stylus: a project by ann hamilton

One of the wonderful side-effects of the unbearable Saint Louis heat is more art and culture for Saint Louisans. Because, well, what do you do to hide from hot summer weather? Go to a museum or art gallery! The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts is neither a museum nor an art gallery, but its current exhibition is very worth seeing.  The current exhibition installed at the Pulitzer is Ann Hamilton's stylus. My sister and I ventured to the Pulitzer (read about it here) partly because we were interested in contemporary art, partly because we wanted to do something fun indoors to escape the Saint Louis heat, and partly because we wanted to do something for free.

Although we went to the Pulitzer not knowing anything about the artist or the exhibit, we were very intrigued after a brief look at the exhibit description:

As a visual artist whose contributions to contemporary art span three decades, Ann Hamilton's installations are notable in part for their capacity to weave a broad palette of media into engaging sensory environments. Noted for a dense accumulation of materials, her installations create immersive experiences that respond to the architectural presence and social history of their sites, while also engaging the public with broad questions of what it means to assemble in such spaces. Hamilton's installation stylus, created specifically for the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, was conceived as both a sanctuary for listening and a laboratory for experiments in collective vocal exercises.  The installation asks the following questions: How do we communicate? What external forces act upon or inhibit our collective need for social contact and response? How are relationships enacted (or not enacted) by the architectural spaces we inhabit? While the Pulitzer building is the main structural element, the project spills outside the walls, onto the broader stage of the built and social environment of Grand Center and beyond.

For those of you who will not be able to fly to Saint Louis to enjoy this exhibition (and the summer weather), I will attempt to give you my personal impression of this extraordinary project, in hopes that you will attempt to visit any and all exhibitions created by Hamilton, should she ever venture into your corner of the world. There are various multi-sensory, multi-modal elements for the actual exhibit, so I'll try to briefly describe the ones that imprinted on my mind the most.

Upon entering the building, we are immediately given a brief explanation about the concordance, with said briefing occurring in full view of a small shelf of concordances (I saw several kinds -- concordance for children's tales, concordance for Whitman's writings, concordance for the Bible, etc.) lining a blank wall. The written explanation that we are handed contains the following:

concordance:At the threshold of the exhibition is a concordance. By its definition, a concordance is an alphabetical arrangement of the principal words of a book with reference to the passage in which each word occurs. A concordance is also an agreement, harmony. [This is when I began thinking of concordances that tell me where I can locate the word "smite" written in the Bible.]

The printed concordance stacked on the first table of the exhibition draws also on an older definition of the word concordance,

A composition combining and harmonizing various accounts. [This printed concordance which we also found dispersed in various places throughout the exhibition looked and felt like a newspaper, and it was printed on newsprint in lettering like newsprint lettering, and the title consisted of multiple newspaper names -- I remember seeing "Tehran News".]

The words that comprise the two vertical spines of the composition serve as principal words describing the interior register of the space of the Pulitzer Foundation for the ARts as stylus inhabits it. Though the selection of words will shift with each printing, a base selection of words forms the spines:

Act, Address, Being, Black, Blue, Body, Call, Calling, Chorus, Finding, Hand, Hear, Hearing, Light, Listen, Listening, Mind, Mouth, Sense, Soul, Speak, Speaking, Spirit, Time, Touch, Touching, Voice, World

In the concordance, published weekly as part of the stylus project, horizontal lines of text which contain one of the spine words are lifted from international English language newspapers. [I wondered why only English, and, what would happen if/when we truly intersected our meaning-making with the multi-lingual experiences that many of us share/claim.]The selected lines are thus pulled from their original context in the newspaper and arranged according to the alphabetized list of principal words. Through this process, the composition intersects the interior structure of the stylus with the exterior of world of events.

This process of creating a concordance of the words of stylus with lines of text from the world's major newspapers results in fields of text with juxtapositions of accounts aligned to created new possibilities and contexts for meaning. As you read the fields of text, you are invited to respond to your own register of how you read it, aloud or silently, within the interior of the piece.

