Dennis Oppenheim filmed themselves with their sons, reflecting on what it means to induct an innocent into the difficult grown-up world. Even when technologies are alien to most of us-like the technique used to make Jessica Rylan’s 40-micrometer-wide Queens Museum, or the jet engines used in the machine performances of Survival Research Laboratories-these artists grasp them thoroughly, redirecting scientific or military tools toward unexpected ends.
Great size also produces specialization. Some artists, in search of smallness, re-integrate usually separate aspects of life, as well as the Queens Museum itself, into a single work. J. Morgan Puett’s evolving time-warp garment factory floor with its living, stitching occupants entangles work, home, and style, while adding construction netting from the QMA expansion project to its “look.” All Museum signage-from the Emergency Exit signs to the words you are reading right now-has been redesigned and installed in a new font created for Bigness by the designers Dexter Sinister. Thus the entire museum plays a role in the exhibition.
Brandeis coined “curse of bigness” in a book of collected essays called Other People’s Money: And How the Bankers Use It, first published in 1914 and again in 1932 during the Great Depression. In Tara De Long’s high-energy music video she switches from business suit to jail-suit and back while wearing a gigantic penny medallion by jeweler Mended Veil, which, with its extra-mini companion, is also available in the shop for a special Queens Museum price. Finally, Karin Campbell’s painted portraits of a golden saint’s head reliquary and Hiroshi Sunairi’s life-size fallen elephant create a sanctuary in the museum’s largest gallery-a memento mori where, we hope, a sense of proportion is restored.
The Curse of Bigness was organized by Larissa Harris with the curatorial counsel of Jodie Vicenta Jacobson.
At the Opening:
2pm: Curator Larissa Harris provides a complimentary tour for, we hope, just the right amount of time, to delve into the minutia of how participating artists approach the theme of scale.
3-4pm: Meet in the Unisphere Gallery to size-up (and taste) food that both under- and overwhelms the senses and befits the immense culinary diversity of Queens. From outsized tamales to diminutive samosas, to very,very long sushi rolls, let’s explore how size changes our appreciation of taste. And we’ll even throw in a wee bit o’ wine.
4-5pm: Some Curse of Bigness artists invite you to experience their expansive array of talents in short-form performances. Performer and theater historian John Bell of Great Small Works performs his famous singing lecture “A Short, Entertaining History of Toy Theater” complete with toy piano accompaniment. Jessica Rylan illuminates her Nanopanorama with a lightning-quick word poem/diagram drawn directly on the wall with mechanical pencil.
At the conclusion of the afternoon, you can pick up one of Japanese artist Hiroshi Sunairi’s special seeds, descendants of trees that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, then circumnavigate the huge steel globe on your long and leisurely walk to the subway. All giving you ample time to ponder how to scale up the themes explored in the show into the bigger picture of life and the long span of history.
