“A queer-love power trio.” PICA via Flickr Pulsing with disco nostalgia and wildwood fantasies, Meg Wolfe’s PICA co-commissioned TBA:16 piece New Faithful Disco made its Portland debut at the Winningstad Theatre this weekend. The modern dance performance was a single, uninterrupted work with curiously contrasting motifs and a compelling musical framework—who doesn’t love a little […]
TBA
Posted inTBA
TBA Review: When Watching One Part of Morgan Thorson’s Still Life, Another Part Passes You By
Dirty walls, dancers moving in unison, check marks happening on the back wall. Suzette Smith Since Friday, Morgan Thorson’s Still Life has been playing at the Portland Art Museum, on the second floor of the Modern and Contemporary Art Building for five hours at a time. Thorson has 10-plus dancers working with her, running through […]
Posted inTBA
TBA Review: Narcissister’s Sublime, Ab Fab-Approved Spectacle
Narcissister sheds identities like Russian dolls. Briana Cerezo In a 2012 episode of the British sitcom, Absolutely Fabulous, Edina, hoping to impress an American actor, suggests that she and her aging scenester friend Patsy take him to clubs to see Narcissister: “She’s a kind of crazy disco performance artist; she pulls things out of her […]
Posted inArtsy
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 […]
Posted inTBA
At This Year’s Time-Based Art Festival, the Stakes Will Be Higher
Duty Free Dylan Mira “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 […]
Posted inTBA
Final Thoughts on TBA 2015, Plus Art It’s Not Too Late to See!
The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s annual Time-Based Art Festival (TBA) came to a close Saturday night, with ’90s-inspired dance party. A few remaining performances landed Sunday, and with that, those of us covering the fest for the Mercury have our lives back. When we met before the festival started, TBA Artistic Director Angela Mattox […]
Posted inTBA
Final Thoughts on TBA 2015, Plus Art It’s Not Too Late to See!
The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s annual Time-Based Art Festival (TBA) came to a close Saturday night, with ’90s-inspired dance party. A few remaining performances landed Sunday, and with that, those of us covering the fest for the Mercury have our lives back. When we met before the festival started, TBA Artistic Director Angela Mattox […]
Posted inTBA
The Confines of Gender (and Dance) in Radhouane El Meddeb’s Au temps où les arabes dansaient
Courtesy PICA Radhouane El Meddeb’s Au temps où les arabes dansaient Watching French choreographer Radhouane El Meddeb’s Au temps où les arabes dansaient, I couldn’t help compare this ensemble performance to his solo work performed earlier in the festival, Je danse et je vous en donne à bouffer. There are similarities in themes—both explore gender […]
Posted inTBA
The Confines of Gender in Radhouane El Meddeb’s Au temps où les arabes dansaient
Courtesy PICA Radhouane El Meddeb’s Au temps où les arabes dansaient Watching French choreographer Radhouane El Meddeb’s Au temps où les arabes dansaient, I couldn’t help compare this ensemble performance to his solo work performed earlier in the festival, Je danse et je vous en donne à bouffer. There are similarities in themes—both explore gender […]
Posted inArtsy
Between Satire and Sincerity: Michelle Ellsworth’s Briefing on the End of Men
Briana Cerezo Michelle Ellsworth, followed by her “Male-Gaze Simulator,” in Preparation for the Obsolescence of the Y Chromosome. A sassy New York Times editorial by Maureen Dowd about the evolutionary shrinking of the Y chromosome, coupled with the death of a friend’s father, got Michelle Ellsworth asking, “What will be missed when men are gone?” […]
Posted inTBA
Between Satire and Sincerity: Michelle Ellsworth’s Briefing on the End of Men
Briana Cerezo Michelle Ellsworth, followed by her “Male-Gaze Simulator,” in Preparation for the Obsolescence of the Y Chromosome. A sassy New York Times editorial by Maureen Dowd about the evolutionary shrinking of the Y chromosome, coupled with the death of a friend’s father, got Michelle Ellsworth asking, “What will be missed when men are gone?” […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
The Absurd Joy of French Metalheads and a Touring Amusement Park in La Mélancolie des Dragons
Courtesy PICA/Martin Argyroglo Philippe Quesne’s La Mélancolie des Dragons “Large scale theater work” is how TBA described Philippe Quesne’s newest production, La Mélancolie des Dragons. It’s fair enough, I suppose—it would be hard to call it a “play,” exactly, lacking as it is in traditional conflict and plot. And while it feels elaborate (a car […]