When I found out that I’d be writing about Yemenwed, the New York-based collective made up of artists, animators, dancers, architects, and designers, I immediately went to PICA’s TBA:10 programming guide to see what they’d be presenting. I discovered that Yemenwed was slated to show two videos. The first, Episode 3, is described as “a […]
Visual
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Bass, Atlas, Video
Ronnie Bass, The Astronomer There are plenty of video installations at the Works this year: Some are interesting and thought provoking, others less so. But that seems de rigueur for video work. Truthfully, I’ve never really been a fan of the medium. Unless the video in question is part of a larger performance piece, I […]
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So Maybe I’m “Not the Best Person” to Review Blanket
After getting out of the debut of Nicole Kelly and Noelle Stiles’ Blanket yesterday evening, I tweeted—perhaps callously: Blanket didn’t do anything for me besides put my right asscheek to sleep. Made my BF “giddy” tho. #TBA10 For what it’s worth, and to the show’s credit, my date to the show—ahem, the “BF” in question—and […]
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REVIEW: Jessica Jackson Hutchins’ Children of the Sunshine
A family gathers in their living room in front of a trio of windows. They take up instruments, and in spontaneous anti-harmony, repeatedly sing the words, “we are children of the sunshine.” The father (Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus) strums a guitar. The mother (Jessica Jackson Hutchins) holds her youngest child, burying the newborn into her […]
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Review: Ruby Sky Stiler
As you probably know, the 2010 Time-Based Art Festival (TBA:10) officially kicked off last night, and packed was Washington High School— home to the Works (TBA’s late-night performance showcase) and a large chunk of the On Sight (visual art) programming. The big pull of the evening was Japanther’s collaboration with shadow puppeteers Night Shade (check […]
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Some Moderately Bookish Thoughts on Nina Katchadourian’s Sorted Books.
Image via PICA. Since 1993, and in places ranging from NY to OH to CA to TX, Nina Katchadourian has stacked books side by side. For her Sorted Books project, Katchadourian utilizes books from libraries both public and private—arranging them, by title, to create what basically amount to little poems. There’s the one above about […]
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REVIEW: Fawn Krieger’s National Park
Kenneth Aaron FAIL! So, I don’t have anything nice to say about Fawn Krieger’s National Park— the exhibit at Washington High School which uses foam, wood, tar, cement, and felt to fabricate a cave, some rocks, and an ambiguous stream/lava flow thing (a material-based interpretation of a national park). Really, National Park reads as a […]
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REVIEW: Brian Lund at PNCA
Courtesy of PICA’s Image Bank Brian Lund’s untitled TBA contribution renders Oliver Stone’s Wall Street into 2-D, choreographic diagrams. Remembering scenes from the film in graphite tick marks, colored squares and circles, and layered lines, Lund notates characters and their movements. These tick marks, shapes, and lines are at times used to record specific scenes […]
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REVIEW: Sept. 7th, Daniel Barrow’s “Everytime I See Your Face I Cry” at Northwest Film Center
Courtesy of PICA’s image bank Daniel Barrow in a red button-up dress shirt, striped yellow-black tie, and plaid pants— he’s just skinny enough to squeeze behind his overhead projector which is wedged between two rows of seats on the floor of the Northwest Film Center. He preps for his performance of Everytime I See Your […]
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The Works: Opening Night at Washington High
Wayne Bund Washington High School circa 10 pm last night, packed with dance culture kids waiting for Gang Gang Dance to take the stage at TBA’s Works: “I’m so fucked up” she tells her friend, sprawled out in the center of the room, staring off into the ceiling, running her fingers through her friend’s hair. […]
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Justin Gorman
One of the coolest things happening at the Works is the ongoing project by Justin Gorman. Gorman creates large signs of painted text that he erects in various city locales. They are a bit like temporary, truth-searching billboards, and they’ll be popping up around Portland over the next week. Instead of creating his signs in […]