Day 5 Randall's Island and Curious Incident

Day 5:   Randall’s Island and The Curious Incident

Weather: Exactly right, shirtsleeves  

Fitness center, imported Grape Nuts in the 26^th floor lounge, along with Lafayette raisin-walnut toast.

 

The entire buffet

Mid-morning and THB and DB are walking to the 35^th Street ferry, strolling past the UN and heading to the East River. We’re meeting up with friends SB and BB from Tiburon at the Frieze Art Fair, 190+ booths of contemporary art galleries from around the world, strung out in a long white tent on little-visited Randall’s Island.

This is our first view of Manhattan from the East River. Not bad, and the $20/pp round-trip is a bargain.

UN from the water

Note color of sky, it is clear and blue today

The ferry and their Uber ride is a dead heat: we meet out front right as the fair opens at 11am. We agree to split up and meet again for lunch and compare notes. A bit over halfway through and we enjoy pizza and cider in a tree-sheltered area looking across the river towards Manhattan. Great setting and a decent lunch, around $80 for four.

Turns out that the fair isn’t loaded with very many pieces of art that appeal to either couple. Fairs are like that: tons of unappealing art with a chance of finding one or two things that do appeal, that inspire either more research or an actual purchase (at these prices, probably more the former than the latter). At a minimum, it starts the dialog where THB and DB find holy bliss in a piece or two of art.

 

Quite an oufit

New style gallerist: no eye contact except with a screen

After lunch, we find that sweet spot: paintings by Lee Ufan. Well, we don’t actually “find” him at this fair since he’s got a whole Tadao Ando museum to himself on Naoshima. He’s a minimalist, and at least three of his works here are spectacular. Needless to say, they are out of our price range. The search continues….

Another museum piece that THB and DB agree on

THB and DB head back to the ferry, stopping for a Van Leeuwen ice cream first (shared scoops of ginger and espresso, $5.50). On the way back to the hotel to rest up, we scour Grand Central Station looking for an installation that THB has managed to avoid writing down the exact location of or the name of the artist. He did have an address: 200 Park. Turns out there are at least two 200 Park buildings, a subway stop apart! Is TimeLife the same as MetLife when it comes to buildings?

Instead, we get to see large Jaume Plensa heads (he’s got a huge installation in Grant Park in Chicago) in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt.

Dinner and play with SB and BB: Hakkasan for traditional Cantonese cuisine and the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Dinner is cool, soft, mood lighting, efficient service, $130/couple. The play is loud, jarring, blinding, riveting, extremely well staged, and touching (the main character is a 15 year old boy with Aspergers), $400/couple.