Everytime I return to Boston it seems so familiar, yet change is at every turn around every corner. Though this is a rather brief stint I have managed to see the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (for the first time I might add) with my mom, the new ICA with my oldest pal (and Irish step dancer) Jim, and of course my family and a few artist friends like Charlie Kohlhase, Judy Haberl and Ken Beck. It’s been incredible to catch up with my very sweet family one-on-one and indulge in many homemade feasts. Seeing my three year-old niece for the first time since she was only months old has really been special. In all that wonder of walking and talking, the many things that draw the attention of babies fascinates me. It seems she’s endlessly interested in colors and textures and moving graphics. I leave for a four-day sidetrip to Montreal on the morrow.
TWITTERATI: I’ll be away for the next few weeks, and dependent on connectivity I may not be blogging all that much, aside from anything pre-scheduled…but who knows. In the meantime, as a newbie to Twitter, why not just go ahead and follow me!
OPENS JUNE 3: Loosely based on Claes Oldenburg’s “Store” from 1961, Store for a Month will be a temporary art object and “product” store that includes a working studio for the Proprietor and Store artists to make works on-site, although many works will be made in advance. Store for a Month will feature art and products made specifically for the project by over 60 of the NW region’s best and brightest artists. While the emphasis is on 3D art objects and sculpture, some 2D work will be included. Artists have been encouraged to make works they might not usually make, explore new mediums outside their traditional process, and create works of an unusual or outrageous nature – all priced for the “Store” environment.
Location: 1216 SE Division Street, Portland Oregon Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 12-7PM
Proprietor: John Brodie
The pieces I have in the store are ‘appropriated artcards’ and were fun to make. These come from years of collecting postcards from galleries all over. I just couldn’t get rid of them, and this seemed like an appropriate way to retain them, partly. All priced under $50 they are the lowest price creative thing I’ve made available in eons, and they make for cool lil’ collages. Enjoy browsing!
This Winter/Spring has hit hard with change and put me a bit adrift to say the least. To get away from it all (and use my frequent flyer miles while they’re still honored) I’m once again off to Mutek, Montreal’s premiere electronic a/v music festival and this year they celebrate their 10th anniversary! It’s part of my trek back east which will also take me back to visit my family and friends in New England (can’t wait to finally see the new ICA! - now showing Shepard Fairey). This year the festival heats up like no other preceeding it and will include performances by Gas (Wolfgang Voigt), Herman Kolgen, Cyclo and the gents of Raster-Noton, Atom™, Robert Henke, SND, Carl Craig, Akufen, Thomas Fehlmann (The Orb - just played at Holocene), Ricardo Villalobos, Novi-Sad (soon to play Portland - 6/29) and many others. That will get my mind off two upcoming exhibitions and two curatorial ventures and some other fun creative projects. I plan to make this a vacation with a capital V - those who know me know I need to break away now or get outta dodge. It’s so ironic to be practically penniless with a super part-time job just barely eeking it by and to fly first class - hot hand towel, please! Even though I’m hardly a lush, make mine a double!…
Froelick Gallery honors Oregon’s sesquicentennial by presenting Town & Country: Oregon at 150. This juried exhibit brings together a diverse selection of artists celebrating all aspects of the unique Oregon landscape: the rocky crags of the coast; the fertile farms of the Willamette Valley; bridges of Portland; industrial parks of the Columbia slough and everything in between. The following 30 artists were selected from over 250 applicants:
Chris Bennett, Sana Krusoe, Patricia Bognar, Carson Legree, Eric Bowman, Gabriel Liston, Paul Fardig, Jim Lommasson, Kevin Farrell, TJ Norris, Eric Franklin, Barry Pelzner, Wendy Given, Ben Rosenberg, Stephen Hayes, Laura Ross-Paul, Craig Hickman, Bill Sharp, Alex Hirsch, Mike Southern, Sarah Horowitz, Seth Tane, Liz Holzman, David Lorenz Winston, Mark Hooper, John Wippich, Marilyn Joyce, Christy Wyckoff, Kimberly Kolba, Ron van Dongen
This past weekend I did a few extra-curricular cultural stretching exercises in different quadrants of the city. First indulging in the latest production at Teatro Milagro (The Miracle Theater) on SE Stark (now in their 25th season). The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa by Luis Valdez was the third and best production I’ve seen to date. Celebrating the Chicano family in America, Valdez manages to take a farse that makes you think and laugh simultaneously. The story is based around a claustrophobic Mexican migrant family, now California-based, living in poverty. The quirks come from each characters’ integral part in this dysfunctional mix: the ‘wino’ father, the haughty daughter, the Marine brother and the theif. My favorite character was the rock of the family unit, the mother (played by Bunnie Rivera) who not only surprises the audience in the end scene, but along the way proves she has a lovely vocal talent to swoon the blues away. They cram every possible ism of the contemporary Latino experience with brevity and levity. The stage sets are well done and lit and the ’shrunken head’ (Vincente Guzman-Orozco) is a cross between Jimi Hendrix and a latin version of Richard Pryor. Hysterical and worth its nearly two hours of theatrical indulgence. (thru May 30)
In the fifth quadrant (St. Johns) I got to see my pal Bryan’s new digs and we cavorted around his growing neck of the woods and the 47th Annual St. Johns Parade. From unicyclists and equestrians to good ole marching bands and vintage automobiles - there was eye candy for everyone on the sidelines. The crowd was as interesting as what was parting it, interesting hairdos and don’ts, lots of random midday ‘half-baked’ types, bruisers and beauties. It was good to see a few new organic cafes (Ladybug) and eateries having popped up in between the fencing emporium, an impromptu farmer’s market and an array of fuzzy pets meandering about. This was what I would call a quintessential “Portland Moment” (those who know me can probably hear the cadence in my sentiment). It was a beautiful day and we had a few laughs people watching and probably verse vica.
