The “ephemeral” in “The Great Ephemeral,” a compact exhibition organized by curators from the Taiwan Contemporary Art Center and the New Museum, refers to the speculative nature of the global economy and its effects. If you assume the topic makes for dry subject matter, think again. Highlights include Minouk Lim’s 2010 video about South Korea’s controversial Four Major Rivers Project that features infrared camera work and a mournful ballad sung on a bus, and contributions by the museum education department’s artists-in-residence Chelsea Knight and Constantina Zavitsanos. Knight’s video Don’t Tread on Me (2011) brings various political dissenters together via on-camera interviews and in a Greek chorus. Zavitsanos contributes a minimalist tower of debt, and a Visa card offering one lucky visitor a day a portion of a settlement the artist received from a class-action lawsuit against the NYPD.
Pictured: Installation view of “The Great Ephemeral”; at the New Museum. Photo Jesse Untracht-Oakner.