September 14, 2007 Archives

Posted by: James Maxwell
As a twenty-four year old recent college graduate, watching Andrew Dickson’s show “Sell Out” could not have come at a more opportune time. I am a journalism major in a new city looking for a way to pay off student loans and wondering if I should try and use my journalistic integrity to make a difference or start the grueling 9 to 5. Thanks to Dickson’s witty performance I am ready to take the first step and conform to a corporation with pride.
Throughout Andrew Dickson’s hour long show the comedian took the audience through his 27 step plan on how to “Sell Out” successfully, whether you are an artist or not a person has to start paying the bills so get ready to swallow your pride and put your creativity on the back burner in order to achieve the cliché American Dream. Some of the most hilarious ideas or “steps” during the show included: Growing up Middle Class, attending a liberal college, and tasting the bitter sting of disappointment. By following these steps and numerous others, according to Dickson, a person by the age of thirty will have no problem selling out and could even encourage others to do so.
The entire performance was unique, interactive, and perfectly fast paced that kept the audience entertained the entire time. I walked out of the performance proud of my recent lack of creative writing, and excited for the numerous cutthroat PR firms I have lined up interviews with. So thank you Andrew Dickson for making this young professional’s first priority be a hefty paycheck.

with Mark Russell, Philip Bither and Claude Wampler

Two heavyweight American curators interviewing one of the most inspiring contemporary performance artists alive, it couldn't go wrong, and a blast it was indeed! It was one of the first noontime chats that really went somewhere relevant. Instead of discussing and explaining her piece (for a change, that was the only topic that was NOT under discussion), we got a great insight in Wampler's very specific way of working and her look at the arts world today (and how this affects her work).

She started off explaining how she got into the field and how her these first encounters with the theater and dance scene started to shape her ideas on the dynamics of the performative event. She talked about how she is losing her ambition to engage a visual arts crowd in performative events and vice versa as she feels the two audiences have a completely different understanding of the artistic object/subject. The visual arts crowd wanting a dead object they don't have to respond to, the performing arts crowd wanting a living subject that asks for attention, emotion... This duality made her think about the objectification / distancing of the performative. A second path that seems very important in her work is the aspect of spontaneity. For Wampler it seems like spontaneous or unforeseen acts are the only aspects that make theater interesting and relevant these days. Yet she understands that its of course a little paradoxal to manufacture artificial spontaneity as she does in her pieces. This also brings her to her final piece, the one she presents at TBA right now, subtitled: 'Career Ender'. Wampler explains this as her inability to keep surprise people, manufacture artifial spontaneity, as she is out of tools. She experiences this as very suffocating and limiting her in her artistic course, paralysing her own being as an artists. Still, she had to admit that it's not the first time she announces the end of her career and that after a while, eventually she'll come up with something... maybe something completely different, ready to surprise us all again!

by Wouter Bouchez

This small room at Corberry Press held my attention for quite some time. My attitude towards the work swung between appreciation and wonderment. How is it that these many small art objects become legitimate when grouped together and placed into conjunction? The actual work being displayed looks as if the curator salvaged the garbage cans of a High School art class on the day after school ended. Most of the work has that over-earnest quality, those painfully careful but flat brushstrokes. The colors are either muddy or day-glo and rest on shoddy store-bought canvases. Here also is the dedication to a one-liner or stupid joke and the distortions of figure that usually result from ineptitude. But this work explores a trusting ineptitude - one that follows every gesture to its ultimate conclusion, a work ethic which would be missing in most High School art projects.
I really didn’t have any association with either “space” or an “office” (both of which are stated in the official description). The room is far too commonplace and ordinary to describe “Space” (unless we mean the space of a stoned mind) and far too cruddy and haphazard to be an office. More like a dorm room, really... So what held my attention for so long? For one, the quantity and variety of objects lead to extended exploration - just when you think you’ve seen it all, there’s another little sculpture hidden in a corner or placed on the windowsill. And the list of works is no help. A map with numbers must be cross-referenced both with the room itself and a separate list of artists’ names. The work also continues to be fascinating - how is it that all of these artists have such a unified vision? Why, for goodness sake, is a weird day-glo painting of a gnome/sasquatch shown with a careful realist depiction of a pot pipe, a terribly ugly bust painted in faux-granite and a silly paperweight rock painted like a cellphone?
All of these elements combine to make the work of the curator much stronger than that of any individual artist. The room itself, and the mentality of the person who chose, organized and displayed this work becomes the overarching message. But what IS the message? Why should a “High School Aesthetic” be championed? Perhaps it is the earnestness that I mentioned before, an appreciation of the small gesture, a nostalgia for that moment of “pure creativity”. I can’t decide if this appreciation is ironic or genuine, wholehearted or sly. I chose to take the show at face value, and see this work as a kind of balm in the face of the overly sleek, impersonal and professional. It’s a sort of charmed space.

