Adventures in new art

On Sunday I went to the New Museum down on Bowery, and I'd highly recommend that NYC folks get over there before its first triennial show is over in July. It's called Younger Than Jesus and features artists all under the age of 33. As with any contemporary art exhibition, there will be stuff that makes you scratch your head or seems pointless, but I also found much to enjoy and be stimulated by.

Like this huge installation that was like an altar to the language of texting.

I was also mesmerized by two videos, one by James Richards that included fascinating juxtapositions of clips from 1980s British TV and the artist's own work, and another by French artist Cyprien Gaillard that featured 1) an eerie and beautiful light show against a housing project building that gets demolished, 2) haunting aerial shots of a dismal housing complex in Russia, and 3) footage of a weird Eastern European gang rumble. (Two-thirds of video available here. Battle portion available here.)
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Sometimes, though, the best part of a piece was its description. Highlights:

* One wall of collage was referred to as "cave paintings for a digital world."

* A video that showed men in helmets and gladiator-style codpieces arranging giant puzzle pieces while speaking in Polish with Russian folk music playing was described thus: "'Tanagram' is a send-up, if not a confrontation, of Constructivist and Soviet-style utopian ideals."

* One artist's past work included "subvisible nanosculptures" and "a futuristic habitat for a live duck inspired by a quote about the creative process by David Lynch." Um ... okay.

Overall, though, highly worth seeing. Bring an open mind.

Update: 5/1/09: Check out the story in FLYP about the exhibition. Thanks for the tip, Amy!