Kentridge Return of Ulyssses Opera

I have already previewed this amazing work. The full production was absolutely fabulous.
How lucky Seattle is that Stephen Stubbs decided to found Pacific Operaworks in Seattle and to bring us this phenomenal performance.
The Monteverdi opera is, of course, the story of Ulysses return to Ithaca after all of his adventures where he was waylaid by various beautiful women and natural disasters, wayward gods, and adventures ( Homer’s Odyssey). The Opera was presented by extraordinary singers. The baroque era is clean and melodic compared to later opera. The singers were mostly paired with a large wooden puppet for each character, ( except Ulysses who had two), Penelope was the star, seen here with the brilliant singer Laura Pudwell and her “handler” , then there was Telemachus, Ulysses son, Zeus and Eumaeus ( a shepherd), and there was also Athena, Neptune, Time, and more
The baroque music was performed on stage with amazing period instruments including the chitarrone played by Stephen Stubbs. For an informed review on the music see the Post Intelligencer writer R.M. Campbell The stage design itself was Kentridge’s idea, it was a seventeenth century theater.
Behind them was Kentridge’s animation. It was brilliantly correlated with the action on stage. There were flowers growing when love was sung about, body parts and medical imaging – including colonscopy, open heart surgery, sonograms) for the dying Ulysses in the center of the stage ( a Kentridge addition to put him in Johannesburg, South Africa), images of flowing water for the wandering Ulysses evoked by Penelope and other life forces. When Penelope was sewing we had Kentridge lines at strong diagonals moving around, when she sang of love plants turned into bodies, hearts turned into plants; lovers were blotted out when Penelope sang about the brevity of love, when the courtiers tried to woo her a scale appeared with gold on one side and a heart on the other. I loved the scenes when Ulysses was travelling and the animation traversed cities, landscapes, Greek temples, as he swayed in front of them, utterly convincing, like those old movies when people were in cars, and the landscape moved behind them.
It all worked incredibly well. He did finally get home, inspite of Penelope’s doubts. In Kentridge’s staging, the two re united over the dying Ulysses in a hospital in Johannesberg. So it fit with his performance. No matter what, we want to hold onto our dreams and ideals, and carry them on our backs forever. It was of course obvious that Penelope would ask after the joyous reunion
“where have you been big O?” but the play ended first.
The action of the puppets was unbelievably subtle, utterly convincing as movement of actors.
The singers were stunning.
Don’t Miss It!!

William Kentridge takes Seattle by storm

This week we were on the cultural map with a performance by William Kentridge on Monday and an opera by Kentridge on Wednesday.
At the Henry Art Gallery, the performance, “I am not me, the horse is not mine”had its North American Debut. Naturally, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. This is a picture of a related idea, as you will see. I did take a few notes
The stage set echoed his studio, with a simple scaffolding, a working wall, with pentimenti of work removed, and the artist running through sets of notes. Back projected on the studio wall appeared the artist himself, once, twice, three times, at various times. The real Kentridge sometimes seemed to chase off these other Kentridges, sometimes dictate to them while they took notes, sometimes bore them to tears, and sometimes collaborate with them, as when he threw his real notes away and his photographic double caught them.
He started out with Gogol’s The Nose from 1837 which was made into an opera by Shostakovich in 1928 at a critical transitional moment in the early Soviet Union, when creative thinkers were still allowed to work, just before the Stalinist era began. (Kentridge is actually going to present this opera next year)
He told some of the story ( one can’t help but notice that the artist has a prominent nose, and therefore perhaps is attracted to stories about disappearing and reappearing noses)
He went backwards to an earlier version a story in a story from the seventeenth century, then Don Quixote.
Meanwhile the wall also projected some of his “stone age animation” images, and such images as video footage of himself (already mentioned above) and him awake at four am with a busy mind. The title refers to cut out collage pieces that seemed to form a horse for us, and as it fell apart, we still saw horse forms.
Here are a few quotes, that I found provocative:
“how much of the outside world do we need inside us to make sense. And we cannot stop making a meaning from shape, even as it disappears we hang onto it. 

Trespassing in Bellingham Washington

One top image is by John Feoderov Totem Teddies, the bottom is by Tanis S’eilten, Blood for Shares.

