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Motion Preferences

Motion Preferences

Life Between Buildings

Jun 2, 2022 – Jan 16, 2023
  • Past
  • Exhibition
Serpent like tufts of grass tied with orange emerge from a sidewalk just before an intersection of vintage cars.

Becky Howland. Tied Grass. 1977. Site-specific installation on traffic island bounded by Franklin Street, Varick Street, and West Broadway

 Photo credit: Courtesy the artist. Photo: Becky Howland.

Inspired by the history of community gardens in New York City, Life Between Buildings explores how artists have engaged the city’s interstitial spaces—“vacant” lots, sidewalk cracks, traffic islands, and parks, among others—to consider the politics of public space through an ecological lens. Bringing together select archival materials and artworks from the 1970s through the present day, the exhibition looks beyond a history of artists transforming buildings (such as MoMA PS1) to how they have engaged the spaces in between, turning negative spaces into sites for common life: gardens, installations, performances, and gatherings.

Beginning in the 1970s, at a moment when New York City faced a severe fiscal crisis, grassroots groups across New York City began converting lots into community gardens. This coincided with artists’ efforts to think beyond the confines of the studio, gallery, and museum as sites for their work. At certain moments, these histories intertwined: artists made work in conversation with, and sometimes directly joining, community efforts to rethink the cityscape, recovering space towards creative, communal, and ecological ends. By repurposing liminal and overlooked sites, these groups and artists ask us to rethink how life—human and non-human—can grow in a city where space has become increasingly scarce and nature progressively imperiled.

Dates

June 2, 2022–January 16, 2023

Location

MoMA PS1

Credit

Life Between Buildings is organized by Jody Graf, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1.

Sponsors

Allianz is proud to support a series of programs at The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 that share new visions for a more sustainable future.

Life Between Buildings is made possible with lead support from the Contemporary Arts Council of the Museum of Modern Art, with additional support provided by Jane and John Comfort.

Artists

Tom Burr

b. 1963

Mel Chin

b. 1951

Danielle De Jesus

b. 1987

Niloufar Emamifar

Becky Howland

b. 1951

David L. Johnson

b. 1993

Gordon Matta-Clark

b. 1943, d. 1978

Margaret Morton

b. 1948, d. 2020

Aki Onda

b. 1967

Poncili Creación

est. 2012

POOL (Performance On One Leg)

est. 1981

Matthew Schrader

b. 1984

jackie sumell

b. 1973

The Lower Eastside Girls Club

est. 1996

Cecilia Vicuña

b. 1948

Installation Views

A corner gallery with a long, short, pedestal in the center of the floor with found industrial objects on it. Groups of building artwork adorn the walls behind it.
A gallery space with industrial looking objects on top of a long pedestal and long black and white artwork in the background.
A tray of color and black & white photographs, writings, and sketches. All portraying buildings or people in pools. The word “Pool” is repeated throughout.
A white and grey walled gallery space with two TV’s on the center wall, vintage images on the left wall, and a floor plan on the right wall.
A 1970's vibe illustration of a blue mushroom-like dome building in a forest near a body of water with a bus of emotive people pulling up to the dome on a dirt road.
A gallery space with two wooden pedestals of green forest dioramas in the foreground and artwork scattered on a wall in the background.
A brightly lit gallery space with wooden display boxes of green forest dioramas. Behind the dioramas, images are scattered on a wall.
Two paintings, both created on dollar bills. One is of people sitting outside and the other is of two men in "flushing gardens" surrounded by the Puerto Rican flags.
A series of uniform framed images; 3 sets of two rows, 3 images per each row. The images are square, greyscale photographs of the urban gardens/spaces.
Detail of a green, park-scene, diarama inside of a glass box. Behind, images are scattered on the walls.
An indoor fence with a monitor of a small bird on the ground in a urban looking environment mounted on it. The fence is in a stairwell.
A knome-like, red, yellow, and blue sculpture sits on a wall against a cloudy sky. The sculpture has spiked hair like the sun and is holding a smaller red sculpture.
A pair of small, faded, pen drawn illustrations in dark wooden frames. One is square and the other is rectangular.
A knome-like baby pink & blue sculpture sits on a wall against large building. The sculpture has its arms raised to the sky.

