Noble & Webster Erect "Electric Fountain"; Alan Vega and A.R.E. Weapons Rock Jeffrey Deitch

The dark-humored British artist duo Noble & Webster (Sue Noble & Tim Noble), famous for their light bulb sculptures in the shape of dollar signs and words like "Yes" (you might have caught this in Jay-Z's "Blue Magic" video) and "Forever," have erected "Electric Fountain" in Rockefeller Center last Wednesday. The "fountain" is a steely sculpture installation that sprinkles 3,390 LED bulbs worth of electricity, weighs 61,000 pounds, is 35 feet tall, and is on view through April 4. The sight of this $1 million (thank you Lexus and Jeffrey Deitch) outdoor project is as exciting, novel and gaudy as the famous Christmas tree and the fountain at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas –- you must go see it!

So on Friday evening (Feb. 29) in conjunction with the fountain's unveiling Deitch Projects presented "Polymorphous Perverse," a smaller scale show of wacky, kinetic knickknacks by Noble & Webster, who look like missing members of the Jesus and Mary Chain. At the dinner party afterwards in the bigger room around the corner on Wooster St. where Michel Gondry's "Be Kind Rewind" show is being housed, Jeffrey Deitch hosted an all-American dinner party complete with ample servings of fried chicken, mac 'n' cheese and down-home-style veggies.

To make the night even more festive, Alan Vega of New York's legendary no-wave band Suicide gave a gritty performance backed by his unofficial successors the A.R.E. Weapons (check out Matt McAuley gettin' down on the sax!). The room was filled with guests such as art stars Ryan McGinley, Adam McEwan, Hanna Liden, Agathe Snow; the global party hotties Yvonne Force Villareal, Genevieve Jones, Tara Subkoff, Stella Schnabel, Margherita Missoni; and downtown bedrocks like Carlo McCormick, Glenn O'Brien, Judy Nylon. All in all, it was a night of fun, glamour, art-damage and a lot of hobnobbing, which is exactly what one expects of New York as it counts down to the mighty Whitney Biennial 2008 which opens this Thursday, March 6.

Photo of Noble & Webster by PatrickMcMullan.com
Photo of "Electric Fountain" courtesy of NYTimes.com