Wednesday, September 26, 2012

September 28-29 YUor Atlas Cinema, Deep and Deeper

The Cinema Project is a small long running presenter of art films on film. These works were made on film and intended to be shown on film. Many have never been transferred to digital files or video formats. For the next year, the Cinema Project will take up residence at YU where they will show their films and select digital video works to you.

The first program is Torse, made when Atlas was 28. He filmed Merce Cunningham and his company performing Torse with three cameras over three days. One camera was fixed and the other two were operated by Atlas and Cunningham. Atlas then edited the work into a side by side two screen format, originally shown on interlocked film projectors.

Cunningham's partner John Cage is noted for his use of chance operations in musical composition. For Torse, Cunningham adopted that strategy. Inspired by the I Ching, which Cage used as well, the choreography is in sixty-four segments, and the floor is divided into sixty-four squares. Cunningham used the toss of coins to determine the sequence of segments danced and place on the floor for each of the ten dancers. Adding to the serendipitous randomness, the music is not tied to the movement, a Cunningham signature innovation.

In the world of dance this is a hard piece, for the dancers physically, and perhaps for the audience for its lack of narrative. That's why you should see it! Merce Cunningham is the Northwest's most noted choreographer of contemporary dance.

The same work will be shown Friday and Saturday evening. It will be a restored version telecined to HD video projection.

At Yu Contemporary Art www.yucontemporary.org 900 SE 10th Doors 6:30PM Film 9PM $7



Deep is a hip hop dance battle series that has attracted a solid base of competitors and audience, sponsors and a venue. Hats of to producer Huy Pham for providing this event to hip hop hungry Portland, after years of itinerant underground efforts and the long running Foundation series.

This is a special weekend to celebrate the end of the first season.

Deep eliminations will be Friday in the usual space in the usual format. All styles, crowd judged, DJ determined music. The top eight crews move onto the Deep Block Party Saturday.

Saturday the block party will have 2on2 all styles battles and invited exhibition crews. Crowd judged, make a noise!

Deep Elimination Friday. At The Slate 2001 NW 19th #104. Doors 7PM, battles 8. $10/$5 with Facebook RSVP by noon Friday

Deep Block Party outside at The Slate 2001 NW 19th #104. 4PM-8 $5/Free with Facebook RSVP by noon Friday

September 27 Alberta Elemental Soft Core Photography Singing

Suzy Poling Pat Maher and Liz Harris are in a show Elemental Forces. From Oakland, Poling's work spans light installations, performance, music, video and film. This show is themed on ecology, materiality and regeneration. Meanwhile in the vestibule space, Brittany Powell has large classic pen and ink comic style illustrations parodying American Apparel advertisements in Soft Core Apparel. The Southeast gallery has a show by Glean, a collaboration to use discarded materials as art materials. The artists are Andrew Auble, Chandra Glaeseman, Greg Hanson, Sarah Wolf Newlands and Jennifer LaMastra. LaMastra has some stunning dresses in a series Disremembered. Tonight for the opening, there will be performance by Princes Dies, Chromium Dumb Belle, White Gourd, Pod Blotz, Diamond Catalog and DJ Aaron Montaigne. At Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map 6PM-11 Free



Bob Ross. Public television painting instructor, from 1983 to 1994, inspired a generation of protopainters with his cheery demonstrations. Some of them grew up and offer a tribute to Bob in this show opening tonight, Happy Little Trees. Often worth stopping by Antler next door. At Screaming Sky www.screamingskygallery.com 1416 NE Alberta Free



There is no finish line is a show by Dan Gluibizzi and New York by way of Portland artist Zefrey Throwell. Throwell had an irregular series of house and itinerant space shows, Alphabet Dress, in Portland for artists to clear their studios of works at very reasonable prices. He is a member of Red 76. He moved to New York and has been doing provocative photo work. His photo work is paired with Gluibizzi's watercolor washes of figures for this show. This is the artists' second collaboration. The show work is also a book. Just a note, the official opening of the show is Wednesday evening, 6PM-9. Live music tonight at 8. Ampersand Vintage Printed Material www.ampersandvintage.com 2916 NE Alberta, Ste B. Map 6PM-10 Free



