Risking similar criticism, indie curator Anat Ebgi and artist Jen DeNike hatched Frisbee — the fun-poking anti-fair set to take control of South Beach's Cavalier Hotel during Art Basel — and it promises to be a funky antidote for the outbreak of Baselphrenia.
"We concentrated on inviting participants whose work or projects we felt strongly are blurring boundaries. This event has more of a chaotic feel; some artists will be showing work in the rooms they'll be staying in," Ebgi explains. "It's like a huge slumber party where the public can hang out with artists."
Organizers have turned the Cavalier upside down and will be featuring fourteen hotel-room installations and special projects in the lobby, hallway, and elevator, which will include at the entrance a portal of pompons created by Travis Boyer and Abbey Walton.
Visitors can expect to encounter Jonah Freeman's lost-shoe fountains, SlowJam's half-hour of power dance parties, meteorite paintings by Chris Jahncke, a midnight "Kazoo at the Moon" session with Carlton DeWoody, and beach-blanket performances by Feral Childe.
Others swelling the art asylum's walls include the London collaborative Center of Attention, who will re-create John Lennon and Yoko Ono's bed-in; Brooklyn's Metro Color Collsion; Havana's Studio 1012; Italy's Alterazioni Video; and the Big Apple's Chris Verene and Cheri Nevers, who will offer their services at the Self-Esteem Salon.
In the hotel's lobby, Miami's Worm-Hole Laboratory has strung up a Christmas tree called Art-Official X-mas, decked with Yuletide ornaments fashioned by dozens of Santa's creative elves, and the Hanukkah bush contingent will be repped by "Jewish sexaholics" at Heeb magazine.
Natch, Frisbee won't be catering to rabid speculators salivating over artwork they can stash in the garage for a few months before flipping it back on the market like an overpriced condo.
"You can't be an artist and represent yourself at Basel, NADA, or any of the other fairs," Ebgi informs. "It's up to these artists to sell their own work. We wanted to come to Miami to have fun and show emerging talent but aren't in the business as business business," she laughs.