One entire wall of the main exhibit hall is lined with shelves that contain replicas of hands made out of wax and paraffin (I think). In the middle of the main hall, tall ladders are erected as stations from which photographic images are projected onto blank walls. Toward one end is a large drawing table where you can sit and play games and speak into a microphone which has been connected to a piano in a back room. When you speak into the microphone, the words that you say are then translated into notes that are then projected throughout the building with amplifiers. Strange, you think? It is quite interesting, though, to see how words, ideas, and actions are translated, retranslated, and transformed from one medium to another. I quite enjoyed the experience, although I did wonder why no one talked to each other. In some sense, we were quite limited in our human interactions. Shyness? Maybe, maybe not.

Mexican jumping beans on a steel table

When you walk up to the Mezzanine, you will see a gigantic table outfitted with wired microphones that point down at the tabletop. On this giant steel tabletop-canvas are approximately 3,000 Mexican jumping beans, crackling away and you can hear the crackle vibrations amplified through speakers in the floor of the Mezzanine. You can read more about it here.

As the Sister and I were conversing with the gallery assistant, we started mulling over the primary questions raised by Hamilton's exhibit: How do we communicate? How are relationships enacted (or not) by the spaces we inhabit?

I noted out loud to the gallery assistant that I was surprised Hamilton would choose jumping beans to illustrate a point about communication and interactions, especially since her exhibit seemed to invite the participant to engage in modes of human social interaction -- I mean, we were discussing modes of human interaction, not bean-talk. But, that was not something for us to figure out right on the spot, I suppose. Another point that kept nagging at me throughout the exhibit was that the entire exhibit was in English. Even the newspaper print concordance, which claimed to pull texts from several international newspapers, contained only English text. To construct an entire exhibit of this magnitude and scale about human interaction and human communication, an artist must think about multilingual, polyphonic communications, mustn't she? As a bilingual speaker from multi-cultural backgrounds, I am disappointed to see that we are engaging only in English, thereby undercutting the depth and richness of human experiences.

Although it has been several weeks since I visited the Pulitzer, I invite you to go see the exhibition for yourself. It will run through January 2011. Admission is always free. Go here for visitor information for the Pulitzer. Or, visit the blog.

Laumeier Sculpture Park and Museum

The story of the Laumeier Sculpture Park and Museum began in 1968 with the gift of 72 acres of open land. Now, there are over 60 large scale sculptures scattered throughout the 105-acre open-air sculpture museum. We visited the Laumeier one evening, and took some amazingly funny photos. However, to protect the copyrights and creative licenses of the many internationally-known and nationally-celebrated artists who own the art pieces, the Laumeier has a rather strict photo-film policy that prohibits us from posting the photos of the sculptures on the internet. Although I'm not posting those photos on nothing but HAT's, here is a pic of the late evening sky.  Imagine walking around the greens looking at art sculptures underneath this orange sky. Isn't it gorgeous?

Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts: Where Art & Architecture Meet

Earlier today, I visited for the first time the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. Intentionally built in the developing district known as Grand Center of Saint Louis (go here to read more about the Pulitzer's urban context), this magnificent gem brings together the arts and architecture, inviting all visitors to re-imagine, no, re-invent, our preconceived ideas of creativity, art, culture, space.

The website explains: "Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando and situated in St. Louis' Grand Center district, the Pulitzer presents changing exhibitions and engages in a variety of programming initiatives involving the visual, literary, and performing arts." You can visit here to explore more about the architect who designed the Pulitzer, hear his reflections on this building, as well as read his biography.

After you've seen the current exhibition (more on the exhibition in a later post) inside the Ando building, you must not neglect to visit Richard Serra's permanent piece on site: the Joe sculpture, which is a torqued spiral comprised of five pieces of weathered steel, each weighing 25 tons. Yeah, you read that right. 125 tons of steel sitting under the Saint Louis sky. It sits permanently in the courtyard of the Pulitzer, and is a marvel to look at (but no touchy-touch since one brush of our fingers could make an impression lasting six months).

