Amoreen Armetta, Time Out New York, March 11, 2004

Along for the ride
Two young collectives make unorthodox appearances at the Armory Show

Visitors to this year’s Armory Show – a contemporary art fair held on Piers 90 and 92 in Manhattan – will pass by a series of stands on their way inside, manned by art institutions and publications. One of these, the Swiss Institute (SI), is a nonprofit gallery in Soho, and while it isn’t offering art for sale, it is sponsoring performances by two Brooklyn performance-art collectives: Red Shoe Delivery Service (RSDS) and New Humans. According to curator Gabrielle Giattino, the idea is to “connect the other parts of the armory with our booth, the Swiss Institute and the streets of New York.”

RSDS, which bills itself as “art that moves you,” is the outgoing project of multimedia artist MK Guth in collaboration with Molly Dilworth and video artist Cris Moss. They first hit the streets of New York last summer in a van emblazoned with a simple red logo (actually a magnet stuck to the side), offering to drive people anywhere in the five boroughs with one stipulation: prospective riders had to select a pair of customized red shoes from a suitcase in the back of the van to wear for the duration of the trip. (Guth creates everything from sneakers to pointy-toed Prada knockoffs). Passengers agreed to be videotaped clicking their heels while saying, “There’s no place like…,” filling in the black with their destination; one woman memorably asked for a lift to Trump Tower to get her eyebrows done.

On Monday 15, RSDS will be driving people from the Armory Show to the location of their choice. “Whether they want to have dinner in Tribecca or a hot dog in Central Park, we’ll take them there,” vows Guth. On Friday 12 and Saturday 13, the van will shuttle visitors between the piers and the Swiss Institute. Anyone who snags the last ride on Friday will have a chance to see the New Humans perform at SI, which is open that evening from 7 – 11pm. The group, formed last year as a part of member Mika Tajima’s MFA thesis project at Columbia, creates experimental music (more noise rock than John Cage) that digitally translates visual patterns into sound. Their costumes for SI, created in collaboration with fashion collective United Bamboo, will riff on their usual uniform of rugby shirts, embellished here with fabric strips that trail 10 yards from the body. (Videos by RSDS will also be shown throughout the evening.)

Meanwhile at the Armory Show, the New Humans will spontaneously appear in the halls, carrying textless, colored signs while chanting incomprehensibly. Tajima describes these actions as “interventions of celebration and resistance.” Celebration, sure. But in the face of so much art, resistance might just prove futile.