2008-05 Vital Source Mag – May 2008
A stitch in time
Woodland Pattern Book Center Devotion to Thread 720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee Now – June 13 Reception: Saturday May 31, 5-9pm, with a Gallery Talk at 7 pm Photos by Faythe Levine Woodland Pattern has long been a mainstay of the Riverwest neighborhood, and over the years, it has extended its reach to include the greater Milwaukee area with programming ranging from music to workshops to art exhibits and beyond. The venerable non-profit venue is a mix of hippie, uber-hip and points between. A mural fronting the building reads “28 years of power to the people.” Frankly though, some of that power should have been used to quell the endless, booming chatter of the 20-something woman whose loud mindlessness invaded the quiet gallery where I was trying to concentrate on writing this review. Apparently, she’d just dropped by to chat up the worker behind the desk. Quiet Please! Reviewing the work of 15 artists is all but impossible, and I felt myself pulling away from examining each of the approximately 40 pieces. That changed as I circled the room. The lone work I gave a zero rating was “We Other Victorians” (Xander Marro), primarily because it was a bad fit with the other works. A quilt of sorts, with an edgy motif, the colors were heavy, and, well, depressing among the mostly pastel threads used in the balance of the work. That said, I understand it satirizes the dark creepy era of Queen Victoria, so perhaps it was included in the exhibit to add a note of contrast. Jenny Hart’s 23”x36” wall-hung wonder “Pink Forrest (Flattery plus Charm)” is, even at the lofty price of $2,300, what I most wanted to take home. Ms. Hart hails from Austin, Texas and her exquisite naughty threads stitched on sleazy orange-pink satin fabric conjure the balls-out flavor of Western kitsch. If your grandma has a really awful tourist pillow from 1940’s Texas, you’ll get my drift. Kristin Loffer Theiss from out Washington way stitched three lovely heads (perhaps family members?) in black on white material. They reminded me of loose line drawings, or threads unspooling from a bobbin gone wild. Faultless to a tee, they are marvelous in the way that Jean Cocteau’s line drawings are marvelous. Orly Cogan contributed five works, one priced sky-high at $10,000. But what a piece it and her four others are. Surely she must know the work of self-taught Chicago artist Henry Darger (you can see his scroll drawings in the Milwaukee Art Museum folk collection); if not, it’s a real coincidence that her figures resemble Mr. Darger’s “Vivians,” sweet little girls with less than sweet attitudes who now and then sprout penises. Look here at this one: a lady, quite naked, playing ring toss with her naked partner, the object being to toss the ring over his waiting penis. These are delicate sensational works, none more so than “Bittersweet Obsession” where girls snort blow and, wearing nothing but fishnets, crouch while eating cupcakes. The thread work […]
May 29th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
The Boys Next Door
Staging Tom Griffin’s The Boys Next Door can be a tricky endeavor. The comedy about a group of developmentally disabled men and the social worker who looks after them uses a brand of humor that doesn’t always make people feel comfortable. The audience is encouraged to laugh at the cognitively impaired not because they are strange and freakish, but because their offbeat idiosyncrasies are honest reflections of neuroses common to even the most functional among us. The key to a successful staging of the play is the delicate balance between the comedy of the individual and the comedy of disability in a way that maintains a universal level of human dignity. The Sunset Playhouse production, which opened last weekend, comes perilously close to presenting its subjects as stereotypes of mental retardation, but only in brief, fleeting moments. For the most part, this is an exquisite production of a well-written contemporary comedy. Mark Neufang plays Jack Palmer, the social worker keeping track of four men who live in a group home for the developmentally disabled. The play charts Palmer’s uneasy desire to find better, less stressful work elsewhere. Neufang has an impressive amount of nice-guy charm, but the subtleties of his character’s mounting job dissatisfaction are largely missing. However, Neufang brings more than enough compassion to the stage to make up for any other shortcomings in his performance. Scott Kopischke plays group home resident Arnold Wiggins. Wiggins is a reasonably functional individual