Sasha Soren
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Arte SixFEB/MAR 2005
22-Feb-2005 ARTE SIX FEB/MARCH 2005 ************************************** Arte Six: FEB/MARCH 2005 All the arts. All the time. [Art – Music – Dance – Film – Books – Travel – Life] ************************************** Arte Six is the official newsletter of SashaSoren.com. Read online: http://www.sashasoren.com/newsletter.htm Read blog: http://artesix.blogspot.com NB: Use info listed at your own risk. Arte Six gives no warranty to completeness, accuracy, or fitness for any purpose, ie. use your head, like yo' mama said. ************************************** IN THIS ISSUE: ************************************** LIVES Shinichi Momo Koga, inkBoat ART London/”Falsifikacija” LA/”In the Bright Room” NYC/“(desi)re” NYC/”Body Proxy” + “Echoplex” NYC/”In Word Only” NYC/”Dating Data” London/”Lies” Woodstock/”Foreign Affair” LA/”Beauty in the Breakdown” Brooklyn/”Lost in Queens” NYC/”Women on the Verge” Amsterdam/”On Patrol” Boston/”¡Dominicanazo!” MUSIC Disc series/Magdalen Hsu-Li, “Smashing the Ceiling” Miami/Festivals/Subtropics 17 DANCE + THEATRE INSIGHT/Cherie Carson, “Trikona” NYC/”Sly Verb” Athens/”Antigone: Worshipping the Dead” Miami/”Suite 305” NYC/”Room” FILM/SCREENWRITING Brussels/Festivals/Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film Belgrade/Festivals/Belgrade International Film Festival London/Festivals/Constellation Change Vienna/Tricky Women BOOKS/WRITERS Writers Bloc series – “The Long March” Readings/NYC: KGB Bar, “Circus of the Grand Design” + “Tumbling After” The Agent series – “First Year Out: On the Shelves”, Jenny Bent TRAVEL “Traveling Solo” LIFE Cyber security ping-pong Naked brunch Art at the strip club Going once… One crime,19 suspects SCI/TECH Walking the ‘bot Walking the ‘bot2: Baby robots A sixth sense for danger 21st century linguistics ************************************** LIVES (interviews and profiles) ************************************** LIVES: Shinichi Momo Koga, artistic director, inkBoat CREATION What most inspires me to create new works: Dissatisfaction. If I'm just happy about something, I'll usually just dance in that moment. But what gets me into a studio to spend time and life laboring over? Something is broken and I want to spend the time understanding broken. How to turn broken into beautiful. Like a junk collector, finding the beauty in what people have thrown away, making something new of it. If I go into nature, that is inspiring to me, it elevates me and gives me the strength to continue with the life struggle, but I do not put the woods on the stage. The woods make better woods than I can. No competition there. NEW WORK: “AME TO AME” The meaning of “Ame to Ame” is "Candy and Rain." The title came first, like brainstorming on the seed that will create the work. The seed came first. It's a play on words, in that the same sound (in the Japanese language), depending on the Kanji, will have a different meaning. So, the title is connected with desire and pain, two of our great engines for moving in this life. But what is candy and what is rain? If you take the rain as tears and the candy as the thing of desire, then a small circle is created. We want, can't have, then we cry. While we cry, we cement our desire for the thing and then the spiral goes on and on down to some lower depth we don't even want to talk about. But there's always singing in the rain. I read things in my own way, but I expect that the audience, coming with filters different from mine, will see it differently. BUTOH 101 Butoh is hard to explain. But the Japanese culture references, the line between the grotesque and the beautiful -- these are certainly part of my vocabulary. I take what is necessary for the moment. Well, sometimes I fall on habit. But I try to keep the form alive by constantly re-working it. Some people or companies are "classics" in the Butoh world. They have found their way and they keep working it. Me, I keep getting lost and getting interested in cobblestones (or substitute any small detail which might come across the way of walking). That's just how I am. For good or ill, I keep my hands in many pies. COMPLETION: UNEXPECTED ELEMENTS Most unexpected is how I am going to talk about a work when you put me on the spot. Maybe I'll talk about how the breakfast I ate changed the dance that day, or maybe about a passage from a book I read that keeps resurfacing in my mind. Or process. In the work itself, the surprise is going to really depend on each person. Completing a work can take anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 years, depending on numerous conditions. On the average, a work that will show in the theatre will take between two to three months to be realized. I've created entire shows within a few days, but these are usually some kind of experiment. If I stare at the ceiling long enough, something is bound to creep into my brain. LIFE AS ART I typically take from childhood events when I'm conceptualizing. But when the moments are coming, it could be anything, from how I drink my orange juice to waiting at the bus stop. Real life usually has a stronger punch. But there are always exceptions. The most [powerful] thing anyone ever has said to me was: "I love you." Many small flashes went across my brain, small revelations others have shared with me, but none of them can hit me like that most overused phrase, spoken by the right person at the right time. THEMES Some of the themes that occur over and over in my work: Going back to childhood dreams, life emerging from death, looking for love and strange crawling