'Building is a Bridge' by Daniel Polonsky at Devyatnadsat Gallery, Moscow

Through the use of text, video, and ready-made intervention, Daniel Polonsky's Building is a Bridge recontextualizes metaphors found in architecture, and in language. Three single channel video loops present portraits of selected architectures from New York City that pose multiple meanings at their face value. One being the IAC building in Chelsea that resembles a large iceberg. A piano shaped waterfall in the front lawn of a south Brooklyn residential building, and an MTA commissioned bronze fence that resembles a large-scale honeycomb with bronze bees. A mural on one of the walls depicts two statements that form a visual peak. The statements are, it's an uphill battle, this defines the upward slope while the second statment, it's all downhill from here defines a downward slope. Playfully touching on economics by utilizing the aesthetics of the stock market. Increase or gain represented by blue and loss or decrease represented by red. This includes the charged connotations in the duality of the colors red and blue. Over the past year Polonsky followed the practices of musicians who re-purpose musical instruments in order to reach various ranges and abilities with sound. The musicians often attach various gimbals, found objects, or other instruments to their initial instrument to play multiple sounds simultaneously. Some also insert objects to mute or alter the sound of instruments. Polonksy's grandfather is also a Jazz trumpet player who was also a street performer in New York City's subway system from the early 90's through 2020. He would attach amplifiers to a body harness that would allow him to play sound that accompanied his trumpet. This harness held the speakers up allowing him to have full focus playing the trumpet. These are forms of intervention that are individual to the musicians and both have functional yet somewhat absurd elements. In understanding the necessity of intervention outside of the context of art for an individual like a musician or street performer, Polonsky chooses to appropriate these logics of intervention to form ready-made sculpture with a focus on autonomy and the instrument.