Pat Moran GHOSTIES! That’s the cast of How to Stop Dying. They’re hiding. The Simpsons invaded Portland Playhouse in PEN/Laura Pels Award winner Anne Washburn’s post-apocalyptic Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, and Thomas Ross was there to witness it. “Director Brian Weaver and the company at Portland Playhouse seem to be a perfect match for […]
Artsy
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44 Years After Shooting Himself in the Arm, Remembering Artist Chris Burden
Josh White / Gagosian Gallery Chris Burden The conceptual artist Chris Burden died last week, 44 years after getting shot in the arm for art. One of performance art’s forerunners, Burden leaves behind a legacy of boundary-pushing, occasionally bleakly playful pieces. His early work was odd and violent and self-destructive—take “Five Day Locker Piece,” which […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
This Week in Art: Art Parties, Rock Critic Jessica Hopper, and More Plays About Drones
Elizabeth Leach Gallery An assemblage by MK Guth, up now at Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Robert Ham spoke to Jessica Hopper about her new book, The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic, calling her “one of the sharpest and most fiery writers working today, filling column inches with deeply felt and unabashedly […]
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Closing Soon: Heidi Schwegler’s Sculptures of Doom at the Art Gym
The Art Gym at Marylhurst University Yep, that’s a cage. By all appearances, the Art Gym at Marylhurst University is a weird place to visit if you live in Portland. It’s inconvenient (a car helps; so does the 35 bus, which goes straight to the campus), and there’s plenty of great art right here in […]
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Breaking: There’s an Art-World Precedent for the Internet’s Obsession with Cats
“Gato Barraña Galicia 2” by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga Commons)(Lmbuga Galipedia) So 19th-century. Here’s something fascinating: A slew of cat paintings go up for bidding at the auction house Bonhams this week, and Vulture’s got a theory that it may provide insight into our current fixation with internet cats—it may actually be the reemergence […]
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A Q&A with Alex Ross, New Yorker Music Critic
Picador For the final event of Third Angle Ensemble’s 2014-15 season, the beloved contemporary classical alliance is putting a focus on works that originated on the West Coast of the U.S. The performance, entitled Hearing Voices, features six representative works from some of the region’s most important composers—Henry Cowell, John Luther Adams, Harry Partch, John […]
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This Week in Art: EDM, Crime, and Pro Grump Norm Macdonald
HarperCollins RYAN GATTIS—From the field of thrillers with literary merit, Steve Humphrey read Ryan Gattis’ new novel, All Involved, which sets a character-driven tale against the 1992 Los Angeles riots, making it a timely-as-ever social commentary: As a beleaguered nurse in All Involved ruminates, “There’s a hidden America inside the one we portray to the […]
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Coming Up in Visual Art: Keyon Gaskin, Feminist Bookstores, and Vintage Video Art
Edie Fake Edie Fake covers Kathy Acker for Feminist Bookstore. If you love feasting your eyeballs on new and strange art, don’t even think of going out of town this weekend, because there’s a slew of performances and shows opening that are more than worth your time and attention. Here are a handful of picks […]
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Even More Kathleen Hanna: On Installation Art and The Riot Grrrl Collection
Feminist Press ABOVE: Kathleen Hanna’s filing cabinet—donated FOR HISTORY—on the cover of The Riot Grrrl Collection. When I interviewed Kathleen Hanna in advance of her lecture in Portland tomorrow, a lot was left on the proverbial cutting-room floor. Here’s what she told me about her visual art projects and helpful resources on the history of […]
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Kathleen Hanna Doesn’t Want a Riot Grrrl Revival. Neither Should We.
“I’m not interested in a revival,” says Kathleen Hanna. “I’m not interested in ‘Riot Grrrl Part Deux.’” It’s one of the first things she says when we talk on the phone ahead of her appearance in Portland, and it sounds like she’s had to say it a lot recently. Thanks to mounting nostalgia for the […]
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Portland’s Black Cake Records Meld Text with Art and Sound
Black Cake Records Zachary Schomburg collaborates with Typhoon guitarist Kyle Morton on an album of dreamy poetic soundscapes. Bianca Stone turns her poems into Diane Cluck-esque folk songs. Dot Devota juxtaposes sound collage from Ferguson protests with collaborations from travels in Taiwan. Sampson Starkweather and Brandon Shimoda collaborate with poets and musicians. Jon-Michael Frank shouts […]
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This Week in Art: Kathleen Hanna! Diary Entries! Turning Words into Sound Art!
Aliya Naumoff Kathleen Hanna! HEIDI JULAVITS—Julavits’ latest puts diary-keeping into (lengthy) book form. Shelby King wishes it hadn’t. “In the first paragraph of The Folded Clock: A Diary, author Heidi Julavits writes about watching the clock as a child, wondering ‘Will this day ever end?’ I asked that same question many times while reading,” she […]