NEW YORK — Though the booths are lined with photographs and sculpture, what stands out at Pulse New York is the performance art.
On opening day, artist Tim Youd was perched on a seat at L.A.-based gallery Coagula Curatorial reading aloud from Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Capricorn” while transcribing the novel via typewriter. “Look,” said a woman, “it’s performance art.” At Ethan Cohen, South Korean political Pop artist Mina Cheon stole the show dressed in a military uniform as her North Korean alter ego Kim Il Soon, holding two red water pistols and posing in front of a self-portrait. She handed us one of her red guns. “Squirt water not bullets,” she said as we had a faux shootout.
Of the Pulse Projects, Lisa Lozano and Tora Lopez’s live tableau (three women seated in lawn chairs wearing sunglasses) was a tropical reprieve from the fair madness. Franco Mondini-Ruiz, dressed in a tuxedo and striped pants, hawked small, delectable, punny wares at Creative Capital’s booth, like his “Bloomburgers”: little sculptural burgers that sold for “$200 with carbs,” and “$100 without.”