Mike Kelley (1954-2012). The Mobile Homestead in front of the abandoned Detroit Central Train Station, 2010. © Mike Kelley. Photograph by Corine Vermuelen

For this year’s biennial the Whitney Museum is presenting a round-up of the usual suspects, with works by Elaine Reichek, Richard Hawkins, Charles Atlas, peppered with some lesser known emerging artists, and homages to recently dead ones like George Kuchar and Mike Kelley.

The Whitney is also presenting a great array of film and videos, music, ongoing live performances, with films by George Kuchar, Thom Anderson, Wu Tsang, Kelly Reichardt, (Wendy and Lucy), and a specially commissioned film by Werner Herzog. The more interesting departure is a floor dedicated to performance artists, which promises to be at least more moving than the majority of static works on display.

A Georgia Sagri performance at the Whitney Biennial 2012

Of the performances scheduled to take place, is a four-week residency by Modern Dance Club – a dance troupe commissioned by British choreographer Michael Clark. Clark, who radically expanded the role of male dancers from being mere props for pirouetting ballerinas – to exploring gender-defying personas, has famously collaborated on costumes with Leigh Bowery, Vivienne Westwood, BodyMap, and Sarah Lucas. Clark’s W-H-O’S Z-O-O will be performed by both professionals and non-dancers.

Wu Tsang (b. 1982), Production still from WILDNESS, 2012 (in progress). High-definition video, color, sound. © Wu Tsang; courtesy the artist

Sam Lewitt (b. 1981), Untitled (material for Fluid Employment), 2012. Digital photograph, dimensions variable. © Sam Lewitt; courtesy the artist and Miguel Abreu Gallery

The Whitney Museum readying its floor space for performances.

Rendering of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s new building in downtown Manhattan, from the corner of Gansevoort and Washington Streets facing West towards 10th Avenue

In the near future, the Whitney is threatening to unleash its new downtown quarters at the corner of Gansevoort and Washington Streets, a space designed by Renzo Piano, which hopefully will inject fresh impulses into its curatorial choices.

Michael Clark: In Residence March 14 – April 8 – Performances March 29-April 8
2012 Whitney Biennial will be on view from March 1 to May 27, 2012

Nick Knight, Self Portrait (2006)

By Kiša Lala

For its 30th anniversary this August, the now venerable, i-D magazine, has just released three birthday editions shot by photographer Nick Knight. The collectible issues with staggered release dates are titled Then (Pre-Fall), Now (Fall) and Next (Winter) with Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Lady Gaga as cover stars.

Kate Moss, Lady Gaga and Naomi Campbell on the cover of id magazine, 30th-Anniversary

Photographer Nick Knight has been working with i-D since the early years, and the portrait project is one he initiated for i-D’s 5th birthday. In fact, one might say i-D’s look had once been synonymous with Knight’s evolutionary photography in collaboration with the stylist Simon Foxton. Knight’s need to perfect and surpass his previous accomplishments is in keeping with i-D’s continued youthful innovative explorations for over 300 issues.

Lady Gaga by Nick Knight for iD magazine, 2010

Knight also contributed to the i-Dentity series for i-D’s all grown up, 25th anniversary celebrations. The new series of black and white portraits are part of more than 200 images that were shot over a three week period last December at the ShowStudio exhibition at Somerset House, the location most recently used for British Fashion Week.  Knight also shot September’s cover image of Lady Gaga for Vanity Fair.

One of the more intimate portraits of issue #308 is of Vivienne Westwood with her husband Andreas Kronthaler. In an interview Westwood discusses her working relationship with him, “We can’t start the collection together because what I suggest wouldn’t be right. We start separately and then come together,” she elaborates.

Here’s Nick Knight shooting Vivienne Westwood for the anniversary issue: