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June 22, 2019

No one ever asks why you go to the club—you just go. And when you show up, you don’t need a reason to be there, you just are. There are few questions to be asked, and fewer answers to be found. What is sought here is easily come upon but difficult to define—it is something fleeting, sensual, and universal.

Elsewhere understands the unique architecture of movement within the club as one that is characterized by unexpected opportunities—not only to stumble upon new friends or lovers, or new songs to add to your weekly dj set, but as a place that peculiarly lends itself to an unlikely encounter with art. Why not add a curatorial set of art programming to a nightclub? Not only is it a cheeky sendup of the entire inner mechanics of the art world, with the ever-expanding list of galleries and fairs, but also manages to place an atypical audience in contact with atypical artwork.

No one asks why there’s art in the club—they ask why there isn’t more of it.

office spoke with Molly Surno, the art director for Elsewhere, about the club's noble pursuit of mixing art in with nightly pleasure.

Interview by John Martin Tilley

Tell me about the project.

The in-house art program is called Landscape. A portion of every ticket sale goes into the art fund, so music-goers become patrons of the arts. The program supports both temporary and permanent exhibitions, or “interventions.” Murals, for example, are the more permanent works, and then other works change seasonally. The video residency, for example, in the dancefloor is a seasonal project. So, each season, a different artist takes over the video residency and, again, becomes totally embedded in the experience of dancing in a nightclub. The project space is a kind of gallery-like space that changes every season. Our summer season opens June 11th. The project space will be a tiny movie theater which showcases a wide range of video artists. I’m working with the associate director of Cristin Tierney Gallery, and she created a series of films for a Zaha Hadid building that opened in Chelsea that will be—a version of that will play for the opening of our summer exhibition. And the thing about the openings for the artist, which is June 11th, is it’s actually the only time people can come and explore the building exclusively to see art. There’s no gallery hours. In other words, outside of that time, you would just come to see music and then experience art. There’s only one night a season where you come deliberately and intentionally to experience all of the new installations for the building.

Yeah, it’s like a sneaky art attack.

Absolutely. It’s really meant to kind of transform the building, beautify and enliven the building, and give people, in this case music-goers, an opportunity to interact with art in a very spontaneous and musical way that ruptures the social contract of seeing art in a formal gallery where you kind of pass through and leave. Again, we just walked into the bathroom and saw Madeline Manning’s work, which is the toilet seats. I went to Japan, and I got really inspired, because there is an option every time you use the bathroom to turn on sound for politeness.

Above: 'My Neon Fortune Teller' by Dani B, and 'Eel Sewer' by Zoe Burke.

Wow, I love that.

Right? And then I got really inspired by it and thought like, why not do sound pieces in the bathroom? Why not do, you know, interventions? The bathroom is a great site, because it does also take you out of the regular space for a moment. It’s a private time, so.

Well, and I feel like people are always doing that in bathrooms anyways by like writing on the wall.

Precisely.

Or, like maybe, yeah, people want it to be more fun.

Exactly. Are you familiar with Bread Face?

Above: Bread Face with her piece, 'Water Closet', and '179. Café Standard Breads,' by Bread Face (Install View).

Yeah.

So she’s doing our next video piece. We’re doing a commissioned video. She’ll be essentially on the dancefloor with people. And then, she’s also—I’ll take you—she’s doing an installation in one of the bathroom stalls. So, it’s gonna be quite something.

This is quite the bathroom.

Yeah, so this is the main bathroom. At the very end, you will see these lights, these aquatic lights that can kind of beckon you over there in one of the stalls. She’s gonna kind of take over the stall. There’ll be sound. There’ll be mirrors, and one piece, one bathroom stall essentially will be a Bread Face takeover.

Really? How funny. You could almost commission each stall. It’s kind of like like that Broad City sort of thing where she’s like, ‘I have art on display at the sandwich shop’ or whatever. This is similar because it’s not a gallery.

Yeah, exactly. Right, but the difference is this isn’t commercial—there is no commercial exchange, you know? We’re not selling artwork. It’s not like, ‘Here, call this number or contact this person if you wanna buy.’ These are just, again, ways to experience the building. And I think the architecture just plays such a key role here as you see as we’re moving through. I mean, it’s such a dynamic space.

Above: 'Disco Moss' by gloflo, and 'All Paths Lead Down the Toilet' by Madeline Manning.

It’s fun. If I were here, my first thing would be to familiarize myself with where everything is, and then, in that, you’d be stumbling upon these artworks, so you’d be like, ‘Oh well look at that!’

I think you just said the perfect phrase, which is ‘stumbling upon,’ and that is really how I envision this. I mean, I think of the building as like an exquisite corpse, where each corner, each wall, each section, artists can kind of build upon each other. I mean, we started with this mural and then this work works with digital glitches that we pasted onto this, you know. And then, we just completed this 36-foot mural by ARTBABYGIRL for the opening. She’s one of our artists for the opening. In other words, gloflo is gonna be doing this. All the of art is in conversation with each other and with the building. It allows you to highlight things you may not have even like—’Oh wow, this structure is something that I didn’t notice, and now it’s highlighted.’

Yeah, it seems like it’s also in conversation with Bushwick and Brooklyn. It just seems like the spirit of, you know, that sort of mural-ly just art-everywhere-all-time.

Completely, I mean, and you know, for example, Glori, AKA gloflo. I mean her studio is down the street. She’s from New York. It really is also kind of supporting local artists, and that’s the entire initiative too: emerging artists and really taking a look at and highlighting them.

And what kind of events do they do, musically?

I mean, every single thing that you can possibly imagine.There is just a really playful and kind of performative element to these works, because they exist in a place that’s crowded every night, that’s rambunctious, that’s spirited.

There is just a really playful and kind of performative element to these works, because they exist in a place that’s crowded every night, that’s rambunctious, that’s spirited.

Elsewhere is located in Bushwick, Brooklyn. All images courtesy Elsewhere, photos by Louis Nieto Dickens. Lead image: Film still from '180. Mission Chinese Naan,' by Bread Face.

Art

LIA LIA by Iga Drobisz

Your work often explores intimacy and vulnerability. How do you create a safe and authentic environment for your subjects during a shoot?

The past few months, I’ve been working on two series of photographs: nudes of women in their own apartments and portraits of women before and after giving birth. Both series involve capturing them in deeply personal spaces—bedrooms or nurseries—where they feel at ease.

Shooting in their spaces, in their own beds, plays a crucial role in creating comfort. I choose film and cameras that show them in a way they find beautiful and empowering, emphasizing softness and warmth. It's a stark contrast to modern, hyper-detailed phone cameras that sometimes reveal more than one wants to see.

Your photography has a distinct emotional depth and texture. How do you approach the interplay of light, color, and composition to achieve this?

My process is highly intuitive. I’ve never formally studied photography or apprenticed under anyone—I learned by experimenting and seeing what felt right. It’s about trusting my instincts rather than adhering to rigid rules.

What role do personal experiences or cultural influences play in shaping the stories you tell through your images? Many of your photographs feel deeply narrative.

Growing up, I was surrounded by great cinematography. My grandmother had a TV, but my mom only brought home VHS tapes—films with substance. I think that exposure shaped how I see the world, how I approach subjects, and the narrative depth in my work.

What role does spontaneity play in your shoots? Do you leave room for improvisation, or is everything carefully planned?

To balance spontaneity and structure, I go in with a clear plan and strong direction, but I remain open to surprises. It’s about letting the subject feel like the shoot is about them, not me. That openness often leads to the most unexpected, meaningful moments.

What inspired the shoot with singer LIA LIA? How did it come together?

Collaborating with Ruby and Naomi always takes me out of my comfort zone in the best way. For this shoot, we wanted to transform someone with an iconic face but also someone like Lia—someone with a clear sense of self.

Giving her a completely new look was exciting; it brought an unexpected energy to the set. The approach was playful and experimental. The night before, I had no idea what wigs Ruby would bring or what colors Naomi might choose. It was a beautiful mix of spontaneity and collaboration.

What inspires you the most?

Movies and music are big inspirations for me, as well as the work of other photographers like Carlijn Jacobs, Harley Weir, Rineke Dijkstra, Charlotte Wales, and Nan Goldin.

What emotions or truths are the hardest for you to express through your art, and why?

I don’t think I consciously try to express specific emotions when I work. Instead, I follow what feels right in the moment—what draws me in or excites me that day. It’s less about a deliberate expression and more about letting intuition guide the way.

Art

Luna Luna: Surrealist Spectacle Lands in New York

November 21, 2024

In the 1980s, André Heller, an Austrian artist, singer-songwriter, and former actor, was looking for a new place to showcase his art. He had already taken to gardens, creating a colorful, surrealistic character using 40,000 flowers, and to the skies, organizing a 'fire theatre,' which involved an over-the-top fireworks show complete with steel-frame sculptures set on fire. But he had never tried out a fair.

So began "Luna Luna." Created as the world's first art carnival, "Luna Luna" combined the spectacular with the absurd, showcasing original rides and attractions from rising and already-at-the-top artists in Hamburg. Nearly forty years since its debut, followed by foiled plans for a worldwide tour, breached contracts, and 44 storage containers, the art fair has finally returned, calling New York home after re-debuting last year in Los Angeles.

By Hailey Johnson
Photography by Delvin Claro and Sabrina Sarnitz, courtesy of Luna Luna LLC

On a recent evening in Hudson Yards, a small carousel featured characters in quirky, Twister-like poses and an outstretched dog with seven legs. (Almost a century old, the rides are no longer rideable.) Goofy wooden sculptures were elevated in another corner, some of them cross-eyed or with a horn for a nose. A geodesic dome glowed, with Gregorian chants hovering somewhere above it.

"It's an art experience like no other," Michael Goldberg, Chief Experience Officer of Luna Luna, said recently. "People get to see artists do things they've never done before," he added.

Goldberg, founder of Something Special Studios, a creative agency behind many Nike campaigns, was determined to resurrect “Luna Luna” after reading about it online in 2019. Goldberg shopped for investors, eventually teaming up with DreamCrew, a media company co-owned by the rapper Drake. (Details on the company's investment remain vague; sources have reported that DreamCrew spent over "100 million dollars.") In 2022, an intensive restoration process began, with a team of artists reviving many of the original works, which had remained in boxes in a Texas warehouse for over thirty years. Several had been in pieces. (The team reportedly had to rebuild each work "bolt by bolt.")

That night, at the Shed, fourteen out of the original thirty-five works were on display, including the small carousel (Keith Haring), the goofy sculptures (Kenny Scharf), the neon dome (Salvador Dali), and a towering Ferris wheel decorated in drawings of stick figures, upside crowns, and references to Jim Crow (Basquiat). Missing works are in a "constant state of restoration," Goldberg said. Meanwhile, new attractions are joining the line-up. For the New York show, the Puerto Rican duo Poncilí Creación was commissioned to create "PonciliLand," a blink-and-you-miss-it section where guests "can create fantastical characters out of custom building blocks." Poncili also developed floating characters, inspired by performers who circulated the original “Luna Luna” fairgrounds in 1987. Known as "Lovers," the two characters, large and dreamlike, teetered to one side, mumbling the kind of nervous groans one does before a fall. (They never ended up falling.)

I asked Goldberg if, given that today's culture doesn't quite look or feel the same way as it did in 1987, there was any hesitation in showing some of the original works. On a back wall, a tribute featured Manfred Diex's "Palace of the Wind," a show featuring performers who fart into a microphone; on another, two ornate pedestals held sculptures of spiral poop.

"I don't see any reason why we wouldn't show any of these works," he said. "A lot of the time, art is exclusive and uninviting. The big difference between “Luna Luna” and other art experiences is that it has many sides to it, and things that have a bit of humor and playful energy. "As for "Palace of the Winds,” the decision to keep it was simple: farting is universal. He went on: "The “Crap Chancellery" is, conceptually, one of the most important works in “Luna Luna.” Daniel Spoerri's dad was killed in the Holocaust, and the work was inspired by Albert Speer, who was Hitler's architect. He took the facade of what was meant to be a Nazi shrine and turned it into the facade of a bathroom with two steaming statues of shit standing on the outside. These works are extremely important and are things that we would definitely want to honor and draw attention to."

As “Luna Luna” further develops, the show will likely change. "It will continue to evolve as we go to different cities in response to the spaces that we pop up into and in collaboration with the local city," Goldberg said." With it, there will be new characters and new stories to tell. One aspect that won't change, though, as Goldberg assured, is a long-held sentiment about a potential partnership. At one point, early on during the original “Luna Luna” era, McDonald's wanted to buy into it. Heller said no, adding that he "didn't want it to feel like Disneyland." Goldberg agreed. Nonetheless, as I watched Kenny Scharf's dizzying swing ride go around for what felt like the hundredth time, with the cartoon characters decorated on it blurring together (one with a villain's grin, another morphed into a martini glass), I couldn't help but feel like maybe I was at Disneyland, only not as robbed, but just as entertained and exhausted by its rides and fantastical characters, and wanting to go again.

Luna Luna, Hamburg, Germany, 1987.

Art

Pamela Sneed’s Speaking Tongue opens at Dashwood Projects

November 15, 2024

Pamela Sneed’s latest exhibition, Speaking Tongue, will be on view at Dashwood Projects from November 20 to December 21. The show features twenty watercolor and ink paintings inspired by her recent trip to Kenya, where she was deeply moved by the elegance of giraffes, the landscapes, and the energy of Nairobi.

Blending her background as a poet and visual artist, Sneed’s work reflects on themes of identity, nature, and connection. Her paintings capture the beauty and spirit of the animals she encountered, alongside reflections on her own experiences as part of the African diaspora.

This exhibition marks Sneed’s first solo show with Dashwood Projects and will be accompanied by a new book, also titled Speaking Tongue, to be released in December.