Lastly, I manged to get over to see Stephen Slappe’s Shelter in Place at NAAU. Another doozie for the incomparable video artist who makes synched multi-channel look like chicken scratch…the ease not the outcome. I walked into the room to the familiar echoes of a favorite anthem, X-Ray Spex’s Identity w/PolyStyrene’s whaling reverberating throughout the space. Floating heads, punk rock, teenage angst and its flashbacks…very trippy and ironic given the literal (political) echoes we are facing these days. Walking into a room with only a boombox lit upon a pedestal somehow made sense. It’s as if his commentary on the silent treatment towards a certain redundancy of plasticity gave way to the balancing act of image overload in the next room. Tasteful.
When the room is quiet
The daylight almost gone
It seems there’s something I should know
Well, I ought to leave
But the rain it never stops
And I’ve no particular place to go
Just when I think I’m winning
When I’ve broken every door
The ghosts of my life
Blow wilder than before
Just when I thought I could not be stopped
When my chance came to be king
The ghosts of my life
Blew wilder than the wind
Well, I’m feeling nervous
Now I find myself alone
The simple life’s no longer there
Once I was so sure
Now the doubt inside my mind
Comes and goes, but leads nowhere
* * * * *
How does it feel
To treat me like you do
When you’ve laid your hands upon me
And told me who you are
I thought I was mistaken
I thought I heard your words
Tell me how do I feel
Tell me now how do I feel
Those who came before me
Lived through their vocations
From the past until completion
They will turn away no more
And I still find it so hard
To say what I need to say
But I’m quite sure that you’ll tell me
Just how I should feel today
I see a ship in the harbor
I can and shall obey
But if it wasn’t for your misfortunes
I’d be a heavenly person today
And I thought I was mistaken
And I thought I heard you speak
Tell me how do I feel
Tell me now how should I feel
Now I stand here waiting
I thought I told you to leave me
While I walked down to the beach
Tell me how does it feel
When your heart grows cold
(grows cold, grows cold, grows cold)
I chant “Alright already” to my iPhone as yesterday it gently chimed me awake for a trip up north. Speaking of which there’s a new app featuring the first Dutch (perhaps European) artist Don Diablo (online Monday)…check out his videos, and even follow him on Twitter. Furthermore, it allows fans to communicate with each other, and to communicate directly with the artist by leaving him messages. But I digress - so first, a word from our sponsor, or shall I say the free advertising Portland continues to indulge in through The New York Times. Our wonderful cul de sac is again the cat’s meow for frugals (I guess I moved to the right place eight years ago this week!). Check it out.
Just so you are aware, I’ve been tested and cleared as not having ADD. Now, what was I saying about waking at the crack a’ dawn? Yes, yesterday I trekked to our sister cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia, the two latter were my first-ever walkabout/visit. Each city has its own charm, or funky drawback for me, and reading the Times piece above gave me further claim that I set up shop rightly so in these woods. Mind you, I really enjoy latent exploration throughout the entire region, and broke out my camera to indulge in all of its peculiarities and will prove it (results surfacing at a later date).
HOW FITTING: So along with medical professional Lyn, a photo enthusiast and surprise cat lover we took to the freeway, first stop Lacey, WA! There we stopped in this very testosterone fueled adventure superstore, otherwise known as the World’s Foremost Outfitter®, Cabela’s. Replete with parkas, gunracks and an entire forest tableau of taxidermied critters planted above a huge walk-thru fishtank cavern it’s any hunter’s dream I suppose. As a twenty-five year plus vegequarian I was taken a lil’ aback - however the whole “boys and their toys” thing always fascinates me from a people-watching angle.
