ArtSake

Rebecca Kaiser Gibson joins poets honoring Deborah Digges; Sue Murad returns to Buried; Cam Terwilliger in print and at Emerson

Deborah Digges was a renowned poet and memoirist whose life ended far too soon at age 59, in 2009. A resident of Amherst, she taught at Tufts University and wrote lyrical poetry and prose that won her, among other honors, the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. This Sunday, a group of poets, including Henri Cole, Cynthia Zarin, Franz Wright, and Rebecca Kaiser Gibson (Poetry Fellow ‘08) will gather at the Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge (Sunday, May 16, 3 PM) to read from her posthumously published collection, The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart.

Rebecca, a student and friend of Deborah’s, writes movingly about her mentor in an essay for the Tufts University alumni magazine. One detects a life never far from poetry in Rebecca’s anecdote about the two friends stealing a lily from a garden, and later, her discovery that the spontaneous act was predated by a poem Deborah wrote called The Flower Thief.

In March, we wrote about Buried, an intriguing, movement-based performance by Sue Murad (Choreography Fellow ‘08) exploring the ancient stories of many cultures. This Monday, Sue reprises the piece, in a free performance adapted from the first; Monday, May 17th, 7:30-8:30 PM, side entrance of the Park Street Church in Boston.

Finally, we recently heard from Cam Terwilliger (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08), who has two stories about to be published: “The Shut-down Class” will appear in Post Road, and “Happy Trails” in West Branch.

Also, Cam will be teaching a writing class through Emerson College’s Continuing Education program, called “Learning from the Masters: The Art & Craft of Fiction.”

From Cam: “This workshop is for people who want to think like a writer thinks - considering both inspiration and technique. In order to uncover the secrets of great writing, our class will analyze classic short stories, getting at the heart of plot, character, dialogue, and style. Throughout the course, students will use these lessons to write their own stories for workshop.”

More info here.

Read our Fellows Notes for more news about past and present fellows/finalists from the MCC Artist Fellowships Program.

Images: Cover art for THE WIND BLOWS THROUGH THE DOORS OF MY HEART by Deborah Digges (Knopf, 2010); Still from BURIED by Sue Murad.

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TRIIIBE at Gallery Kayafas; The New Media Curious Experimental Moving Images Festival at Axiom

You know TRIIIBE is an intriguing group of artists when the fact that three of the four members are identical triplets is only part of what makes them compelling (and not necessarily the most majority part!). The work of TRIIIBE, aka Alicia Casilio, Sara Casilio, Kelly Casilio, and Cary Wolinsky (Sculpture/Installation Fellows ‘09), lives in that curious place between performance, photography, video, and conceptual art. A solo show at Gallery Kayafas in Boston this month offers a unique opportunity to see the range of their photographic work, with a revealing focus on identity and the politics of identity.

See a video excerpt from Art on Art/People on Plywood, TRIIIBE’s surprise performance at the ICA Boston

The show runs at Gallery Kayafas in Boston, April 17-May 29, 2010. Dates to know: Saturday, April 17, opening reception, 6-9 PM; Friday, April 30, Crime Night, 6-9 PM; First Friday, May 7, Multiples Night (for look-alikes and like-a-looking), 6-9 PM; Friday, May 28, Last Chance!, 6-9 PM.

Something curious is afoot on Thursday nights this April at the Axiom Center For New and Experimental Media in Jamaica Plain. Axiom and Art Technology New England are hosting The New Media Curious Experimental Moving Images Festival. Like the work of TRIIIBE, experimentation and innovation is at the heart of the festival, with work from the borderlands (or brand new territories) of creative disciplines.

This Thursday, April 15 will feature INtransit V.6: Scientific American, a video journal of art and technoscience produced by AstroDime Transit Authority. in V.6, artists and scientists examine the question “what is a scientific American” through the lens of their disciplines. Massachusetts filmmaker Karen Aqua (whose interview with ArtSake you can read here), is among the artists featured.

Thursday, April 22 will include Experimental Moving Images from the ATNE, a burgeoning community of people working at the intersection of technology and the arts. Thursday April 29 brings What if? 60×60x60, a participatory media experiment that uses 60 video and 60 sound clips of 60 seconds each, from media artist Gene Gort and composer/sound artist, Ken Steen.

Both Axiom and ATNE are programs of Boston Cyberarts. All show times are at 7:30 PM. Find more info and purchase tickets here.

