Classifying Koons

Real deal or charlatan? You make the call.

Published in the Weekly Volcano, October 28, 2010

JEFF KOONS: Girl with Dolphin and Monkey

I've been thinking about Jeff Koons a lot lately. Koons is the heir apparent to Andy Warhol (who was the heir apparent to Marcel Duchamp), and he is one of today's most popular artists.

Like Warhol, Koons' life is his art. A team of assistants executed Warhol's work in a studio he called The Factory. Assistants crank out Koons' art in a factory that looks like Google world headquarters.

Warhol made banal subjects visually exciting. He said he wanted to be a machine. Koons makes glamorous subjects visually banal. I think he is a machine.

Duchamp invented the readymade by purchasing a urinal from a plumbing supply store and calling it art, thus revolutionizing modern art in the process. Warhol created replicas of Brillo boxes that no one could tell from the original, thus ushering in post-modern art. Koons bought spanking new basketballs and vacuum machines and other home appliances and displayed them as art and thereby confused the hell out of everybody.

Other than the Brillo boxes and some of the silkscreens of Campbell's soup cans, Warhol's repetitive images did not in the least have a factory-produced look. The images were off register and his colors were acidic and highly original. There is nothing similarly original or stimulating about Koons' porcelain statue of Michael Jackson with his pet monkey, Bubbles, or about his glass sculptures of himself having sex with his wife, Italian porn star Cicciolina. Michael Jackson in albino-white porcelain or extremely graphic sculptures in clear glass of people having sex in every imaginable way are certainly provocative subjects for art, and conceptually the choice of materials and style are brilliantly ironic; but aesthetically they are boring, as is much of Koons' art.

Take for instance, the inflatables (flowers made of vinyl), and the balloon animals (some painted and some made of highly polished chromium steel).They're just stupid looking, and that's obviously his intent. They're like bad knockoffs of Claes Oldenburg sculptures. But again, they seem to be intentionally bad, and how do you judge that?

And then there are the countless silly animals and cartoon figures and the oil paintings that remind me a lot of James Rosenquist. A lot of these are a lot of fun, and some of them are astonishingly beautiful, especially those that layer pop images in a collage-like fashion.

Is he a good artist or a charlatan? I have a hard time making up my mind. But he is certainly entertaining, and I look forward to see what he's going to come up with next.

If you can't see any of Koons' work in the flesh, check it out online at www.jeffkoons. com and see what you think.

'Into the Woods' at Capital Playhouse: Enter a dark fairy tale

Published in The Olympian / The News Tribune, Oct. 22, 2010

PHOTOS BY DENNIS KURTZ/CAPITAL PLAYHOUSE
Daniel Boman is the Baker and Carolyn Willems Van Dijk is the Baker’s Wife, and Jeff Kingsbury is the Mysterious Man in Capital Playhouse’s “Into the Woods.”

Sitting through Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s “Into the Woods” at Capital Playhouse was not easy.

The staging and the acting were up to Capital Playhouse’s usual high standards, but the book and music are difficult – a strong concept with innovative and perceptive humor and insights, but Sondheim and Lapine put too much in and the play is too long.

Frank Rich nailed it in his New York Times review of the original Broadway production: “Unfortunately, the book is as wildly overgrown as the forest. ... Perhaps the enterprise could use less art and more craft.”

Like Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd,” it probes the darker regions of the human heart through a retelling of popular fairy tales, but it plods along with only hints of the biting humor and suspense that made “Sweeney Todd” so engrossing.

A poor baker and his wife (Daniel Boman and Carolyn Willems Van Dijk) want to have a baby, but their neighbor the witch (Deanna Moon) cast a spell on them, making them sterile, and told them the only way to break the spell would be to go into the woods and bring back certain items, which they easily find but then must buy or steal from their owners: Little Red Riding Hood (Alayna Deatherage), Jack of “Jack and the Beanstalk” (Ryan Tunheim), Cinderella (Bailey Boyd) and Rapunzel (Eva Gheorghiu).

