On Saturday, I visited the Affordable Art Fair in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. I honestly probably would have enjoyed it far more if it weren’t for the commute itself (not to say I didn’t enjoy it; I absolutely did.) Holy smokes, the commute. Getting to the AAF was probably one of the worst experiences I’ve had this year. Between the R train taking 25 minutes to get to Bay Ridge-86th to the C train–an d I am not exaggerating when I say this–moving through tunnels slower than my 6 month old cousin crawls, I’ve never regretted just paying 8 dollars for any one of the SIM express buses more than I did on Sunday. It’s bad enough already having to cross a harbor just to reach civilization as a Staten Islander, but the MTA’s constant inability to fix its own signal problems or time track replacements correctly certainly doesn’t help.
When I did finally get there, I couldn’t actually do much besides sit in one of those riverside parks by the Hudson. I didn’t have the strength to even get up and observe art after what that atrocious, pathetic excuse of a subway system did to me. As much as I’d like to say that I thought about something, whether it be the river in front of me or the family of geese behind me, I didn’t. I felt exhausted. I did ultimately get up and go to the art fair, however, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. Immediately upon entering, there was an array of different cafes lined up, where people were all feasting upon what appeared to..surprisingly..actually be pretty good food. I didn’t have the money for any of those paninis or salads, so I kept going. After showing the staff my ticket, I in return received some puny little Walgreens-esque ticket. Really? You’re going to be selling art pieces worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and you’re giving me a ticket that looks like it was pulled straight from a dollar store? Anyways, I got on the elevator (which was jam packed) and went to the fourth floor, where my journey began.
I have mixed but overall positive reactions about my actual experience at the Affordable Art Fair. When I first got off the elevator and entered a theater-esque setting, I expected for there to be far more. It just turned out to be a lobby, though. After some walking, I found the place where the actual art exhibits were happening, and I was shocked by the complexity of where each piece/collection was located. There was a map, but it resembled a maze and honestly left me more confused than before I saw it. I ended up just starting with whatever piqued my attention first and going about my journey with whatever followed. I was honestly kind of shocked by the sheer density of the exhibits, like there were people, and art pieces, practically everywhere surrounding me. At any given time, two diametrically opposed styles were placed against each other and surrounded by visibly wealthy people bartering or simply taking a look. On one side there were some self-portraits, and on the other, there was some kind of abstract multi-colored clusters of who-knows-what. To be honest, I found a lot of the art to be really appealing to the senses; the majority of it, regardless of whatever message was being conveyed, genuinely looked GOOD. I struggled to find deeper meaning in it…anywhere…because every single piece was either on sale or already sold. It was clear that the vast majority of people were going just to browse for something that they could put up in their living room as a symbol of status or to show off to their friends. All of the art involved was being commoditized, and, even if I didn’t really appreciate that salient theme (or lack thereof) much, I clocked it instantly and went about my visit purely focusing on what appealed to me visually. I did struggle to understand what exactly caused certain art to clearly sell for far more (as there was a section specifically for art under $1000), but maybe it was just all of those rich people bidding against one another. Maybe the shallowness of the whole experience and the lack of meaning ANYWHERE wasn’t helped by the sheer quantity of works on display, but I nonetheless enjoyed taking a gander at a bunch of pieces that wanted to be sold and hoisted in some 2 bedrooms on Roosevelt Island. Overall, 7/10. I’d say the commute and $40 I had to pay (which I didn’t even know I didn’t have to pay until it was casually mentioned in seminar long after I bought the ticket) was worth it, mainly because the artwork jumped AT me with flashy visuals. Call my liking towards the pieces shallow, but I probably would have been far more aggressive with the lack of meaning if it hadn’t been for my getting there completely exhausting me.
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