Installation view of Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of archival materials related to performances by POOL (Performance on One Leg) (1982-83) in Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Aki Onda, Silence Prevails: Lower East Side Community Gardens During the Pandemic (2020/2022) in Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of archival materials included in Aki Onda, Silence Prevails: Lower East Side Community Gardens During the Pandemic (2020/2022), in Life Between Buildings

Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Danielle De Jesus, Capicu (2022), and Jose and Gina (2022), in Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of photographs by Margaret Morton from the series Transitory Gardens, Uprooted Lives (1989-1993) in Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Tom Burr, A Ramble in Central Park (one) (1992) (foreground), and Matthew Schrader, Ensemble (2018-2022) (background), in Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of David L. Johnson, Warbler (2019), in Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Poncili Creación, Dwellers (2022), in Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Mel Chin, Garden Where the Wild Grass Obscures the True Pearl (1987) and Origin and Obscurity Revealed and Aligned (1987) in Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Poncili Creación, Dwellers (2022), in Life Between Buildings

 Photo credit: Steven Paneccasio

Selected Works

Serpent like tufts of grass tied with orange emerge from a sidewalk just before an intersection of vintage cars.

1 / 9

Becky Howland. Tied Grass. 1977. Site-specific installation on traffic island bounded by Franklin Street, Varick Street, and West Broadway. Digital c-print. Courtesy the artist.
A vintage group photograph in front of a luminous geometric dome. Some are squatting in the front holding flyers that read "DOME LAND!" in bright yellow.

2 / 9

Photograph of CHARAS with geodesic dome at Bowery Houston Community Farm and Garden (currently known as Liz Christy Community Garden), c. 1975. Courtesy William Brunson.
A small diorama of a forest sits inside of a glass box on top of a wooden pedastal.

3 / 9

Tom Burr. A Ramble in Central Park (two). 1992. Wood, model building materials, and plexiglass. 22 x 22 x 25 3/8 in (56 x 56 x 65.4 cm). Courtesy the artist and Bortolami, New York.
A black & white image of a rundown garden with a fence in the foreground, upside down “Police Line” barrier in the midground, and trucks and buildings in the background.

4 / 9

Margaret Morton. Eighth Street community garden. 1989-1993. Gelatin silver print. Paper: 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm) Image: 7 1/2 × 7 1/2 in. (19.1 × 19.1 cm). Courtesy the Estate of Margaret Morton.
Black charcoal lines emenate like rays of sun from a patch of grass growing out of square brick cracks. The photograph is black & white.

5 / 9

Cecilia Vicuña. Detail, Sidewalk Forests. 1981 (printed 2022). Black and white photograph. Site specific performance installation by Cecilia Vicuña. Courtesy the Artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London. ©️ Cecilia Vicuña, 1981.

 Photo credit: Cesar Paternosto
A painting on three one-dollar bills depicting people enjoying a nice day surrounded by trees. One is drinking a beer, the other playing a game, and another embroidering.

6 / 9

Danielle De Jesus. Capicu. 2022. Acrylic on U.S. currency. 7 13/16 x 6 1/8" (19.9 x 15.6 cm). Courtesy the artist and Calder, New York.
A close up image of a stone textured paper with a silver plaque with the engraving "PROPERTY OF 140 BROADWAY EXTENDS 4 inches NORTH OF CURB LINE."

7 / 9

David L. Johnson. Adverse Possessions. 2022-ongoing. Removed property plaques. Dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist.

A long, thin, horizontal artwork of a sidewalk, created by multiple small black & white images. Under, an artwork with maps and construction plans.

8 / 9

Gordon Matta-Clark. Reality Properties: Fake Estates, "Jamaica Curb," Block 10142, Lot 15. 1974. Collaged silver gelatin prints, deed, silver gelatin print, and three maps. Framed Collage: 12 1/4 x 116 1/2 x 1 1/2" (31.1 x 295.9 x 3.8 cm). Framed Documents: 27 1/2 x 33 1/2" (69.9 x 85.1 cm). Courtesy The Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark and David Zwirner.
A long, thin, vertical artwork. It is of a plank of wood painted black with original wood grain peeking through and rough cuts on the top and bottom.

9 / 9

Niloufar Emamifar. Ocean Avenue. 2022. Wood, paint, dirt.

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