Highlights included an ‘Octoportal’ sculpture designed by Harlin Emil Gruber at One Love Portal (no shortage of extraterrestrial spirituality/weirdness in this home), Dennis McNett’s sublime mask sculptures, and a “Rent a Burqa” stand set up by Sai Moori. Moori encouraged participants to venture out to exhibits in burqa in order to witness what reactions they got as ‘other’, at once the center of attention and invisible behind a black veil. Events like these are also fun to play voyeur to people’s spaces, to see amazing lofts, industrial kitchens, stacks of PBR, piles of found objects, and that ubiquitous ‘Dickchicken’ in print form.
The crowds this weekend were refreshingly diverse and displayed a lack of pretension that runs contrary to hipsterdom. Hipsters, commonly defined by their radical consumerism, their Parliament Lights, fixed gears, and indie apathy, seemed overrun by self-possessed artists and enthusiasts with integrity. There’s hope for the Brooklyn-Bushwick art scene yet.
