Art Show: Laurel Nakadate

July 29, 2011



Laurel Nakadate is best known for making videos of herself with strange men. Which is weird. For the past ten years, she's interacted with strangers (women, as well), shooting videos of them doing anything from a mock shoot ’em up film to having a fake birthday party, complete with cake. For her major show Only the Lonely as PS1, she included many of these works, but also a new one: 365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears. In it, she moves away from moving pictures and into still ones, taking one photo of herself a day in 2010, while crying. It's an overwhelming work, Nakadate crying on airplanes, at the beach, in hotels, in a pink sports bra and in front of her laptop with iTunes clearly visible. Nakadate says she wanted to deliberately take part in sadness every day, explicitly as a rebuttal to the barrage of smiley updates on Facebook. Much of the crying is sad, but some of it is funny, too, as though crying were the constant and this were just a general metaphor for the ebb and flow of a year's worth of life. Only the Lonely closes soon (Aug. 8th!) so if you haven't seen it, head to Queens, and watch above for an interview with Nakadate about her tears.

Art Show: Laurel Nakadate