TBA Box Tomorrow!

PICA’s TBA Central Box Office opens tomorrow, August 1 in the Weiden + Kennedy foyer. That’s the box office for the Time Based Art Festival produced by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art that regularly sells out many of the performances it brings in from across the country and around the world. So in years past, if you didn’t jump on tickets for Yubiwah Hotel (Japan) and Lone Twin (UK) early, say, you were out of luck. What will be the sellouts this year? Well, Nature Theater of Oklahoma (pictured above), for one, is a Sure Thing, and Ace In The Hole. The Box Office is open Tuesday through Friday, 12-6 PM. Plus, PICA will be at the 5th Avenue Old Town/Chinatown Street Fair on First Thursday, August 2 from 5-10 PM on NW 5th Avenue between Burnside and Glisan.

You can access the whole TBA catalogue as a PDF here to start making your picks. Of course, your safest bet is a festival pass.

This is your A#1 Best Chance to get a bead on contemporary performance delivered to you on a silver, if somewhat off-kilter, platter here in Portland, Oregon.

Amassing Light: Esque Exhibition at DWR

You’ve seen their singular carafes on the tables at clarklewis and the mirrored moose head at Doug Fir. In addition to their exquisite product line (that you must go see online), Esque Design has done projects for and with Donna Karan, Tony Oursler, Kiki Smith, and W Hotels, and their work has been featured in Surface, i.d., Time, and the New York Times. Opening August 2 at Design Within Reach (1200 NW Everett) is Amassing Light: Glass Lighting by glass artists Andi Kovel and Justin Parker of Esque Design. The installations include a cluster of “Mirror Circles,” another of “Big Red Lights” internally lit by fluorescent rods, and skulls and wishbones blown from beer bottles. The opening reception is from 6-8 PM.

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Here’s our challenge to you. In this second year of the contest-slash-fashion-show with the rhyme-y name, we challenge you to make a garment from discarded materials that looks not like a joke, a clown suit, or a Burning Man project. Why not be truly subversive and make a garment that is subtle and intelligent, taking inspiration from Martin Margiela perhaps? His 1990 Porcelain Waistcoat that is a bit Julian Schnabel, but lovely just the same. Take back fashion as art as fashion.

You are required to use materials that one might find in the trash. The deadline for submissions for Junk to Funk, a benefit for Orlo is October 17, 2007. The fashion show of finalist designs takes place on November 17, 2007 at the Wonder Ballroom.

Cloepfil in Metropolis

See a familiar name on the cover of this month’s Metropolis? The Portland-based architect with a national reach, Brad Cloepfil (and Allied Works Architecture), is among the four “emerging stars” that Metropolis features with coverage of Cloepfil’s expansion of the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Arts & Design in New York, and of course, the project that started it all (more or less): Wieden + Kennedy. Read it online here. And then hang onto your hats for Cloepfil’s Clyfford Still Museum in Denver.

Mr. Schemmerer

We first knew Richard Schemmerer a few years back as one of the only independent knitwear designers in Portland. Since then, this prolific artist and fashion designer has taken on more projects than you’ve even dreamed about while fitting in a year of travel in Europe. Among other upcoming group shows, his installation,  “Sleeping With My Stories,” for which he created the clever little maquette above, opens this Saturday, July 28 at new NE arts space Rererato (5135 NE 42nd) as part of the group show ZZZ…(between the sheets). There’s a reception from 4-9 PM with music by Emily Katz, among others.

Meanwhile, here’s a shot of the one-of-a-kind necklace he designed that we saw around his neck at the Denwave menswear show.