THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY NEWSLETTER FOR ART IN EASTERN IOWA
IOWA CITY ARTS REVIEW FEBRUARY 6, 2013
WEEKLY CALENDAR ONGOING EVENTS Axles and Aperture: Roller Derby Photography The Douglass and Linda Paul Gallery, Englert Theater | January 10 - February 12 Nancy Purington, “Clouds and Waves” Hudson River Gallery | January 25 February 23 Monica Correia and Terry Rathja Legion Arts Main Gallery in Cedar Rapids through February 28 Joseph Patrick, Legion Arts Club Room in Cedar Rapids| through February 28 Lloyd Dunn, Legion Arts Digital Gallery in Cedar Rapids| through February 28 Photographs by Pieta Brown | Legion Arts Commons Gallery in Cedar Rapids| through February 28 Robert Polidori, “Selected Works, 19852009” | Faulconer Gallery in Grinnell January 25 - March 17 Work by Holly Cusey and Connor Taylor, BFA students in Graphic Design | Drewelowe Gallery | February 4 - 8
CRITIC EVENT PICKS OUT of the PAN INTO the FIRE OUT of the PAN INTO the FIRE premieres as a student production here in Iowa before The Moving Company premieres the show in their native Minneapolis. The group, who has had other critical successes transforming dusty literary material into something fresh and relevant, tackles Grimm’s Fairy Tales in this performance. Admittedly, I was skeptical the moment I saw “fairy tale” in the description, but this sounds like a troupe that can make that material compelling. LECTURES OF NOTE: THURSDAY Lynn Koos, curator of the African American Mueum of Iowa, will discuss the development of the underground railroad focusing on Iowa’s network and discuss the various stops and people involved. This should be an engaging consideration of Iowa’s role in the Civil War and how it impacted African Americans. Alec Soth’s photographs have investigated,
EDITION 1 VOLUME 8
among other things, the artifacts and traces of life lived alone--or at least at some remove from “respectable society.” His Broken Manual project feels full of those who have taken leave of the treadmill in search of other ways. We find traces of another, unfamiliar life. Of natural surroundings. Of objects isolated as if in a dream or intense concentration. FRIDAY Richard Brettell will be speaking about Gaugin’s self-portraits (the title of the talk is ‘Identity before Freud’) at the University Club. An engaging and sensitive looker, this should be an insightful consideration of how the late 19th-century mind saw itself. Going toe-to-toe on Friday night with Brettell is Nacho Zamora, a visiting artist in sculpture whose practice fuses sculpture, urban planning and renewable energy sources. Based in Spain, having worked in Dubai, and having spoken at an EU conference on renewable energy, Zamora’s work straddles the line between artistic production and urban development. The talk should be interesting.
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 8
MONDAY FEBRUARY 11
Public Lecture by Richard Brettell University Athletic Club| 5:30 pm
Marjorie Celona Reading | Prairie Lights Bookstore | 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Nacho Zamora, Syzygy Lecture | Art Building West, room 240 | 6:00 - 7:00 pm
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 13
Unison Piano Duo | Recital Hall, University Capitol Centre | 7:30 pm
Roberta Rust, solo piano | Riverside Recital Hall 7:30 pm
OUT of the PAN INTO the FIRE | David Thayer Theatre | 8:00 pm
Excelsior! Trio Guest Recital | Recital Hall, University Capitol Centre | 7:30 pm
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 9
OUT of the PAN INTO the FIRE | David Thayer Theatre | 8:00 pm
Talk with African American Museum of Iowa curator Lynn Koos | Old Capitol Museum, Supreme Court Chamber | 6:30 pm
Composers Workshop / SCI Student Chapter Concert | Riverside Recital Hall | 7:30 pm
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 14
Public Lecture by Photographer Alec Soth 240 Art Building West | 7:30 pm
OUT of the PAN INTO the FIRE | David Thayer Theatre | 8:00 pm
Patricia Foster and Jeff Porter | Prairie Lights Bookstore | 7:00 - 8:00 pm
OUT of the PAN INTO the FIRE | David Thayer Theatre | 8:00 pm
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 10
Miguel Zenón — Club Hancher | The Mill 7:30 pm
SCOPE Concert: Keller Williams | Englert Theater | 8:00 pm
Michel Benhaïem, piano | Riverside Recital Hall | 7:30 pm
OUT of the PAN INTO the FIRE | David Thayer Theatre | 8:00 pm
Work by Dustin Smart, BFA student in Graphic Design | 3rd floor atrium in ABW February 4 - 8 Work by Christopher Hunter, BFA student in Photography | Ark Gallery | February 4 - 8 Joe Rhodes Opening of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” | Paper Nest | through March 1
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 7
OUT of the PAN INTO the FIRE | David Thayer Theatre | 2:00 pm
IOWACITYARTSREVIEW.COM
UNCANNY VALLEY a piano/poetry/electronics concert-length work by composer John Gibson performed by Oni Buchanan, guest piano & Jon Woodward, author/poet JAN 27 - RIVERSIDE RECITAL HALL
UNCANNY VALLEY BY • X (JOHN ENGELBRECHT & KALMIA STRONG)
