If you happened to be anywhere near the corner of Third and Race streets this morning at 8 a.m., you might have noticed Stephen and Ophelia Clark — the creators of AntiPop Ltd. — plastering boarded-up windows, guerrilla style, with their art. This week’s First Friday Focus gets into the meaning behind the mostly-black-and-white multimedia collages that have popped up in Old City and other neighborhoods as a fitting juxtaposition to gallery-bound First Friday. Here’s a snippet from the column:
“As experience tells us, art and creative expression suffer greatly under corporate control,” says Stephen. This is not a diss on First Friday but a call to action for artists living in a world where expression is trumped by advertising, capitalism and the Internet. “Our concern is for the next generation of artists, since we are witnessing individuality being co-opted by pre-packaged rebellion, creating youth that will be bereft of culture, independent thought and artistic intent.”
Our very own Neal Santos got up bright and early this morning to follow the Clarks as they installed their public exhibition. Watch the video below; then read a Q&A with the artists, who want to make sure you don’t get the wrong idea about what they’re doing. “We’re not political or anti-technology or anti-popular culture,” says Stephen. “What we’re trying to do is put these things into perspective in a world that is seemingly becoming more and more reliant upon them.”
Technically the First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art kicked off on Tuesday night (and that doesn’t even include the Oct. 26 preview dinner with Ruth Reichl, or the First Person Arts-sponsored Welcome House you might have noticed in early October). So far there’s been a burger cruise, a “group eating” event, a movie screening, a festival salon and even a concert by Woody Guthrie’s granddaughter. Whew.
But the majority of fest events are happening this weekend, and there’s a lot of noteworthy stuff out there. We figured since we can barely keep track of it all, you might need some help, too. Here’s a rundown of don’t-misses (all events take place at Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., and cost $20, unless otherwise noted):
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Going to Extremes >> If you’ve ever sat for hours at La Colombe, sipping perfect cappuccinos and people-watching the coffee shop’s Euro-fabulous clienetele, you have Todd Carmichael to thank. The La Colombe owner’s not just known for torrefaction, though — he’s a daredevil who’s trekked across Antarctica and has plans for the Namib Desert and Death Valley National Park. He’ll talk about his wacky adventures and misadventures and give audiences a chance to ask questions. Like, Who does that? Fri., Nov. 6, 7 p.m.
Karaoke Obsessed >> As many drunken nights at Yakitori Boy can attest, karaoke just sometimes … happens. Brian Raftery, like all of us before our first time, once thought karaoke was for chumps. We don’t know what his first song was, but it changed his mind, and now the author of How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life is an addict. He’ll read from his book, and then hand the mic to Sara Sherr, she of Sugar Town and the Khyber’s Karaoke that Doesn’t Suck, for some audience participation. Get ready to sing your heart out. Fri., Nov. 6, 9 p.m. Click For More »
There’s a certain wave of sadness that washes over us when the two-week Live Arts/Philly Fringe bonanza wraps up in mid-September. (K. Ross Hoffman wrote about the malaise in our Oct. 1 issue.) We’re exhausted from attending dozens and dozens of shows, but the high of witnessing such innovative dance/theater/weirdo-experimental-whatever is tough to come down from, especially since there’s always one big nasty dreary winter standing in the path to the next year’s fest. Waaaah.
But good news, Philadelphians! The Live Arts Festival folks have just announced that, as of right-now, they’re launching an artist-in-residency program, coupled with free every-second-Thursday performances, in their new studio space in NoLibs, from now till June. Hooray!
Some details from the press release:
The inaugural 2009/2010 Artists in Residency program includes five Philadelphia-based artists: Nichole Canuso (Wandering Alice, 2008 / The A.W.A.R.D. Show!, 2009), Tania Isaac (stuporwoman, 2008), The Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental/ Thaddeus Phillips (THE MeLTING BRiDgE, 2008), Subcircle (Still Unknown, 2007), and Kathryn Tebordo/Workshop for Potential Movement (The A.W.A.R.D. Show!, 2009).