- posted by Seth Nehil

Of course David is telling untruths when he promises at the start of Repeat After Me that we will know how we feel to be American in 89 minutes. The show is just too full of contradictions and complexities to leave the audience with a unified feeling or thought. Hand2Mouth have, over the years, formed a way of working which incorporates the input and improvisation of cast members on a specific topic. They have a sense of humor which is very much their own - the goofy, trite and kitsch hide an undertone of deadly serious political anger. Hand2Mouth have not been afraid to take on big topics of slavery, westward expansion, patriotism. The results are often big, messy and somewhat uneven. Depending on your perspective, this uneven quality can be either charming or frustrating. Perhaps it represents what Taylor Mac has called the “Hey kids, let’s put on a show aesthetic”. Repeat After Me is a great example, as it swings wildly between divergent moments. From what seems to be a group of 12 year-olds putting on a variety show in the basement rec room can emerge a deeply affecting and provocative scene.
Repeat After Me succeeds in giving the impression of aliens visiting America and trying to fit in based on clues gleaned from popular culture. The costumes look as if the cast jumped into the Goodwill bins and came up wearing whatever they found. The musical choices are similarly unselective - a broad cross section of Americana both obvious and obscure, like a cross section of everything on the radio at one moment in time. The performance itself feels like a mash-up of high-school talent show, church revival, aerobics class, karaoke bar, strip club, support group and music video, just to mention a few. These “genres” become mixed, fused and confused. But, gol durn it, the participants are nothing if not eager and enthusiastic. Big cheesy smiles and a “go get ‘em Tiger” attitude prevail as the characters encourage each other, hold each other up and restrain each other. Someone always seems to take things just a little (or a lot) too far, and by golly, the others are there to help him or her conform. But this pattern of freak-out and restraint becomes a bit formulaic as it repeats again and again during the production.
My opinion is altered somewhat by having seen the first version of Repeat After Me in the Goldsmith Performance Lab a year ago. The TBA version feels tame by comparison, though I’m having difficulty identifying why. Those dark moments feel less dark, the destruction of the stage feels less complete, the chaos feels more controlled. Even small choices such as the replacement of red Gatorade with water (vomited repeatedly by Erin) feel less strong. The bright red liquid and iconic brand reference add layers of meaning to an otherwise ridiculous moment. Other scenes are still brilliant, such as the “American Tableau” around a glowing campfire, in which characters sing through mouthfuls of marshmallow.
On the other hand, I think the meta-narrative of this version is stronger, the feeling of group identity and the sense that these people desperately want to fit in to a so-called American culture - in all of its absurdity, glitz, contradiction, humor, rage, ridiculousness, incoherence and beauty. Those mixed feelings continue long after the end of the show.

- posted by Seth Nehil

The panel consisted of Andrew Dickson of "Sell Out," two guys from Hooliganship, artist Peter Burr and three of the peeps from Urbanhonking (minus Jonah.) I have been to all, but one and it was the most engaging and interesting thus far. It ran 30 minutes overtime and it could have very well gone on for much longer. The audience was engaged and a consistent and enlightening diologue was taking place directly between the speakers and the audience.

Entitled "New Media," most of the Chat focused in on issues of Art in relation to the Internet and then just focused in on concerns related to the Internet in general. One interesting part of the panel was the obvious generation gap in relation to this issue. Andrew Dickson and Peter Burr seemed less reliant on the Internet for their art and the concerns of Internet seemed less of an urgency to them. This was in direct contrast to the rest of the younger panel members who seemed to use the Internet as the primary vehicle for their artistic, as well as their personal identities.

Among the major concerns brought up were the issues of ethical practices in relation to art and the Internet. The theft of intellectual property, the futility of copyright and the frustration with the anonymity fueled rudeness, that the Internet gives rise to, were all sources of frustration. The panel's response to these concerns was a wise and accepting, "Get used to it, because it is all part of the game and it is only going to become more prevalent." This seems like a highly accurate portrayal of the way things are going. This led into a discussion of collage based art forms such as the recent influx of mashups in which an artist will take parts of other people's songs and rearrange them and then is given credit for the product.No conclusions were made as to the rightness or the wrongness of such acts, just a casual acceptance.

