Soap, Camp and Bedlam

Well last week I kind of got back to the real world following my month-long hiatus during the World Cup. It's been a brutal wake up call to reality, but I managed to get some writing done and work on my show.

Here's a piece I wrote for MN Artists about The Mystery of Irma Vep. I decided that since I had the time, I wanted to instead of just writing a review go a little bit more in depth about the style of the piece. I look at the Camp Style, and how the play exemplifies the goofiness of the genre while at the same time offers layers of deeper meaning through its many literary and cultural references.

While I was working on the MN Artists piece, I was greatly saddened to learn that Bedlam has been given notice to move from their current space. The Star Tribune broke the story, and I then I spent last Thursday and Friday morning madly completing an article containing little bit of the backstory of Bedlam's history, and tried to write also about the situation right now. I'm really sad to be losing one of my favorite venues in town to see shows and hang out (I would argue the building has the best deck for having a drink in summer), but hopefully the theater itself will survive and keep its multifaceted programming.

In the meantime, work continues with my one-woman-show, the Keys Experiment, which I'll be performing at the Soap Factory on July 30. I'm very grateful for having had the experience workshopping the piece at Red Eye, and I've been working lately on adding a few scenes. I met with my sound designer Dixie Treichel on Saturday and she's concocting a new soundscape for a movement section I'm going to work on this week. Also, there's an article in Lavender Magazine about the show, written by John Townsend, which I really appreciate him writing.

Andy Warhol the Catholic

So I recently finished a fantastic book by Eleanor Heartney called Postmodern Heretics: The Catholic Imagination in Contemporary Art. In it, she talks about some of the most controversial contemporary artists being either Catholics themselves or at least highly influenced by Catholicism. It's a fascinating read, and Heartney's style is very conversational and accessible.

One of the things I learned from the book is that Andy Warhol was a practicing Catholic. Heartney makes the argument that indeed not only was he Catholic, but his faith predominated his work if you look at it closely. He was obsessed with death, according to Heartney, as evidenced by his Death and Disaster paintings, and his "transormation of ordinatry objects with icons with multiple resonances."

Most of all, Heartney writes that Warhol's Catholic tendicies are seen in his exploration of the conflict between the Church's official teachings and Cathoicism's subliminal messages

Case in point- see the dyptich Last Supper/Be Somebody with a Body for a clear image of what she's talking about.

Heartney notes that Warhol, though he went to church several times a week, never went to confession or took communion. As a gay man, Warhol was both censured in his church, but was also provided a whole host (no pun intended) of images depicting homoerotic and male desire. The Catholic Church, she writes, while it officialy abhors homosexuality, contains in its history of art and literature a series of conflicts "that emerge in an outlaw sensibility and sensuality". Thus, in the Dyptich linked to above, Warhol sexualizes the Christ figure.

The chapter made me want to reexamine the Warhol pieces I'm familiar with, and look at some new ones. It definitely got me thinking about his art in a new way.

by the way

In case you missed it, I wrote a bunch of blog posts for Minnesota Playlist last month on ways that theatre can change the world. They can be found here.

I'm excited because tomorrow I get to interview Caitlin Karolczak and preview her pieces she is showing at Rogue Buddha which opens this weekend. It's for my first article for MNArtists, and I'm pretty excited about it.

In other news, someone wrote a really nasty comment about my review of TTT's My Fair Lady. I guess it kind of goes with the territory that when you write reviews you are going to piss people off and they will say not very nice things about you. Ah well, one of these days I suppose I will have to develop a thicker skin. If I'm going to dish it out, I better learn to take it.

Jane Gordon at the Northern Clay Center

I was really excited to see my high school friend Jane Gordon's work on display at the Northern Clay Center last night. This year, Jane was chosen to receive one of the Jerome fellowships, and she has been working on Gather/Disperse I and Gather/Disperse II for the last year. Today she leaves for Arizona where she's going to grad school.

Jane's work in recent years has predominantly been outdoor installations. A couple years ago she had a neato piece on Lake Calhoun called Migration which consisted of small ceramic objects assembled together in a pattern on top of the frozen lake. She's done other similar outdoor work as well, incorporating her ceramic work into the plant and animal life of the outdoors.

When I spoke to Jane yesterday, she said since she had the opportunity to present at a gallery through the Jerome Fellowship, she wanted to embrace the opportunity, and decided to create an indoor/outdoor exhibit. So outside of the Center you can see Jane's ceramic buds and flowers attached to the trees. Inside, along the walls, with the same color palette, there are fungal spore looking growths along the walls, and then large blossoms hanging from the ceilings. The blossoms themselves, gigantic and beautiful, seem to be the end of the progression started by the buds on the trees outside. Jane said that originally she thought the walls were going to be white, but when she learned they would be green, she adjusted the color scheme of the entire piece to blend into the gallery space.