This is what Serra says about Joe:  When you walk between the walls, you become implicated in the tremendous spiraling force of the movement. The velocity projects you ahead into an open interior space which frames the sky. Joe cannot be grapsed as Gestalt or image. The sculpture is understood behaviorally as a function of time.  "Everyone thinks my medium is steel," says Serra, but he is quick to correct that misconception. "My medium is space," he says, and being inside the sculpure is like "being inside a steel womb". Once inside, you are made completely, fully, deeply aware of the space encapsulated by the steel spiral. The docent who talked us through/around the Joe said that, to her, it seemed as if the artist was intentionally trying to waste the visitor's time, forcing us to walk along the path of the spiral towering over our heads, only to be led (by what force, by what inertia?) into an empty space. There is nothing inside. Yet, instead of a sense of loss, the spiral's "center" somehow generates an awareness of potential, of possibility, as if you were waiting for creation to happen while standing in the midst of that spaciousness. 

This reminds me of the experience of a poem. Even before entering into the spiral, even before that first step into that enclosed space (where your left and right are "fenced" in and you can only go forward or backwards with very little room -- and you are warned not to touch the sides), there is great anticipation. As I walked forward, I could tell that my expectation was building, and I hurried along the gravelly, spiral path towards what I expected was something awe-inspiring which would fill me with "wonderment". Once inside, I cannot help but look up, raising my eyes above the dark rim of the spiral to the clouds in the blue sky, feeling and seeing the sunlight pouring down -- so much heavier and weightier because the steel spiral has pushed all the spaces toward me...  Like a poem, that feeling of expectation, anticipation, wonderment.

Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

3716 Washington Boulevard
(between Grand Boulevard and Spring Avenue)
St. Louis, MO 63108
Phone   314.754.1850
Fax     314.754.1851

MOCRA: Good Friday Exhibit

Two weeks ago, as part of Holy Week, I attended a fantastic art exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art on the SLU campus. 

Good Friday: The Suffering Christ in Contemporary Art is an exclusive exhibit shown nowhere else in the country, and it is an eye opening experience that will rip your heart out and boggle your mind. More importantly, seeing the exhibit will make you engage in some critical thinking and analysis (something I could use and fortunately enjoy).

Here is a description of the exhibit from MOCRA: 

Suffering, Passion, and Unconditional Love: Good Friday was originally presented in Spring 2009 as the second of two exhibitions cel­ebrating MOCRA’s fifteenth anniversary. The exhibition includes works by over 30 artists of diverse backgrounds who have used the events of the day of Jesus’ death as inspira­tion for their own reflections on such themes as faith, suffering, loss, compassion, and unconditional love. The selected works are drawn from the MOCRA collection and works on long-term loan, and employ a wide range of media from painting and sculpture to fiber arts. Some works em­ploy familiar images such as Hans Holbein’s The Dead Christ in the Tomb (1521), or Heinrich Hoffmann’s Jesus in the Garden of Gethse­mane (1890), while others make use of traditional devotions such as the Stations of the Cross. Many of the artists translate the events of Jesus’ Passion to contemporary situations and draw forth a variety of insights, from the personal to the political.

 

In addition to the exhibit, I attended a lecture by the Director of MOCRA, Father Terry Dempsey, S.J., graduate of the GTU and of JSTB in Berkeley (yay!). The lecture addressed the question of relevance of the image(s) of the suffering Christ in contemporary world. I think for the majority of us, and for me especially, the answer was a resounding YES. The more intriguing discussions were about the issues of HOW relevant, in WHAT WAYS relevant, for WHAT REASON(S), etc....

There was no question, said Fr. Dempsey, that the "ongoing vitality of the images of the death of Christ has not ended" in contemporary art. In fact, artists continue to use the images of the suffering Christ to generate controversy, in protest, in solidarity, for consolation, and for ambiguity. Fr. Dempsey's lecture offered several art samples for each category and I was fascinated. Some I had seen before; many others were brand new to me though they were pieces created by artists many, many years before. 

One example was "Piss Christ" by the artist Andres Serrano -- a photo of which I have added to the beginning of this blogpost. Without knowing anything about this piece, seeing it for the first time, you would think it is a sepia photograph of the crucifix. And you would be wrong (as I was). It is a photograph of the crucifix submerged in the artist's urine. If you were alive and attentive in 1989, you would know about the controversy (read about it briefly here on wiki) generated by this piece of art. 

