Dec 20, 2009

SPACE SPACE SPACE

I am holding a workshop this January/February for the first phase in the creation of a new performance piece that I am writing and directing in collaboration with the ensemble that will form.

I am currently searching for a space to hold rehearsals in. I basically need a room that is decently sized, heated and fairly empty with bathroom access. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Madonna/Whore


I have long been an admirer of Vanessa Beecroft's artwork. She primarily stages performances of live models in elaborate tableaus that are visually arresting, brilliantly simple and strangely uncomfortable. The models are often nude, vaguely bored and fetishistically fashion bound, the spectator observes voyeuristically. I have one of her artist monographs, and I once read all her writing in it, her personal statements and journal entries. From her writer voice I interpreted her as a bit of a fascist, neurotic, obsessive, domineering. She struggles with bulimia and is the type of person who takes no pleasure in food - completely controlling. There was no photo, so I imagined her as someone older, German, with crazy Vivienne Westwood hair. someone not beautiful yet obsessed with beauty.

I watched the documentary The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins by Pietra Brettkelly tonight. I had not heard about it, I found it randomly at Movie Madness. It chronicles Beecroft's attempt to adopt a pair of Sudanese twins that she meets in an orphanage and then attempts to adopt without first telling her husband. She is neither old nor German, although her hair is a bit crazy. She is in fact beautiful, with a lilting Italian voice and a large magnetic smile. Who knew?? Yes she is artistically eccentric, and manipulative, but mostly emboldened in her own self-absorption, she is not nearly as commanding as I imagined. Her demands and behavior are childlike in their naivitee, despite being selfish and potentially cruel. The focus Brettkelly shines on her only amplifies this disconnect.

At any rate, I still love her work.


Dec 10, 2009

Dec 8, 2009

IN MEMORY OF A FREE FESTIVAL, OR, THE GLITTERHEARTS TAKE PWNW

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I was much pleased.
It was one of those moments Saturday night when I felt like the people I knew were the people I was always meant to know, the things I was doing the things I always wanted to be doing. It was radical nostalgia in the making. I hope we have a second coming. The paintings at Valentine's got super crooked on my behalf.
Find full set of pictures HERE.
P.S. Someone said they wanted their kid's kindergarten class to see us - my kind of compliment.
Also, a little bird was watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer yesterday and but what song should come on in the background??

(Sorry about the cropping... I resized and everything and still couldn't get everyone in!)

In the Closet




Jess did some performance art in my closet.
Also known as FOLK FENG SHUI.

MJ


This is a reminder to New Yorkers to go see I Fucked Mariah. This weekend! It features this beaut of a puppet.

Dec 4, 2009

THIRD SIDE

TONIGHT + TOMORROW



PERFORMANCE WORKS NORTHWEST, 67th between Holgate and Foster
8:00 PM


THE
GLITTERHEARTS

CORRINA REPP, vocals + guitar
ERIN PERRY, guitar classique
LINDSAY KAPLAN, keyz
EMMA LIPP, le bell

CHORUS:
KATY ALEXANDER
MICHAEL BUNSEN
JOCELYN FOX
JESS HIRSCH
NICKI ITTNER
MARIAH MAINES
JACQUELINE MENTION
ANDREA RAIJER

SING IT WITH US:
THE SUN MACHINE
IS COMING DOWN,
AND WE’RE GONNA
HAVE A PARTY.

Nov 30, 2009

STEALING:


MICHAEL BUNSEN.


(Borrowing from Lindsay Reef channeling Carl Sagan.)

BORROWING:




BEJART.

Nov 29, 2009

Channeling:




ZIGGY, UFO CULT, MOCIUN.

Nov 25, 2009

Frantic!


So this past Sunday was both Friend's Thanksgiving and the date of an epic walk Jess, Scout and I took that resulted in the loss of my cellphone and 400+ contact address book. Like a snake shedding it's skin I am relieved by the loss of so many past lives, although this means I no longer have your number. But the real tragedy of it is between searching for cellphone and basting my turkey I managed to forget it was Sunday, day of rest and New York Times bliss. And turned out it was a T Magazine day! Blast!

I don't really know how to convey how much I NEED this magazine, other than just that. It's my favorite publication on the planet. If anyone has a copy they can part with or has a neighbor with a Times subscription who hasn't taken the recycling out yet, please help. Portland has very limited Times outposts and I have called them already.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, eh?