who works at a movie theatre. Wiggins has a mildly obsessive compulsive personality that is warped by an aversion to internally consistent logic. Kopischke recently played Elwood P. Dowd in a Sunset production of Harvey. His performance here is far more accomplished. Here he shows a profound amount of humanity and a clear aptitude for performance in a larger ensemble piece peppered with a few clever stretches of monologue. Lawrence J. Lukasavage plays group home resident Norman Bulansky. Norman’s cognitive development seems to be stuck at grade school level, but he’s functional enough to hold a job at a local donut shop. This is Lukasavage’s first performance with Sunset and probably one of the few he’s had outside Off The Wall Theatre. Lukasavage takes to the new stage quite well in a brilliantly subdued performance. It’d be all too easy to simply pretend to be a child in the role of Norman, and Lukasavage gracefully avoids this in a very sympathetic performance. Kurtis Witzlsteiner plays mild schizophrenic Barry Klemper. Klemper believes himself to be a professional golfer. Probably the most functional of the four men, Klemper may be one of the trickiest roles to play. The character has to seem completely functional until a key moment when everything turns around for him. Witzlsteiner is capable at conveying the character’s emotional dynamic, but seem to lack the kind of stage experience necessary to make the role as powerful as it could be. Mario Alberts rounds out the central cast in the role of Lucien P. Smith, a profoundly impaired man […]
May 29th, 2008 by Russ Bickerstaff
The Spitfire Grill
The Spitfire Grill still sparkles. The award winning musical, a reprise production from September 2002, literally glows through the book, music, and lyrics by Wisconsin natives and friends James Valcq and Fred Alley – especially on this particular Saturday night, when the four piece orchestra played under composer Valcq’s guest direction. Based on the 1996 film The Spitfire Grill by David Lee Zlotoff, first screened at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, Valcq and Alley adapted the movie to one of a small Midwestern town: Gilead, Wisconsin. This is where the young ex-convict Percy Talbot dreams of starting over and setting down deep roots, but finds little to love when she reaches Gilead’s only restaurant and discovers its few inhabitants discouraged by life. But as Percy learns to forgive what others think and say about her and how they treat her as she participates in rural living, she also learns to forgive herself for committing a crime of desperation. Overlooking a bright morning sunrise, Percy ultimately begins to believe when she sings that “A diamond of hope shines a light in this dark heart of mine.” The cast of The Spitfire Grill lives out the frustration of a bleak Wisconsin winter on the Skylight’s spare, rough-hewn set, showcasing an open staircase of timber. Yet Alley’s compassionate lyrics, set to Valcq’s lovely melodies, resonate as a paradise of color, similar to a hill of October trees, enhances the backdrop through scene changes on the stage. From the opening “A Ring Around the Moon” to the charming “Into the Frying Pan,” Valcq’s rhythms use every frying pan lid, clanking car chain and snow shovel as percussion in a perfectly-timed performance. In an exceptionally poignant moment of music, Shelby Thorpe — the young woman helping in the grill when owner Hannah breaks her leg — comforts Percy after she reveals her personal grief with the haunting “Wild Bird.” The audience remains as silent as the night woods as the vocals haunt the theater throughout much of the performance, except when down-home humor punctuates the dialogue. This profound attention focuses on a strong professional cast including Katy Blake as Percy Talbott, who at first is all bravado but settles in to the softer aspects of the role as the evening progresses. Leslie Fitzwater as Hannah Ferguson and Elizabeth Moliter as Shelby Thorpe bring touching voices to the musical harmonies, and Becky Spice creates notes of laughter with her portrayal of Effy Krayneck. Today’s audiences still applaud this tale of redemption and hope, which won the Richard Rodger’s Production Award in 2001. Alley, who died only a month before the honor was awarded, continually lives on in through this performance and all his art. The musical resonates evocatively when the lyrics, “Shoot the Moon … Life is hard and gone to soon” resound on stage. His songs speak to the simple but profound truths in life, always delivered with a smile. Since its 2001 premiere in New York, The Spitfire Grill has played continually across the […]
