Experimental cinema is a passion project. There’s little hope of the dreamlike narratives of Maya Deren, or the dizzying color experiments of Stan Brakhage, or the haunting sociopolitical statements of Jean-Gabriel Périot reaching a wide audience—even if their efforts have influenced Hollywood filmmakers and countless ad agencies. In fact, without the support of museums and […]
Artsy
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TBA is Here! Here’s What You Need to Know.
Narcissister PICA “The stakes are a lot higher in a space that we want to be able to welcome people into,” says Erin Boberg Doughton, performing arts program director for the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA). Ahead of PICA’s annual Time-Based Art Festival (TBA), which kicks off September 8, Boberg Doughton and PICA’s visual […]
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Hey, Who Wants to Buy That Statue of Naked Donald Trump? (Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?)
Rich Smith You probably remember that glorious nude statue of orange Donald Trump that was proudly displayed in Seattle recently. Turns out it was one of five statues—each titled “The Emperor Has No Balls”—that magically appeared in five cities across the nation. Apparently all were destroyed or disappeared… except for one. And that last, lonely […]
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Here’s the Only Fall Arts & Culture Guide You’ll Need!
Juliana Huxtable Image courtesy of the artist Fall in Portland is a time of year I look forward to with the bright-eyed excitement of a mid-’90s seven-year-old with a shiny new Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper—and for similar reasons. As local theater companies announce their upcoming seasons, and lineups for festivals like PICA’s Time-Based Art Festival […]
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The Independent Publishing Resource Center is the Latest Portland Arts Organization Seeking a New Home
God damn it. TonyTaylorStock via iStock It’s an old story at this point: Rent increases and financial difficulties have displaced a number of Portland arts organizations over the past few years. We saw it happen with Conduit Dance, NW Dance Project, RECESS, and studio spaces like the Troy Laundry Building—to name only a few. And […]
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Meet the HOMOCATS: This Week’s Cover Artist, J Morrison, on the Gayest Cats Ever
Kill Guns, 2014, from “The War Continues” zine J. Morrison J. Morrison is a Brooklyn-based artist who created the project HOMOCATS to fight phobias, promote equal rights, combat cultural stereotypes, and challenge social norms. We talked with him to get the lowdown on these extremely gay cats. MERCURY: On our cover this week, we’re featuring […]
Posted inBooks
The Foodie Hijinks and Horse People of Lisa Hanawalt’s Hot Dog Taste Test
Lisa Hanawalt’s the one responsible for BoJack Horseman‘s unique character designs. Lisa Hanawalt Remember watching the first season of Netflix’s BoJack Horseman, when somewhere in the middle of that sad-man-pony story you began to notice that the half-people/half-animals in the background were doing super odd things and wearing really cool outfits? That was Lisa Hanawalt. […]
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Conduit Dance is Suspending Operations
Conduit Dance From an email sent today by Conduit Dance: As you know, we moved into the Ford Building last October with generous support from building owner Mike Tevis, who offered a gradual ramp up of rent, and we began building a new focus on broad dance education programming. During the last few months, despite […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Themes of Identity and Diaspora at the Risk/Reward Festival of New Performance
Vanessa Goodman David Cooper “We automatically try to see patterns,” says Jerry Tischleder, producing artistic director of the Risk/Reward Festival of New Performance, when I mention that three out of five of the works in this year’s festival are expressly about culture, heritage, and diaspora. “Last year everyone thought Risk/Reward was a feminist art festival.” […]
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Portland’s Claymation King, Will Vinton, on a Career of Filmmaking, Innovation, and Singing Raisins
IN THE WANING YEARS of the ’80s, one of the biggest (and most surprising) pop culture phenomena was stop-motion clay animation, or “claymation.” Dinosaurs, singing California raisins, and a weirdly popular pizza mascot called the Noid—all made of clay—dominated the cultural landscape. Michael Jackson provided the voice for one of the singing clay raisins. A […]
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Tonight: Local Comics Artist and Author of My Boyfriend Walt Whitman Menorah Horwitz Presents Her Latest
As homework for this comic, I would suggest the documentary film Paris is Burning. Floating World Comics Tonight, local comics artist and author of My Boyfriend Walt Whitman and The Wookie Woof Book Menorah Horwitz presents her new fictitious history, published by Floating World Comics, about the Miss U.S. of Heya beauty pageant competition in […]
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Vanport Mosaic Festival: An Essential Look into Oregon’s History of Segregation
Vanport, once Oregon’s second-largest city, was flooded on May 30, 1948. City of Portland Archives “You will be warned if necessary. You will have time to leave. Don’t get excited.” That was the non-warning given to residents of Vanport, once Oregon’s second-largest city, before it was flooded on May 30, 1948. Ask around about Vanport, […]