AXIOM is located on the ground floor level of the Green Street Subway (”T”) station on the Orange line, at the corner of Amory and Green Streets in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Images: TRIIIBE, THE COMPATIBILITY QUIZ; video excerpt from Art on Art/People on Plywood by TRIIIBE; Still from SENSORIUM (2007), co-directed/co-produced by Karen Aqua & Ken Field.

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This Saturday, March 27 is SWAN Day.

That is, Support Women Artists. Now. Day. (Italics and punctuation added for emphasis. By me. ‘Cause, you know, it deserves some oomph, and punctuation/italics is how you do it in blogs.)

SWAN Day is organized by WomenArts (formerly known at the Fund for Women Artists) a nonprofit org founded by Martha Richards in Northampton, Mass., now operating out of San Francisco. According to its mission, WomenArts is a “worldwide community of artists and allies that works for empowerment, opportunity, and visibility for women artists.”

One of the ways it does that is through SWAN Day, an international holiday celebrating and supporting women artists.

To support said supporting, WomenArts has inspired participation by a host of artists throughout the country, including such names as Famke Janssen and Isabel Allende.

March 27 SWAN Day Events in Massachusetts include:

• Women Connecting Through Art, an event featuring visual artist Ekua Holmes and poet/performance artist Radiant Jasmine at the Henson Jackson Art Gallery in Stoughton (6 PM).
• Eleven Boston area women playwrights will have their plays/monologues read at the 4th Annual MARCH MADNESS SWAN Day at the Boston Playwrights Theater (2 PM). A scene from Monica Raymond’s (Playwriting Finalist ‘07, Poetry Finalist ‘08) play A TO Z will be among those performed. A talkback hosted by Lydia Diamond will follow the event. Refreshments  prior to show at 1:30.
• in vivo Productions presents The Gecko in Winter series, with readings of exciting new works by award-winning Boston-area playwrights, at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education (8 PM). The program tantalizingly promises a “surprise guest artist.”

For more SWAN Day events, visit WomenArts.

Image: Ekua Holmes, FREE TO BE.

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This Monday, March 22, at 7:30 PM, Sue Murad (Choreography Fellow ‘08) and a group of artists will perform Buried in the Park Street Church overlooking the Granary Burial Ground. It’s a work of performance art that culminates three years of research (or rather, begins to culminate, since Sue plans to continue creating new performances).

Sue is one of those artists - and she’ll tell you this herself - that’s really hard to categorize. The same applies to “Buried” and Sue’s ongoing project. The project has its immediate origins in a series of 30 “word themes” that Sue sent to 40 different people last year. Sue asked for their responses to words like harbor, hymn, government, and those responses could be in the form of anecdotes, poetry, or… you name it.

“There was a nice blend of written response,” says Sue. “Some writers were incredibly short and literal. A friend typed me a nice long letter on a single sheet of paper for each word.” Other respondents were less literary. There were sound files, drawings, and collages (such as the collage above, by artist Jessica Gath). Sue read the words to her art group, and observed the movements they made in response.

Those responses, in all their variety, make up the raw material from which Sue created Monday’s performance. But where did the words come from?

To answer that, we need to look back four years, when Sue began reading Biblical stories with a new curiosity: What was happening elsewhere in the world at the same time? She bought a chronological Bible, in which a theologian had noted historical parallels to the stories – for instance, Buddha was born in the time of Daniel. “It threw me!” Sue admits. Prior to that, “the stories had seemed in the clouds. They were truth to my heart, but they didn’t seem like history.” For Sue, the chronology placed the stories “on the Earth.”

So began three years of research undertaken for “the joy of reading and the beauty of culture and the fascination of the planet being full of civilizations at shockingly different stages of development at the same time.” Sue knew the research would eventually lead to some kind of artistic performance, but hinging that performance on a timeline didn’t feel quite right, because of the discrepancies about dates that often accompany ancient history.

“I decided to look back at my notes and see if there were themes that I as an artist found interesting. That’s where this group of 30 words came from. It was hard to get it down to 30, but once I had this list, then I felt I wanted a contemporary collection of voices to respond back.”

Monday’s performance will begin in the Park Street Church lobby, overlooking the Granary Burial Ground, and will rove throughout portions of the church in site-specific responses to the word themes - which are in themselves responses to a study of ancient cultures. (See what I mean about being hard to categorize?)