The Goodfoot does one of the ever popular in Portland panel shows 88 Strong. 88 artists made 8 8"x8" panels inspired by their choice of 88 themes. They are all for sale for $50 each, cash and carry. You can take home the art now for instant gratification. Arrive early for the full view of the art. The artists will be listed on the Goodfoot website later in the week. The list of themes is amusing: 27 Club, 41 Forever, Absinthe, Antique, Art Mafia, Avengers, Bar Fly, Bath Salts, Batman, Beards, Bikini Brew, Botox, Breaking Bad, Bridge and Tunnel, Burnside, Campaign, Compost, Consume, Damaged Goods, Danger Zone, Dapper Dan, Day of the Dead, Deadly Sins, Die Antwoord, Dirty Bird, Do It Myself, Dr. Who, Dreads, Dubstep, East Side, Eat Your Face, Emo, Free Range, French or Homeless?, Friend, Like, Poke, Frolf, Get Safe, Gone Fishin', Happy Little Trees, Hick, High Life, Hoarding, Hops, Hot Tub, Illcommunication, Infusion, Interwebs, It's In My Mouth, iThings, Just To See How It Feels, Keep Portland Weird, Kincaide, Kind of a Big Deal, Kinda Reality, Last Call, Lebowski, Liz Lemon, Master Chef, Mayan, Merkin or 'Merican, Midwest, Mythical Beasts, Naked Bike Ride, Obey, Occupy, Pearl District, Pinballin', Portlandia, Queens, Re-Use Me, Red Dawn, Resin, Robo Tech, Roller Girls, Scandals, Skinny Jeans, Smoke's Worth, So 2006, Sound Check, Star Wars Forever, Tattoo Palooza, Tie Died, Timbers Army, Transplants, Urban Farm Yard, Vagabond, Vegan and VooDooDoo. At The Goodfoot www.thegoodfoot.com/gallery 2845 SE Stark Map Starts 5PM, viewable business hours until late. Free



Mercy Corps holds a public reception with the curator for the Design With the Other 90% show in the Mercy Corps Action Center. www.mercycorps.org/events/2012/08/02/27267 At the Mercy Corps Action Center www.actioncenter.org 28 SW 1st 5:30PM-7:30 Free



And Portland Tuvan Throat Singer Soriah performs with collaborators and guests tonight. I prefer his solo shows, but any opportunity to see the best Western Tuvan throat singer in the world is special. The collaboration does allow more instrumental tectures to be added resulting in a beautiful dark ambient sound that you can just curl up to. At Someday Lounge 125 NW 5th. 9PM $10



The University of Oregon presents an evening with photojournalist and noted technical photography & video consultant Vincent Laforet. You can find out more about him at blog.vincentlaforet.com and www.laforetvisuals.com. At the University of Oregon White Stag Building, 70 NW Couch. Reception 6PM, talk 7. Free





September 26 Socially Responsible Design Thinking

Cynthia E. Smith is Curator of Socially Responsible Design at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. She curated the current show Design with the Other 90%: CITIES at the Museum of Contemporary Craft and the Mercy Corps Action Center.

The show presents urban design projects as storyboards, in photographs, videos and as built objects. It's well worth seeing.

Smith herself has done field design research contributing to the Design Museum program.

She provides a history of the program, the exhibit and her experiences in other countries.

At the PNCA Museum of Contemporary Craft 724 NW Davis 6:30PM Free



Ampersand might be a good place to stop by tonight. Notes on the show are in Thursday's post.

Monday, September 24, 2012

September 25 The Revenge of Plastic

We have many memes from film. An older one is "plastics" from the film The Graduate. And plastics are a great in many ways creation of chemistry. They can be tough, light, durable, and are inexpensive. That's why we have plastic cameras. And they have plastic lenses, which have their charming imperfections. They record an image on analog film, with a plastic substrate, the invention by George Eastman that democratized photography. The Plastics 2 art show captures images from from plastic cameras. The last show, Plastics 1, was excellent. The artists this year are Jason Carlisle, Rebecca Carlisle, Lindsey Marla Lynch, Justin 'Scrappers' Morrison, Anna Korte, Jason Quigley, Ann McGarry, Steve Mathews, Peter Carlson and more. At Albina Press, 4637 N. Albina Ave x Blandena Map 6PM-8

Sunday, September 23, 2012

September 23-24 Six Sounds

Six is an experimental evening of sound Sunday. Six sound artists occupy the PNCA atrium over a set of six channel speakers beginning at six. The series has been operating for several years to explore the six channel hexaphonic performance and listening experience, which cannot be downloaded. The artists are Robert Henke - Monolake from Germany, Marcus Fischer, Strategy - Paul Dickow+Jetfinger, Solenoid - David Chandler, Dweomer - Jef Drawbaugh and Mike Jedlicka + Wndfrm - Tim Wescott. Jetfinger performs on an analog sequencing synth which includes the Klee Sequencer. Sonic audience travelers are encouraged to bring cushions and blankets. Perhaps they will do a future event dusk until dawn!

