Sean Schumacher / Courtesy of Portland Institute for Contemporary Art There were lines out the door for both ticket holders and those waiting in standby for Erin Markey’s TBA show. Nineties hip-hop bumped through the theater walls. People were spilling drinks and making new friends. Clearly, word had gotten out that Markeyโs show, Boner Killer, […]
Noah Dunham
Posted inTheater & Performance
TBA Review: Half Straddle’s Power Pop and Sisterhood
Bob Fortner / Courtesy of Portland Institute for Contemporary Art A few years back, some friends moved to New York. I asked them what they most wanted to do there. Their response? As if it was a completely normal response: “Make a theater band.” “What’s a theater band?” you might ask. I’m not sure if […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
TBA Review: Morgan Bassichis Attempts to Update the Protest Song
Morgan Bassichis – Me, But Also Everybody! (Part I) – MoMA PS1 from Morgan Bassichis on Vimeo. PICA describes Protest Songs, Morgan Bassichis’ TBA performance as “an evening of protest songs to soothe your despair and stoke your outrage.” While those intentions were on display at last night’s performance, I couldn’t help but wonder whether […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
TBA Review: Faye Driscoll’s Play Will Leave You Scratching Your Head
Briana Cerezo Iโve been covering the PICA’s Time-Based Art Festival for the better part of a decade. Iโve found writing about the contemporary canon to be both satisfying and deeply challenging. In many ways, reviewing means looking at the work more closely and acutely. I lean in, because itโs my job to really try and […]
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TBA Review: Watching Grown Men Juggle in Alessandro Sciarroniโs UNTITLED_I will be there when you die
Alfredo Anceschi Letโs be be honest: When one thinks about contemporary performance art, one does not immediately jump to juggling. And yet, in a field that seems to have exhausted the use of microphone as character, and nudity as truth, an earnest piece symbolizing lifeโs journey through hurled objects isnโt so out there upon further […]
Posted inMovies & TV
TBA Review: Unpacking โOthernessโ in Carlos Mottaโs Deseos / ุฑุบุจุงุช
<img src="https://media2.fdncms.com/portmerc/imager/u/large/18563588/1473815222-carlosmotta-hero_2x.jpg" alt="From Deseos” title=”From Deseos”> From Deseos When it comes to TBAโand art in generalโI find that one can measure the resonance of an artistic work by the amount of questions it leaves you with. Thatโs not to say questions that come from confusion or misinterpretation of a piece, but rather thoughts that prompt […]
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Back to Nature with Night Tripper
Courtesy PICA/Florian Rainer Night Tripper‘s forest ritual. About halfway through last night’s TBA Performance Night Tripper, I was convinced I was caught in a spell. The contemporary dance and music piece developed by Signe Beckwer, Ingri Fiksdal and Ingvild Langgård/Phaedra takes place in a forest setting, in this case a meadow in Northwest Portland’s Forest […]
Posted inArtsy
Subverting Cultural Expectations with Purposeful Confusion in Dana Michel’s Yellow Towel
Courtesy PICA/Ian Douglas Dana Michel The final of image of Dana Michel’s Yellow Towel has been playing on my mind since Saturday night’s TBA performance. Before the final lights went down, the audience was drawn to Michel, crouched in the front corner of the stage, a long tan weave-like fabric attached to her head with […]
Posted inTBA
Subverting Cultural Expectations with Purposeful Confusion in Dana Michel’s Yellow Towel
Courtesy PICA/Ian Douglas Dana Michel The final of image of Dana Michel’s Yellow Towel has been playing on my mind since Saturday night’s TBA performance. Before the final lights went down, the audience was drawn to Michel, crouched in the front corner of the stage, a long tan weave-like fabric attached to her head with […]
Posted inTBA
“But Still We Danced”: Faustin Linyekula’s Le Cargo
To see a perfect example of how simplicity will always trump spectacle, do yourself a favor and go watch Faustin Linyekula’s Le Cargo. The piece is honest, at times breath taking, and completely void of unnecessary bells and whistles. There is no set, save a handful of floor lights placed to scatter shadows against the […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Future Cinema, or How to Turn Your Google+ Conversation Into a Performance Piece
Things I was looking forward to seeing last night at The Works: Weston Currie premiering a new film with a live soundtrack provided by Portland’s own Liz Harris (Grouper). And B-Movie Bingo presented by Wolf Choir, in which audience members play bingo using movie cliches from Bulletproof starring Gary Busey(!). I didn’t see them though. […]
Posted inTBA
Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol: Supertitles are the Worst!
I had two thoughts as I walked out of the premier TBA performance of Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol’s El Rumor del Incendio. The first: “well that was charming.” The second: “I want to watch that all over again and not pay one shred of attention to the supertitles.” This is not to say that supertitles […]