Or, take for example, the piece "Execution of Christ" by the Gao Brothers in 2009. In this piece, the figure of Christ is standing in front of a firing squad, and all the soldiers not only look like Chairman Mao, but they are all Maos. Artistic controversy at its best! The image of the Suffering Christ as political controversy, as provocateur, as artistic expression being inhibited, flaunted, censored, limitless... 

Other interesting points that the lecture touched upon, and which I continued to mull over for days after attending the exhibit: 

• Why use primarily Christian images to express protest against violence and injustice, death and destruction?
• Artists are recasting images of suffering Christ to address issues of racism, discrimination, inequality, injustice --> how are we called to respond to these images?
• If these images are to provoke in us a desire for change... are we listening to them? How are we attending to these calls? 
• What are some concrete actions that you or I can take in response to these works of art that are inspiring political responses to remedy conditions through social and political action? 
• Many works of art, such as Eleanor Dickinson's 1988 piece "Crucifixion of Dountes" elevates the everyday person to monumental scales, claiming that the average person has value and attention must be paid, and calls us to stand in solidarity at the foot of the cross that each person has to bear -- so, in our daily witness, are there folks that we know who are being crucified and with whom we need to stand in solidarity? 

Many of the pieces that Father Dempsey included in his talk were from different religious traditions, such as Dinh Q. Le's 1997 untitled piece depicting the face of Buddha split by the pieta image of the Crucifixion of Christ, or Marc Chagall's 1938 piece "The White Crucifixion" (in which the figure of Christ is depicted not as a redeemer but as a sympathetic observer/brother of the atrocities enacted on the Jews during the Holocaust). In this piece, who else would we say could stand in the place of the "sympathetic" observer?

Truly these images of the suffering Christ transcend the traditions with which we've become familiar. As Father Dempsey said, these images "speak to the heart of all humanity regardless of the religious tradition".

The question I was left pondering was this, especially now that we are in Easter season: How do we move beyond the image of the suffering Christ, beyond Good Friday, and look toward Easter, the risen Christ?

Psalm 23 Li Xi

Although I'm unable to read Chinese (neither ancient nor contemporary Chinese), I still cherish this little red lucky money envelope that I received on my last Sunday at our church in Oakland Chinatown.

It was a gift given to me by the board of admin and trustees of our church, on behalf of the entire congregation. Inside was a monetary gift for which I am grateful, but more valuable and important to me was the fact that both our senior and our associate pastor had searched far and wide for this very special red lucky money envelope. I am incredibly lucky, to say the least.

As some of you know, the traditional lucky money envelope comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and textures. (The traditional red represents luck, good fortune, wealth.) Some of you already know why red envelopes are given, and on which occasions. For me, for this particular event, the church wanted to give me a little luck and a lot of blessings on my new adventure. So, our pastors found a red lucky envelope on which is inscribed the words (in Chinese) of Psalm 23 in the shape of a chalice.

Chalice, vessel, goblet: a drinking vessel with a foot and stem; the eucharistic cup from which we drink, reminding us Christ shed his blood to make us united as one, to re-member us into the body of Christ.

Vietnamese Zodiac / Astrology

Visit VietHoroscope to find your sign. I for one am a yin earth goat:

In the Vietnamese horoscope, the goat people enjoy the comforts of having great friends and an amiable relationship at work. They are not born leaders, but they make excellent members. They have smart opinions, which they willingly share to achieve success for the group.

Visit Wikipedia's entries on Chinese astrology to know more about the luni-solar calendar, upon which the Vietnamese zodiac is determined.

Vietnamtravels.vn also has an interesting quick-reference article on the Vietnamese zodiac, which a brief snapshot description of each animal sign.

Visit Eric's binary world if you want to enter your birth year to quickly find out which animal sign belongs to you.