May 27th, 2008 by Peggy Sue Dunigan
Milwaukee International
It’s a little late to be posting any coverage of last weekend’s Milwaukee International, and I don’t have much to say for myself – besides that I’ve been thinking about it, sorting out the hour or so of art I saw and the subsequent hour or two of beer I drank at Polish Falcons. There’s a lot to say about Milwaukee International, and it deserves more careful coverage than it’s received. Timelier coverage, too, but that’s another matter. The show (which you can read more about here and here if you need background) was fast and low. It was crowded and god-awful hot as the gallery lights beat down on the exhibition hall, normally reserved for weekly dartball league, which is a game I had no idea existed until Andrew Swant told me about it. The choice of venue may have been in celebration of Milwaukee blue-collar/polka/bowling culture, but make no mistake, it was also completely tongue-in-cheek. This is an art movement — and more widely a cultural movement — that celebrates the unexpected, the kitschy, the almost-condescendingly but incongruously sincere appreciation of low-fi, low-brow, low-cost, low-maintenance. Yes, friends: Milwaukee International is an expo of the best hipster art from around the world. I felt like I was walking through an issue of The Believer, live outtakes from Me and You and Everyone We Know and a Riverwest rummage sale – all at once. Photos by Faythe Levine Mano Izquierda from San Juan presented large, colorful portraits of Magic Johnson, Cookie Monster and other artifacts of the recent past, leaving out sticky notes and writing utensils for viewers to participate in the installation. There were a lot of adorable, poorly-drawn sketches of everything from plastic forks and knives (in what was actually a compelling selection of works on “obsessive consumption” by Kate Bingaman-Burt at the Paperboat Gallery booth) to men and women in their underwear and folks looking mopey to legions of scary, miserable, wobbly-faced troops (presented by Hiromi Yoshii from Tokyo, whose sat miserably by, surrounded by flickering, despondent TV sets piled on cardboard boxes; a groaning post-apocalyptic work that reminded me of a less fluid and exuberant Kristopher Pollard, whom I saw in attendance a few minutes later). The Green Gallery presented a clock made out of tostadas (for $2,000, it can be yours). Perhaps the ultimate in garage sale style was the riotous installation of “Milwaukee Artists 1946-1956″, representing derivative mid-modern works from Milwaukee’s “Layton School” period. The editorial edge classifies such works as “the zenith” of our city’s artistic achievement. Photographs from gallery openings in the era were scattered across the bar; a graph on a nearby wall tracked Milwaukee’s art in a thick red line, with the ‘80s and ‘90s were labeled merely “Drugs” and an arrow crashing below the graph’s threshold where “Milwaukee International” appears. It’s an obvious stab of cheeky sarcasm and a statement about what makes art what it is, who gets to decide and how we all assume that we’re living […]
May 25th, 2008 by Amy Elliott
Choreographer’s triptych
In a triptych of ballet selections, The Milwaukee Ballet captured a complete repertoire of styles in Season Finale. This last performance of the 2007-2008 season showcased the entire company in extraordinary fashion through the work of several choreographers with a captivating trio of pieces: The Kingdom of Shades, Aubade and Offenbach in the Underworld. Beginning the evening with costumes in classic white tutus and coats, gilded in gold, the dancers in The Kingdom of Shades presented traditional ballet with arabesque sequences and corps divertissement. This selection from the full-length ballet La Bayadere, a love story of a temple dancer and noble warrior in legendary India, features pas de deuxs by Diana Stetsura and David Hovhannisyan. The couple danced in perfect sync, with Hovhannisyan skillfully showing the exquisite positions and pointe technique of Stetsura. Set in a tropical forest of trees, these royal dancers filled the stage as Andrew Sill conducted a portion of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra to music by Ludwig Minkus and the choreography of the ingenious and influential Marius Petipa (1818-1910). The second selection, Aubade, was a world premiere, choreographed by Milwaukee Ballet’s own Artistic Director Michael Pink as a modern interpretation of lovers leaving each other at dawn. Featuring impressive dance sequences performed by both men and