Voice Over  is a form of  art criticism and poetry. The first two were Voice Over-Whitney Biennial and Voice Over-Dieter Roth.  Voice Over  are the overheard comments of the people in those spaces.  I write down their comments as I look at the work.  VO  is  published in  AC and  NY Arts magazine. 

 

Voice Over—Andy Goldsworthy on the Roof, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

This is what you see on the roof………………………….. .…………………………………. Wow! Look at this!  The fog,  great atmospherics…………… …………………..I pressed it accidentally………………….. ………………….What is this suppose to be?........................  ………………….. Big smile, Big smile. …………Mike! Get off it!.......... Let’s take a picture. What is it?................................ I want a family picture here. ……………..You want to take a picture? ………I didn’t hear the clicking sound. You push down and then push down again……………………………………………….…………..He kind of balances things. Ok. —Holly Crawford

 

 

 

 

Voice Over—Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Gates, Central Park, New York, The Metropolitan Art Museum.

 

Do  you …     …     …

think                                  you         …

can             

                  wait   …           

 …    …        

…    I’m

not   quite  getting        it,

    but  anyway

…            …         …

…            …         …

…             I

think         it’s

…     …     art

       …             (touch)

      …                             there’s

something   …

                          haunting      …

about       

    it.—HC

 

 

 

 

Voice Over—Modigliani, Beyond the Myth, The Jewish Museum.

 

We’re moving pretty slowly ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….. Are we waiting? We could go and come back in 15 minutes.…  Why not?................ .................... …………….It’s a special exhibit. …Look a legal parking space. Do you want to move the car?................ There’s….. a…………………. .……line…………………….. inside…………………………. .………………………………. I’m waiting in line right now at the Jewish Museum. The Jewish Museum……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Are you in line? …………………………………………………………………..This is one of his sculptures. You can see the African influence. Did he go to Africa? No…..…..Some of these are famous. He had…the reclining woman. Some of this stuff doesn’t have his style. ……………… What number is this? It’s a little confusing. Didn’t Spinoza convert in the end? They’re not telling saying what the reason is? Why is this painting hanging upside down?................................... She was a smart lady. She had a lot of money……………………..…. ……………………………………...I like the way he texturizes the skin. …The legs over here with the hair on them……….. Do you want to see something else? –HC

 

 

 

Voice Over—Childe Hassam, The Metropolitan Art Museum

 

…..I’m sure we’ve been there. It seems like…but, that doesn’t look like…but it could be…I like that one. …Just look at the green outside that window.   … Turn that thing off. Honey, turn it off……he was married to…………………….. ……………the American flag………………………………. –HC

 

 

 

Voice Over—Get Off: Exploring  the Pleasure Principle, The Museum of Sex.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………..(point)…

it…um…………………………

……..(whisper)……………………………………………….…..(whisper)…………………………………………………………..(whisper, whisper) .………(point)………. hee-hee………………………. ………………………………..

…………………………………………….do you want to….—HC

 

 

 

Voice Over—Indexing the World, The Metropolitan Art Museum.

…

…

…

…

It’s

…

Spring

…

Street

…

…

…

…

Düssuldorf

…

…

ah….—HC

 

 

 

 

 

Voice Over—PPOW, Von Lintel Gallery, Pink Blossoms, and Gallery Henoch.

 

There’s

nothing

          upstairs. –HC

 

Voice Over—Rudolf Stingel, Plan B, Grand Central Terminal-Vanderbilt Hall.

 

We’re on the Metro North train...that’s ...

Right…………………………..

………………………………..

Shh…shh………………………………………….funny…….…it’s gorgeous…high traffic….you’d think that it would just disappear…disintegrate………………………………………..well, I guess it was designed by him…..White Plains…the carpet is the exhibition…or really….the fabric…art?...whether it’s art or not I just generally like it………………………………..this is the installation….I’m walking on it?........some times they have events  in the area………………………………….…………………27,000 square feet of carpet ……...using…..emphasizes…I don’t ….what the hell is he talking about. It’s carpet, broadloom carpet.  Somebody got conned. Wonder what he got paid? A rose, is a rose is a rose. So this is what 27,000 square feet looks like. It looks like a 1940s living room …………………………..what is the pattern, exactly? That goes to that, that goes to that and there are strips and that goes to.....—HC

 

 

Voice Over—Group Exhibit, Lemons Contemporary.

 

……We could……………….. you just found the right spots………..this could be….. ……..I love it………………..

………I am just starting to….. relax………………….there is another  thing that just came to mind.—HC

 

 

 

 

Voice Over—Group Show, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery.

 

This is the summer group show of the gallery artists…r-i-g-h-t, right, right. –HC

 

 

 

 

Voice Over—Seismic Disturbance, Lohin Geduld Gallery.

 

Do you know what it means?

Or what he thinks about? Anything else here?

Is he an old guy?

Oh……………………………………………………………

I like the middle one.

I think they should be separate paintings.

…

I guess they’re things that have happened

all in the same space. –HC

 

 

 

 

Voice Over—Counter Culture, Flux Factory, Secret Places, 2004, Bowery Martial Arts, New Museum.

 

Hi.

…hi, ………I’m here….

You need the password?

……The password?...um…here it is…you need to say it…

          ..  . ‘gert frobe’…

       what’s the password?.........

..How does this thing open?

...Do you have a butterfly knife?  No..—HC

 

 

 

 

 

Voice Over—Lot-EK:Mobile Dwelling Unit, Whitney Museum.

 

[empty]

 

 

 

 

Voice Over—Ana Mendieta: Earth Body Sculpture and Performance, 1972-1985, Whitney Museum.

 

…she died….

  (SILENCE)

 

Did you like the show?—HC

 

 

 

 

Voice Over—Ed Ruscha and Photography, Whitney Museum.

 

…that’s the impression I got…in that sense…I  tried to do that years ago…before the big buildings……I guess… thought this was a whole new way of looking at the world…um.—HC

 

 

 

Voice Over—Cotton Puffs, Q-tips, Smoke and Mirrors, The Drawings of Ed Ruscha, Whitney Museum.

 

collection, Los Angeles,  interesting, time, words, drew,  gas stations,  if,  I,  choose, wonder, surface tension, drool, better,  grapes, drool,  better, water, sky and water, more sophisticated, kooks, kooks, see, think,  like, love, kind of cool,  end.—HC

 

 

Voice Over—Agnes Martin’s Early Paintings 1957-67, Dia:Beacon.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________rooms_______ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________ _______ _________________________ ____________________________________________________ ________________ __________________ paintings ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________imagine ___ _________________________________________________ control______________________________________________ _________mathematical _________________________ _______________________ wonderful_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________—HC  

 

  

Voice Over—Franz West, Recent Sculpture, Lincoln Center & Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Public Art Fund

 

touch it

(bang, bang)

I touched it

(bang)

look,  look, look

(bang)

(touch)

(bang)

(lie)

(lean)…(sit)…(sit)

(bang, bang, bang,  ratty tap-tap-tap)

(touch)

(climb)… (stand) … (touch)

(sit)…(photo)

(touch)

(touch)

         (touch)--HC

 

 

 

 

Holly Crawford,  July 2004