In addition to these characters, the story is cluttered with a whole who’s who of fairy-tale characters from Sleeping Beauty (Alessa Daniel), Snow White (Toni Bridges) and Cinderella’s father (Gregory Conn, whose talents are wasted in this superfluous role) and a couple of princes (Stephen Anastasia and Matthew Helton, the latter of whom doubles wonderfully as the big bad wolf).

The cast is a mixture of seasoned regulars at Capital Playhouse and a lot of young actors recently out of the Kids at Play summer children’s workshop. Boman, a transplant from Illinois, makes his Capital Playhouse debut in this production, but first made his mark there as resident choreographer for Kids at Play. He is a charming Baker. Van Dijk is a veteran of many Capital Playhouse shows and also served as choreographer for this summer’s kids’ program. She’s a strong performer as the Baker’s wife. Another veteran actor who turns in a strong performance is Moon as the witch. In Act 1, she is a stereotypical witch with all the usual screeches and cackles, but in Act 2, she is transformed into a normal woman with a hauntingly beautiful voice soloing on “Witch’s Lament.”

Outstanding physical comedy is turned in by the princes (Helton and Anastasia), who spoof hammy actors throughout. Helton also displays great range of expression and voice when he doubles as the wolf. His outlandish manner of musically taunting Little Red Riding Hood with the song “Hello, Little Girl” is a musical and comedic highlight.

Finally, Playhouse artistic director Jeff Kingsbury is very much his well-known self as the narrator. His gestures and expressions work precisely because they are so familiar, and then he comically morphs into an almost unrecognizable mystery man with skeletal-like movements, and proves that he’s in strong voice after an extensive history of being in more than 150 musicals.

Despite being long and tiring, the fantasy and humor is fun and it is nice to see so many young actors perform with such confidence alongside the veterans.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, through Oct. 30
Where: Capital Playhouse, 612 E. Fourth Ave., Olympia
Tickets: $30-$41
More information: 360-943-2744, www. capitalplayhouse.com

It's Complicated

Art about home at The Evergreen State College

Published in the Weekly Volcano, October 20, 2010

MERRITT JOHNSON: "Crow booming the one big water, gulls flying away" currently on display at The Evergreen State College. Photo courtesy of The Evergreen State College

Haunting music permeates the space of the gallery at The Evergreen State College during the exhibition It's Complicated - Art About Home. The music comes from Jason Lujan's video "From One Dream to Another," which is eerily beautiful and mysterious, and which sets the mood and theme of the show.

The artists are all Native Americans, and the theme is "about home," which in their various interpretations is the larger world in which we live. Growing up Indian in 20th century America, these artists have been shaped by a blend of Native and contemporary American cultures, and that shows clearly in these works. The art is about the relationship between urban and natural environments, about their place in this world and reverence for animals and nature. Some of the imagery is borrowed from traditional Native art, but the techniques and methods come from contemporary American art - from Warhol and Rauschenberg to modern computer and video art.

In Lujan's video a flock of bright red birds ascend in a dark forest. Cut to a mysterious cloaked figure in the same brilliant red. Cut to yet another scene in which we see that the cloaked figure is a woman and to a final scene in which she walks down a city street and fades and vanishes, ghost-like. It is beautiful and haunting.

Similar imagery appears in Maria Hupfield's sculpture, "Flap, Flap, Flap." Inside a circle of red tape on the floor we see a group of dying birds in stark white plaster and papier-mâché. The birds are caught in still motion, desperately flapping their wings, trying to escape the concrete nest in which they are dying in agony. The implications are clear and the emotion is powerfully expressed.

Merritt Johnson is showing two large oil paintings of blue skies and white clouds combined with other landscape elements and various symbols. The most striking of these is one that hangs above a sculpture of a turkey made with various materials, including actual turkey feathers. Not so dramatic but equally powerful is a smaller Johnson painting called "Crow becoming the one big water, gulls flying away."

Nicholas Galanin is showing a large wall hanging that rounds a corner of the gallery and, intriguingly, has wall labels indicating different media as if this continuous work is two works. It is (or they are) called "The Imaginary Indian." In one the media is listed as paddle, wood, acrylic and wallpaper; the other is "non-Native art," wood, acrylic and wallpaper. There is a lot of tricky trompe l'oeil in this one.

