This month, for his latest improbable feat, music-icon-turned-artist David Byrne is squeezing the entire world beneath the High Line. Called “Tight Spot,” his installation is composed of an inflatable globe wedged into empty alley on 508 West 25th Street that Pace Gallery recently bought up to make into a gallery. The result is monumental and comic — or tragicomic? — and accompanied by a curious soundtrack: Byrne’s own voice, altered beyond recognition into a series of inhuman, basso moans.
The renowned Talking Heads frontman (and cycling advocate) is also part of Pace’s “Social Media” show at the 510 West 25th Street gallery, where he’s displaying fake iPhone apps alongside works by Miranda July, Robert Heineken, and others. (Pace is also opening an Agnes Martin show at their 534 West 25th Street space, rounding out a triple threat intended to create a sort of “block party,” according to the gallery.) ARTINFO spoke with Byrne about the value of creative constraints and the importance of smell-to-smell interactions.
