By Michelle Cheung
Never Can Say Goodbye Opening Night Image credit: Ace Brown
Only three years ago, the four-story Tower Records on the southwest corner of East 4th Street and Broadway shut off its music, closed its doors, and surrendered to the changing musical times. As a New York University student back then who frequented this musical institution, I witnessed both its harmonious (and head-banging) glory and its sad demise. If you watch the coming of age films High Fidelity and Empire Records, you might remember that the record store experience was a vital part of youth culture. Now, the experience is more of a novelty, a relic of a not so distant past. Going to a record store today almost feels like visiting a historical reenactment. So when I stepped inside Tower Records last week for No Longer Empty’s latest exhibition Never Can Say Goodbye, I felt invigorated as if someone had granted me a wish to relive (if only for a few minutes) a blissful memory.
Ryan Brennan "Bling Box Orchestra"
Never Can Say Goodbye is a multimedia exhibition by the six-month-old arts non-profit No Longer Empty (NLE), who repurposes empty storefronts as galleries. Offered to show at the old Tower Records property, NLE’s curators didn’t even think twice about dedicating the exhibition to the defunct record store. Music and records are, undoubtedly, at the heart of the show. Once you enter the exhibition, Ryan Brennan’s nostalgic installation, with a set of choreographically lit boom boxes blasting hip-hop hits like “Just a Friend” and “Where It’s At,” warps you back into the thriving days of record stores. After that, there’s no turning back. You are hooked visually and aurally in all directions: there’s Ted Riederer’s installation, Never Records, a fantasy recreation of Tower Records “complete with record bins, album covers, music posters, and a performance stage;” there’s Richard Garet’s Aleatoric Score: The Sonic Translation, another multimedia installation, which includes an audio soundtrack playing in the background; there’s Invader’s Rubik’s Cube reconstructions of classic record covers.
I sat down with Manon Slome, co-founder, curator, and director of No Longer Empty, on the steps of the exhibit to learn more about the show and her organization.
SPREAD ArtCulture: How did you conceive the idea for the show?
Manon Slome: Well, we were offered the space and No Longer Empty, as you know, are exhibitions on vacated storefronts in the city and each of the exhibition is site-specific, meaning we respond to the former use of the space and the history of the area. All of these things, we take into account when we are curating the show. When we were given this space, it was obvious. There is nothing else you can talk about but the music in Tower Records.
SAC: Now, how long did you take to execute this because it’s a pretty intricate exhibition? It’s a massive show in the sense that there are so many components to it, from the installations to panels to performance.
MS: We did this in a month because when we get a space it’s not like in a museum where you have a year to plan a show. They want to give you the space but they want you in and out because they feel that it’s going to be let. If you tell them we’re going to be ready in three months, they are not interested because, from their point of view, the space is going to be rented out in a few months. We’ve done it in as short as two weeks but this one we have a month.
Invader "Rubik Iron Maiden" Courtesy of Jonathan Levine Gallery
SAC: In your previous life, you were the Chief Curator of the Chelsea Art Museum as well as a curator at the Guggenheim Museum. How has your experience working at NLE been different?
MS: The freedom is amazing obviously because there’s no approval process. I get the space, I do the show, and that’s great. I’ve tried to make the organization as none hierarchal as possible by bringing people in, matching their interest with their volunteer work, and training people so there is a really wonderful element of that. Also, a brilliant joy is the connection with the public that I didn’t have in the museum. In the museum, you basically did your show. You are there in the opening and then you are in your office. You didn’t meet the public. We really are making a very concentrated effort to reach out to the communities that we are involved in by inviting them to the exhibition, panel discussions, children’s programs, and workshops. I really feel, both as a curator and as a parent, if these kind of experiences are not on the menu for everybody, then they don’t get to art. There is a certain kind of population that goes to galleries and museums and, while we get those, we also get the rest of the people who have read or heard about it or have seen it in passing. It’s a very very different experience with a different audience and I’m loving that.
SAC: Would you say that it’s a bit more fulfilling to do this?
MS: Yes, I really think it is. The wonderful thing as a curator is I do a lot of studio visits and when I see work I can use it almost immediately. I see it and then I’m working with that artist. I also like it as a curator because of the kind of creativity and space we are able to give to the artist. We don’t have to think about the show either. We don’t have to think, if for a gallery, if it would sell or, if it’s in a museum, it’s just a different set of criteria. Here, they are really free to be as explicit, as creative as they want to be. As you can see, many of the pieces are site-specific for the show and made specifically for the show. The only thing that I won’t change from being in a museum to here is quality of art and I think that has been one of the successes of No Longer Empty because, even though we are, in many ways, grassroots, the quality of what we show is very high level.