Sara Sense is showing three large digital photographs. All employ the technique of cutting photos into strips and weaving them together, and all feature a combination of urban and natural landscapes with models who look like fashion models.

Most ambitious is a two-channel video by Kade Twist combining 10 YouTube videos compiled by different people.

[Through Jan. 12, Monday-Thursday 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The Evergreen State College, 2700 Evergreen Parkway NW, Library 1st floor, Olympia]

Reunion at the Wetside

cover art by Penelope G. Merrill







I just ordered 50 copies of my latest novel, Reunion at the Wetside. The shipment is due to arrive sometime between now and Nov. 10. I will sell autographed copies for $15. The book will also be available within a few days from amazon.com at the same price plus shipping.

Here's the opening paragraph, Chapter 1:

Jim Bright was the last person in the world Alex expected to see sashaying up to the bar in Barney’s Pub, the most notorious gay bar in Wetside, Washington. Jim had been Mister Everything in high school almost fifty years ago—all-conference quarterback for the Jefferson High School Golden Wave, track star (holder of the state record in the mile. 4:28), class president (unopposed), voted most handsome and most likely to succeed (both in and out of bed was the popular quip at the time).

... or same thing as told by Alex in the blog she and Jim wrote together:

I purt-nigh pissed in my panties when I saw Jim Bright. Purt-nigh squirted beer out my nose to boot. Wouldn’t that have been a fine kettle of fish? Maybe he’d of run over and done a Heimlich on me.

The description on the back cover reads:

Romance blossoms at Barney's Pub between Alex, a leftwing Democrat, and Jim, a Libertarian-leaning Republican - old friends from half a century ago.

Meantime, someone is killing off all the old drag queens, and Jim may be the only person who can catch the killer

... if he doesn't become the next victim.

And there's a cover blurb from no less a writer than Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Jack Butler, author of West of Hollywood, Hawk Gumbo and Other Stories, The Kid Who Wanted to Be a Spaceman, Jujitsu for Christ, Nightshade, Living in Little Rock With Miss Little Rock (the Pulitzer nominee), Jack’s Skillet: Plain Talk and Some Recipes From a Guy in the Kitchen (a cookbook), Dreamers, and soon to be released from ClaytonWorks Publishing Practicing Zen Without a License:

"If you like murder mysteries with a bit of meat and history on them, you will love Reunion at the Wetside.  Alec Clayton lovingly and skillfully unveils the layered secrets behind of a series of murders, which turn out, not surprisingly, to have their roots in what happened among a group of children (and the young adults they became) decades ago.  Once again, the past not only isn't gone, it isn't even the past.  And this past is a killer!" - Jack Butler




The one other thing none of the promos or cover blurbs say is that the book is funny as hell.

‘Goat’: Disquieting sum of the parts

Christopher Cantrell and Pug Bujeaud, photo courtesy Theater Artists Olympia
Published in The News Tribune / The Olympian, Oct. 15, 2010



Theater Artists Olympia is doing Edward Albee’s “The Goat or Who is Sylvia” at The Midnight Sun Performance Space in downtown Olympia.

“Entertaining” is not the right word for this play. “For adults only” hardly conveys how shocking or offensive it might be to large segments of the theater-going public. I don’t want to say I liked it, but I did like each separate aspect of it, from the writing to the acting to production values that were outstanding considering the limitations of space and budget.

Albee is known for provocative and nonconventional plays. From his first play in 1958, “The Zoo Story,” to the film that made him famous with a wider audience, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Albee has been known for ironic humor, biting dialogue and unrelenting dramatic tension. “The Goat” has all of this in spades.

Martin (Christopher Cantrell) is a successful architect who has been faithful to his wife, Stevie (Pug Bujeaud) for decades. Their settled life is shattered when he confesses to an affair with Sylvia, a goat.

Bestiality is not unheard of, but it is rare, and what makes it even stranger in Martin’s case is that he says he is in love with Sylvia.

