MeTube at Storm King: CultureGrrl Climbs “Little Bamboo”

Stephen Talasnik, discussing his bamboo “Stream” sculpture

One of the more popular of recent CultureGrrl Videos (we’re not talking about Gaga numbers here) features me not climbing the Starn Twins‘ Big
Bambú at the Metropolitan Museum.

How much more exciting, then, to watch me actually “climb” the smaller bamboo construction, now open for exploration by the cultured (and the clumsy) at Storm King Art Center, the idyllic, mountain-surrounded sculpture retreat in Mountainville, NY. The occasion was the recent press preview for 12 new or newly loaned recent works
that are now on view as part of the center’s 50th-anniversary
celebration,

Stephen Talasnik‘s “Stream: A Folded Drawing,” a commission, was conceived before the Starn project and also before Herzog & de Meuron‘s “Bird’s Nest,” the stadium for the Beijing Olympics, which it immediately brought to mind. Talasnik did tell me, however, that his final creation was, in a sense, influenced by
“Bird’s Nest”: He decided to differentiate his by tilting it:

As you will see from my video, below, I found the experience of navigating this “Stream” a bit disappointing, especially at the end. This makes me even more eager to try my rubber-soled shoes on the steep ramps at the Met’s roof garden—an experience that has the advantage of affording sweeping views of Central Park, the New York skyline and even my beloved George Washington Bridge.

Maybe it’s good that I’ve waited: The NY Times‘ Karen Rosenberg reports: “By midsummer the slightly taller eastern portion, which is still under
construction, will be open.” Might as well get the whole experience!

For now, though, you’ll have to settle for my report from Little Bamboo (which I mistakenly call “Streams,” rather than “Stream,” as I make my arduous journey):

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