I don’t think it was just rock star Patti Smith and her art work (about which she was refreshingly modest) that brought out the crowds at the ICA opening Thursday (left)–at least I like to think it was Brit video artist Gillian Waring and local art hero Virgil Marti.
The turnout, which included art lovers young and old, overran the spaces and gave the opening some cosmopolitan sizzle.
Same for the LURE, or Lighting for Urban Rooftop Environments, screening of artist-created screen savers (in conjunction with the Fabric Workshop‘s “Surface Tension” video show) on the rooftop of a Parkway parking garage at 12th and Filbert yesterday. (LURE is a project of Aaron Igler working with other artists.) You had to know it was happening, find the garage entrance, and then go up to the garage roof. People stretched out or sat on the concrete (right); they lounged against the barrier wall. The big kudos went to Mika Tajima’s screensaver, which even had audio effects, but you can check all the screensavers yourself by downloading them from the LURE site.
Sooo cool. So un-Philadelphia. I say something’s happening here.