This exhibition is only up until March 22. It is in the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham Washington. But what a great show. It includes all contemporary Native American art by John Feoderov, Tanis S’eilten ( two friends of mine whose work I really admire) as well as Roxanne Chinook, Ka’ili, Larry McNeil, Ramon Murillo . The works are quirky, funny and intensely political. Tanis addresses issues that relate to Alaskan natives, like the pollution from cruise ships, land grabbing then and now, and the corporate culture that was forced on native tribes in the first oil agreement for exploring the North Slope. Fedeorov is relentlessly mixing contemporary culture and religion, kitsch shamanism in works like the Office Shaman and Temple. The other artists all address environmental and cultural issues. It is so refreshing to go to show where all the artists have something to say and aren’t afraid to say it.

Garden and Cosmos Seattle Asian Art Museum

The work just above is Mahraj Bakhat Singh at the Jharokha Window of the Bakhat Mahal, 1735, 37 x 29 inches. You see the Maharaj seated in a window looking down to women who are dancing.
The work at the top is Jallandharnath and Princess Padmini Fly over King Padam’s Palace, 1830.29 x 37″ This is taken from Hindu stories.
These are huge paintings.

This is an astonishing exhibition We are so fortunate in Seattle to have extraordinary exhibitions come to our city. We have the ONLY WEST COAST SHOWING of this amazing group of GIANT Indian miniature paintings, that were discovered in a chest in the home of the current Maharajah of Jodhpur. Literally, in a closet, according to Debra Diamond the curator. And they re wrote the history of Indian miniature painting. The exhibition just goes on and on with fascinating revelations. I went to this exhibition an astonishing eight times, revelling in its intricate detailed renderings of trees, birds, flowers, fish, and of course, Hindu mythology and Kingly pursuits. The first room has the Maharajah apparently relaxing entirely amid the ministrations of dozens of beautiful women. Of course I thought, oh dear, how decadent.

But appearances are deceptive. According to expert historians, the kingdom at this time (1735)was going through massive transitions from security to insecurity, from the security of affiliation with the Muslim Mughal Empire, to the insecurity of being ordinary leaders of kingdoms with ( in the case of Marwar-Jodphur one of the Rajput Kingdoms in the North) few resources. The purpose of these miniatures is to “Maintain a Kingly Aura in Hard Times” . This is the phrase of Purnima Dhavan, an assistant professor of history at the University of Washington. She gave a brilliant lecture explaining this with big arrows sweeping across the state from various directions. Therefore we can see that these paintings, like those in “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, are also government propaganda.

The next two sections of the show are using religion to promote kingly power, Hinduism, and Nath yoga “aesthetic” yogis ( apparently they were very well off). But it is actually all about power plays, how leaders use the people around them, or other people to stay in power. How do artists respond to this desire by painting the invisible, that is what we learn in the last sections of the show. We of the West look at the colors, shapes, lines and say how beautiful. But there is much more to it. According to Michael Shapiro these miniatures are about sharing emotional states called Rasas. anger, fury, fear, tranquility, eroticism, pity, compassion. Perhaps that is more obvious to us now that we have all seen Slumdog Millionaire.

I am addicted to this fascinating exhibition about a period of art that I know nothing about. At the end of March, the current Maharajah Gaj Singh II came to Seattle from Jodphur. He was a delightful and modest man. He has founded an international organization that addresses head injuries because his son suffered from a serious injury in a polo fall. He is also encouraging women’s education. His position is now what he calls “tribal” . Under the British Raj in the late 19th and early 20th century, the traditional status of Maharaja’s was diminished. Then after democracy, they were further moved out of the political system. But Maharajah Gaj Singh II is still a regal figure with a deep concern for the people in his region. He pointed at the painting of the installation of the Maharajah centuries ago and said he remembered the same event in his own life when he was four years old.
This piece is called Cosmic Oceans, 1823.

Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Ok, here is a chestnut. What is wrong with me you might be asking. And there is that cliche in the title of the blog. Well believe it or not, the Yale Art Gallery is loaning some of their stellar works to the Seattle Art Museum and that is the title of the show. These are the original paintings of American art history and its partner, the myth making foundations of the Republic. This painting for example is pure myth as we were told. These people were never in the same room together. John Trumbull traveled all over to get portraits and then assembled them in the painting. Of of course, all white men with property and Jefferson biggest in the center, although he owned slaves, as did George Washington.
The whole show is a stunning group of works in every sense of the word. It includes the movement west, manifest destiny ( we even have the Golden Spike photograph of the connecting of the East and West railroad in Utah, of course the Yale people don’t know about our own Seattle based Zhi Lin, and his brilliant work commenting on the marginalization of the Chinese workers in the photograph.) And great political cartoons
The Yale American Art Collection contains almost primal benchmarks of the history of American art perhaps even the history of America on some level. It includes all the major artists, Homer, Bierstadt, Eakins, even Henry Ossawa Tanner, one of the outstanding African American artists.

