June 12, 2009
Land of the Lost
New Yorkers should catch Ernesto Neto’s massive dino-themed installation before it closes this Sunday.
New Yorkers, you’ve only got one weekend left to check out Ernesto Neto‘s anthropodino roaming the Park Avenue Armory‘s grandiose Wade Thompson Drill Hall. Humans plus dinos? Oh, yes. The massive installation is an evolutionary jungle gym with hump-backed tunnels covered in pastel Lycra gauze–not unlike my Wolford hose–and soft, dangling wrecking balls filled with spices, all beneath a swooping, parabolic ceiling in tune with Neto’s previous masterpieces. The bones of this reptilian “netosaurus” are goofy CNC-ed plywood shapes–“dino DNA” that perhaps ought to have been covered in something a little less revealing. But while the whole thing may strike adults as a bit suggestive, the installation is actually highly kid-friendly and interactive (particularly the purple, squishy bean-bag room and the irresistable ball pit). Curious noses should take caution when sniffing around, however: I walked out of there with a ground-cumin and clove stained nose.