Ann Steel keeps it real

CALIFORNIA IS A GIRL I SAW DANCING ON A BRIDGE

California Is A Girl I Saw Dancing On A Bridge, the latest show at Gloss Gallery (4954 Ne 14th and Alberta) is the combined effort of Peter Hurley, Calvin Trezise, and Morgan Manduley. The project stemmed from an essay by Elizabeth Grosz in which she commented that "Art [is] the excessive composition of material elements that are always more than material." Like the fetish item: any item instilled by its owner with a value incongruous with its function, the art object is the manifestation of a cognitive value uncorrelated to the materials and means of its creation. With this in mind the artists each attempted to convey the meaning of: "California Is A Girl I Saw Dancing On A Bridge." Peter Hurley's drawings are message pulled up from his subconscious, day-by-day, layer-by-layer. "They are love letters from the edges of consciousness, a distillation of unforgotten memories. " Calvin Treazise's collages distort and reorganize pornographic images in order to represent the plurality of meaning and emotion such images conjure. By making use of the actual magazines and other pornographic material he is able to ground his work directly in the market. Finally Morgan Manduley's paintings and collage represent elements of both the other artist styles. The semiotics of a cowboy hat or waterfall drags into each peace the specificity of its unique meaning, which, in contrast with the other elements of the work capture the terseness, and intensity of our imagistic society.

true stories

Nate Wey of the Portland-based music projects Souvenir Driver and Happy Prescriptions, organized a bi-coastal screening of David Byrne's True Stories between Brooklyn and Portland.  Adding to the awesomeness of this film, Nate organized a live score to all of the Talking Heads songs played throughout to be broadcasted between Portland and Brooklyn.  Basically, bands from both cities alternated playing while a live video projection on the wall opposite to the film showed the bands from either city to each other.  After the film, the event turned into a dance party/dance-off between Brooklyn and Portland.  Fun times.
For those who have not seen this film, True Stories is a fictional documentary of the lives of Midwestern Americans residing in an industrial Texas town.  I call this film a fictional documentary because Byrne depicts the lives and events of seemingly typical Midwesterners in a seemingly Midwestern town, but this typicality serves as an obvious veil to the magic operating within everything and everyone.  True Stories is a commentary on the technological movement in the 1980s, and takes on a child-like curiosity towards its growing influence.  Overall, the mood is a commingling of nostalgia, absurdity, sadness, comedy, and hope.  Also, John Goodman in his younger years...
Now for some videos.  I went a little youtube crazy, but they're all so good! The first two are a sample from the event, and the rest are some of the musical scenes from the film.  Sorry for the potential spoiler.

This event was hosted by Dysjecta Interdisciplinary Art Center, a non-profit org focused on the contemporary arts.

The bands that played were:
Portland
Alan Singley (http://myspace.com/alansingley)
Soft Paws (http://myspace.com/softpawsband)
The Woolen Men (http://myspace.com/thewoolenmen)
Souvenir Driver (http://souvenirdriver.com/)
Highway (http://myspace.com/highwaybob)
Dj Ashley Gowith

Brooklyn
Serica Ux (http://sericaux.bandcamp.com/)
The White Kittens (http://myspace.com/thegoldenkittens)
David Aaron Hurwitz (http://davidaaronhurwitz.bandcamp.com/)
Minerva Lions (http://minervalions.bandcamp.com/)
DJ Ambassador Falafel
 
Contact info:
Nate Wey - http://natewey.com/
Disjecta - http://disjecta.org/main.php

Platinum Musing

You walk into a room peopled by figurants. You look at a statue and it looks back at you. This is Platinum Musing, a new project by local Portland artist Elizabeth Jaeger. Elizabeth's work is a merger of the conceptual and the physical, "the concept is the form;" the practice becoming the theory. Her sculptures, which seek to capture the elegance of a gestural drawing, are like sketches. However, their physicality pushes them into a realm of immediacy that is as un-ignorable and confrontational as their subject matter. The statues are a meditation on the dance of body language that we engage in and with unconsciously daily; on the way we look at ourselves when we look at each other. The statues have an emotional presence that is undeniable and more that a little unnerving. They engage with the viewer in an anti-voyeurism that is at once challenging, enthralling and emotive.You can find more of Elizabeth's work at: www.elizabethjaeger.com

Holy Shit! What's This I Feel?

Feral Child-
Definition:
-Noun
1: A brain stew of beautifully effusive and witty folk music cooked up by Eric Benick.
2: The poetic ramblings of a wayward Tennessean transplanted into Portland and accompanied by Sofie Buck.
3: The soundtrack of your next sunny day backyard elation session.

Just go here and listen to it already: http://cllct.com/release/holyshitwhatsthisifeel

Exotic Club

Growing up in New York I had the pleasure of knowing/running-mucks-with Schuyler Duffy, and while most of our exploits do not bear repeating here (on this blog), his photography is not to be missed. Since he started showing me his work a few years ago I have watched him evolve and explore the medium and have continued to be impressed by his ingenuity. For more of Schuyler's spastic genius go here: http://schuy.bol.ucla.edu/

Last Friday (the fourth of march, 11) I attended Basement Gallery's opening, at which was featured work by Craig Mederios and Robert Khasho, both of whom I had the pleasure of interviewing. Craig showed two pieces both of which were hand etched onto plexi-glass. By compiling shop manuals he was able to render with detail full diagrams of industrial parts, revealing the aesthetic behind the ergonomics of design. When I talked to him, he told me that he wanted to celebrate the beauty inherent in the craft of machine building by inviting people to take a serious look at the complexity and industry that goes into the creation of the seemingly mundane, and yet wonderfully complex machines that we typically take for granted. The inspiration for his piece, "Honda -CB360" came from his experience rebuilding his motorcycle (which is of that make), an endeavor he had never before undertaken. Craig considers the piece a tribute to the Japanese engineers who designed the bike and illustrated the shop manuals he used in its reconstruction. A large part of his decision to use industrial materials such as etch in order to create these pieces was driven out of his admiration for the creation of the actual items he depicts, but also from his history as a craftsmen, a trade he learned from his father.
The work of Robert Khasho featured several light boxes of his own construction that depicted images strongly tied to personal experience. Robert combines nostalgia and his present emotional state in order to create work that is wholly subjective. His light boxes are an extension of his history as a stencil artist. However, he was turned off by the graffiti/counter culture element inherent in "just making stencils." It was for that reason that he began pushing his style into new directions, which included the appropriation of items such as Light Bright pegs. Using his background in stenciling Robert is able to create complex images and color tones by combining different colored paper to a metal grid, which is then mounted on a series of diffused lights.
You can catch the next opening at Basement Gallery (1905 SE Clinton St.) on FRIDAY APRIL FIRST!