Everything ultimately related to back to the concerns of the artist working within society and at the end of the chat Stephanie Snyder (moderator) talked about a Freelancer's Union that was started in New York City to provide benefits to those not involved in conventional job situations. She commented that this was just what Portland needed and I could not agree more. For more info.

posted by Noelle

T:BA:07 Day Eight – Thursday, 13 September 2007

I would like to start today’s entry with an apology to Anna Oxygen and her Cloud Eye Control posse. I was rather critical of her work, not in reference to the work itself, but to its perceived originality. I basically stated that I found it to not be particularly inventive, as I felt that ‘technically’ it was no more advanced then Miranda July’s Swan Tool from back in 2000. But, what I did not fully express was that I really did enjoy the performance. There were some awkward and clunky moments that could really be ironed out, but it was a good show. I expecially enjoyed the part when the video projection of her mouth opened up, followed by the physical screens parting and her walking back through them. This play with scale was great!
Plus, I also really did enjoy the surgeon scene when she was seemingly laying upon a table and the video characters were experimenting with her.
Thank you Anna.
I look forward to seeing your future work as it continues to mature.

The reason for my negativity, and it is a rather thin excuse, it because of tEEth.
tEEth was just too darn good!
The two performances that I saw afterwards just paled in comparison so much, that I felt they sucked at the time. Anna was not lame, I just did not fully appreciate her at the time. Kassys was not horrible, it was just not my thing. [Not everything at T:BA is going to resonate with all audience members, and thank goodness for that! There is a diversity in the audience, and there should also be a diversity in the performances.]
Sorry, Anna, but my review placed you as a friendly fire casualty in the insane frenzy of digesting the bombardment of many many performances every day. It is rather intense at times, and I did not mean to be hurtful to you. Please do accept my apology.

The day began at 7am with yoga, which was a really great class.
We spent a good chunk of the time doing head / hand stands and some other inversions, which I always enjoy.

9:30a Randee Paufve Workshop, Conduit
12:30p New Media and Performance, PNCA
3:00p Kristan Kennedy Salon, Corberry Press
[3:00p Hip Hop 101 Workshop re-Mix, Conduit]
7:00p William Kentridge, PAM: Whitsell
8:30p Larry Krone, Someday
8:30p Holcombe Waller, Someday
10:30p Cartune Xprez, Wonder

Then I headed over to Conduit for the first workshop of the day with Randee Paufve.
As I did not want to totally collapse, I first hopped over to Elephants for a “Superfood” drink, which felt good in my empty belly. On the way in, I bumped into my friend Robyn; so we wandered over to grab a cup of tea for her, as she was a bit sleepy still and we had some time.
The workshop was rather sparsely attended, which was a shame. There were nine of us, but in the future I do hope that more will attend Randee’s workshops. She is incredible, and I really enjoyed it.
Mind you, I am not a dancer, well not past the techno Bhangra variety of dance at least. So, many of the technical terms she used were lost on me, but what I did see was the way she guided these other eight talented dancers to move and flow about the room. She is interested in BIG and juicy movement, the kind that flows from the fingers like gossamer spider webs in an undulating breeze, filling every nook of space, enveloping you, entrancing you, making you fall in love. There is great strength in the work the individual moves, some that seem to be based in the martial arts, but that draw from all aspects of dance and movement.
Randee spoke about finding the ‘line’, the line that flows through a movement, that connects your entire body from your toes, through your spine, up into your skull, that flows through movements without pause at transitions in form. This reminds me of the panoramic photo montages, where one draws a red line overlay to connect the big thoughts in a zen-like simplicity. You could think of it as living within a work by Miró or perhaps if you have seen the sculpture on the roof of the Fundacio Antoni Tapies in Barcelona Spain created from meters of wire…
The most beautiful thing was watching the other dancers, as at some point I decided that it was best to watch and not get in the way of their beauty with my novice stumbling.
Robyn Conroy was amazing! The flow and grace that she brought to the work, such strength, such beauty. Robyn has a long and lovely form, and this coupled with her mastery of movement really brought the intentions of Randee Paufve’s choreography to light.
Thank you Randee, thank you Robyn, and thank you to the all of the other dancers whom shared the space with me at Conduit.

