MiamiNights - Miami Beach and Downtown Miami Life and Entertainment � ART BASEL PARTY GUIDE
The title says it all. After last night's free Peaches show on the beach, I didn't think it could get any better, but a free Supreme Beings of Liesure show in the Design District may really hit the spot after gallery hopping Saturday night.
We hit the show last night after fighting traffic more than usual and almost getting hit by a cop who pulled part way into a parking garage, then started to back up inexplicably. After I calmed down and found parking, we went to the We'll Make a Lover Out of You show, mentioned previously. It was phenomenal. The Colin Christian pieces were much larger scale than I realized from the web shots. The paintings were all hung on walls with really cool graphic design print looking pastel backgrounds to hold them together. Only a few pieces per artist, but absolutely worth the traffic trauma. Part of the reason we went there first was to pick up our reserved tickets for "Matthew Barney: No Restraint" a documentary about Barney's latest collaboration with wife Bjork. Unfortunately our tickets were not there. Not sure if we misunderstood or if the whole thing's going to be sketchy. Hopefully we'll get into the show Saturday.
After the WMALOOY show, we headed toward the beach and the Art Positions containers. Along the way we saw several art events spilling out of various hotel lobbies, passing a fantastic balloon costume/sculpture girl, and several video projections. There was also a truck driving around with video art projected from the inside to the outer sides of it. The Art Positions containers were, jam packed with hipsters, euros, and rich people and not much in the way of interesting art IMNSHO. The containers themselves are shipping containers placed near the beach to create a gallery hop without galleries. There was some performance art around the area and a bar/snack area in the middle. The container that stood out most to me was the only one to make a real effort to transform the space, by making some type of walls that curved and angled with built in viewing ports for small acrylic sculptures. Unfortunately they were having technical difficulties with some of the lighting in the ports and the unintended effect of their transformation was insulation and a lot of heat. We did enjoy the most posh port-o-let's ever with faux marble and topiaries.
We hit the beach early to rest our feet and get away from the crowd. Peaches and her krewe started from atop a lifeguard stand with toy lightsabers and masks marching to the stage. They must have done a good job sneaking up there, or went really early because we were sitting nearby for a half hour before the show started and there was no commotion to indicate their presence. It just looked like some fans had staked out some high ground early to see the show. The show was a tight 1 hour electro rock set. The crowd was a little wierd. I'm not sure if there were too many who didn't know Peaches, or there was too much space on the beach, or it was too early and people hadn't had enough time to drink up, but the energy wasn't what I'd expect. I think Peaches went to Shake Your Dicks Shake Your Tits a little too early in the set and the crowd just wasn't ready. We made our way pretty close and started to get into some good dancing, but not quite the 3am show in New Orleans of 2 years ago, where it felt like at any moment an orgy was about to erupt. She ended the show with some schtick about a naked guy swimming through a boring rich people's art party the night before and wanting to honor the surprize swimmer with a jump in the ocean. Peaches and the Herms raced off stage to the ocean and much of the crowd followed, but noone got naked and jumped in. Few got in past their knees. It was early, and I don't think you can get into the clubs with wet clothes.
We were good and headed straight home so we could work today and see more this weekend. All in all, a pretty damn fine Wednesday evening.