The trip up to Seattle went smoothly as we got to typical driving circles around Pioneer Square until we found a spot right in front of Greg Kucera who is showing Victoria Haven who shows with PDX and formerly with Howard House. Many lovely and reducive, floating pieces. From there we headed up the hill and since Soil was closed before noon we couldn’t resist the temptation to indulge in the latest lovelies by Jaq Chartier called Downtime at Platform. Based on games, her experiments with color and light continue to enchant me, and there are even mini paintings near the back office. From there we stopped in at James Harris to ogle Claude Zervas‘ beguiling kinetic light works using diodes and other electronics before heading to Lawrimore Project. Back at the car we were approached by Matthew Kangas who offered some passing sage criticism.
Upon arrival, the just opened solo show by Yann Novak titled Relocation sort of charts this newbie LA-transplant in his revisit to Seattle. It also pairs him with his partner Robert Crouch (and Ed Patuto) of Volume who has curated the front room group exhibition, Scores. The aesthetics between the shows are vast, almost polarized to a degree. Novak’s work is eerily minimal, almost white and bathed with vibrant silences. The three pieces, each separated within the space are primarily sound-based, two including projections. The stand-out being the 2-channel headphone listening work Relocation.Mobile which charts source material recorded at rest stops between Seattle and Los Angeles, presumably to start a new chapter in California. Scores has some wonderful inclusions, and a few folks I have worked with including Steve Roden and Nayland Blake. There are references to Yves Klein in an abstract expressionist/happening sticky jam piece that was evidentally a group effort, references to drag and (de)compositional elements with a helmeted train continuously running through the space. Something poker-faced here, something wild, yet expressively concealed.
Our path took us next to Western Bridge before heading back south. Can’t stop into town without popping in to explore a bit. The current exhibition has multiple changing titles as the works rotate in the space, currently set as According to Speculative Logic. The show includes a large scale painted Light Installations work by Mary Temple which uses the existing space to convert our belief that there are shadows in places where its impossible within the darkened gallery. In the stairway upward there is a piece titled Moth by Claire Cowie that includes a host of insect like small sculptures randomly installed up into the space, much as the creatures may gather. Video, light work and painting as well as a photo each by Richard Misrach and one encompassing the deepest darkness of the sea by Hiroshi Sugimoto which is breathtaking in its emptiness. I can imagine being in a room with it looming across from me, and nothing else, offering tension and solitude.
After a bite at Burger Maddness (got the veggie Aloha) it was on the road towards Tacoma and the Northwest Biennial which closes later in May. This was new ground for me. Lyn went in one direction towards the Museum of Glass and I crossed the Chihuly filled bridge, past many For Lease signs and towards Tacoma Art Museum. The museum was a little smaller than I expected but I really liked the architectural layout of the galleries and some of the collection was very much so worth the trip including pieces by Scott Fife, Sally Finch (I didn’t know you were born in jolly ole’ Sally!), Roberts Motherwell and Yoder, Mark Tobey and others. Before entering the 9th Annual Northwest Biennial I crossed by the outdoor enclosed atrium now housing the work of Stephanie Robison (who I worked with in .meta). The piece ominously floats in the brick/mortar and glassed-in space almost animatedly outlining the ridge of clouds and sky around - and nothing else. It’s wry, 2-ply and comments thickly on these lean/eco-fragile times from any angle you view it.
The main space that houses the exhibition has few dramatic standouts, but they include some bedazzling works in neon and electronics by Tannaz Farsi (my best-of pick), a huge glistening Escalade by Victor Maldonado (to be contended with), the miniature eathquakes by Rick Araluce, Isaac Layman’s phenomenal patched-together photowork Tools, Linda Hutchins‘ award-winning silver spoon wavy wall drawing and 18 others. Most media is represented except sound-based work. The exhibition space is contemporary and elegant, though I thought it was slightly crowded and could have seen it more properly presented in the adjacent larger space for a bit more breathing room, though I think the number of artists included is fitting for such a vast region of creatives. After walking through the other exhibitions on view I headed up Pacific Ave towards Broadway to peak in at soon-closing Helm Gallery situated amid a completely dug up street/sidewalk. I wrote for an appointment but didnt hear back so assumed I might have to just peek through the window to see Gretchen Bennett’s work alongside others whose work I was less familiar with in Second Peoples. The gallery looked like a cool lil’ spot from the outside, but the neighboring area had a sketchy quality, sorta lost in time somewhat. Maybe that’s not a “but” rather indicative of many things embracing our economic downturn and the rampant drug (meth) use in the inner-urban sector of anyplace in the Pacific Northwest these days? I’m glad to have tread on their soil and cinders nonetheless. I’m neither above or below the way things are (hippie/newage - I think not).
