Never the same
By JAMES D. WATTS JR., 09/30/2004
Twist and shout - it's New Genre time again! -Courtesy Photo
This year's New Genre Festival features all-new artists presenting very new ideas
Most local festivals have a sameness to them -- the same exhibitors in the same locations, offering the same wares, and the same performers putting on the same shows.
The exception to this rule is Living Arts of Tulsa's annual extravaganza of the avant-garde -- the New Genre Festival.
The "newness" of this year's New Genre festival is even more pronounced, with three new venues helping to host events, and every artist involved making his or her Tulsa debut.
"Everything's new this year," said Steve Liggett, executive director of Living Arts, which has been presenting the New Genre Festival for a dozen years.
"It's always been the nature of the festival that every year will be something different," he said. "Even those artists who have appeared more than once here have reinvented themselves each time. One of the more frequent guests we've had is the group Lelavision, and every year their shows have been completely different."
That all the artists who will be taking part in the 2004 festival are newcomers to Tulsa was serendipitous, Liggett said.
"We always base our decisions about who will be in the festival on the submissions we receive from artists all over the country," he said. "And it just so happened that the proposals that really excited us were from artists new to us."
One thing about New Genre Festival that has remained consistent from the start is that it presents contemporary, cutting-edge art in three formats: installation art, performance art and video art.
Admission to all festival activities can be had by purchasing a Festival Pass for $50 from Living Arts of Tulsa. Some events are free to the public.
New installations
Two installations will be featured this year: "Shed" by Rollin Marquette, which will be set up in the Living Arts Space, 308 S. Kenosha Ave.; and "Standard American" by Scott Reynolds, that will be on display in the Alexandre Hogue Gallery on the University of Tulsa campus, 2935 E. Fifth St.
Marquette's work has earned critical acclaim for the way he creates settings that are at once intimately familiar, and oddly disquieting. These room-filling installations explore what Marquette calls "the uncomfortable side of creativity . . . that produces objects that are ingenious and often aesthetically pleasing, yet horrid in their function."
Reynolds' installation, on the other hand, examines the true "middle ground" -- middle-class Middle America, and the historical, psychological and philosophical elements that drive the construction of what has become this country's primary social environment.
Both installations will open to the public Thursday, with receptions for the artists from 5 to 7 p.m.
Topical circus
Friday features three performance works, ranging from nationally known artists to a "variety show" of local performance artists.
Circo Zero is a San Francisco-based troupe led by Keith Hennessey that presents what it calls "intimate and spectacular circus" that fuses popular and experimental art forms. Its shows feature aerialists and acrobatics, singers and actors, and deals with topics in ways designed to provoke and challenge -- as well as entertain -- its audiences.
The company will present two works -- both of which address political issues -- at 8 p.m. Friday in the Mathews Warehouse, corner of Boston Avenue and Brady Street.
"Chosen" is a one-man performance piece by Hennessey, which takes on the concept of "chosen people" as the starting point in an extended riff on God and culture. "Mercy" features the entire troupe in what Liggett describes as "a highly politically charged piece."
Both these works are intended for mature audiences -- or as Hennessey puts it: "A little bit of nudity and mature themes -- war, depression, initiation, torture, transcendence -- make these performances inappropriate for most children and some adults."
Admission is $15 adults, $10 students.
Mother-daughter act
The Silent Partners Movement Theater is something of a family affair for the Porters of Asheville, N.C. The show it will present, "Girls Wear Shirts," gives a frank and poignant look into that most delicate of family relationships - the one between mothers and daughters.
Written and performed by mother Hilarie Burke-Porter and daughter Calliope Porter, "Girls Wear Shirts" explores - through a series of 24 vignettes that employ mime, music, dance, campy humor and unicycles - sexual awareness from birth to adulthood, and the dynamics between mother and daughter.
Performances are 8 p.m. Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday at the Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St. Tickets are $10 adults, $6 for students. The performance is suggested for adults and teenagers.
"Girls Wear Shirts" is written and performed by mother Hilarie Burke-Porter and daughter Calliope Porter. -Courtesy Photo
Mystical costumes
Sha Sha Higby's work combines dance, sculpture and puppetry, as she creates elaborate, full-body costumes that she wears in her improvisational performances.
"Her work is very mystical, and is heavily influenced by the years she spent in southeast Asia," Liggett said. "There is a strong sense of ritual in her work."
Higby describes her work as an effort "to create a path where movement and stillness meet. My work has always represented peace."
Higby's "Bird on a Stick" will be performed at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 S. Rockford Road. Admission is $15 adults, $10 students. Philbrook also has on display one of Higby's sculptural costumes.
Local artists, too
Local artists will get the chance to show their stuff during the New Genre Performance Open, a cabaret-style event that combines performance and installation art.
John Cruncleton will present the shadow puppet shows "The Witch of Coos" and "The Pauper Witch of Grautin"; the team of Brian Rawson and Aaron Marler appear as Melsondorph the Powerful; Gray Field Recording with Technix will serve up electronic music; the Tulsa Contemporary Dance Theater will perform; and Elise Derringer's installation "Underneath" will be on display.
Performances are at 10 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Nightingale Theater. Admission is $10 adults, $6 students.
The traditional closing event, the New Video Matinee, will be 2 p.m. Sunday at the Circle 2 Cinema, 12 S. Lewis Ave. It will feature some of the best video art pieces from the Dallas Video Festival. Admission is $7 adults, $6 students.
Workshops for all
In keeping with Living Arts' emphasis on art being truly a participatory activity that all can enjoy, the New Genre Festival will host a series of workshops with some of the festival's artists, to provide some insights and hands-on experience at creating installation and performance art.
Marquette will give an artist's talk about his work at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Living Arts, while Reynolds will host a workshop from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday at Phillips Hall on the TU Campus. Both events are free.
Keith Hennessey and the members of Circo Zero will conduct the workshop "Performance Art for All," 3:30 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Mathews Warehouse, while the Silent Partners duo will host "Girls Wear Shirts Like Mom!," a workshop for mothers and daughters at least 12 years old at 1 p.m. Saturday at Living Arts.
Higby will direct "Building a Magnificent Body Sculpture," 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Studio D of the Philbrook museum's Education Center.
Cost for the Higby workshop is $50 for Philbrook or Living Arts members, $60 for nonmembers, and is limited to 20 participants. Register by calling 748-5337 or e-mail lcoppage@philbrook.org. Scholarships are available.
For more information about the New Genre Festival, call Living Arts at 585-1234 or visit www.livingarts.org.
New Genre FESTIVAL XII
presented by Living Arts of Tulsa
When:
Thursday through Sunday
Where:
Living Arts Space, 308 S. Kenosha Ave.;
Alexandre Hogue Gallery, 2935 E. Fifth St.;
Mathews Warehouse, Boston Avenue and Brady Street;
Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St.;
Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 S. Rockford Road;
Circle 2 Cinema, 12 S. Lewis Ave.;
Factory Studio Gallery, 314 S. Kenosha Ave
Tickets:
Festival passes, $50