women, this contemporary and romantic vision of ballet took place on a sparse stage shadowed in morning light, from lighting designer Nicholas Phillips. Smooth and evocative, this corps of ten dancers completely covered the stage as Francis Poulenc’s music played through each movement. To finish the evening and season while celebrating the 100th birthday of choreographer Antony Tudor (1908-1987), the Milwaukee Ballet performed Offenbach in the Underworld. Amid the ambiance of an Art Nouveau set similar to one of Edouard Manet’s paintings of a Paris café, Offenbach delights with stellar performances offset by comic storytelling. Three central pairs of lovers spar through dance while a legion of “local French ladies,” in plaid silk skirts and matching bowed hats, step to the music of Jacques Offenbach as arranged by George Crum. Devilishly showing their sheer black stockings and ruffled undergarments, these flirtatious dancers lifted their skirts to steal several dance scenes, especially in their rendition of the high-kicking can-can. Only the audience’s imagination could fill in the ending to the story of this 1870’s evening in Paris. When the curtains closed to silent awe, as after a burst of colorful fireworks, the audience had experienced a trio of distinct styles in ballet and choreography and the work of three prominent artists in three periods in dance history: a display of the visual and intellectual spirit of ballet, an art that is equally strenuous and elegant. This Season Finale leaves a sense of the promise of the Milwaukee Ballet’s upcoming season that will begin in fall 2008, bringing another season of richness to a company with incredible value to the city’s art community. VS
May 21st, 2008 by Peggy Sue Dunigan
Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares @ The Pabst Theater
By Ellen Burmeister Photo by CJ Foeckler Ecstatic, chilling, astonishing and profoundly moving: at a time in which most vocal music is digitized and synthesized to the nth degree, the sound of the Bulgarian Women’s Television Choir (known since the 1980s as “Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares” — the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices — from their renowned, influential recordings) is a refreshing blast of reality in an increasingly homogenized global culture. Emerging from one of the lesser-known corners of Eastern Europe, this choir of about 20 women is a living example of the effects history can have on art. While many of the arrangements they performed at their May 16 appearance at the Pabst Theater are the creation of modern Bulgarian composers, the music they perform reflects the influence of past empires and invaders: Ottoman Turks, Byzantines, and even far older traditions from the ancient Greek world. Even their tone is something very different. While trained singers in the West concentrate on rounded, open tones powered from the diaphragm, the Bulgarian style comes from the throat and head. This is music meant to be performed outdoors, and its hyper-focused timbre ranges from sustained straight notes that seem to go on forever to vocal acrobatics that evoke Middle Eastern music. Starting the program arrayed across the stage in stunning regional costumes, the choir filled the pitch-perfect space of the Pabst with one amazing arrangement after another – all a capella and all memorized. These were not simple repetitive tunes, either: they broke into two, four, even six parts. The harmonies were even more astounding, “breaking the rules” with seconds, sevenths, and forays into quarter tones, gliding in and out of dissonance and resolution with ease. Add in the demands of mind-boggling rhythms and tricky diction, and the result was an entirely new exposition of the possibilities of “the choral art.” In the second half of the show, the group switched to more contemporary black concert dress. The effect was interesting; it helped to showcase the music itself, and seemed to put it in a more “modern” context (the opening number, “Mehmetyo [Girl’s Name]” included close harmonies and rhythmic undertones that evoked minimalist composer John Adams). Director Dora Hristova handled these formidable forces with ease, but this multi-generational group also exhibited the kind of ensemble sensitivity that only comes from years of practice and rehearsal. Boldly confident in their entrances, seemingly intuitive in their group interpretations, and charming in their interaction, they also easily broke off into trios, quartets, and other small groupings, some with male vocalists. This is music that definitely challenges our ideas of what choral music is all about, with its unexpected yips and cries, snippets of dialogue, and full-throated, wavering chords. Ancient and post-modern at the same time, the sound of the Bulgarian Women’s Television Choir reminds us that the human voice on its own is still the most powerful, versatile instrument ever created. VS To listen to clips of Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares, visit the […]