The next and almost last stop was the state capital of Olympia where Lyn needed a carnap while I explored the govermental grounds, flowers, memorials and architectural details. I just love the way building meets sky and cuts its path, and found that over and over as I walked about. We then drove around a mostly quaint downtown spotted with one-off shoppes and a few nice looking cafes, etc. One of the two friends of mine (depicted below) is re-relocating to this fine NW nook and was caught out on the town recently in the Big Apple on one of my (and Chris’ favorite shows):
I’m sure I will be visiting Oly (as they say) again in the near future. And as the trip wound down we stopped for a bite at Country Cousins in Centrailia. You gotta love the dinner salad with beet strips and Pepperidge Farm goldfish. yeah - it’s all dat.
I cherish the poker-faced sentiment, no matter what I think of the song. I’ve been thinking a lot about what nothing means lately, funny. When I was young my favorite read for a time was something called The Quotable Nothing Book (only web reference I could muster). Of course, in the 90s Trent Reznor formed Nothing Records (now defunct) — not sure it adds to this discussion other than its colloquial. Something strange hit me the other day as I walked past a Taco Bell on 82nd which was suddenly shuttered, what if fast food started to dematerialize, slowly one chain after another just stopped business as usual. What would we be left without drive-thrus and 10-minute meals? On the 5th of May perhaps one answer could be found in Cinco de Mayo-like siestas. When speaking to a Professional Practices class at PNCA about marketing oneself yesterday a student brought up the whole conversation about why people would bother to write blogs. He suggested that perhaps it could be the penchant to hear one’s own voice, and questioned if anyone would care. Point taken, and subtext of his sentiment is often embedded within the fabric of all creative thought to a certain degree (and contrarily, sometimes in the ‘blind’ eye of the viewer). The potential for a viewer to turn away, switch to off. Leaving nothing, necessarily in their wake. The discussion ensued about the proliferation of blog use for the writer vs. reader, the death of the newspaper (+ reportage as document). I attempted to defend the concept of my words in the public eye as being free speech, as simple as that may seem. If it were hot air it may also be perceived as nothing…but even air is an intricate collection of elements - not to mention silence - for which I have been both an advocate and a detractor. This entire train of thought can be applied to why one creates art and/or objects in times that require new models and modalities. Questions?
The image above is a set-up of Vladislav Delay, who I’ve found in various places across the web as of late, worth listening to. First with AGF (Podcast 10) appearing in a new series for T-Mobile’s Electronic Beats (Modeselektor & others are featured as well in lengthy mix sessions). And as the fortnight approaches upon which I will once again depart the region for Montreal and the 10th Anniversary offerings of Mutek I embrace much of the truly best in the field of electronic music and a/v. For this earmark event they’ve rolled out a new podcast (adding new entries almost daily). If you haven’t made the northeast trek, here you can listen to what you’ve missed - including a set by Delay, Akufen, Komet, Pan/Tone among others. These hour-long original master performances can even be downloaded into your own personal iTunes for repeated hear-wear.
One of the highlights this year will be the world premiere of Herman Kolgen’s newest solo project, IN/JECT (May 27). Described as “A human body is injected in a cistern. Over the course of 45 minutes, the pressure of the liquid exerts upon him multiple neurosensorial transformations.” The work will be performed live in concert with Gas (Wolfgang Voigt) of Cologne. Submersive! Also included will be a very rare performance by Cyclo (Carsten Nicolai/Ryoji Ikeda) of Raster-Noton and Atom™ (aka Uwe Schmidt). The links include music samples, so tune in…
Not leastly, in the world of the future, comes Star Trek (a pre-quel). This past weekend, along with approx 400 Intel folk, I was treated to the theatrical preview of this new film, due out on Friday. Special effects and fight scenes dominated the entire picture which is fast-paced, wide-screened and quickly pieces together the story of a young James Tiberius Kirk and his journey into Starfleet Academy. The new ensemble cast all fit their parts well, alluding to the visage of its original TV stars. This will not act as a spoiler, though a small cameo by Winona Ryder in her big screen return as Spock’s human mother seemed an interesting choice. There was also a return by one of the original cast members which wavered on the hokey. For me (only a part-time trekkie) this affair was about 3 out of 5 stars - mostly due to tongue-in-cheek inuendos rather than serious sci-fi (for the futurists out there). You can get your fill of trailers and other trivia here.
