Another artist might have taken the reddening leaves as a sign that her summer of fun was over. But Mother Nature’s gentle nudges were no match for Charli XCX.
“Happy ‘Brat’ autumn,” she told a few hundred fans who had followed her to the Hudson Valley on Thursday afternoon. “Don’t forget it.”
At Storm King Art Center, the sculpture park dotted with works by artists including Alexander Calder and Richard Serra, an L-shaped wall in Charli XCX’s signature, eyeball-assaulting shade of green had seemingly sprouted from the earth overnight. It cast long shadows across a cluster of fans who had congregated at its base, vaping.
“I need to tap into nature, but I don’t want to leave the club,” said Elijah de la Torre, 23, who had traveled from downtown Manhattan to visit Storm King for the first time. The solution had finally presented itself: “Bring the club to nature.”
Charli XCX had come to Storm King to play a set from her new album of remixes, an effort to extend the reign of her season-defining album “Brat.” She brought with her a supersized version of the album’s vinyl sleeve that will remain on display until Monday, and several golf carts’ worth of fans who had trekked north from New York City.
She emerged from a black SUV just after 4:30 p.m. wearing wraparound sunglasses and a fur-trimmed jacket she soon discarded. “I really appreciate you guys coming,” she told the fans who swarmed her D.J. booth. “This is not close to anything.”
iPhone in hand, she launched into a 45-minute set that was a pulsing exercise in cognitive dissonance: The club music in broad daylight, the downtown scenesters taking in some much-needed fresh air, the prestigious art museum erecting a monument to the meme of the summer.
“Oh, the poppers are out in the front,” she said, gesturing to the crowd as she bobbed to a remix of “365,” her anthem for year-round partying.
The sculptor Arlene Shechet stood at the back of the crowd, a short hike from the poppers. In the distance, she could glimpse her own exhibition, a series of six welded sculptures called “Girl Group.” She was happy to see the otherwise peaceful temple of art and nature revved up a little. “I welcome that,” she said. “I’m excited that people can gather with art in every different way.”
Although the set appeared to be casually announced on Charli XCX’s Instagram account on Tuesday, it had been in the works for months. Storm King had been approached by the singer’s team over the summer about hosting an event for an album relaunch, said Nora Lawrence, the museum’s artistic director and chief curator.
It seemed like a worthwhile experiment. Storm King staff selected a field with ample dancing room where the “Brat” artwork would be in conversation with works by several female sculptors: The stacked swirls of Alice Aycock’s Three-Fold Manifestation II, the grassy hills of Maya Lin’s Wavefield, the vibrant tangerine of Ms. Shechet’s Midnight.
The design of the green behemoth, which looks like a vinyl cover stood up at a right angle, was a collaboration between Charli XCX, her creative director Imogene Strauss and the design studio Special Offer. It was fabricated by Storm King, whose workers had been trying to assemble the structure without revealing its purpose for about a week and a half, Ms. Lawrence added.
“For a while, it was just plywood,” she said. “It didn’t have the green that really gave it away.”
By Thursday afternoon, the secret was out. Brooke Thompson, a 21-year-old college student, had skipped a midterm and traveled five hours from Connecticut to attend. She stood in front of a line of food trucks that were handing out pork belly bao buns, miniature pizzas and lime-green drinks to fans. “It’s heaven,” she said.
Jonathan Scotto and Evan Howard had boarded Metro-North Railroad at Grand Central, sandwiches in hand. “We called out of work, and we’re on the pilgrimage north,” said Mr. Scotto, 25, a fitness instructor in Manhattan. He wore a black racer jacket with the Viagra logo on the back: “What’s more bratty than a man who takes Viagra?”
Mr. Howard, also 25, said he had tried to dress like “the metropolitan gay that doesn’t know how to go into the wilderness.” The look included neon green socks and a leopard-print sling, on account of a recent bike accident.
Both had visited Storm King before, and thought it was an unexpected but savvy performance site for Charli XCX. “She’s the queen of Bushwick,” Mr. Howard said, “and by extension, a great place to have that art scene but upstate for the fall, is Storm King.”
Others had needed convincing. Samantha Mowery, a 24-year-old influencer who makes videos about early 2000s fashion, stood at the bar. Behind her, other New York City exports snapped pictures of Mark di Suvero’s steel beam sculpture Pyramidian.
“I’m not a nature girl — I’m like, ew, trees, bugs, dirt,” Ms. Mowery said. “But this is fun.”
The post ‘Brat’ Autumn Has Begun appeared first on New York Times.