May 20th, 2008 by Vital Archives
To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday
In 1983, Michael Brady’s touching drama To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday generated a landslide of critical praise, marking Brady as a promising new playwright. Over a dozen years later, the play was adapted for a film, which bombed critically and financially. The play is still produced, but probably not as much as it deserves. The story itself may not be all that impressive, but the script impressively compensates for the plot: the dialogue is crisp, clever and inventive, and the characters carry a strikingly vivid depth. One of the quietest companies in town, Soulstice Theatre, has opened a thoroughly entertaining production of the drama that runs through the end of the month. Randall T. Anderson plays a semi-retired teacher named David who leads a reclusive life on his island home. He is having difficulty moving on from the death of his wife Gillian, a situation which is complicated by his nightly conversations with the memory of her (played with a great deal of emotional magnetism by Ana DeLorme). Anderson delivers David’s intellectual charm in a deeply articulate performance. Brady populates the rest of the play with interesting characters memorably represented by Soulstice’s cast. Hannah Richtman, a high school junior, plays David’s daughter Rachel. Rachel, concerned about her father’s inability to move on after her mother’s death while still coping with her own sense of loss, has a remarkable amount of intellectual and emotional maturity, which Richtman gracefully and admirably brings to the stage. Ellen Sommers plays her friend Cindy, who stargazes with David and Rachel at the beginning of the play. Richtman and Sommers work well together, which goes a long way toward grounding the play’s social center. They are soon joined by Rachel’s aunt Esther (Jillian Smith) and uncle Paul (Jeffrey S. Berens) who bring an old student of David’s (Amber Page) to his island home in an effort to motivate him to be less solitary. Soulstice performs the play in the Marian Center’s Academy Studio Theatre, which will be familiar to anyone who saw Dramatists Theatre show last season. It’s an intimate theatre to begin with, but Soulstice’s use of the space for this production amplifies its intimacy considerably. A stairway bisects the seating area that directly faces the stage. Those in the seats flanking the stairway are extremely close to the action. The Boulevard Theatre is known for bringing its actors close enough to touch, but Soulstice’s blocking for this production is closer to the audience than anything that I’ve seen in half a decade of covering theatre in Milwaukee. Director Char Manny places some of the most emotionally intense scenes right next to the staircase. Sit in one of those first two seats flanking the staircase and you’re only barely further away from the actors than they are from each other, imparting the feeling of almost being directly involved in some of the most intense conversations in the play. If you were any closer, you’d be in the production. The acting might not perfectly live […]
May 20th, 2008 by Russ Bickerstaff
Before da show
Milwaukee International Polish Falcons Beer Hall 801 E. Clarke Street, Riverwest Friday May 16 (5-9pm) Saturday May 17 (Noon-9pm) It’s Thursday, 1 pm, May 15. Tomorrow at 5 pm, the doors open to reveal the Milwaukee International art fair. I’m standing in the middle of the chaos at the Polish Falcons Beer Hall at 801 E. Clarke Street, deep in the soul of Riverwest, here to give you a taste of what it takes to ready 28 art spaces for exhibitors from as far flung as San Juan (Puerto Rico, not Capistrano), Tokyo, Glasgow, and yes, even M’waukee. Bowling will rumble from the Falcon Bowl in the building’s bowels. It’s the fourth oldest bowling alley in America; Liberace would love it. A distinct air of beer wafts through the hall on the first floor. Groups of volunteers hump booth walls to and fro, a few sporting white hoodies emblazoned with the art fair’s logo. You can purchase a hoodie or a tee for $24 and/or $10 respectively, and they come in really big or really small sizes. A