Ok everyone, you can just settle down!

It may be called “Pole Dance,” but desolé guys and gals, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center’s new exhibition is entirely sans topless girls, clear plastic heels, or sweaty dollar bills.  Yet, we hesitate to cry, “Move along, nothing to see here!”

In fact, there is plenty for you to feast your eyes on.  Although “Pole Dance” is entirely devoid of strippers, it does include, however, Swiss balls, a pool, hammocks and a bar.  Pas mal.

The creation of the architecture firm, SO-IL, “Pole Dance” was the winning submission in P.S. 1’s annual competition to design a temporary installation in the museum’s Long Island City courtyard.  Not only was the winner able to take over the museum’s courtyard for its summer concert series, the winning team received $85,000.

Husband and wife team, Jing Liu and Florian Idenberg, founded SO-IL in Brooklyn.  The team concocted a design that filled P.S. 1’s courtyard with a grid of about 90 fiberglass poles, each 25-feet long.  Connected by bungee cords, the movement of one pole propels big rainbow-colored balls around a netted canopy spanning the entire space.  And goodness–is it fun!

Sometimes it can feel like museums audiences are becoming older, wealthier, whiter…stuffier. When you see old ladies taking their high-heels off to trudge into a sandpit in order to drop multi-colored balls into a pool…well, you really can’t help it.  You laugh. They smile.  Kids giggle as they make electronic sounds and vibrations by moving the quivering poles.

The “Pole Dance” exhibit in action comes awfully close to the animation that was submitted by the architects to the jury.  Set to the soothing sounds of Simon & Garfunkel, it is nearly impossible not to be charmed by the whimsical vision of rainbow bouncey balls tumbling out of the LIC sky.

Even through my summer-in-New-York-goddamn-this-heat-crankiness, I couldn’t help but feel relaxed and happy to be a part of such an extraordinary spectacle.  It’s hard to believe that “a metaphor for these uncertain times” could produce so much joy!

Says Liu: “The metaphor is that the environment is not static.  It’s constantly changing and each of us can affect it.” So, did I feel overcome with the profound feeling that individual people can affect change and have an impact on the world after leaving “Pole Dance”

I suppose so…but I couldn’t help but be disappointed on the subway ride back into Manhattan when an enthusiastic push of the handrail only produced a raised eyebrow from my neighbor.  À la folie, and I was expecting a big, bright red bouncey ball….

~Lily la Tigresse

SO-IL PS1 Pole Dance from SO-IL on Vimeo.