Luxurious as it was, I actually had an hour and a half before the next T:BA event.
So, I moved my truck from the SmartPark down to around the corner from Corberry Press.
Then over to a café for a breakfast burrito, which really hit the spot.
1.5 hours of yoga and then another 2 of dance makes this boy rather hungry.
Not to dawdle here, let’s get back to talking about T:BA…

The day’s Noon:30 chat was with Andrew Dickson, Steven Slappe and the folks from Urban Honking and Cartune Xprez. I am about to say something that might offend the panelist, but it is only intended to give the reader a visual sense… ok, take a deep breath… Looking at the group, and hearing them talk was a bit like watching “Revenge of the Nerds”. Now, if you are starting to get offended, remember that the Nerds kicked butt at the end of the movie, and Bill Gates has shown the raw beauty of being a geek! Heck, if you go on personals websites, there are slews of people saying that they just want to find someone as geeky as they are. I’m my own kind of geek. OK, enough pandering, I just wanted to paint the picture aesthetically, without being offensive. I would also like the reader[s] to understand that I respect the people on the panel, and that is at the core of my comments.

But, the panel did not seem to really get anywhere.

I was also interesting that the panel refused to take my questions. As a matter of fact, Stephanie Snyder, the moderator for the talk, actually said that she had heard enough from me on other days and did not want to hear from me that day under the guise of ‘letting other have the opportunity to speak’… Well, yes, I do put in questions every day, but that is because I am there every day. If others want to participate more, they are going to have to both attend more and speak up. Believe me, I only start talking when I am getting bored or I feel that the discussion is waning. Keep it lively, and I’ll just kick back and enjoy the show.

Sociologically, I found it interesting that I did not get called, because two days earlier I had turned one of Marko Lulic’s statements against himself, which in turn might have offended Stephanie Snyder. Urban Honking was rather pissed at me for posting some thoughts about where I felt they were heading, as I did not feel they were serious in their intentions. It would seem that I misunderstood UrHo’s intentions, as they have been responded to and corrected in the bLog comments from Day 05. The people next to me and I giggled about it a bit, which was fun.

One of the people in the audience asked how all of this was relevant to the T:BA Festival, and since I felt that question was never answered, and I was not allowed to participate against all Fourth Amendments rights and all… here I go…
We did not get to have the discussion then, so I had to engage it with other folks through-out the day, and toss it in here for added fun.

Dialogue is a very important component of any Web Log [bLog].
Especially in the context of a Time-Based Arts Festival, where performers and audience work together to create a whole.
Without an audience, could there be art?
If an incredible cast plays an amazing rendition of Beckett or Shakespeare in the Globe theatre, but without an audience, would it be art?
If a tree falls in the woods, and not one is there, does it make a sound?
These are some of the questions that I consider in this media...
If bLoggers just typed to no one, then it is just silly. Like an author writing a book, and never trying to get it published.
If no one sent Stephen Slappe images of their genitals, then he would have not had anything to base his work upon.
If no one started a bidding war on e-Bay then Andrew Dickson’s work would just be boring.
It is the interactivity, and in their realm specifically audience participation, which is key.

The added thing of interest to me with bLogging is that I, or another other bLogger can toss something out there, be it a word, sentence or tome, and then step back. Like a choreographer whom puts out an intention, and then the dancers get to play with it, which the choreographer may just sit back and enjoy the show. Sometimes, it is helpful to have some stage notes to give the dancers some more direction, or to guide them back to the larger vision; but it is beautiful when the choreographer vanishes and the strength and beauty of the dancers takes-over.

So, if you have thoughts about this, or any other bLog, don’t be shy.
Comment, flame, rant… this is what this media is intended for!
Without you, the reader and potential participant, I am just masturbating up here on the stage for no reason, as a commenter “Gene” was kind enough to point out.

But, I’m not doing this for myself.
I am doing this is share with you and my other friends whom might have missed an event or two, and might enjoy some of the connective threads.

This is Time-Based Art… PARTICIPATE!

Next on the docket was Kristan Kennedy salon style chat at the Corberry Press building. There was a healthy group of folks, and Kristan discussed the intentions, process, presentation, and archiving of the works in relation to the individual artists and historic artistic context. Stephanie Snyder [Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College] was in attendance, and had some excellent questions and points to consider.

Since this was in conflict with the Hip Hop 101 Workshop re-Mix at Conduit with the Lifesavas, I unfortunately had to miss it. Bummer, as they were going to have some b-boys to teach us some moves, and we were even going to get to break it down on the turntables.
I look forward to reading other’s posts.