The play begins as a conventional domestic comedy, but Stevie gives an early hint that it is going to veer into the absurd when she says, “The sense that everything’s going right is a sure sense that everything’s going wrong.” Even before Martin confesses his affair – first to his best friend, Ross (Christian Carvajal) and then to Stevie and their son, Billy (Samuel Johnston) – it becomes a laugh-fest of absurd humor. But soon the laughter becomes uncomfortable, and the intensity of the clashes between the four characters becomes almost unbearable as the reality of what has been confessed sinks in. There is an absurd amount of screaming and cursing and smashing of glass and ceramics as Stevie throws almost every artifact in their home to the floor. (Warning: Sitting in the front row might be dangerous.)

Albee’s wordplay is in a league with Shakespeare and Tom Stoppard. The direction by Eric Mark is outstanding, and I can’t praise the acting by Cantrell, Bujeaud, Carvajal and Johnston enough.

If it is possible to envision how normal people might react to the announcement that their husband-dad-best friend is in love with a goat, the reactions of these three are absolutely believable and realistic.

Carvajal makes you dislike but empathize with Ross. Bujeaud and Johnston both express extreme emotions tempered with nuanced expressions. To sustain such intensity of emotion throughout a play without striking a false note or dropping a line or slipping out of character is amazing. Cantrell, who is known for broad and highly emotional acting, actually reins it in a bit in a display of tightly controlled despair and confusion. This is acting at its best.

If you think you can take it, I do recommend that you see “The Goat or Who is Sylvia.”

Seating is limited. The audience was small the night I saw it. The next night, they had a full house, so I recommend purchasing tickets online as soon as possible.

What: Theater Artists Olympia presents this story of one man’s unusual love.
When: 7:30 p.m. tonight and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: The Midnight Sun Performance Space, 113 Columbia St. N.W., Olympia
Tickets: $12 available at www.brownpapertickets. com and at the door
Information: www. olytheater.com

Spaceworks Tacoma: recycled art

Re-presenting Barbara De Pirro and Holly Senn

Published in the Weekly Volcano, October 13, 2010


Frankly I'm growing weary of recycled art, even if I do admire the underlying environmental consciousness. It's not a new thing; it's as old as Picasso and Duchamp. And most of it is cute or clever at best. There are exceptions, notably some of the artists represented by Matter in Olympia. But recycled art has been overhyped almost as much as Dale Chihuly.

A mediocre model of a house or portrait of a person or animal is no less mediocre just because it's made from cast-off materials.

So I applaud the exceptions to the run-of-the-mill such as Barbara De Pirro, whose art from recycled materials would be intriguing no matter what it was made of. I was fascinated with some of her works pictured in a Spaceworks Tacoma publication online, including "natural" organic forms such as snakes in real trees and a kind of beautiful glass chandelier at the Museum of Glass (actually discarded plastic). Her latest installation for Spaceworks can be found in a vacant building at 912 Broadway. It is not so startling or ambitious as those mentioned above, but it is definitely worth taking a look. And a second look.

It is called vortex plastica and has been described as "a web-like form, a spun nest, a whirling tornado and a solar system filling the void, cross-lacing the space" - a slightly hyperbolic description for a nice bit of decorative art inspired by the North Pacific Gyre, a gigantic and unnatural vortex of garbage in the Pacific Ocean. To have been inspired by something so huge and fearsome, it looks surprisingly playful and decorative, like a room divider made of tinker toys and crocheted buttons and plastic straws mounted on chicken wire.

Two doors down at 908 Broadway is another Spaceworks installation that also makes use of discarded materials. This one is called Re-Present, and it is by Holly Senn, an artist well-known for both freestanding sculptures and massive, room-size installations made out of discarded books - nearly always with themes based on books and the trees they are made from.

Re-Present is quite a departure for Senn. It consists of what at a slight distance appears to be plaster reproductions of parts of the façade of the Pantages Theater across the street. Only upon closer inspection does it become clear that the classical botanical forms are made out of torn bits of book pages. In what is an obvious refutation of my opening statement, I must say that it is the choice of material - or more specifically the surprise of discovering Senn's material - that lifts this work to a higher level than a mere reproduction of a bit of architectural detail.
Spaceworks Tacoma

[vortex plastica, Barbara De Pirro
Re-Present, Holly Senn
Through Jan. 5, 24/7
908 and 912 Broadway, Tacoma
spaceworkstacoma.wordpress.com]