HIGHER SOMETHING / THE MOON

Posted by Storm Tharp
Yesterday, was so full of amazing things.
It may have been one of the best days of the year.
Who has been to the Visual Arts Exhibit at Corberry Press? INCREDIBLE!!
The opening reception begins at 4:00 today. If you can attend, please do.
It has already begun. Im late.
The collection of work is so strong that I cannot begin to to understand its meaning and effect without one or two more visits. I can express however, that it is the kind of dark and political show that I have been anticipating for what, 4 years? At least.
It has taken a while to find out how to say (what we need to) about how the world is behaving and what it means to live conscientiously. And what it means to live with and without spirit. Or not? The impulses in this exhibit seem to have known immediately what to do. The program did not need gestation. It just has taken this long to bring it to Portland. And for this I am so grateful.
(More on this later.)
As I was leaving the show, I encountered THE BIO FEEDBACK MACHINE and the TEMPLE of a HIGHER SOMETHING. Its a large environment parked outside of the back entrances of Corberry Press. I was skeptical – so I waited before I went in. Im happy that I did. The gut of that space is harsh and funny and exhilerating. I thought to myself – “am I going to die in here?” And kind of hoping that I would. As I moved through the accumulation I found some gross knick knackable sewage that I kind of hated and then looked up and started taking in the cosmic bankruptcy written on the wall. I paused on the words: “HIGHER SOMETHING.” – and I really started to love that space. As I walked away from the parking lot and the building I witnessed a young man crying on the sidewalk – and It didnt really surprise me.
There was a full-moon- simultaneity to what was going on yesterday. Not scientifically cosmic, but none the less, it did feel that way. And showed no signs of restraint as Laurie Anderson picked up where the crying boy left off and proceeded to blow my mind. There is little that I can say. It was accessible and yet quite profound. She tapped into much of the same territory that you felt at Corberry Press – with Harrell, and Kristan, and the fellows from Germany and Marina Abramovic and Matt Jackson. I was again witness to a rigorously crafted world reflecting the spirit of the individual while projecting outwardly into unknown and universal areas of beauty, war, power, asymmetry, patience, transcendence and in the case of Laurie Anderson – the moon.
It was awesome. – ST