recommended By Darren Bader
As part of the Greater New York performance series, every Saturday in June a selection of meet-up groups I invited from meetup.com, a social networking site, congregated on the grounds of PS1 at 2pm.
“Meetup's mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.” -meetup.com mission statement
Schedule of MeetUps:
JUNE 5, 2010:
Treasure Hunting and Metal Detecting Group
HEAVY METAL HEADBANGERS GROUP
New York Hypnosis - NLP Sleepwalkers Groups
New York Jump!
Brooklyn Baby Mamas
Singles/Couples Fun-ication: Sensuality and Kink?!
JUNE 12, 2010:
Swing Goth (NYC) - Partner Dancing w/ a Subtle Twinge
Meet Intellectual and Rational People Your Age! (20 - 30)
NYCDSG: The New York City Depression Support Group
Happiness Club NY
The New York Skeptics Meetup Group
Seance in The City
JUNE 19, 2010:
T.I.N.A, The International Narcissistic Association
New York area single, gay dads
Insects Are Food
Greater New York City Tea Party
Functional Alcoholics
The Club No One Wants To Belong To
JUNE 26, 2010:
Coping With Job Loss
Manhattan Millionaires Group
NYC PUNK
The New York BBW Cougars of Color and Cubs Meetup Group
For the Luv of Dreads!
Free Yourself from Self Doubt & Fear
Individual meetup groups were scheduled to congregate in the courtyard with no formal introduction or conclusion.
The meetups conducted their usual business, which entailed sharing ideas, socializing or viewing the Greater New York show
The schedule was made public to visitors of PS1 so they would be aware of the organized groups in the crowd. In some cases the groups may have a more visually obvious presence (i.e. pug enthusiasts) and in other cases it may be a less obvious group touring the show on their own (i.e. The Classical Liberal and Socialist Philosophy Reading Group). Groups were selected/invited based on their availability, need for meeting space and interest in the project.
Previous performances I have organized in this vein centered on drawing ones attention to ignored elements(people) in galleries and institutions. For Meetup I like to focus on the idea of the “crowd” and exploring the thoughts we have when we watch people knowing there are groups in the crowd.
Meet-up groups are self delineating and I will use their faction names to aknowledge the presence of a “group” in the crowd. As a viewer, I admit we examine people just as much as we examine the art we gather around. It’s the things we have found ways to pretend don’t exist which inspire me, like everyone in the room we are supposedly trying to avoid to see the "work".
In 2008 I gathered 8 gallery assistants from Chelsea and had them all “working”/ “on display” simultaneously at Rivington Arms for my show Dark Pump. One gallery attendant in the front of a room we can glance over, 8 in the room forces one to confront the presence of the woman working in the gallery head on.Other artists have used similar devices of multiple performers with success but I feel do so with a prioritized visceral approach. I am more interested in the social binds that create a group and what affects that has on us in the public space. Living in NYC has also been a huge influence/inspiration on the stress of imposing the idea of a partially invisible group in the crowd. All of which I think becomes a perfect fit for a show centering around artists whose commonality is being from New York.