The program provides free work space in the Live Arts Festival’s studio, expanded development time, opportunities for early audience feedback, and additional resources. The support will allow participating artists to take more risks by investigating new processes, methodologies, and ideas, which will yield greater personal growth for the artists and even higher quality final productions.
We’re all for artists taking risks and investigating new processes — but to be honest, what we’re even more stoked about is this second-Thursday business. (Free beer + free admission = best winter ever, as far as we’re concerned.)
Next week’s Second Thursday Series features Thaddeus Phillips, Kathryn Tebordo and Subcircle’s Jorge and Niki Cousineau. Did we mention this is free?
Second Thursday Series, Thu., Nov. 12, 7 p.m., free, The Festival Studio, 919 N. Fifth St., 215-413-9006, livearts-fringe.org.
For this week’s First Friday Focus column, I interviewed Daniel Heyman, one of 17 artists involved with the First Person Festival’s “Shelter” exhibit at the Painted Bride. (It’s not the first time City Paper’s featured Heyman’s work; Drew Lazor wrote a cover story about the artist’s interviews with Abu Ghraib torture victims and the complex work that followed.) For “Shelter,” Heyman visited a veterans’ house in North Philly and created works of art based on his interviews with two previously homeless men whose lives have been affected by war. In case you haven’t picked up a CP yet, here’s a clip:
“I wanted to make sure the project really fit in with my work,” says Heyman. “Since I already have a deep interest in issues surrounding war, and have worked with African-American men on other projects, the veterans house felt like a perfect fit.” For two very different men, Heyman created two very different pieces: Lonnie, a simple, respectful portrait done in gouache ink and pencil on Japanese mulberry fiber paper, and Tony’s Shelter, a tower of symbolic images on plywood, meant to resemble a house of sorts. The distinction with which Heyman represents these men — one stoic, straightforward portrait; one disjointed wood sculpture — is a testament to their individual struggles. “I think from the outside we view people in trouble as all the same,” he says. “But their lives and their personalities couldn’t be more different.”
But Heyman had a lot more to say. Read our Q&A below, and don’t forget that “Shelter” opens tomorrow at the Painted Bride.
Tony’s Shelter, by Daniel Heyman
(click for larger image)
City Paper: Why did these men’s stories speak to you? Daniel Heyman: When I met both Lonnie and Tony, I was interested in each of them because their lives are so different from my own in many ways, but very similar to my own in other ways. Both of them spent several years of their early adulthood overseas, and these experiences were formative ones, experiences that shaped and directed their lives in ways both forseen and unforseen. I found this very interesting, especially in the case of Lonnie, who spent years in Asia. They each had a feeling for instustice, as well, particularly Lonnie, who spoke plainly about the racism he was subjected to in the Army, and how that made him feel.
CP: Have they seen the work? What was their reaction?
DH: I believe that Tony saw the initial print of his portrait on paper, but he has not seen the structure, and I am both curious and nervous about his reaction. Lonnie saw his portrait as it was being done, and I think he liked it.
CP: Lonnie’s piece, in gouache, is hugely different from Tony’s. Why did you choose portraiture, which is much more traditional, for Lonnie? It seems like a very stoic choice, especially in comparison to Tony’s Shelter. DH: It just happened, I think. I did Tony’s first, and I had the idea of working in a print material. When I was done with it, I regretted not using color as Tony’s face and skin color fascinated me and was so rich in nuance. I think this is why I wanted to paint Lonnie, so I could capture the feel of human skin, or its vibrancy and vitality. … Also, as they are very different people, I really wanted to seperate the artwork and express that these are two people, thrown together out of circumstance, but really with very little in common. I think from the outside we view people in trouble as all the same. Yes, each of these guys had been homeless before they came to the vets transitional house, but their lives and their personalities couldn’t be more different. Also, and I doubt this was conscious, Lonnie is a generation older, and so out of respect I probably felt I needed a more “grown-up” kind of approach. Click For More »
Between Spaces, cut paper, tape and mixed media, 2008
You’ve got but two days to check out Sarah Steinwachs’ “Square Roots” over at St. Joseph’s University Gallery, an intricately dense cut-paper exhibit that reminds us that Target and Chipotle aren’t the only reasons to go to City Avenue. “Square Roots” is a series of manipulated grids that focus on themes of three-dimensionality, in-between spaces and the joys of imperfection. The Tyler/Yale grad was kind enough to answer a few questions for us about patterns, the rough-and-tumble nature of her work, and the art of patience.