Monday Henke speaks on Sound, Structures, and Machines, how he uses tools MaxMSP and Ableton Live to create and mix sounds. He will also preview his large scale laser and music installation, Fragile Territories. Henke is a cofounder with Gerhard Behles of Ableton, based on prototypes they developed as Monolake.

Both at PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson. Six Sunday 6PM-9:30 Free. Talk Monday 6:30 Free

Thursday, September 20, 2012

September 20-23 Seattle Fringe

Higher Ground is a dance movement performance in the butoh world by Helen Thorsen with Mary Cutrera, Briana Jones, Lin Lucas and Alan Sutherland. At West Hall 915 E Pine, 2nd floor. Reservations/info 206.723.2315 helisdancing@hotmail.com HelenThorsenDances.com Thursday 6:30PM Friday and Saturday 7:30PM Sunday 5:00PM West Hall E Pine 2nd floor. $10

September 20 Translating Socrates

Christopher Phillips for the PNCA Collaborative Design program. His talk combines the ideas of Jefferson and Socrates and applies them to politics. 6:30PM Free

David Shipley Executive Editor at the Bloomberg View and is the Former Staff Editor at the Op-Ed page at The New York Times presents a convocation address at PNCA this afternoon, Learning to Translate 4PM-5 Free

Both at PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

September 19 Recess Problems

Recess Gallery puts you to work with resident artists MYNDWYRM and Ben Gansky. In an open source, social practice program, Recess offors you the opportunity to particiapte in performace. Some projects include Sad Portland : an existential adventure game; Seven Minutes in Heaven - A kissing booth: a performance for two; Obedience: A piece for two; Untitled (Locked in a Bathroom): A site-specific exploration of a specific site; National Psychogeographic; and Phone(:) a Friend. Check the gallery website to participate. At RECESS recessart.com at Oregon Brassworks Building, 1127 SE 10th Map Noon-7 Free



Designer Alex Isley works with organizations in a creative capacity. He discusses his projects tonight. At the PNCA www.pnca.edu The Bison Building, the MFA in Applied Craft and Design Studios 421 NE 10th 6:30PM-8 Free

Saturday, September 15, 2012

September 15-16 Make It

The Maker Movement is worldwide. It's an opportunity for individuals to make what specialists did before by exchange of open source knowledge on the interwebs. Portland has a maker fair this weekend. Details at www.omsi.edu/maker-faire-pdx

September 15 Mallin'

Michael Endo has an installation Black Field. Benjamin Lipkin has Bubble Entrndre. Jason Doize, principal of False Front Studio, has Underlier. Recommended. All at Place, placepdx.tumblr.com a gallery on the 3rd floor of the Pioneer Place Mall along with the People's art of Portland and the Woolley Gallery. If the mall appears closed, enter the film theater building adjacent, travel through the tunnel to the Place mall, and take the elevator to the 3rd floor, sometimes the bridge on the 3rd floor is open too. 700 SW Fifth. 5PM-8 Free


Rick Austin has more paintings and Darlene Schaper has sculptures at Mark Woolley Gallery www.markwoolley.com 5PM-9 Free


Usually we don't cover poster art, band posters or graphic design. Others do it better and those art forms have their own audiences and aesthetics. But if you are in the Mall, feel free to visit the survey of EMEK's current works. At the People's Art of Portland www.peoplesartofportland.com 5PM-9 Free


All in the mall.

Friday, September 14, 2012

September 14 BTUs - Get to Know Them


If you saw the note for the plastic camera show opening here earlier, it has just been moved to Tuesday September 25. See you there!


