Navid Nuur

Navid Nuur is showing a tight collection of polaroids at ADA Gallery, part of a show curated by artists Derek Cote and John Henry Blatter, from the pages of their Daily Constitutional.

These twenty-eight polaroids are propped on tiny nails, and all show the same corner of what is probably the artist's studio, in The Netherlands. The placement of the camera doesn't change, so the lines of the floor and walls remain fixed within the white-bordered grid of photos. Also fixed are some of the elements within each photo, most prominently what looks like an up-ended metal table or shelf thing; the black lines of this thing are the internal skeleton of each picture. The other elements in the corner, mostly unrecognizable industrial stuff, are rearranged in each photo: stacked on the floor, leaning against the wall or shelf-thing, on top or below or within. Like twenty-eight little temporary sculptures. One of the elements is a flourescent light fixture, so the light of each photo is a bit different with the lights on or off, or leaning against the wall or shining on the corner. The center grouping of photos glows green, with the light reflecting off something green in the corner and the rest of the lights in the room turned off.

I love the scale of this piece, it feels like a miniature, like a dollhouse. A few of the photos include more recognizable objects - a skateboard, a broom - which shift the reading and sense of scale.

Very nice.

Ryan Mulligan is also in this show with some funny and paranoid drawings, sketches of homes turned fortresses, with lists and notes explaining the new protective features. Number two on the check-list for Extreme Compound Modification is "establish fail-safe plan". Other notes-to-self include "store extra lumber in cut and debarked form" and "maintain morale at all costs".

These made me think of Ryan's room from his Anderson Gallery show last year. I think he is in a show at Art Space opening soon?