August is the perfect month to unplug. From the lucky Europeans who take off the whole month as habit to the somewhat-less-lucky Americans who can squeeze a week or two out for summer vacation, this is the time of year to slow down, rest, and look at life a bit more closely. And what deserves a closer look than truly great art? Below we have pulled together a list of our favorite shows on view this month.
Ficus Interfaith’s Furniture Music at P·P·O·W
New York City
Little known to all those but niche classical music heads, Erik Satie was the precursor to many of the great, off-kilter musicians of the 20thcentury, including John Cage and Julius Eastman. Satie pioneered the concept of background music, composing works at the piano that looked as beautiful in his curving script as they sounded. His practice was the genesis for artist duo Ficus Interfaith, whose new show at P·P·O·W, Furniture Music, takes its title directly from Satie’s oeuvre. Stepping away from their most frequent medium, terrazzo collage, the duo designed a series of coffee tables around antique piano shawls they sourced over the span of a year. One 1920s cream and mango-hued shawl looks as if frozen, hanging over a minimal steel frame, with its decorative embroidery visible under a glass top. Four other tables like it take an almost holy position within the gallery, complemented by smaller works in homage to Satie. There is Frame Looking Glass made of cherry and antique piano keys: a refined collage of Satie’s medium and a tongue-in-cheek nod to the musician's famously fastidious personal style and presentation. Musique Plaque is the most explicit of the terrazzo collages on view, while Épitaphe D'Erik Satie, hung beside a facsimile of Satie's Original Furniture Music Manuscript, is the most wistful. Furniture Music marks a departure for Ficus Interfaith, showing how deftly they handle mediums and material outside of the bounds of traditional visual art. On view through August 15. –C.O.