visiting artist from Glasgow made them. “Somebody from Ralph Lauren called me to ask if they could buy some,” says Tyson Reeder, who operates The General Store art venue. “I’m not kidding,” he adds. A huge tray of food arrives from their neighbor across the way (The Riverwest Co-op). It’s almost time to chow down and take a break. Last year the walls were donated for no charge. This year, there may be a slight charge if the fair turns a profit. Booths for non-profit venues rent for $200; for-profits pay $400. All things considered, it’s a deal. So far the group has taken in $4,000 for this year’s extravaganza. Last year they took in $2,000. But they’ll be lucky to clear a grand, and if they do, it rolls over into their next project. No one is getting rich. Everyone is getting happy. From the editor: The walls were paid for, NOT donated, as the organizers of Milwaukee International have made clear in the comment posted below. The generous sponsorship of Thomas Blackman Associates in Chicago assists with the walls, but the are paid for, and nearly all of the booth rental fees charged by MKE INTL go toward wall rental and lighting fees. We regret the error. VS The volunteers and those who donate supplies seem to take pride in being “emotionally invested” in the Fair. Green Gallery proprietor John Riepenhoff lectures at UW-Milwaukee. His subject? How to start an art gallery. He should know. Nick Frank dashes by in a red hoodie. He’s sporting a “new” and rather elaborate growth of facial hair. I remark that he looks like a fugitive from a Goya painting. We move to a corner near the long dark bar where a guy from Cuba show his art. “We almost got a fellow (first name “Valentino”), a taxidermist, but he changed his mind,” said Frank. I asked him about the accusation that local galleries […]
May 16th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
More than just a ride
By Rebecca Cook Photos by Harvey Opgenorth + Photo of Harvey by Rebecca Cook Milwaukee artist Harvey Opgenorth looks to his surroundings for inspiration and the ever-present possibility of an art experience. A man with an eye for detail, Harvey constantly surveys his environment, savoring details as simple as a crack in the sidewalk. Examining the everyday objects that many of us take for granted has moved him to artistically explore fresh ways of presenting these objects. The result causes the viewer to pause and reconsider; Harvey challenges traditional perception. Over the last few years, he’s plumbed the possibilities of the art inherent in the design and use of bicycles. It started with a fixed gear; it was love at first sight. The attraction lay in the simplicity and utilitarian nature of the bike. It represented a convergence of form and function that fascinated Harvey. It also provided another outlet for his creative impulses. In honor of Bike to Work Week, Harvey sat down with me to talk about the role bikes play in daily life. VS: Do you remember your first bike? HO: Definitely. It was a blue bike with a yellow plastic seat and chrome fenders. I think it was a Sears Special. I remember always using my feet as breaks. There is actually Super 8 footage on me riding that bike! VS: How many bikes do you have? HO: Three. I have two fixed gears; one is my commuter and one is my track bike. The other is my multi-speed road bike. VS: Your background in painting and sculpture, no doubt, plays a significant role in the bikes you build. What’s your process? HO: With the first bike I built, I wanted a bike that was the dictionary definition of a bike. So when I was building this bike I had a very specific blueprint in my head of what a quintessential bike is to me and utilized that to build it. It was very simplified. There weren’t any logos … it was almost making a cartoon of itself. A good comparison would be to think of a tree. It’s probably an idealized tree in your head, and that is how I treated that project. Of course, the quintessential idea is different for everyone, and the process is different with every bike. For example, low-riders are primarily about aesthetics. It functions smoothly but is about the look. It’s not necessarily about getting from point A to point B quickly. Whereas the high-end racing bike is more about technological advances and the way it functions. The aesthetics are secondary. My personal interest with bikes and art is to find a good balance between both sides, to make the project well rounded. The bike, for me, needs to both function well and be easily maintained, but also have a pleasing aesthetic … basically making something that is timeless and built with quality versus a fad. VS: Do you consider yourself a bike artist? HO: No, I see myself as […]
