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New Museum Channels the Internet for its Latest Exhibit

By DNAinfo Staff on October 21, 2010 7:55am  | Updated on October 21, 2010 11:30am

By Jennifer Glickel

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

LOWER EAST SIDE — An image of the spinach-guzzling cartoon sailor Popeye putting a noose around his neck is one of several provocative pieces in a new exhibit exploring the expanded creative possibilities — and challenges — the Internet offers artists.

The New Museum's latest exhibition, "Free," which opened Wednesday, brings together the works of 23 artists that reveal how the broadened public space created by the web has transformed public art.

In his video I, Popeye, artist Takeshi Murata uses the character of Popeye, whose copyright has expired, to show how images are given new meanings when put in the hands of different individuals working virtually.

In Murata's various depictions of the swaggering sailor, Popeye is shown attempting suicide, standing by the grave site of Olive Oyl and working furiously at a spinach factory.

"The Internet has changed our landscape of information and our notion of public space and the artists in this exhibition address that," said Lauren Cornell, the show’s curator.

"The changes the Internet has brought are seen as opportunities, not threats," Cornell added.

One photographer uses a 35mm slide show projection to touch on how the Internet creates the space for shared experiences between strangers on opposite ends of the world. For The Sun is Always Setting Somewhere Else, Lisa Oppenheim found photos of sunsets taken by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and re-photographed them against her Manhattan horizon.

In Legendary Account, artist Joel Holmberg pushes the limits of the user-generated forum "Yahoo! Answers," pressing it for guidance to life’s big questions, rather than the humdrum ones the site usually deals in. The artists turns the usually straightforward question-and-answer site on its head by posing profound questions like "How does it feel to be in love?" and "How do I occupy space?"

Artist Trevor Paglen’s work focuses on information — specifically, classified government data — that is hidden from public view. Using a long-range photographic lens, Paglen’s They Watch the Moon reveals a secret West Virginia surveillance station that the NSA and Navy use for radio telescope spying under glowing moonlight.

"Free" opened at the New Museum on Wednesday and runs through Jan. 23, 2011. The New Museum is located at 235 Bowery.