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

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

Credits

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

Sponsors

Life Between Buildings is made possible by Allianz, MoMA’s partner for design and innovation.

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

Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Life Between Buildings

Steven Paneccasio

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

Steven Paneccasio

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

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

Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Life Between Buildings

Steven Paneccasio

Installation view of Life Between Buildings

Steven Paneccasio

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

Steven Paneccasio

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

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

Steven Paneccasio

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

Steven Paneccasio

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

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

Steven Paneccasio

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

Steven Paneccasio