“In 1970, roboticist Masahiro Mori coined the term “uncanny valley” to describe the emotional and empathetic chasm between humans and imperfect human simulacra, a gap created by their imperfection. This program searches out what is most uncanny, and most human, in both language and music.” [[Like Buchanan and Woodward’s performance of John Gibson’s piece, this article too is an exercise in semantic satiation. At the center of this thought is the idea that while reading words you should also say them to yourself, silently say the words to yourself as you read them. Most people do this anyway, though sometimes speed readers do not. If you are a speed reader, slow down.)]] A REVIEW (1) The reader reads words written to be read. The words written are a review written for the reader, it seems, and it is said. It is said in the reader’s head as the reader reads the words written to be read. It is said, it is said, in the reader’s mind. The reader has only words to go on. The writer goes on. The writer goes on. The writer goads on. ARRIVAL On a Sunday evening we entered the car wreck. In retrospect, you could say we strolled up to it. In retrospect, you could say we were one wreck heading into another. In retrospect, the wreck was a motif and all these wrecks mentioned in multiple ways and arrays around us were in us and were waxed on and on about and aloud while Oni Buchanan prepared the piano. PREPARATION Oni prepared the piano she sometimes plucked because she was the piano plucker, the piano player, and the preparer of the piano she plucked and played for this presentation. So there was a prepared piano, plucked and played, by Oni Buchanan. This was part of the performance. As Oni pianoed, Jon Woodward read words, and for the remainder of this article we will refer to the words Woodward read as Woodward’s words. He published these words in a book called Uncanny Valley. You can read them there. TIME In retrospect, Woodward’s words were a waxy wreck. He waxed on about the waxy wreck in multiple ways, and these the multiple ways became multiple wrecks became symbolic of us. The way Woodward waxed words on wrecks was not anything we could understand for sure. In retrospect, we enjoyed wondering of his wordy wreck. It was a civilized wreck, and
in that manner we didn’t mind Woodward waxing on and on about it. We even wanted to write words about it. We wrote those words here. A DISGUISE Sure our words were written as a review of these so-called wrecks Woodward’s words worded us about, a wreck event the reader reviewing may or may not have missed. Sure we wrote our words to play with the reader reading, but the words we wrote really just wrote themselves. It was the reader reading that did the most work. SINCERITY The writer’s words remind the reader: we are waxing on and on about Oni and Jon’s Uncanny Valley performance. For example, take the Sunday evening in question. We didn’t ask to be involved in multiple car wrecks, or to even be included in anything remotely symbolic of a wreck. But like the reader into the words written, we climbed right in. We sat in a long room full of benches and watched the piano player pluck her prepared piano as the poet pushed waxed words. He was Woodwarding his words for us to write and review. UP AND DOWN Something vague about a car wreck and then another, just the same. Something uncanny. Like Jon Woodward’s Uncanny Valley. Like John Gibson’s Uncanny Valley. Like John E’s Unncanny Valley. A reviewer, a reader, all for fun reviewing and reading. COUNTING As we mentioned, we didn’t ask for this Sunday, or all these car wrecks, or the reader to read anything in particular. We wanted the Sunday, Woodward’s words waxing on the car wreck, and the reader to be pleased at practicing reading. A simple device for the writer to write about. A REVIEW (2) I guess the readers read the words, the words reform in their heads and inform them of the Sunday event where all these things about a car wreck were said. SPEAKING SOUNDS LIKE They were inferred. Sometimes with a lisp. Sometimes with a lisp on the reader’s lips from the writer’s writes. The lisp and lips
go hand in hand. As the lips lip the words the reader reads, it sometimes seems to be just a lisp in the reader’s head. A DISTURBANCE So there we were deposited in our seats, awaiting Woodward’s words and Oni on and on. It was quiet then until when a pen was thrown, when that pen was sent and spilled. That pen was sent and spilled onto the floor and now the reader knows. The reader chose to read about the sending of the pen through the air as the reader chose to read the writer’s writings on it. IN THE DARK The official written review read: there was a disturbance in the audience and a pen was sent flying through the air. Nonsense reads the reader, though not only nonsense was written, for we know every rubber pen warrants Robert Penn Warren, that’s not just nonsense. DEPARTURE After the presentation of the piano and the sending of the sent pen, we climbed civilized and safe from one car wreck to another. We made preliminary plans to live there, happily soiled, liked the spilled ink of the Penn Warren joke that was inside us. If we had enough time, we would straighten that ink out. We would rethink it. We would straighten that joke out. We would reink it. A COURSE OF ACTION When it ends, it begins to end with a side note. What are the side effects of speed reading? AND Sidenote: Sixteen stanzas in a serial poem. Samples triggered to drone the tones of word home. John, Jon, John, Oni on and on, ok, ok. Can a single article lose all apparent meaning? END As the words close, the closing words are read close until they completely close.
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co-creators: Brian Prugh and Heidi Wiren Bartlett