Here Be Dragons: Alaska

Argentine choreographer Diana Szeinblum’s new work Alaska is a raw and unapologetic piece of dance-theater that simultaneously inspires mystery, hope and a worrisome sense of helplessness (think of the voyeuristic discomfort of seeing Gena Rowlands’ unraveling in Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence). “Gloriously alive,” Alaska marks the choreographer’s first visit since her 2003 Secreto y Malibu, a fantastically arch piece that seemed one part Buñuelian tease, one part a nod to Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures.

Trained in the tanztheater weltanschauung of Wuppertal’s Pina Bausch, Szeinblum is a cunning synthesist who avoids the trappings of overly mannered and emotive, Ach-Ich-Bin-So-Unglücklich-und-Existenzial costume/set-driven Ausdrucktanz–instead mining a dance dialectic of frenzied releases and collapsed resignation. Rigorous dance, athletic and precise, yet unafraid of small inward gestures, Alaska, “speaks of that place that we all recognize, but where no one has ever been.” Like Glenn Gould’s “idea of North,” “Alaska,” remains (in the words of Gould), “a convenient place to dream about, spin tall tales about, and, in the end, avoid.”

Danced by two women and two men to an original, tensely cinematic score, the evening-length work charts the terra incognitae of bodies rising and falling apart, stolen snapshots exposing intimacy, dominance, and obsession. From the comedic to the cathartic, the piece is brutal and fiercely seductive. Szeinblum successfully exploits many of Bausch’s hallmark devices—angst, alienation, frailty of human connection, the blurring and loss of self—and tempers them with her own wickedly dark humor, extremes of movement (from the pedestrian, workaday to mechanized, operatic violence), a minimalist/conceptual mise-en-scène, and shards of hope producing a pandemonium of “interior spaces,” disturbing little lonelinesses. Some of the best unsettling movement poetry you’ll see this season.

PICA presents Alaska at PSU’s Lincoln Hall, 1620 SW Park Avenue, on Tuesday and Wednesday, January 29 & 30, 8 pm. $25 ($20 PICA members). Tickets: (503)242-1419

Czech It!

Celebrity sightings and socialite scenes are usually confined to New York or L.A., but that’s no longer the case! Eve, Portland’s latest (and probably only) Prague-import scenester has been generating celebrity-size whispers while tooling around town doing publicity for her play, CoHo Theater’s production of Tales of Ordinary Madness. She’s been spotted at the Ace Hotel, shopping at Una, and at parties all over Portland, enchanting us with her Eastern European charm and ever-changing headgear. We bought into the craze and invited Eve for an afternoon interview/shopping spree at souchi on NW 23rd. Here’s what the stiff starlet had to say about the production, shopping, and life in A-mehr-ee-ka.

ultra: Hi, Eve.
Eve: Hello.

ultra: You are visiting from Prague to perform in Petr Zelenka’s Tales of Ordinary Madness at CoHo Productions. This is the play’s American premiere, which is very exciting. Is the reaction different to the play here than in Prague?
Eve: To say the reaction in Prague was enthusiastic is an understatement. We felt like we finally had entered the civilized world of western democracies by putting onstage our everyday neuroses, ordinary madness and an urban slacker that could be from anywhere – not only Prague. It signified the end of Czech moaning about the communists, morose contemplation about our place in the universe and brooding pseudo-intellectual heroes. Now we have just completely normal mad urban neuroses like everyone else. Here, people understand that already.

ultra: Was anything in the script changed for American audiences?
Eve: Obviously. Stepan Simek, our translator and director, changed basically every single word in the play because originally it was written in Czech, and now it is in English. The words in English are very different than the words in Czech. For example, in English you say “hello” and in Czech you say “ahoj.” There are many languages in the world and Czech is one of them. English is also a language, but it is a different language. So Stepan changed all the words form the Czech language into the English language.

ultra: Would you say there is a difference between European and American 30-somethings and their problems?
Eve: I don’t think so. Maybe the Czech 30-somethings get a bit drunker, and they certainly don’t take that many showers. That is why they tend to have greasier hair, and a bit of a, how do you call it? B.O. (Anybody who ever took the streetcar in Prague in the middle of the winter or during a really hot day in the summer will testify to this phenomenon.) Also, the Czech 30-somethings tend to pee in public places.

ultra: You have had the chance to shop in some of Portland’s best boutiques. How does the fashion here compare to that in Prague?
Eve: Women in Prague dress like whores, men dress like Germans. It is very nice. However, I have seen some fabulous items in the stores here. Not enough people outside seem to be wearing them, though.

ultra: What are your favorite places in Portland so far?
Eve: I liked Pioneer Square, with all the pigeons. Reminded me of home.

ultra: What are the top three things about Portland that you’d want to bring back to Prague?
Eve: Mount Hood, our director Stepan, some of this cashmere… the exchange rate is so good, after all. Mostly, I have enjoyed all the attention. People here are very, how do you say? Amiable. Friendly.