insects. COLLABORATION This is my constant. I've been working with different disciplines since the first day of thinking "I am an artist." They all feed me incredibly well and I'm growing fatter and fatter from the experience. DANCE/LIFE Like love, death and taxes, [dance is necessary]. Can't actually eliminate it. So, we’re talking about what gets put up on stage? I've never been to Spain, but of course I hear the stories about how the dance is a major part of existence... more, anyway, than in the USA. But people go dancing in clubs for what? Are they trying to express something? Usually, they just want to remember that they are alive and have a good time. Or they're on the make. Then we come back to that whole desire and tears spiral. The most important thing a creative person needs, apart from funding or daily necessities: A life. If a "creative" only has some techniques, then it's totally boring. What life experience has come to someone, and how is that digested and coming out again? DIFFICULT WORKS The hardest was the solo, "Tasting an Ocean." Just being by myself, making a solo, was more difficult than assembling a dozen people for a show. I had no mirror. It was totally disturbing. The only things that ever come easy are improvisations. SPEAKING WITHOUT WORDS On what’s more most important: technical proficiency or emotional resonance: Emotional resonance. The rest is just architecture. On whether dance/body movement is a language: Ever been punched? Ever been kissed? More direct than words, I'd say. DANCERS: BORN OR CREATED? Both. A more finely tuned dancer or choreographer is created through discipline. LIFE, THE PUZZLE Something that genuinely puzzles me: Good question. Yes, plenty, but I can't come to one single thing at the moment. I mean, LIFE puzzles me. Nothing frustrates me like myself. The world could be hell outside, but in the end, how do I deal with it? When I come short of my own self-expectation, then bingo: frustration. On whether writer’s block exists: Absolutely. Go back to "frustration." UNDER THE INFLUENCE In music, I’m most influenced these days by traditional musicians -- really old style shamisen or shakuhachi or tabla or and or and or... And then there are people I work with, like "Sleepytime Gorilla Museum" or "Faun Fables" or Sheila or Carla or Nils doing independent stuff. And I've never disliked a Tom Waits record. Recently I've been reading things like Anne Carson or Murakami or Gurjieff. But there's so much good stuff out there, it's hard to say who’s my favorite. I saw the film "The Cost of Living" by DV8 recently. I was totally jealous. It was great. IN PASSING... The most interesting stranger I’ve ever met: Mase Shooichi. I met then spent some days with him in Kyoto, forming what seemed like a strong friendship. Then one day he cut all ties and disappeared. Now a stranger again. Hopefully to meet again. He inspired me to make “Black Map” (to be performed in SF in May; a 30-minute version, anyway). QUICK HITS Reads: Just finished "Wind Up Bird Chronicle" by Murakami and just opened "History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters" by Julian Barnes. Discs: Right this second, I'm listening to the song "Viel Glück Im Privatleben!" by Zak May and Shiva. Russians living in Berlin. Downtime: Photography. Playing shakuhachi (badly). On the biggest myth about being a creative: The biggest myth: "How wonderful it is that you get to express yourself!" If I wasn’t a dancer/choreographer, I would definitely be: "Farmer" is next on my list. Been a photographer, cook, multimedia producer (or slave may be a better term) and coffee maker. What I wish someone had told me when I first started out: Get real. Favorite quote: "Am I shoveling sand to live, or living to shovel sand?" by Kobo Abe. So, what's the point of our struggles, anyway? Interesting fact that nobody knows about me yet: Interesting? What would someone be interested in, exactly? The more hidden, the more interesting. Best is whatever I've kept hidden from myself. Hmmm, have to get back to you on that... Life is: Life is life is life is life is life. Artist bio: Shinichi Momo Koga (Artistic Director/Performer, inkBoat) Originally a photographer, filmmaker and theater actor/director, Koga became primarily known as a Butoh dancer after 1991 when he began dancing under Hiroko and Koichi Tamano (primary dancers in Tatsumi Hijikata’s company). In 1994, he created the group Uro Teatr Koku with Alenka Mullin Koga. This group became inkBoat in 1998. Koga's productions, both solo and ensemble, have been experienced since 1988 throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. Restructuring dance, theater and cinema forms, he extracts the vital essence of each to create a sharper reality. As a teacher, performer, and director, Koga inhabits the shadow self and swims the collision between modern life and primal being. He challenges himself and others to attain balances between chaos and serenity, to be a raging storm in blue skies and a breath of calm in the midst of turbulence. Koga collaborates consistently with diverse performance artists such as Yumiko Yoshioka and TEN PEN CHii (Germany: 1996-2001), Do Theatre (Russia: 1997-present), Shadowlight Theatre (USA: 1993-1997) and the group adapt in Berlin (co-founded by Koga in 2001) with Minako Seki, Sten Rudstøm, Yuko Kaseki and Yael Karavan). Visit official site: http://www.inkboat.com Upcoming tour dates: "Ame to Ame" at Dock 11, Berlin, on March 10 - 13, 15 – 19, and "Black Map" at Dance Mission on May 26,28,29 as part of the SF International Arts Festival. ************************************** ART (events and news – painting, photography, sculpture…) ************************************** ART/London ”Falsifikacija” Through March 6, 2005 IBID Projects presents Milena Dragicevic’s second solo show. The “Falsifikacija/Falsification” exhibit is a complex visual and psychological riddle, illustrating the mysterious process of creative thought in a tangible form. The human figures depicted are not portraits of specific people, but actors absorbed in introspective but active anticipation of some magical event of their own creation; their gaze is withdrawn and secretive, yet the same gaze captures the viewer and draws them into the ritual of creative reflection, directed outward and inward simultaneously. In this new series of paintings, the artist constructs a paradoxical world which is inaccessible yet within reach; concealing, yet full of revelations; dynamic and still, abstract and figurative, both contemporary and intentionally anachronistic. The paintings accentuate moments of transformation -- the viewer’s gaze activates and ‘unlocks’ the artwork, while the border between the representational realm and the spectator’s reality collapses. Is art merely falsification of reality? Is it a more subtle, but genuine reflection of reality? Or is art actually reality itself, as individual thought forever alters our perception of the world? These are some of the thoughtful questions Dragicevic raises for discussion, in “Falsifikacija/Falsification.” The notion of ‘falsification’ belong most comfortably to the discourses of theology and philosophy of science, yet Dragicevic’s paintings suggest that it is particularly relevant to the opaque powers of art - acts of representation and naming, the seduction of images and doubt towards singularity of truth. Artist bio: Milena Dragicevic lives and works in London. She has recently exhibited in Martin Janda Gallery, Vienna, I-20 Gallery, New York, Man in the Holocene, London and The Yugoslav Biennial of Young Artists in Vrsac. Her work is represented in Arts Council of England Collection, London and MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), Los Angeles as well as numerous private collections in Europe and the United States. Gallery hours: Thur-Sun 12-6pm or by appt. Find it: IBID Projects 210 Cambridge Heath Road Unit 4 London E29NQ, UK Get info: +44 (0) 208-983-4355 Concurrent exhibit: Find it: IBID Projects Sv. Stepono g. 18 Vilnius 1 LT-01138 Lithuania Get info: +37 05-233-5395 ===== ART/LA “In the Bright Room” Through February 12, 2005 Somewhere between the realms of reality and imagination lies the photographic art of Mayumi Terada. Terada’s moody images suggest not a physical place, but a state of being. Terada builds diminutive domestic sets she calls ‘dollhouses’, then photographs them. Her large monochrome pictures show a world filled with scenes and objects completely familiar to anyone living in our Western culture, yet eerily devoid of human presence. Thus, a soup plate sitting on a table, an empty trash bucket, or a shower stall with water droplets still lingering on the glass door have a mysterious sense of reality. The viewer can’t help wondering who might have just emerged from that shower, who left the bed wrinkled and tossed, whose suitcases are packed and waiting. Yet no matter how seductive these speculations, the real subject of her photographs is light -- streaming into windows and illuminating stories suggested by the imagination. Find it: White Room Gallery 8810 Melrose Avenue West Hollywood, CA 90069 Get info: (310) 859-2402 ===== ART/NYC Feb. 18-Mar. 26 “(desi)re” And now, a novel take on the theme of desire... Desire simmers with passion, is ruled by obsession and driven by purpose. As George Bernard Shaw once remarked, “You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will.” ”Desi,” a Hindi word implying “of one’s own country” and used frequently for “of Indian origin” is employed here to express not only sensual desire, but the longing for home or cultural identity – or the redefinition of both. Find it: Talwar Gallery 108 East 16th St. New York, NY Get info: (212) 673-3096 ===== ART/NYC “Body Proxy” + “Echoplex” Through March 26th A motorcycle’s revving engine roars like an animal, louder and louder as visitors approach. A year’s worth of disposable contact lenses worn by one person suggest an archive of what was seen during the year. A comfortable sofa, saturated with pheromones. The hair of the artist, in a single, knotted strand over 100 km long, wound around a Teflon spool... The body, central to the work of Norma Jeane, is represented by proxy: never present but always hinted at. Norma Jeane’s work proposes a reading of the body as an entity becoming abstract. “Body Proxy” reveals the power, energy and will of the body. As its title indicates, the exhibition presents works that stand as authorized representatives for the body. However, there are no bodies to be seen in the exhibition except those of the visitors. The visitor is central to the activation of the main work in the show, “RPM,” which consists of a grey Yamaha YZF-R1, 998 cc, linked to high-tech sensors. The powerful engine remains off, but as visitors approach, the motorcycle revs, roaring like an animal, in a deafening noise. Only when the viewer withdraws does the motorbike return to a lower gear, and off again, while powerful fans try to cool it down. Waste of energy, excess, and the erotic pair of repulsion and attraction form essential elements in this work. More>> http://www.sashasoren.com/newsletter.htm Blog: http://artesix.blogspot.com |
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