The Armory Show Wrap Up! by Jasmine Bager for @oasismag

Arab Dolls by Carlo Massoud

All sorts of art lovers escaped the NYC cold and into The Armory this weekend; from the chatty, opinionated critics with flamboyant outfits to the contemplative spectators who nearly blended-in with the walls. Piers 92 and 94 were both platforms in which visitors enjoyed a marathon of art as they navigated the labyrinth of the space. A symposium, with various talks on different topics took place—even a demonstration. The sun has come out and the snow has started to melt. 

The Armory Show came to a close, but there's still time to experience the show. This video captures what it feels like to walk through this year’s show.

If you get a chance to visit today, be sure to check out Lawrence Abu Hamdan's work. He is the 2015 Commissioned Artist for the show and created such an interest from the NY art community: http://www.thearmoryshow.com/artist_commission/2015_Abu_Hamdan.html.

Driving to Creativity:

The Art Jameel and Edge of Arabia collaboration includes CULTURUNNERS—a seriously teched-out RV, which will physically bring local and international artists, from the Middle East and other places, closer together. The moving studio encourages collaboration and will drive through Little Syria, Little Egypt and Harlem, in NYC, which are areas with historic ties to Arab communities. After the show ends tonight, the RV will move on to other cities and states for the next several months, using technologies to map stories from the Middle East. Films directed by Husam Al-Sayed, co-founder of Telfaz 11 with scores by SALAR (a performance artist), will play during the road trip. At this time, 12 artists are in residence.

Saudi Arabia’s UN ambassador Abdullah Al-Mouallami visited the newly painted 1992 all-American RV, currently parked outside The Armory Show doors. The black vehicle with white lettering is mobile, and aims to transport and transform art and artists throughout the country. Here’s a video on CULTURUNNERS’ RV transformation, done at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Bosnian artist and architectural historian Azra Aksamija, who is also an assistant professor at MIT’s Art, Culture and Technology Program, is literally weaving the East with the West. She used pieces of fabric, collected from both the Middle East and the United States and connected them to create a dozen individual letterman jackets with Arabic letterings. Each textile can be worn alone or snap and zip to each other, to create a large canopy. The project, aptly called: Yarn-dez-vouz, 2015 is a hybrid of the words “yarn” and “rendezvous.”

“The RV will move across borders and cultures; visiting MENA communities in NYC and globally, mapped with creative use of technology. The textile jackets deconstruct identity—purposely—to reconstruct,” Aksamija told us.

Here’s a video explaining the process:

For more information, visit: http://culturunners.com