But it is all propaganda, by privileged artists on the East Coast, painting for a privileged audiences.

And of course artists of color are represented only lightly, one African American walking stick, one chair made by a slave, a chest maybe by Mexicans, the painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner (who had to live abroad because of racism). There are also pencil drawings of the Amistad mutineers that are worth seeing in themselves. Amistad is the name of a ship on which the slaves rose up and killed the white crew. They were tried in New Haven in 1839 during the abolition movement and then sent back to Africa. The decorative arts are more “multicultural” in a way, intriguing sources in various places in the world.
And then there is the miniature with the interwoven hair of George Washington and Martha Washington. That was kind of astonishing, and you would miss it on the back of the painted miniatures unless you know what to look for.

It is intriguing to line this show up with Cosmos and Garden at the Asian Art Museum. That is also a mythmaking show, of maharajas in India. I will get to that next entry, but not tonight.

William Kentridge in Seattle

Take a look at this image. It is pretty extraordinary. This is the work of William Kentridge in collaboration with Hand Spring Puppets and Monteverdi. We went to a press preview with an excerpt on Friday. In the center is Ulysses as a hand carved wooden puppet lying in a hospital bed dying in Johannesburg, reliving his life. He appears a second time on the right. He is remembering his return to Penelope after all those years. Penelope is on the left and in the middle are three of her courtiers. Opera singers sing the parts of the Monteverdi Opera Death of Ulysses, but the puppets are the center of attention. The opera singers are subsumed behind the puppets, the puppets move as they “sing” The micromovements of the puppets is the really subtle aspect of the performance according to the puppeteers.

The background has a video by Kentridge. All of these elements are pretty hard to take in at once. Then there is the Baroque instruments, period harps and other instruments. Pacific OperaWorks is bringing this complex performance to Seattle. It is really something not to miss.

At the same time, the Henry Art Gallery is having a show of Kentridge’s work (as is the Greg Kucera Gallery, which I haven’t yet seen). It is an intriguing little collection of works that I really enjoyed. Several of his “stone age videos”, animated are always fascianting. You have to take time with them as in the bureaucrat eaten alive by his profession, and and line taking over the artist. The idea that the medium somehow has a life of its own has always been one of my favorite Kentridge ideas. His videos often seem to consume themselves, swallow themselves alive, in a type of Jonah and the whale feeling. Life is sucked out of the screen.

In addition, there are drawings, paintings, prints, sculpture. The little bronze collectibles set me back. They seemed so commercial. But the sugar lift aquatints really give you a sense of his graphic talent. In the show as a whole, you also have a sense of his classical roots as an artist, Durer in particular. Also his sense of humor.

Kentridge is a theater person. The opera is his idea, but of course he is using Monteverdi. The staging it with puppets and adding an animated backdrop is his idea. This is a work from 1993. It is not new, but Pacific Operaworks is new.

So where are the politics in all of this ? I asked the puppeteers and they said it wasn’t political. But I disagree. There is a lot to think about here. Fragmentation of relationships, death, life, seduction, deception, all wrapped in a multimedia complexity that requires a lot of thought. The trick is not to be seduced by any one element, but to see the big picture of where Kentridge is coming from. Life and death caught up in forces beyond their control leading to tragedy.

Olive Ayhens new painting

Olive Ayhens is a wonderful painter and a great artist. This is a new painting called Amphibian Emergency. If you look closely you can see that inside the glass condominiums are frogs, an endangered species. They are disappearing everywhere. They are an essential part of our ecosystem. The condos are popping up everywhere in her neighborhood of Williamsburg making communities extinct also. Condos don’t really create the same sense of comaraderie of street life celebrated by Jane Jacobson, The Death and Life of American Cities. Of course I am generalizing, but on my street in Seattle, I never see anyone from the condos.

Outside the window is the wasteland of urban living. Olive creates interfaces of humans and nature that call attention to our treatment of the natural environment. She also is a seductive and sensuous painter who knows how to use color and the texture of paint itself so skillfully that her content and her technique are wedded inextricably. Her love of beauty in the art work is a part of her distress about the ruin of the natural environment. Since she is currently based in NYC, she is painting that distress with an urban focus. She has also painted western streams rushing down Manhattan streets with cars floating in them, and a lumber mill and power plant set right on the Columbia River . She depicts vanishing species, birds, animals, and also vanishing trees, lost in our contemporary world.

