The Miraculous
The Miraculous: New York
81. Queens
By Raphael RubinsteinDuring a residency in Queens in a former public school, a Korean artist trained as a painter finds herself responding in unexpected ways to the space she has been given to work in and the overwhelming sense of cultural and social strangeness she feels in New York.
The Miraculous: New York
82. Fifth Avenue
By Raphael RubinsteinOn September 1, 1966, a Brazilian-Swedish artist who has been living in New York for five years stages a performance on Fifth Avenue that involves himself, his wife and several friends carrying placards bearing enormous headshots of two famous figures, the American comedian Bob Hope and the Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung. In January of that year, Bob Hope’s “Vietnam Christmas Show” had aired on NBC. In May, Mao had launched the Cultural Revolution. As part of the performance, which is also filmed, a radio journalist asks spectators on Fifth Avenue if they are happy
The Miraculous: New York
83. 40 Wooster Street
By Raphael RubinsteinIn a SoHo gallery an artist props three old doors against one of the walls. Each door is painted a different color and each carries different signage. One announces an “Upper West Side Plant Project,” the second something called the ”N.Y. State Bureau of Tropical Conservation” and the third “The Department of Marine Animal Identification of the City of New York (Chinatown Division).”
The Miraculous: New York
84. Bond Street
By Raphael RubinsteinHaving studied at three different art schools, a 24-year-old artist moves to New York where he begins to spend two to three hours a day writing out numbers on graph paper, starting at 1 and aiming for infinity. When ideas for art works come to him he incorporates them into his counting process, either by inserting a drawing into his columns of numbers or by signing his paintings and sculpture not with his name but with whatever number he has reached when he completes them.
The Miraculous: New York
85. A Rooftop in SoHo
By Raphael RubinsteinA British sculptor known for her casts of architectural spaces is invited to create a public artwork in New York City. After traversing the city in search of inspiration, she notices the “weird wooden barrel-like objects” that sit atop many Manhattan buildings.
