Welcome to the Ring Dome

[Image: The Ring Dome by Minsuk Cho, at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, NYC. Photo by Alan R. Tansey].

If there were such a thing as a kind of psychic milit_urb then I think this ‘ring dome’ in SoHo (in Petrosino Park to be precise) by architect Minsuk Cho would be it, or at least looks like it would be. Seriously, (from my photo-dependent vantage) this structure is both simultaneously beautiful and alarming for me to see at the same time (not alarming in any real sense of the word, just visually) – it’s there, glowing with this electric forcefield of wound coils - like a little Tesla barrier weave, or the architectural equivalent of a police taser gun or something. Who knows, it could be a little love nest conjured out of thin air by a spatial magician, or maybe it’s an electrified detention facility dropped instantaneously down on a helpless family of urban migrants from the Pentagon’s twisted sorcerer arm. Actually, it looks more like something out of a video game, a temporary forcefield. I wish I could be there to actually check it out. It almost appears like it's a shield for some hyperactive brain – a thought guard – as if it has caught something invisible. What’s at the center, what's in there? … I don’t know, we all know I’m crazy.


[Image: The Ring Dome by Minsuk Cho, at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, NYC. Photo by Alan R. Tansey].

Anyway, if you are in NYC you need to go take a peak, walk around it, see if you can’t walk through it, stand underneath it and tell me what’s the effect? It’s all part of the Storefront for Art and Architecture’s 25th anniversary celebration titled Performance Z-A which is going on all month and into October. Joseph Grima, the gallery’s director, says it isn’t quite a Postopolis! 2 but definitely something next of kin. There are a bunch of great participants lined up from Eyal Weizman, Pedro Reyes, Stefano Boeri, Gianluigi Ricuperati, and Tomas Saraceno, taking turns holding events in different places, indoors, outdoors, between doors like only the Storefront can allow – for example, today/tonight Teddy Cruz will be hosting ‘Food for Thought: The Tijuana-NY Kitchen.’ For one evening, Ring Dome becomes an open-air kitchen, serving authentic Tijuana tacos in an exchange of food for thought.


[Image: The Ring Dome by Minsuk Cho, at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, NYC. Photo by Alan R. Tansey].

There is even a new funky ‘micro-bookshop’ that is being cultivated out of the gallery itself, uniquely curated by the participants themselves. I tell ya, the Storefront just keeps on rocking. It’s incredible actually. So don’t miss it. Go now, get some tacos with Joseph, Teddy and the gang tonight! (damn...I just realized, really realized, I am missing this).