May 14th, 2008 by Vital Archives
Body Heat
The Milwaukee Public Museum opened Body Worlds on January 18, positioning it as a limited engagement. According to their website, it’s the most highly attended touring exhibition in the world, and promises, in a P.T. Barnum kind of pitch, that you’ll “see the human body like never before.” Before visiting the 200 authentic organs, systems and whole-body displays, I determine not to be sucked in to the show-biz hype. On April 23, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Body Worlds had surpassed expected sales and might net the Museum as much as $2 million in revenue, which would make it the Museum’s most successful and highly attended show of all time. As a grand finale, the exhibition will stay open for 63 hours straight before closing on midnight June 1. Depending on whose side you’re on, the MPM extravaganza is either a marketer’s dream or a marketer’s worst nightmare. In any event, the many incarnations of Body Worlds and its imitators are cranking heat. The temperature rose when ABC’s 20/20 aired an investigative report on the source of the touring cadavers. The New York State Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation (and issued subpoenas), as has the Chinese government, following an allegation by someone said to be part of a bodies black market that sold Chinese corpses, including executed prisoners, for $300. Dr. Gunther Von Hagens, Body Worlds head honcho and the inventor of the plastination process which sucks out fat and body fluids and replaces them with liquid plastic, tried to soften things by saying he “had to destroy some bodies” as he suspected they were execution victims. Apparently folks are packing an Ohio exhibition (Bodies: The Exhibition) entombed at the Cincinnati Museum Center, where museum officials claim everything is above board. My sister writes from Kansas City that a similar exhibition (another rival of Body Worlds) is installed in a small museum space in the historic Union Station. She isn’t going to see the stuff because to her mind, “it is voyeuristic.” I too hoped that the MPM exhibition wouldn’t trigger any peep-show tendencies. My father was a forensic pathologist, and by the time I was a young adult, I’d had it with his dinner table discussions of organs. He was generous with his body, though; when he died he willed it to the University of Kansas for medical research and spent time floating around in a brine tank with a numbered tag attached to his toe. Hopefully a medical student benefited when they hooked Father with a long pole and pulled forth their personal cadaver. But the science of medical dissections as practiced today, thanks to Von Hagens’ ongoing development of plastination, may soon disappear. As I write, I’m reminded of a former Wisconsin physician who, when last sighted, was working for a Cryogenics firm in Arizona. His job was to sever the heads from the corpses of those wishing to find everlasting life via a process similar to freeze-drying. The late baseball player Ted Williams […]
May 14th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Five on three
The Armoury Gallery 1718 N. lst St. (3N3) Gallery hours: Fridays & Saturdays 1 – 5 Opening Reception: Friday, May 9, 7 – 10pm info@thearmourygallery.com Two decades have passed since I had a studio on floor five at the Fortress. I was painting BIG back then and recall lugging the results up and down the ancient freight elevator on the west side of the red brick building. The place was crawling with artists, some sneakily living in tandem with their work (one place even had a shower!), and though it was “illegal” to hunker down, it was more or less overlooked. Sax Arts & Crafts was on the street level fronting The Fortress at 1st and Pleasant. Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end. Five artists entrenched on floor three have only just begun. 3N3 designates their place in time: that’s third floor north, slot three. The building, however venerable, is a maze of four wings of possibilities, so be advised that you can reach the third floor via a creaky freight elevator or creaky stairs. Take the stairs. Warning: don’t confuse the south building with the north building. I was assured by one of the artists that multiple signs would be posted to direct visitors, but just to ease the way, be sure to enter on the west side of the building (the 1st St. side), where three doors await. Enter the one marked 1718 and follow the signs! If you’re still confused, phone 414-265-2806. Don’t call me. Eduardo J. Villanueva, Emily Siegel Belknap, Karin Haas, Cassandra Smith and Jessica Steeber: from May 9 – June 6, you can see what they’re up to. Their formal education in art is diverse: MIAD, UW-Milwaukee and Mount Mary College. They share a 1,000 sq.