(”Square Roots,” through Oct. 30, St. Joe’s University Gallery at Boland Hall, 5600 City Ave., 610-660-1840, sju.edu/resources/gallery.)
There was something extra Frenchy about last night’s Cirque du Soleil performance at the Liacouras Center. It seemed like every other group in the audience seemed to be swishing tight, accented syllables out of their thin, pursed lips. My guess is they were friends and family members of the performers, all of whom stayed true to the tasteful traditions of the dramatic circus fused with sideshow and street entertainment. I wasn’t allowed to take photos, but I was so close to the stage that I’d have only gotten pictures of their derrières anyhow.
This French-Canadian show sends you home wondering about things you couldn’t even imagine with the help of psychedelics, like contortionists walking on their throats while resting their butts on their heads; a man dance-hovering horizontally inside a giant hula hoop; and a tribal-looking dude juggling fire with his bare hands, feet and mouth. Sacre bleu!
The performers don’t just come out and do a few cool tricks that you want to go home and practice on your own. They put on full, 10-minute routines of physical elegance so bizarre that your imagination sits and takes notes while you question everything you’ve ever learned about gravity and the human body. The best part is they do it all in slippers — sparkly, magical slippers.
Although there were no motorcycles in cages and not a lot of audience interaction, even the clowns, whose airplane sound effects sounded French, pulled squeals of laughter out of les jeunes enfants in the audience. There really is no ethnicity, age or class of people that wouldn’t be fascinated by this show. Just watch out for those ruthless audience members — they’ll steal your seat as soon as you get up to go to la toilette.
In conjunction with Design Philadelphia (which we covered in the Oct. 1, 2009, edition of City Paper), First Person Arts and InLiquid present the Welcome House, a 10-foot cube in which artists of all stripes settle in for a day and create. It’s open-ended, inventive and often pretty wacky (we’re talking knit-yourself-into-a-cocoon wacky). Our intrepid reporter Cristina Perachio’s been at the House all week, observing, taking photos and reporting back.
Photo | Cristina Perachio
When I visited the Welcome House Friday, on an unusually warm October afternoon, the 10-foot cube was partially covered in orange, stenciled squares that reminded me of a kindergarten classroom. Maybe it was the bright colors, the way they were haphazardly stuck to the cube or the way the stencils seemed to be at totally random angles on the page. Whatever it was, it made me want to play tag, fingerprint or participate in a good ol’ fashioned show-and-tell.
For the sixth day of the Welcome House free-form art festivities, Mary Tasillo and Michelle Wilson spent the day creating LOVE Park- and Welcome House-themed works on handmade paper with the crowd in the park. They used small screens to sift out the wet, pulpy orange mixture and then painted the sheets using stencils. The most popular stencils were the LOVE Park sign along with a bench and the word “welcome” in several different languages.Â
Photo | Cristina Perachio
There were several skateboard-themed designs created by skaters scorned, but most of the designs looked like Rorschach inkblots in Crayola brights. This caught the attention of every 6-year-old in a four-block radius of the park.
There were two works, sitting side by side on the cube, that caught my eye. The one on the left was hung vertically and had a blue LOVE Park sign over a red bench with the words “casa” and “house” framing the word “safe”; the one on the right was hung horizontally and had a blue house and red bench with the word “house” written along the bottom in green and the word “safe” punctuated by a giant red question mark stenciled across the top. The question mark gave the whole picture a look both daunting and unsure. I wonder if they were referring to the Welcome House itself, like so many other pictures created that day, or if it referred instead to the home of the artist.
In conjunction with Design Philadelphia (which we covered in last week’s City Paper), First Person Arts and InLiquid present the Welcome House, a 10-foot cube in which artists of all stripes settle in for a day and create. It’s open-ended, inventive and often pretty wacky (we’re talking knit-yourself-into-a-cocoon wacky). Our intrepid reporter Cristina Perachio will be swinging by the House all week, observing, taking photos and maybe — just maybe — getting in on the action herself.