SAC: How have you discovered the artists for the show? For one month, that’s a lot of artists to sieve through.
MS: Collectively we have many years of experience in the field. We know a lot of artists and we know a lot of people. When we say what we are doing, they will say you have to see so and so. For example, Ted Reiderer, who did the Never Records, he was introduced to me by a curator, Dan Cameron. We’ve worked with Dan before and, in the future, he will be doing a project with No Longer Empty so Ted was an amazing discovery through him. Again, it’s a very exciting thing that I am constantly meeting new artists as I prepare for shows.
SAC: What are artists most excited about when they contribute to No Longer Empty?
MS: They like the democratic nature of the process and that they are given almost free reign. As I explained to them, I really think about each piece but I think about the show as a whole, too. They really like the freedom to be creative that we give them and they are unbelievably generous in their support. Ted, for example, has worked nonstop to bring this installation about for his piece. And it’s just the experience again and again that people are working really hard. They are happy; they like the atmosphere of working; it’s just a nice atmosphere. I’m passionate about creating a great working atmosphere.
Meredyth Sparks "Space Oddity" and "Roxy"
SAC: On your organization, No Longer Empty, I assume that it’s a response to the whole economic recession. When the economy recovers where do you think NLE will go?
MS: It’s very interesting. Another journalist said to me earlier, when they wanted to carry our story from our first show, the editor said, “Oh, they will be gone in two months.” Six months later we are stronger than ever. I don’t think our existence is dependent on a poor economy because there is always going to be empty spaces. We will evolve and change in different ways but I think the concept—providing an alternative way of showing and presenting art, the public outreach, and accessibility—that’s here to stay. You know, it’s interesting. Tower Records is in demise because of change in technology. People are downloading rather than buying discs and I think that, overall, there is a huge societal shift from the way institutions work. It’s not viable anymore. We are able to be this nomadic organization in terms of the spaces we take and it’s creating a new paradigm for public art. It’s free, it’s accessible to the public. Artists like that. Many curators have approached us. Volunteers like it. So, I think, it’s a paradigm that’s here to stay.
SAC: It’s something very very positive that has come out of something negative.
MS: I have to say it’s a little bit Obama inspired, this whole thing. I think the notion of his campaign slogan, “Yes We Can,” really infected me at the beginning of starting this. With passion, with the will to work, and good will, you really can do almost anything.
SAC: I love your enthusiasm and positivity. How has the community responded? How have businesses responded?
MS: Very well because one of the negatives of empty spaces is that the properties look very depressed. This place was really quite a mess when we came in, as many places were. They haven’t been inhabited for years. Instead of being empty, they are lively, they are full of creativity, and, as one realtor said to me, an advert could never bring in as many people. So they like it. It shows the potential of the buildings and, secondly, the local merchants around love it because hundreds and hundreds of people come in everyday to our shows and so they use the coffee shops, the pharmacy across the road. It enlivens the entire street to have us here.
SAC: What can we look forward to in the future?
MS: We’ve been invited by The Armory Show to do family programming, which we will be doing a day in SoHo and a day in the Lower East Side. We are also doing a panel discussion on the relationship between art and real estate. We’ve got several offers to great spaces, one in Harlem and one in a former cinema. We haven’t gotten a contract signed yet so I don’t want to name the names. A fairly large public project has approached us as well.
SAC: Are you keeping NLE in New York or would you like to expand it to other cities or even countries?
MS: I would love to. We’ve had so many inquiries and we’ve also been invited to travel on some of our shows . Out of this show, what I would love more than anything is, for whomever owns the Tower Records in L.A. or Mexico to phone and say, “Hey, we’d like you to bring the show to that space.” That would be an amazing thing.
Paul Villinski "Diaspora" Courtesy of Morgan Lehman Gallery. Image credit: Ace Brown
No Longer Empty’s Never Can Say Goodbye is open to to the public from January 16 to February 13, on Wednesdays to Sundays. To capture the whole experience of being in a record store, Never Can Say Goodbye will also host performances by various artists throughout its opening. A panel will also be held on Tuesday January 26th to discuss art, music, and technology. For more details about No Longer Empty, the current exhibit, and future events, visit their website.