Sue received her MCC award in Choreography for her work designing movement for the art rock band UV Protection. The award may not have resolved the “category” question once and for all, but it did validate Sue’s artistic work. “Because I was always in the band world, it felt far from art dialogue. So much art is about conversation. To know that I put something out there to other choreographers, to other people who love dance, and that they would award it, was wonderful to me.”

When she received the grant, she earmarked some for expenses like loans and new equipment, shared a portion with her UV Protection bandmates, and, curiously, set aside an amount to give to another artist she wanted to support and encourage. This choice, too, has its roots in ancient literature. “Biblically, it’s called a tithe,” she says.

Performance details:
Buried
Funerals and other formal arrangements. Please wear black. Performance art orchestrated by Sue Murad.
Monday, March 22nd
7:15 pm Doors open, 7:30 pm Service

Site specific location: Ockenga Lobby overlooking the Granary Burying Ground
Park Street Church (side entrance) in Boston

Developed & Performed by: Kat Callard, Jess Gath, Heidi Katz, Sue Murad, Mehran Namazi, Michal Shapiro, Cari Senefski, Sara Sussman, Liz Weir, Rita Wong, and others.

Image and video: A collage in response to the word buried by Jessica Gath; a video excerpt of DROP POP by UV Protection.

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Here’s an interesting and informative article about creating a work-in-progress webcast. The piece is written by Jaki Levy, a New Media Consultant and Founder of Arrow Root Media. Be sure to check out the webcasts he has created with Misnomer Dance Theater.

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For culture junkies like us, trying to answer the question So, whats going on tonight? can incite a mad scramble across several different websites and one or two free newspapers. Luckily, our friends at ArtsBoston are unveiling their new site, and its a must-bookmark for art lovers. ArtsBoston.org compiles just about every event in the Boston area - music, theater, dance, film, museum and gallery exhibits, opera. If you have a performance or an exhibition coming up, make sure its listed. If youve seen something recently and want to share your opinion, you can write a review.

Were particularly psyched about the extensive visual arts listings, which even come with image galleries. But most of all, were relieved that the answer to that pesky question is finally all in one place.

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The above image was dispersed by artist Nick Rodrigues (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘07), announcing the latest interactive project in his Hi (Human Interaction) series.

Nick is seeking participants for his “social love experiment” at the BEEHIVE’s next art show Sting 4, February 18th from 6:30 pm-9:30 pm. Artists are encouraged to send personal ads of 60 words or less by 2/14 (click the image and read the cocktail napkin to find out how). The ads will be displayed on beer glasses, and at the art show, as Nick puts it, “Every drink you buy is a chance for love.”

Nick has a gift for illustrating intriguing ideas through hilarious, interactive art. Recently, he drew the attention of WBZ news in Boston when he donned a portable, one-person tollbooth to drive home (as it were) the personal impact of toll hikes.

In November, Nick led a group of teen artists (he’s the resident sculptor at the youth art organization Artist for Humanity) as they lit the way to the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo at Boston Children’s Museum. Teens dressed in colonial garb carried LED-lamp “torches” and rode stationary bikes that used pedal power to light up signs reading “The GREEN Revolution is Coming” and “Proclaim Sustainability Throughout the Land.”

All images care of Nick Rodrigues.

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If you’re looking for a bohemian, Paris cafe-channeling, arty, funky, hard-to-categorize experience in Boston tonight (and really, when aren’t you - I’ve heard the stories), check out Sting! 2 at the Beehive (the subterranean bar at the Boston Center for the Arts).

The event will feature performance art, “eclectic dub reggae” and “free-flowing horns,” and visual art by the MCC-honored Jane D. Marsching (Photography Fellow ‘99, Finalist ‘03), Laurel Sparks (Painting Fellow ‘04), and Deb Todd Wheeler (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘03).

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August Fellows Notes is up, with news, events, and exciting what-have-yous from our fellows and finalists.

Here’s a taste: the unique visions of Sherrill Hunnibell, with her enigmatic paintings and altered books at Maine’s Turtle Gallery, and Ranjanaa Devi’s Nataraj Dancers, with their version of the Ramayana at the Lowell Southeast Asian Water Festival, offer works unlike any other. Meanwhile, Julie Levesque’s sculptures and 2-D works bring an air of mystery to P-town’s Rice/Pollak Gallery, and Steve Tourlentes shares *prison stories in Big RED and Shiny.

More in MCC Artist Fellows Notes.

*As in, “photographs of…”

Image: Julie Levesque’s “break” (2008)

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