When trying to traverse the lunisolar calendar, an easy rule to follow is that years that end in an even number are yang, those that end with an odd number are yin. The cycle proceeds as follows:

* If the year ends in 0 it is Yang Metal.
* If the year ends in 1 it is Yin Metal.
* If the year ends in 2 it is Yang Water.
* If the year ends in 3 it is Yin Water.
* If the year ends in 4 it is Yang Wood.
* If the year ends in 5 it is Yin Wood.
* If the year ends in 6 it is Yang Fire.
* If the year ends in 7 it is Yin Fire.
* If the year ends in 8 it is Yang Earth.
* If the year ends in 9 it is Yin Earth.

"Face First in the Tackle Box": A Night with Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor in real life is just as funny, deadpan, and "appropriate" as on radio. This past evening, I went to see Keillor's 90-min spiel about nothing and everything at Z-Hall. Fantastic evening.

Shooting the Breeze with the audience:
+ Experiencing a stroke around Labor Day
+ There was mention of heirloom tomatoes
+ Majoring in English Literature
+ Being in choir and singing like Pavarotti to Margaret, the tall beauty who read Albert Camus
+ Reciting "O Captain, My Captain" in a high school class
+ Having the stroke in a coop market, and driving to the emergency room, very carefully at 42.5 miles an hour
+ We imagined together what his 11 y.o. daughter would be like in her adolescence, after having broken free from the restraint of mid-western life: hidden away in her room with music blaring, and eyes, lips and nose pierced/punctured by glittering steel and metal like she had fallen "face first into the tackle box"
+ Wanting to write for the New Yorker about mid-west life
+ Being lucky that the stroke went into the "silent part of the brain" so that his stories, jokes, songs, and language are still intact
+ Being described by the attending at the emergency room as "awake, alert, appropriate, flat affect"

A few observations:
+ He talked non-stop; when he didn't talk, he sang; when he wasn't talking or singing, he was sipping water
+ He stood the entire time
+ The stage was set very starkly but artistically with one high-backed wooden chair, one mic on a mic stand, one small square table with a lilac-ish tablecloth topped by 1 single bottle of water and 1 small clear glass tumbler

HAT's self-conscious observations:
+ I was probably 1 out of 25 people under 35 sitting in the audience
+ I was the only person within 20 rows who attended alone
+ I laughed probably the loudest in my row
+ There was a bit of jealousy -- he can write, talk, sing, and capture an audience
+ I LOVED it. Why do I have to like it so much?!

Regina Carter: Reverse Thread

If you have not heard Regina Carter perform, you are missing out on a heart-stirring experience. A few Saturdays ago, Regina Carter performed her last show at Yoshi's in Jack London Square. The experience? Absolutely breathtaking.

Violins, bass, ancora (spelling?), accordian, drums. African folk melodies in contemporary re-interpretations. We heard songs from the African diaspora, including songs from Uganda and West Africa. First, the field recordings of the folk songs would be played, then Carter's group would play for us the new, contemporary re-interps of the melodies and rhythms. Delicious rhythms and beat. Melodies that seemed to drift in and out of some strange land that is here, physically present, and now, but also distant and of the past and of the future.

All the songs performed were from her upcoming album, Reverse Thread (release date January 2010: "a collection of infectious African folk melodies in a beautiful, contemporary interpretation").

You must, must, must get the CD when it comes out. I will.

Just an Imaginary Rabbit

Today, I had the pleasure of seeing "Harvey" at the Contra Costa Civic Theatre in El Cerrito. Written by Mary Chase and directed by Kathleen Ray, it is a magical foray into the mind of a Mr. Dowd who has an invisible rabbit (white 6' 1.5" pooka) as a friend.

Harvey: An invisible rabbit and his whimsical pal, a frustrated social-climbing mother and daughter, a nutty psychiatrist, and love in bloom are all you need for a side-splitting comedy that is just as popular today as it was when it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945, and when it helped to launch CCCT in 1960.

The comedy saddened me. Surprise, surprise. Questions about life perspective arose in a strange billowy cloud, and I had no answers. Am I the naive, frustrated daughter whose sole ambition at this juncture in her young life is to find love, make money, impress strangers? Am I the social climbing mother/sister whose only concern is the neighbor and society column's judgment of her social status? Am I young, inexperienced Dr. Sanderson who can't tell the difference between a reasonable person and a person with reason? Am I the crazy, impatient orderly whose only desire is a sandwich to feed his hungry belly and who manhandles patients with mental illness?