Q: So it’s easier to meet people here than in Prague?
A: In general, the Czechs are a rude people and usually they don’t say anything, they just frown.

Tales of Ordinary Madness runs through February 23rd at the CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh; Tickets cost $20-23 and can be purchased by calling (503) 220-2646 or by visiting www.cohoproductions.org. And see Eve’s blog http://talesofordinarymadnesspdx.blogspot.com for a more detailed journaling of her stateside adventures.

–Rebecca Goldschmidt

Noted: Trend Panel at OFFICE

Because you (or someone like you) asked, here are some notes on the Trends panel at OFFICE last Thursday night. ultra played both sides of the fence, both paneling and taking notes on what the other astute speakers had to say to a more than full house on a frigid night on NE Alberta.

Best bit of the night: Michael DiTullo of Converse (and Core77) talking about the main challenge to designers being the fact that in his office right now he has a machine that can render a 3D image into an object that he can “print,” take out of the machine and put on his foot. “The machine is half the price it was not long ago, and you could see a future when consumers have this in their homes and download designs off the Internet and ‘print’ them in 3D.” Where is the designer then? he asked.

Second best bit: most likely after I had talked about hearing a speaker from the Post Carbon Institute talking about how there will be a time when transport is prohibitive (the world’s ships cary 90% of traded goods and their fuel costs rose 70% last year) necessitating a return to local production and what that means for designers and small manufacturers as well as local economies. DiTullo, who is a global trade booster, was super excited about a Chinese container vessel using “skysails” for its cross-Atlantic trip, trimming fuel costs by 20%.

DiTullo was the first to speak and the first to use the Word of the Night: “authenticity,” repeated by moderator Kelly Coller, David Hawkins, Rebecca Huston, and even this writer. DiTullo talked about wanting to make things, “that no one wants to get rid of, to make heirloom goods.” He talked about Converse’s 100 year anniversary and how at the time it was introduced, the Chuck Taylor was the most technologically advanced, performance shoe on the market. He sees a move away from the glossy and polished and toward the object made for real life.

David Hawkins of Umpqua Bank talked about his 50 year old bank, about Ray Davis who was the first, in spite of lots of talk in the industry about “retail banking” to make a “bank store.” David talked about Umpqua’s South Waterfront store as a destination and the simple thought that if he can get you to come into the store and spend time, and feel good about your interactions there, you are more likely to buy from him. He talked about fostering community, about authenticity, and connection, and the number of online initiatives that Umpqua has launched to, for example, connect members of the business community.

Rebecca Huston of Twenty Four Seven talked about brands reacting to how people really think and act now, and outlined five consumer trends. She pointed out (and we all agreed), that the trends noted are building, not fresh out of the box or at some point in the future. “It’s about when you get enough of a build that you move the needle a little,” she said.

The first trend Huston noted was that of the “personal umbrella,” the replacement of luxury (which is about attainability) with personal curation, the consumer selecting a portfolio of products and brands to express something about who they are. It’s is no longer going to work for a brand to define a Pepsi kind of person. Now the consumer asks, “Is Pepsi a me kind of brand?”

Huston talked about the trend of “marketing experiences, the experience that’s distinctive.” She said, “Knowledge is the new Luxury,” the work that the consumer puts into research…finding the information, the brand, the object. The purchase is special because of the time invested in it. And after years of lip service toward, “dialogue” with the consumer, it’s finally happening whether brands are participating or not through the web. The consumer controls the conversation, it’s no longer enough for a brand to talk at, they have to talk with the consumer. And lastly, Huston says, “The consumer really makes the rules now.” They are listening to each other’s recommendations as much as to any by “experts.”

And what did ultra talk about? Tasked with fashion trends, I talked about a hi-lo convergence of the hand made, with rarified couture-level techniques meeting lo-fi DIY handmade somewhere in the middle as the DIY consumer’s (and the designer with DIY roots) tastes become more sophisticated with her appreciation for the handmade being refined into an appreciation for the well-made garments and objects. And at the other end of the spectrum, luxury goods where the hand of the maker is evident in the product, a reappreciation for the craftsman, for his craftsmanship. And we used the example of entermodal, a line of sustainable luxury leather goods made here in Portland using age-old leatherworking techniques.

This carries over into the made object, where the show of the hand (rough hewn, unfinished, organic) is a natural reaction (and/or sensational counterpoint) to the ubiquity of the shiny, clean, and the linear.