Helping (Il)literacy

Oct 21, 2009

Heartbreaker


My friend John Doyle has conceived of a hilariously wonderful project called I Fucked Mariah, which he sent me a draft of and potential soundtrack to last year and is apparently going to be performed in December at PS160. I would have loved to be involved in this. Alas, New York, you taunt me again. New Yorkers: go see this.

Check it: I FUCKED MARIAH

Publication Studio

Patricia No and Matthew Staedler opened a small publication studio in the basement of the Ace Hotel's event space The Cleaners that is open 6 am to noon to help you make and print custom books.



I have been wanting to make a small cookbook/project book for the Estonia Adventure. Winter break, Matt?

In celebration of their participation in the Amsterdam Biennale, the Publication Studio will be having a morning fete this Saturday, that I will attend if the winery does not call first.
From their website, http://www.publicationstudio.biz/:



Amsterdam Biennale Opening: Drunk by Noon
Saturday, October 24, 2009, 11 am
@ Publication Studio, SW 10th Avenue & Stark Street, Portland, Ore.

The Amsterdam Biennale, which includes a Portland Pavilion featuring 20 books collaboratively made with Portland artists and Publication Studio, will open with a three-city real-time party and massive co-writing collaboration, linking Portland, Amsterdam, and Beirut. The co-authored text, written by revelers in all three cities, will be typeset, printed, and bound by Publication Studio as the party proceeds. Lots of Dutch gin, bitterballen, and koffie verkleerd will be consumed. This event is free and open to the public.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Speaking of the Virgin Suicides, is there any film that perhaps influenced Sofia more than Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock? But who could blame her... that music! the mystery! the fashion! I'm obsessed.


Apparently someone made it into a play. I'm going to have to order a copy.

Oct 18, 2009

Nostalgia

Bethany Ides is curating a night of short performance works for the Alembic series at Performance Works NW for early December that I am excited to be a part of. Dubbed "The Third Side," the program will revolve around mix tapes, nostalgia and TV flashbacks.

Something on my mind:

Oct 1, 2009

Chicken Fights

"Right away, I figured out that "pecking order" isn't just a figure of speech: they adhered to a strict social system, with each hen taking her turn at the feeder, and corrective nips doled out to any chicken that stepped out of line." Susan Orlean, "The It Bird," The New Yorker, September 28, 2009.

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These feathered friends belong to the lavender farm where Jacqueline works. Aren't they beauties? That pom-pom hat! They are truly free range and can be found all over the property, cavorting with small children, assorted felines and odd dogs. They have quite the personalities and like to lay their eggs secretly in bushes and under trees where you are sure not to find them.

In Estonia we lived (as in, inside with us...) with a flock of fourteen baby chicks that turned into ten. Chick mortality, and chicken mortality as a whole, is apparently quite high. What was strange was that the babies knew when one was going to die, and would help the process along. After several small chicken deaths, I decided to give special attention to the next chick who was doing poorly. I held it in my hands, warming its feathers. I put it in a special box under its own heat lamp. I tried to hand feed it. But the little creature resisted, and squeaked to rejoin its mates, so after a period of quarantine I relented - nature is nature, after all. As soon as it was back with the flock it began to burrow itself under the others, literally throwing itself at the feet of the other chicks in a ritualistic death throw. The flock in turn began stepping on the tiny chick, assuring its timely demise.

Talk about pecking order.

chicks gettin bigger
more chicken love

Sep 28, 2009

IMAGINED DEVISING

You have an idea for a live show. No text, no pictures. Just an idea.

You need to learn how to express this idea.

Like an artist assembling a show in a gallery, you need to create single images, single objects in response to these ideas in your head. You can’t think about filling the whole room at once. It is important that you translate these thoughts into something physical – a sketch, a phrase, an installation, a game, an interaction, a piece of clothing. Make it simple.
Some of these single responses will work and some of them will not. You will develop a theme and variations. Maybe a narrative will unfold.

When you have enough images and objects you can start to fit it all together. Over time you can connect the dots. You work out a natural progression. The details. You can now imagine what kind of room these images and objects should go in, where they will be placed. Where should people stand to view them? How should they be illuminated? What is the dress code? What music will be playing? What snacks will be served?
Get to work. And don’t give up.

SEPTEMBER 3rd

squash chard cabbage
eggplant squash chard
chard cabbage broc
cabbage broc
zucchini parsley
beets
beets
tomatoes
tomatoes
corn
remains