None of those characters portray me in all my complex HAT-ness, but there are certainly character flaws that, when highlighted, I readily recognized in myself and in each person on stage. ITragic, and peculiar. In the end, even Dr. Chumley himself wanted to achieve whatever it was that Harvey offered to Dowd. And in the end, I too wanted some of that... peace, acceptance, awareness, generosity, graciousness, a positive outlook on life.

I enjoyed this show, and look forward to the next show at the CCCT, which will be "Lucky Stiff", directed by Amy Nielson

Lucky Stiff
Books and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Based on "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" by Michael Butterworth
Directed by Amy Nielson

What do you get when you combine one dead guy, a nerdy English shoe salesman, six million bucks in diamonds, and a lot of dogs? The hysterically funny musical Lucky Stiff! Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, the authors of Ragtime, and the animated film Anastasia exploded on the musical theatre scene with this madcap murder mystery farce that takes us on a whirlwind adventure through London, Atlantic City, and Monte Carlo, as the cast tries to figure out who did what to whom!

If you are interested, check out the '09-'10 season.

Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

Saw them at Zellerbach on Tuesday, 9/22. Heard Joe Temperley's most beautiful rendition of Ellington's "Single Petal of a Rose." Please, please go buy a copy of it. It is so beautiful. You will be reminded of Rumi:

We, who are parts of Adam, heard with him
the song of angels and of seraphim.
Our memory, though dull and sad, retains
some echo still of those unearthly strains.

Seated Buddha

Seated Buddha,
dated 338, China
Later Zhao dynasty
(319-350)
Gilt bronze
The Avery Brundage
Collection













This sculpture is the earliest known dated buddha image made in China. We know this thanks to the fragmentary inscription on the back of the base.

Stylistically, this figure belongs to
a group created in China from the
appearance of Buddhism to around 450.














This style was influenced by Buddhist sculptures
of the ancient region of Gandhara (which included
parts of present-day Pakistan, Afghanistan, and
northwestern India). Scholars theorize
that the models for such pieces were small
sculptures carried along the Silk Road.
Most of the surviving Chinese versions
are small gilt bronze buddhas.

Instant Messaging?

Message boards (samdra) are ingenious Tibetan devices
that do not require using precious hand-made paper.
The two painted covers enclose three double-sided blank boards
that would have been used for sending formal messages
between officials and noble house-holds.

Prior to a message being written,
the boards were preased with butter
and coated with a fine layer of ash or white chalk;
then they were written on with a bamboo pen.

The boards were stacked together --
their raised borders protecting the message
from being scratched --
and placed in an elegant case.

They were carried by a servant to the recipient,
who, after wiping off the first message, inscribed a reply.

Tibetan Message Boards
Tibet, approx. 1875-1925
Lacquer, ink, and colors on wood
Gift of an anonymous friend of the Asian Art Museum











This past Saturday, I visited the Asian Art Museum in SF for the Samurai exhibit. It was very busy because of the Labor Day Weekend, and b/c the exhibit is about to close, but it was worth every minute. Because we were forbidden to photograph the special collection, I had to make do with the permanent collections. My previous visits to the museum were with other people and I did not have the luxury of several quiet hours to myself, just walking from one artifact to another, leisurely reading, viewing and contemplating without being rushed. This time, I spent as much time as I could (12:30-4:45pm!). Today's post about the Tibetan message boards is the first of a small series.

Hiding in the Bushes in Berkeley

...somewhere near my house is this very fantastic looking creature made entirely of tires! Do you have old tires that don't work like they're supposed to? Are you thinking of expressing a different side of creativity? Are you hoping to reduce your carbon footprint? Look at Mr. Elephant...

Triumphant Entry by He Qi

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Last Thursday, I went with a few friends to see and hear Ladysmith Black Mambazo at UCB's Zellerbach Hall. They were phenomenal. Great harmonies, fun, creative, beautiful... They are amazing musicians.