I think I might go back today to take another look at the outdoor portion of the piece, since it was a bit hard to see last night.

Mumma Mummies

I happened to be at the Bloomington Arts Center yesterday and I checked out The Mummy Paradox, a rather bizarre collection of clay multicolored mummies.

The first thing you notice when you enter the gallery is a group of 50 mummified cats all facing one direction. They stand upright, and in front of them is a little mouse that I almost stepped on because I didn't notice it. It's a whimsical piece, almost cartoonish. Like much of the exhibit, I felt like the artists were playing and having fun with their theme.

Many of the pieces consist of miniature clay mummies housed inside of "reworked vintage printer trays" (as the artists say in their notes on the piece). Denise Rouleauf and Mark D. Roberts seem to be playing with the idea of pattern. The mummy figures, configured in their drawers, or lined up on pillars, seem to be waiting for the afterlife as if that moment will occur in a very categorical and organized way. There is something quite unnerving about all the little embalmed figures grouped together, even when the figures are bright blue or some other vibrant color.

In some of the pieces, such as "Crucifix", Christian images are juxtaposed with the Egyptian motif. Similarly, some of the mummies take the shape of Catholic cardinals or monks. Perhaps the artists are trying to point to the universality of death- that while beliefs and rituals surrounding death vary from one belief system/ culture to another, we all ultimately end up in the same place.

While the mummies often made me go "aw!" with how cute they were, there was also something frightening about them all lined up together. The program notes indicate that the artists were attempting to explore "the magnitude of generations; the significance of ritual; and the notion of individual identity within the broader scope of the human condition." I think they carried off their goal fairly well- there definitely was a feeling of a sacred space in the gallery. However, at the same time, I felt that the comedy evident in some of the pieces (the mummy gumball machine, for example) took away from more serious questions that the artists seem to be asking.

"Origins to Endings" at Altered Esthetics

Tonight I went to the gallery opening for Origins to Endings at Altered Esthetics. I've been wanting to make it to the gallery for years now, but this was my first time there.

AE has been around since 2004, and I learn from their website that they are entirely volunteer-run. Their website states: "Altered Esthetics provides a venue where artists can create "art for art's sake" - not because it will match somebody's couch." So, pretty noble aspirations. I appreciate the love of art that goes into an organization like this. It takes a lot to ask people to volunteer their time. I think people do it because they are compelled to, from deep down. They know that what they do deserves payment but they will do it anyway, for free, because they don't know how they would exist without it. That's the beauty of an artist- run organization. It's also why so many are just holding on by their teeth. I hope the best for AE- they seem to be a little organization with a lot of heart.

As for the show, there was very little description in the program notes, or in their publicity. The publicity blurb reads: "An exhibit that examines the mysteries of life. From creation to the afterlife, evolution to the flood, artists explore the stories and legends of how things were, have been and will be." What I found this to mean was art that depicted ghosts, gods and saints, with the occassional scary clown and skeleton.

While the some of the works delve deep into the macabre, such as Patrick Vincent's eerie prints of skulls and bones and Gail Kern's grotesque political "horseman of the apocalypse" paintings, other works offer images of mythic and spiritual symbolism. I was entranced by Melody Williams's ceramic sculpture decorated with glass beads "The Seduction of the Innocent", based on C.S. Lewis's "Perelandra" and her "Guaia", a magnificent depiction of the earth mother goddess made with clay and twigs.

Jennifer LaCasse offers a completely different spin on the theme, critiquing the role that extreme religion plays in society. Her large, realistically painted nightmares show the horrors of religion when it controls people's lives.

I'm definitely glad I took the time to stop by the exhibit. Hopefully I'll be able to see future shows at Altered Esthetic as well.

Here are a few of the works that can be seen on the artists' mnartist pages:

Promethea, by Erika Tenjack, Intaglio

Martyr by Jennifer LaCasse, Acrylic, charcoal and mylar on canvas, 30 x 48.

Baptism, by Jennifer LaCasse, Acrylic, charcoal and mylar on canvas, 36 x 48.

That Old Time Religion, by Jennifer LaCasse Acrylic, charcoal and mylar on canvas, 48 X 96.

1st, 3rd, 3rd, and 4th Horseman of the Apocalypse

Old Testament Mosaic, by Julie Reeve Stained glass and beads

Cowboy Crow Rides the Pale Horse of the Apocalypse by Patrick Vincent