Opening night of TBA is alternately thrilling and amusing. I love being among these folks who are very excited to be celebrating the international arts community and the conversations that come out of this meeting of likeminded folks. But I also have to stifle chuckles at the folks who throw on their most outlandish outfits for the occasion. Is this an attempt to reflect the art of the festival? A way to get potentially noticed by a talent scout or fashion designer?
I’m absolutely reading too much into it, because above all else, this is a party. And people like to get dressed up for parties. And the tall doofus wearing jeans and a hoodie (that would be me) has no right to judge.
The new year of the festival also brought about a new home base – in this case the former home of a company that trucked in window shades and wooden blinds. It’s a fine spot (I loved walking out to my car and being greeted with the sight of a huge power station humming away in the dark) and perfect for the two larger installations on hand: MSHR’s Resonant Entity Modulator and Jennifer West’s Flashlight Filmstrip Projections.
The former was the most provocative of the two: four large squares of glass encircled with lights and with these digitally carved sculptures sitting on top. Each one also pumped out its own frequency of sound. One was low and rumbling, another crackling and scratchy. It felt like being in a workshop afterhours, and listening to the death throes of a quartet of deconstructed robots.
I enjoyed West’s installation, which was simply pieces of Plexiglas suspended from the ceiling of this large room, with strips of film attached to each one. Visitors were handed flashlights and encouraged to attempt to project the images on the surrounding walls. The sight of the huge stark white room with this cluster of people and objects in the middle was even more stirring than anything on the film. But I loved the interactivity of it, and how the shadows of the attendees mixed in with the multicolored images coming from the celluloid.
The main draw for the party, though, was a performance by THEESatisfaction, thee best hip-hop act to have emerged from Seattle since Kid Sensation (in your face, Macklemore). Really, to call them hip-hop is incredibly limiting. The duo’s sound is equally indebted to the worlds of jazz, soul, and funk, mixing them all together into something thick, thoughtful, and groovy.
The emphasis of the group’s set was on empowerment (as both females and African-Americans) and self-reliance. Lyrics paid heed to skin tone—“My melanin is relevant,” went the hook of one tune—and losing all the pretensions you might have entered the room with (or as they put it, “turn off your swag and check your bag”).
The biggest message though was that their work was all their own, something that some folks sadly need reminders of. Just ask Stas and Cat (the two vocalists and producers of THEESatisfaction) or Natasha Kmeto or Grimes or any other female electronic or hip-hop project how many times they get asked, “Who makes your beats for you?” or have some “helpful” dude messing with their gear or telling them how they’re doing it “wrong.” There wasn’t anger or frustration in Stas and Cat’s voices as they returned to that theme again and again. It was more a call to action for any other would be musicians or performers in the room. As Cat said, “Ain’t nothing to it but to do it.”