Solange makes a Ruckus over porn habits
The globetrotting DJ and Art Basel veteran Solange Knowles killed the music in the wee hours of Friday morning to address the crowd at the Dom Pérignon party at the Wall. She wanted to apologise: she was going to have to cut her set short because her computer had caught a virus while she was watching porn earlier in the day. “So I’ve been deejaying off of a computer with a virus on it,” she confessed. She then went on to say that it was okay “because we’re in Miami, and it’s Basel and all that jazz”. Things took a more sober tone when she imparted a few words of wisdom: “The moral of the story is if a porn site tells you that you’re gonna get a virus, you’re gonna get a virus. And if you’re deejaying that’s really not a smart thing to do.” She then announced that she would try to play two more songs before turning it over to DJ Ruckus whose computer was lurgy-free. Ruckus, who stood in the booth next to her, took the microphone to proclaim: “I watch way more porn than you do, Solange,” to which Knowles responded: “That’s debatable.”
SoBe’s best worst bar gets arty Seasoned visitors to Art Basel know Free Spirits as the preferred late-night dive bar of art handlers, fair-fatigued journalists and Miami locals. It’s what one patron recently dubbed “South Beach’s best worst bar”. Needless to say, it has never been a place for major-league art—until this week when the Paris-based Chalet Society and Miami’s own Locust Projects switched the bar’s television screens to ambient video art by the likes of Jesper Just, Christian Jankowski and Laure Prouvost. One bartender recommended pairing the exhibition, titled Spirit Your Mind, with the house’s signature Piehole whiskey shot for just $5.75. What a bargain.
Pamela Anderson rallies with artists to free big Lolita For the animal-rights activist and former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, the “best part of Art Basel” is the local artist duo Clandestinos’s street mural of an orca titled Free Lolita, a reference to the show whale that’s been kept in captivity at the Miami Seaquarium since 1970. Anderson posted an image of the mural to Instagram. It is painted on a Wynwood building owned by the Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, who supports Lolita’s release. “It warms my heart to see Miami’s artistic community joining with Peta to rally around this beautiful orca, who belongs in the ocean, where she might someday see her family again”, she wrote. Patron Jorge Pérez also chimed in: “Miami is one of the most progressive cities in the world. Holding orcas captive for show is no longer acceptable.”
Who’s the daddy? It’s a family affair for Ratner and Pigozzi For the collector Jean Pigozzi, the combination of “pretty girls, drinks and the beach” at this week’s lunch at Soho House to promote Paddle8’s auction of works and ephemera from his collection made it a “perfect event”. The auction promised to offer a “window into the vibrant world of an international jetsetter, photographer and philanthropist”. So, too, did the party, as it had all those elements and food to boot (although servers warned surfside diners that the seagulls can be a tad aggressive).
Mixing with a host of regular art-world luminaries was Rush Hour director Brett Ratner, who introduced his own pretty girl to Pigozzi, saying he was his “best friend in the whole world” and proclaimed that “We’re gonna adopt a child together.” The two met years ago, when Ratner introduced himself to Pigozzi, saying that the photographer Helmut Newton had told him that Pigozzi was the father he’d never met. “I was with a woman when he told me that and she was so angry,” Pigozzi recalled. “She said ‘How could you hide this from me? You said you didn’t have kids!’”