Two years since Terence Koh left all his galleries and moved to a remote mountain upstate, the artist has made his return to New York. In typically conspicuous fashion, Koh inaugurated his comeback this past weekend with a march from the East Village to Andrew Edlin Gallery, where he had installed his new show, “bee chapel,” open through July 1.Several dozen fashionable young “protestors,” joined by Koh’s parents, carried signs bearing the word “Now.” When asked about the significance of the message, one participant said, “I have no idea. I guess we’ll find out when we get to the gallery.” But after marching — for all of three and a half blocks — few clues awaited them at the gallery. Koh was apparently on site, but spent most of the day “hiding,” according to an employee.That could be because the newly reclusive Koh has been trying to live down his party-boy reputation, which he earned through antics such as selling his own semen and gold-plated excrement for upwards of $500,000. For an artist who once dubbed himself “the Naomi Campbell of the art world,” Andrew Edlin Gallery, which specializes in outsider art, is not an obvious fit. But Koh was a fan of the gallery’s program and invited the dealer up to his Catskills compound for a visit last year. While there, Edlin saw a small, conical hut elevated on stilts. It was large enough for a person to sit inside cross-legged and smell the sweet aroma of bees harvesting honey in a screened-in compartment overhead. As Koh later explained in a statement, the idea to build the structure arrived in a dream: “Build a sanctuary for bees. They have been under duress in recent years.”Edlin invited Koh to install a version of the bee chapel at his gallery, and not only did the artist accept, he chose Edlin’s own office to house it, displacing the dealer in the basement for the duration of the show. The gallery also made other adjustments to its day-to-day operations, including adding solar panels to power its electricity and covering the floor with topsoil. In another room, Koh installed a felled apple tree, which will be replanted in the Catskills after the show closes. Connected to EEG wires, Koh is channeling all vibrations that occur from interactions with the tree — touching it, insects moving along it, and even breathing on it — and transmitting them into outer space via an antenna mounted outside the gallery. Visitors can listen to the signal via a set of headphones in the next room.Now for anyone who, like Koh, lives in nature but still likes to generate a little “buzz,” the gallery is accepting commissions for custom bee chapels, priced at $125,000 each.
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