Passing Under in the Name of Art — Whitney May

On one of the first blus­tery days this fall, the 10th annual Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Fes­ti­val kicked off in Brook­lyn with some seri­ous atten­dance (the streets were dif­fi­cult to maneu­ver at most points within the 30 par­tic­i­pat­ing blocks) and some even more seri­ous show­ings of the area’s highly diverse artis­tic pro­duc­tions. Whether the art here came in the form of a video pro­jec­tion, an open stu­dio visit, a gallery exhibit or a decked-out char­ac­ter on stilts man­ning a street cor­ner, the fes­ti­val couldn’t have been more ener­getic or more eclec­tic. Although some of the art on show at more offi­cial venues like the D.U.M.B.O. Arts Cen­ter or Smack Mel­lon Gallery was pol­ished to per­fec­tion and put on beau­ti­ful dis­play, much of the expe­ri­ence of this fes­ti­val felt truly, often glo­ri­ously, messy. It was the chaotic under­belly of the visual artist’s process that shone most brightly here. With the open artists’ stu­dios in par­tic­u­lar, liv­ing spaces, art in progress and even some well-used toi­let seats were laid bare or dec­o­rated until pre­sentable in an effort to open up all for pub­lic display.

Down Under Man­hat­tan Bridge Over­pass is an artist’s com­mu­nity that was estab­lished in the 70s as a response to the pric­ing out of artists on Man­hat­tan, specif­i­cally those in the SoHo area. Today, DUMBO is one of the more desired res­i­den­tial loca­tions in all of New York City, but con­tin­ues in its role as an art lover and artist’s haven thanks to each of the art gal­leries pop­ping up here year after year and, even more impor­tantly, because of all that stu­dio loft space. Luck­ily for those who can’t afford rent in such a sought after locale, there’s the oppor­tu­nity to get a first-hand glimpse inside of the DUMBO artists’ space with this annual fes­ti­val. At open doors like those at the unti­tled 57 Jay Street, 1A this year, a dark, unkempt liv­ing space became a trea­sure or scav­enger hunt for the art lover, with sight­ings of some under­stated but qual­ity exper­i­men­tal works of art as the pay-off. If the sometimes-provocative sex­ual con­tent adorn­ing the walls offended the vis­i­tors, too bad—this just hap­pens to be a liv­ing space as well, and the hip­ster artist ten­ants make their own rules.

Across the street, a jagged card­board sculp­ture with flu­o­res­cent detail­ing beck­oned the festival-goer inside of the con­verted fac­tory space of the Tri­an­gle Arts Asso­ci­a­tion. Although artists here were still putting together their por­tion of the group work­shop dis­play on the date of the fes­ti­val, this only fur­ther lent to the unfin­ished, work-in-progress theme char­ac­ter­iz­ing the event as a whole. Here, sound and video instal­la­tions, “Spe­cial Places,” art­fully cut up walls and even some toasted bread mosaic work were every­where to be dis­cov­ered and, for the most part, appre­ci­ated. Some­how how­ever, the mas­sive, par­quet floored room ulti­mately felt a bit lacking—bare-boned despite the nearly 30 artists’ instal­la­tion con­tri­bu­tions. Maybe if this had been another full-on liv­ing space, like the one just across the street, it would have felt warmer, more wel­com­ing and espe­cially more con­vinc­ing as an exam­ple of life and art in progress. Although there were clearly works of merit through­out, these seemed few and far between, and this may well be because of the full 30,000 feet to explore. Then again, maybe not.

In the end how­ever, the most excit­ing aspect of the fes­ti­val was street after street of artists, ven­dors, stilted per­for­mances, and never a closed door. Messy, dis­or­ga­nized, even make-shift art in the mak­ing has rarely looked so good. It was at least never quite so much fun on an oth­er­wise gray and over­cast, chilly fall day spent just under the Man­hat­tan Bridge Overpass.