Break the Silence Mural Project

Image Wars and Zones of Conflict

Other than Hirshhorn who is addressing the artist’s own position, the works expand our understanding of what is going on inside of an environment in which military attacks are destroying if not your own building, then the one next door, or in another part of the country (Lamia Joreige). Do you go and look, do you stay home and drink tea. Lamia drove nearby.

Other artists are also telling us what happens with the people who are on the ground, but not actually shooting, what happens to memory, what happens to you? Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is an Iraqi photographer and journalist who was next to a US shoot out of civilians in Iraq. His image of a screaming child in his fathers arms, which I have on my desk, is haunting beyond any image I have seen. It interrupts us entirely. We cannot avoid it. These artists are telling us that conflict is a long, wide and deep place. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was also part of an exhibition and book called Unembedded. The photographers did work for mainstream media, but they are free lance, and the book includes a lot of work that they couldn’t get published.

Given the crisis in Gaza, I have been focusing on that in my own writing. In the New York exhibition, Demos included Emily Jacir and Ahlam Shibli, both of whom fall into the category of reinventing documentary photography. But I also found this statement by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun a pair of artists in one of the London symposia. They comment on the difficulty of representing Palestine, when it is non existent. How can it be made visible they ask? How has it been made visible? They use as the example the Jenin Refugee Camp, a place where the residents have been repeatedly asked to represent themselves, the artists ask if the refugees could be represented as other than victims? or other than witnesses?

Gloria Bornstein Some New Art

Gloria Bornstein had a small showing of her new work recently. This is what she said about it

“The title of the grouping of Rorschach tests and queens is: “you’ve been confirmed as queen”. I heard a voice saying this in a dream.

The artworks are part of a series exploring the perceptual gap between the eye as optical instrument – and the gaze of the unconscious.

Like Rorschach tests and dreams, the artworks play with objectivity, subjectivity, and the illusionary space in-between.

The artworks developed from one of many dreams I document daily, a continuing practice begun 1974″.

After reading Frank Rich in the NY Times yesterday I realized how apropos the mirrors are to the current financial hall of mirrors capitalism is mired in. The queens represent anything you project on them but Madoff (& sub-prime mortgages) are a perfect example of elation/deflation we find in dreams – awake and not). “

These evocative works are eerie, as seen in this suggestive photograph where they are reflected in a window at dusk. They come out of Gloria’s Bornstein’s subconscious. We love Gloria’s subconscious. When I need a jolt in my head I talk to Gloria, who is a private person who rarely shows personal work. But talking to her is always a treat. That is why we were so lucky to have this momentary showing ( or was it a sighting?)

The pieces were in two parts, the Rorschach drawings and the metal “crowns” based on those drawings are set on wooden heads from dummies. This is a great metaphor, a crown coming from the subconscious is placed on a dummy head. It suggests the inversion of the order of things, an accidental person becomes queen.

Since Gloria is so deep, the pieces also connect to Lacan, mirror stages, and dreams. Queens seem like a subject that doesn’t come easily in a dream. But a tiara on a wooden dummy head, this is pure comedy, pure outrageous defiance of expectations. I wish more people dared to be this ridiculous and beautiful. Life in the contemporary art world of Seattle would be a lot more interesting!.

Gloria also has a public side: She has done a lot of incredible public art. Here I will mention only the Sentinels at the Fire station in the International District. This is what she told me about them:

“Inspired by forms found in Asian Art, architecture, folk craft, and public safety, the multi-sculptural environment represents the guardians of the city. Just as the staff of Fire Station 10 Center in the Chinatown-International District is responsible for the public safety of the city, the surrounding Asian community has been standing watch over the interests of their neighborhood. I wrote the art plan “Different Voices, One Community” after interviewing the folks that make up the tapestry of Seattle‘s Asian community. Basically, the firefighters of Seattle‘s oldest station in Pioneer square-have a historic relationship with the community that goes back 100 years. At that time, the city had laws prohibiting firefighters from putting out fires in “Chinatown“. The firefighters helped change the laws. When large buildings were condemned, they arranged for neighborhood residents to work round the clock to bring them to code & meet city deadlines.”

Is this not wonderful information. These sentinels bring together art history, political, cultural connections, and Seattle‘s history of racism. Looking at these red sentinels we see iconic forms, a little like pieces on a game board, they interrupt the dreary area of Seattle where the fire station is. They declare themselves, they say stop, here are people who are going to suddenly rush out to help us in an emergency. Here are sentinels!

What is amazing about Gloria’s public art is that every piece is different. See her website to know what I mean.