Since I was not able to get my hair cut by children the other day, I scheduled a style with Morgan Shanafelt over at Gypsy Rose on E.Burnside. Home for dinner, walk the puppy over to the market to pick-up some milk, and then back downtown for a film at the Portland Art Museum.

Kristan Kennedy had stated that she was getting some heat due to a lack of video in the festival, which does seem strange, as there are quite a number of works in this media through-out the program.

William Kentridge was one of them, and people were lined up from the Whitsell Auditorium all the way to the street. I loved the soundtrack for the ‘nine drawings’ piece. The nine shorts themselves were rendered as if with stick charcoal, in this beautiful, vague, impressionistic manner. The hand was like the sky above Edvard Munch’s “Scream” painting.
I loved the artistry, but it did drone on a bit for me, and I could have used it being a touch more brief.
I have heard from a few folks about this desire for more editing, to make the duration of performances in the festival more terse.
I am not sure if that is a critique of our collective attention spans getting shorter, or if work is genuinely too long, but in this case, I feel that since the multi-year works were compiled, it might have been good to re-edit them before compilation.

Strolling though the misty rain, I arrived to a horde of folks outside of the Someday Lounge, with closed doors and a note saying “Sold Out”. It would seem that they had reached capacity at the venue. But, they pushed past fire code, and honored tickets that were pre-purchased.

Larry Krone and Holcombe Waller were playing.
Larry, with all due respect, was entertaining, but more akin to the gong show then T:BA; but that’s just my humble opinion. To each their own. Atleast a number of my friends from the tEEth cast were there and we got to chat a bit in the back of the club. [btw, friends or not, this is not why I have been raving about how good tEEth was. Ask my friends, when they suck, I tell them to their face, and if I am being commissioned to write critically about what I saw, I would not hold back.]
Holcombe Waller was next. There was one portion where he was speaking in French, I believe, and the projected film stills became text. I enjoyed this portion. Otherwise, the performance seemed like it should be in the North by Northwest Music Festival [NxNW], and not T:BA.

Moving right along in the mediocrity of the day… and the night…
Waller ran late, and I did consider leaving many a times, but I did not want to be rude.
[I considered leaving not because I wanted to get elsewhere rabbit, but because the music was just too light for my serious mood.]

“Cartune Xprez” was going on at the Wonder Ballroom, and I think that I might have missed the best part, the animation films. I got there in time for a ‘science’ powerpoint show by a lady wearing everyday street clothes, just talking straight-forward about facts. The crowd kept laughing and cheering, but I think it would be one of those cases for the audience just wanting to be entertained, and making what they saw into entertainment. The lady on the stage even thanked them for laughing, as she was not aware that what she was doing was funny.
There then was this bizzaro video-game-esque Merlin thing, that just creeped me out, and I just had to leave when they were done out of fear of other horrible ‘performances’.

Who let the kids out of the playground and asked them to do Show ‘n’ Tell?

Ciao,
Fredrick H. Zal
Architect | Sculptor | Advocate

Atelier Z
an.architecture and industrial design studio
advocating dialogue in the fine + applied arts
http://www.fhzal.com

Prior ‘Day in the Life’ Posts:
Navigating T:BA;
Day 01 – Opening Night;
Day 02;
Day 03;
Day 04;
Day 05;
Day 06;
Day 07.

Fredrick’s Best to Worst:

BEST:
TEEth
Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Donna Uchizono
Marc Bamuthi Joseph Workshop
Reggie Watts
Randee Paufve Workshop

Excellent:
Taylor Mac
Mirah & Spetratone International
Lifesavas
Regina Silveira

Good:
The Suicide Kings
Mammalian Diving Reflex Haircut
Guido va der Werve
Cloud Eye Control / Anna Oxygen
Sara Greenberger Rafferty Workshop
Hip Hop 101 Workshop

OK:
Liz Haley
Rinde Eckert
Donna Uchizono Workshop
Vanden Eynde & Vendendriessche
Portland Cello Project
Holcombe Waller
William Kentridge

Could have missed it and not cried too much:
Awesome
Urban Honking Workshop
Arnold Kemp
Sara Greenberger Rafferty
Kassys
Hand2Mouth Theatre
Cartune Xprez

Really sucked [for me, remember you might think something completely otherwise…]:
Jeffrey Mitchell
Larry Krone
Las Chicas del 3.5 Floppies