Which led to the consideration of materials (in fashion, jewelry, furniture, home goods) and here we’re going to see even more of the unprecious (copper, steel, brass, stone, linen, jute, the handwoven) and the real (tying into other speakers thoughts about “authenticity”), leather, wool, etceteras. Here, influences ranged from a reaction to flash to the very real sky-high prices of gold, for example, as well as a byproduct of all the green talk.

I have also been thinking about the persistence of the limited edition object as both a reaction to mass and a reestablishment of exclusivity. The limited run or one-of-a-kind object ranges from the printed T-shirt to the short-run colorway on a sneaker, to the independent designer’s size-run of a garment. We see the continued consumer desire for limited editions to be a distinct benefit for the independent designer.

And you thought we’d be talking about the color orange, the fact that the 80s influence is not played out yet (velour for men) and the rising waist of your pants.

–Radon

Tilt Gallery is TWO

“Little Crumb Bun” (detail) by Lauren Clay, handcut paper and acyrlic, dimensions variable, 2007.

Count on it. Exhibitions at Tilt Gallery and Project Space (625 NW Everett #106) are hands down among the most interesting, critically acclaimed, and talked about of those at any gallery in Portland. Tilt has made space for installation work that is happening in few other places in Portland, and they do it month after month, exhibiting work both visiting and Portland-based artists.

Count two: two is for Tilt’s two-year anniversary, celebrated with a party January 25 from 7-11 PM at the gallery. And two is for the number of Tilt’s gallery directors/curators: Jenene Nagy and Josh Smith (“Wondertwin powers, Activate!”). Nagy’s APEX installation at the Portland Art Museum opening February 16 is bound to be one of the notable visual art exhibitions of the year. She has been curating good work into the Autzen Gallery at PSU and she also teaches. And Smith makes incredible work somewhere between furniture and fine art (more on his work soon) and is currently at OCAC.

The Friday night celebration doubles as closing reception of ONE NONE DONE, a site-specific project by Portland artist Jesse Hayward.

“Worry” by Rebecca Ripple, styrofoam and acrylic, 2006.

On the eve of the anniversary, Tim DuRoche asked co-directors/co-curators Jenene Nagy and Josh Smith a few questions about what’s next for Tilt:

What do you look forward to in the coming year?
We look forward to working with several new artists. Our highlight for the year is Lauren Clay from Brooklyn. Also bringing in Rebecca Ripple from LA who will participate in PSU’s Monday Night MFA Lecture Series. A Portland artist we’re excited to host is Ben Buswell in his follow-up from the 2006 Oregon Biennial.

With established players like Motel and Portland Art Center vanishing and larger galleries taking fewer big risks do you see Tilt stepping up to fill an emerging/divergent niche?
We specifically opened Tilt two years ago to fill that niche. As a non-commercial space we feel like our agenda is different form both of these venues. Tilt is run with the rigor and professionalism commonly associated with commercial galleries and the risk-taking and innovative programming of a nonprofit. We continue to specialize in emerging and under-recognized artists, both regional and national. Primarily, we exhibit experimental and difficult to show work.

What are some watchwords for Tilt’s curatorial momentum?
Diverse, experimental, challenging, educational, enthusiastic.

What is the nature of the universe, permanence or change?
Permanently changing.

What are three things you’d love people to know about Portland art (and/or artists) that they don’t know?
Mostly that the artists who live and work here are incredibly supportive of one another, making it a really great community. Although opportunities are limited, it feels like the artists are genuinely excited when peers succeed. Also, there’s so much happening here, something for everyone on many different levels: Crafty Wonderland, the Alberta scene, the Pearl, of course, mixed-use venues like Jace Gace and Ogle, and great academic institutions like the Cooley Gallery (at Reed) and the Archer (Clark College in Vancouver).

Lovely Petaluma: Storm Tharp and Elizabeth Taylor

Lovely Petaluma is small A projects’ (1430 SE Third) screening series at the gallery. Tonight at 7 PM, installment no. 2 of the series finds Portland-based artist (and critical favorite) Storm Tharp presenting a program of excerpts from Boom, Suddenly Last Summer, and A Place in the Sun and discusses “what a crazed and unsubtle actress she (Elizabeth Taylor) is – and how great she is in her badness.”

It’s not the first time Tharp has considered Liz. What we didn’t know that is noted in his mini-bio on the press release is that, “To get into college he submitted drawings of Guess models on velvet paper and scratch-boards of movie stars. It worked.” There’s nothing that could warm up a frigid night like Liz Taylor in a green dress. Plus, beer and popcorn…and Tharp.