One of the strangest things I have ever seen in a public space …
Photo | Cristina Perachio
People have hobbies. Some people play the saxophone or paint by numbers. Some read comics, build model cars, bird watch or decoupage. Eugenie Perret knits. She knits like nobody’s busines. Yesterday Perret and Candy Depew spent the day in LOVE Park’s Welcome House, knitting a giant cocoon.
I’ll let that sit for a minute.
Wild, right? Perret, while Depew decorated the cube’s walls, knitted herself into a fluffy, powdery-looking cocoon made from sheep’s wool. “Knitting is a powerful medium for self-expression, communication and cultural preconceptions,” reads the note posted on the cube from the human-cocoon knitters. “Looking to nature for ideas is allowing us to create solutions on sustainability and healing with low environmental impact.” I don’t know about all that, but it sure did look snuggly in there. Click For More »
If you missed it in last week’s CP, Lauren Friedman gave us an excellent run-down of Design Philadelphia’s most peep-worthy events — from DIY-flavored clothing swaps to parking-space reinventions. One event we had to leave out — for space, not for lack of love — is the Design Philadelphia Kickoff Party, held in and around the 10-foot cube in LOVE Park better known as the Welcome House. Our own Cristina Perachio is there every day this week reporting on the cube-centered goings-on, which you can check out here. In the meantime, listen to what Lauren has to say:
The Welcome House — a glass cube designed by Interface Studio Architects, conceived and curated by Marianne Bernstein and presented by First Person Arts — will offer artists one-day residencies to engage the public in the creation of a new work. During the kickoff party, video of Eugenie Perret knitting herself into a giant cocoon will be projected onto the fabric-wrapped cube while guests check out the designer furniture displayed in the Welcome House’s indoor and outdoor lounges. “It doesn’t need to be intimidating,” says Bernstein. “We really want the creative population to just come hang out.”
Wed., Oct. 7, 7-10pm, free, The Welcome House at LOVE Park, 15th & Arch sts., thewelcomehouse.net.
In conjunction with Design Philadelphia (which we covered in last week’s City Paper), First Person Arts and InLiquid present the Welcome House, a 10-foot cube in which artists of all stripes settle in for a day and create. It’s open-ended, inventive and often pretty wacky (we’re talking knit-yourself-into-a-cocoon wacky). Our intrepid reporter Cristina Perachio will be swinging by the House all week, observing, taking photos and maybe — just maybe — getting in on the action herself.
Photo | Cristina Perachio
By 5 p.m. Tuesday evening, the Welcome House in LOVE Park is transformed into an art studio and gallery. Local students from Charter High School for Art and Design (CHAD) worked with Betsy Casanas and Pedro Ospina, co-founders of Semilla Arts Initiative. Semilla is a grassroots enterprise that uses art as a way to achieve social change in their community.
The students used markers, colored pencils and charcoal to create murals that hung on the surface of the cube and cutouts that sat in front of the cube. Draped across the front of the cube is a large mural that looks a bit like a colorful, flowered quilt; another hangs down the back of the cube, cut in a long thinner strip and painted with leaves in bright fall oranges, greens and yellows. On the right side, there is a cutout drawing of a paper doll with doodles of birds, hearts, flowers and feathers drawn all over her in royal blues and bright pinks alongside a happy but grizzled old man drawn in charcoal on brown paper.
Photo | Cristina Perachio
The most interesting pieces stand upright on the ground in front of the cube, three portraits sketched in charcoal on stark white paper. The faces have heavy, expressive eyes, and the creases in their faces are so lifelike, it seems that at any moment the expressions could shift.
By the end of this long day, the students mill around the cube, putting the finishing touches on some of their work while passers-by take the time to inspect the images up close. There are no disparaging Post-Its or angry threats at the artists occupying the residency today, and I begin to see why this cube was constructed in the first place.
Staff Blog
FIRST FRIDAY FOCUS: Video and Q&A with AntiPop Ltd.
