Dan's Papers - April 4, 2008 - Art Commentary With Marion Wolberg Weiss

There are several surprises this year at the Whitney Biennial, but they are not the kinds one would normally imagine. The first is the inclusion of Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke, a four-hour film that one art critic admitted she couldn't completely see. This critic, on the other hand, saw the whole version on HBO in 2006. Why the movie was included remains a secret, since it certainly is not what we would call a "cutting edge" work like the other films and videos in the show. That Lee is acknowledged at all for his achievement is commendable. However he remains, after all, an extraordinary American filmmaker.

Thus, it must be noted that Lee's movie is passionate in ways that most previous documentaries have not been about Hurricane Katrina. His attention to the importance of family and loss of one's home is particularly noteworthy, considering that these same themes show up in many of Lee's fictional films, including Do the Right Thing and Crooklyn. Additionally, Lee's recurring command of physicality regarding a particular place and setting is outstanding in When the Levees Broke.

"Physicality" is a word that might also aptly describe the Biennial's installations at the Park Avenue Armory. The surprising juxtaposition of the Armory's 1870s architecture and ornate interiors designed by Tiffany and Stanford White with the conceptual art works is the Biennial's real aesthetic achievement.

For example, there's Mario Ybarra's "The Scarface Museum,"complete with memorabilia from the movie, and MK Guth's "Ties of Protection and Safekeeping," where braided fabric and artificial hair are hung from the ceiling. (Viewers are encouraged to answer the question, "What is worth protecting" on the strips of braid and hair.) Texture and material are also highlighted at the Whitney Museum, which should come as no surprise where conceptual art is concerned. Especially appealing to this critic is Mika Rottenberg's video installation where various monitors are encased in a broken-down wooden shack. The viewers become voyeurs as they watch other people in the videos observing farm life.

Of course, films can also celebrate texture and materials, like Javier Tellez' Letter on the Blind about blind men describing an elephant. The depiction of the elephant's skin is particularly mesmerizing; it's as if we were actually touching the animal ourselves.