Donald Morgan opens British Thermal Unit tonight. He's a sculpture artist. BTUs are a useful unit of energy to get to know, they measure heating our homes, the bath and are a unit by which coal, gas and other energy is measured. At Portland's only member of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1501 SW Market Street Map 6PM-9

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

September 13 Books Attack Question Everything Cat Huts

Books are far from dead. They haven't all been digitized. And the printing quality is far above the most expensive displays. That makes them ideal for reproducing photographic material. Monograph Bookwerks brings some of their collection to Oregon College of Arts and Crafts including rare, out-of-print and small press publications. All for sale. At Oregon College of Arts and Crafts www.ocac.edu 8245 SW Barnes Opens 4PM-7



George Mobus, renaissance man, is a systems thinker on energy economics. Also a professor of CS at UW. He speaks tonight as part of the Collaborative Design program at PNCA, where students are challenged to solve the wicked problems of today, like our environmental ones. Appropos, he is designing a Masters in Energy Systems Engineering for the school. At PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson 6:30 PM Free


Where would the Internet be without cats? Illustrator Bishop Lennon has Kitty Kats! And other amazing creatures tonight. At Black Wagon blackwagon.com 3964 N Mississippi Map 5PM-7



Grass Hut opens Have a Killer Day from Bwana Spoons and friends Martin Ontiveros, Kiyoka Ikeda, Oliver Hibert, Uglydoll, Spencer Hibbert, Le Merde, Tripper, Naoya Ikeda, Arbito, Chanmen and Gargamel. Grass Hut in Floating World. www.grasshutcorp.com 400 NE Couch 6PM-9

Friday, September 07, 2012

Sepember 7 Eastside Art Openings

Recess has a show by resident artists Myndwyrm, Billy Mullaney, Justin Spooner, Paul Stucker, Jeff Shockley, Ross Orenstein, and Peter Rusk + The Wild Plan, Ben Gansky. Tonight also marks their anniversary. The artists are perfect for Recess with their walk projects, site work and optimism about cities as a substrate for art. The artists also give a talk Sunday. At RECESS recessart.com at Oregon Brassworks Building, 1127 SE 10th Map 9PM-2AM



Union|Pine has a show of locally made furniture and art items curated by Robert Rahm at Beam and Anchor. It includes he and Jocelyn's work, Ben Klebba - Phloem Studios, Bren Reis - Earthbound Industries, Matt Pierce - Wood & Faulk, Leland Duck - Revive Upholstery & Design, Erik Johnson - Hankbuilt, Shannon Guirl - Caravan Pacific, Eric Trine, Kayla Mucci, Meghan Morris, Indian vs Indian, Laura Bechan and Hickory Mertsching. Also showing is the Kenton Colllective R Rolfe and Jake Frank - Boys Fort, Preston Borwning - Salvage Works, Sarah Heimstetter & Alea Joy - Solabee Flowers. At Union/Pine www.unionpine.com 525 SE Pine 7Pm-late Free



Dardinelle Troen presents All That I Possess and Use…, photographs from Tibet. The show is based on the photographers realization: "I came to realize how much our perception of reality is dependent on our own sense of identity, desires and conditional factors. What is true and real for me may be, in construct, an illusion for someone else. So then, what is the boundary between reality and illusion? Are they two opposing concepts, or are we only able to delineate between them based on their relationship to each other?” The photographer is also founder of Ditroën, the design firm. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 2505 SE 11th Avenue Suite 104 6PM-8



Homeland continues the current show with a focus on watching the performance video tonight. At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org in the Ford Building www.fordbuildingpdx.com 2505 SE 11th x Division. Enter through the cafe on the corner if the main doors on 11th are locked. 6PM-9 Free



Redux has art from Darlene Schaper. Pen & Process has laser cut lucite and bamboo jewelry. It is also a special night for absinthe! Pen & Process show their lasered absinthe spoons. And it's a fancy dress up party, think Paris at the turn of the century. Amy Dennis of the Wormwood Society gives a short talk on the notorious and romantic history of absinthe beginning precisely at 6:30PM. At 7 DJ Rafa starts laying down his soulful and funky house. Be there and you will learn a new world, louche! At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside



Cari Vander Yacht's has Breaking Bad at Nationale www.nationale.us 811 E Burnside Map 6PM-9ish



Summertime: That Beautiful Season is a group show curated by Todd Tubutis at Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8:30 Free



Land Land Gallery has David Lanham with illustrated landscapes filled with monsters that are not scary. At Buy Olympia's Land Gallery www.landpdx.com 3925 N Mississippi 6PM-8



Isaac and Arel Bushman have Owl Cat Ink, collaged painting at Albina Press, 4637 N. Albina Ave x Blandena Map 6PM-8 Free



Milepost 5 opens its artist studios tonight. It's at Milepost5 www.milepostfive.com 900 NE 81st (go by MAX) 6PM-9 Free