-ft-area centered by a furnace. Artist Jessica Steeber observed that a furnace in the middle of the floor actually gives them more wall space. Artists Villanueva, Belknap and Haas will exhibit until June 20th when they’ll give way to artists from Milwaukee, Chicago and Philadelphia. Smith and Steeber (co-owners of the gallery) are exhibiting for the grand opening, but Steeber says it’s likely they won’t exhibit their work in the future. This is a wise strategy if you run a gallery, because frankly, invited artists sometimes feel upstaged. On my way to visit The Armoury, I was thinking that so much wall space is not necessarily a good thing for young artists accustomed to cramped spaces. It could lead to art that sprawls – but if it sprawls and it’s also interesting, that’s another thing entirely. Of the five exhibitors, co-owner Steeber takes up the least amount of space with her discrete installations presented on traditional shelving unearthed at the Salvation Army, Michael’s Craft Store, and yes, her parents’ basement. The objects on the shelving consist of props (dollhouse furniture, tiny fake trees) and photographs designed to compare and contrast the artist’s shrunken world with our expanded universe. The claustrophobic boxes of Joseph Cornell […]
May 8th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Fat Pig
By Jill Gilmer I eagerly anticipated the opening of Fat Pig, if only to learn who its catchy title referred to. The answer surprised me. Contrary to popular belief, the Fat Pig was not the overweight leading lady, played with perfection by Tanya Saracho. Neither was it her commitment-phobic boyfriend or one of his obnoxious co-workers, although any of them could have easily earned the title. The Fat Pig may well be society. Fat Pig is a romantic comedy centered on a skinny, all-American guy named Tom who falls for a pretty but obese woman named Helen. The story explores the fall-out when two of Tom’s co-workers, Jeannie and Carter, discover the latest object of Tom’s affections. Carter, Tom’s misogynistic buddy, posts a photo of Helen in the company cafeteria in an attempt to shame Tom into ending his relationship with his overweight girlfriend. Jeannie, a beautiful and slender accountant who becomes obsessed with Tom after their brief romantic relationship ends, is equally incredulous. One of the funniest scenes is a cat & mouse exchange between Tom and Jennie in which she attempts to expose his lie about a recent dinner with “a colleague from Chicago” by demanding that he turn in an expense report. The colleague, of course, was Helen. Playwright Neil LaBute attempts to create more than a simple romantic comedy. He tiptoes on social commentary by slamming society’s – and many men’s – obsession with thinness as the standard of female beauty. He also suggests that our rejection of overweight people is rooted in our own insecurities. During a rare moment in which Carter is not acting like a character from American Pie, he reflects, “We’re all just one step away from being what frightens us. What we despise. So we despise it when we see it in anybody else.” This is LaBute’s signature style: his depiction of immoral characters who preach about morality. Unfortunately, the script does not go far enough to develop these ideas on more than a superficial level. More disappointing is this production’s failure to tap into the most intriguing element in the script, which is the opportunity to force the audience to turn a mirror on itself. How willing are we to fight for that which we believe in – even that which we love? LaBute seems to encourage the audience to root for Tom to have the strength to follow his heart. But this necessitates that they identify more closely with him. Although Braden Moran portrays Tom as a likeable enough character, he overplays Tom’s insecurities to the point that the audience feels more pity than empathy. Despite these shortcomings, Fat Pig is an entertaining play. Director Susan Fete should be commended in her casting of Wayne Carr and Tanya Saracho. Both of them deliver outstanding performances. Moreover, casting Carter as an African-American and Helen as a Mexican-American plays nicely to LaBute’s slightly irreverent script. For these two performances alone, Fat Pig is worth the ticket price. Fat Pig, presented by […]
May 7th, 2008 by Vital Archives