Go here to read their biography. Brief info on the group:

Ladysmith Black Mambazo represents the traditional culture of South Africa and is regarded as the country's cultural emissary at home and around the world. In 1993, at Nelson Mandela's request, Ladysmith Black Mambazo accompanied the future President to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Mambazo sang again at President Mandela's inauguration in May of 1994. They are a national treasure of the new South Africa in part because they embody the traditions suppressed in the old South Africa.

The traditional music sung by Ladysmith Black Mambazo is called ISICATHAMIYA (Is-Cot-A-Me-Ya). It was born in the mines of South Africa. Black workers were taken by rail to work far away from their homes and their families. Poorly housed and paid worse, they would entertain themselves, after a six-day week, by singing songs into the wee hours every Sunday morning. Cothoza Mfana they called themselves, "tip toe guys", referring to the dance steps choreographed so as to not disturb the camp security guards. When miners returned to the homelands, the tradition returned with them. There began a fierce, but social, competition held regularly and a highlight of everyone's social calendar. The winners were awarded a goat for their efforts and, of course, the adoration of their fans. These competitions are held even today in YMCA assembly halls and church basements throughout Zululand South Africa.

Throughout the first portion of the performance, I kept wanting to listen carefully to distinguish the different harmonies, but I learned it was just more enjoyable to close my eyes and listen to the beautiful notes drifting up from the eight microphones and enveloping us in a capella melodies...

At one point, the entire auditorium joined in song with the group. For the finale, the group invited members from the audience to go on stage to dance with them. It was absolutely amazing. Go here to see if their tour will bring them to your neck of the woods...

Brilliant artist Bernice

If you've not seen, please go here to see. However, these tiny thumbnails don't do any justice... you must visit the Fourth Street Studio (opening March 28th) to view the art in person. Vibrant, incredible pieces that will amaze you with their vitality. [Just so you know, I get to work with her. Am I lucky or what?!]

Crime & Punishment

I just returned from watching Crime and Punishment at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. It is absolutely wonderful. As you can imagine quite a lot of content (and characters) get spliced out of the story, but that's what happens when you pare down a substantial novel into 90 minutes on the stage. However, the performances were powerful, and the stage setting was inspirational. The entire set consisted of one metal frame spring bed, one wooden table, two metal folding chairs, and an entire wall of doors. I should have counted to see how many doors were there, but they were painted various shades of blue and gray, and the actors entered and exited the scenes through these doors. They were fabulously hung from ceiling to floor... If only I had my camera with me.

The world premier opened in Illinois, but I absolutely recommend that you go see it (if it's coming to your city). Visit the Berk Rep website (see link above) to read about the playwrights and the play. It's a wonderful opportunity!

The Vibrator Play

Last week, I went to the Berkeley Repertory Theatre to see Sarah Ruhl's play In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play). Yes, it's a play that involves vibrators. And you wouldn't be wrong to think that the production of the play involved a lot of research. When I walked into the theater lobby, people were gathered around display cases filled with many different kinds of vibrators. It was quite a sight; all the people gathered around glass-encased replicas (& some originals!) of turn-of-the-century vibrators. That kind of scrutiny was a bit funny to witness.

Read what the Artistic Director, Tony Taccone, says about Sarah Ruhl's play:

Set at the dawn of the age of electricity, the story follows a fictional psychiatrist who uses a remarkable new invention, the vibrator, to treat women suffering from “hysteria.” Through a series of relationships Ms. Ruhl introduces us to a world where stifled Victorian mores clash with burgeoning, secret desires. The disparity between the scientific experiment that the doctor thinks he is conducting and the social drama he unwittingly catalyzes is not only the stuff of comedy, but provides a dynamic theatrical vehicle to examine the beginning of a social revolution.

Beyond its comical veneer, however, In the Next Room immerses us in the mysteries of gender and the quixotic nature of desire. By using the vibrator, each character is induced to undergo experiences that they do not cognitively understand. Sexual climaxes awaken dormant parts of their deepest selves, and they begin to recognize the profound gap that separates their acculturated behavior in the external world and the yearnings of their inner life. They begin to question their definition of happiness. The sheer power, delight and availability of orgasms prompt the demand for satisfaction in other aspects of life. For some characters, increased self-awareness brings sorrow upon realizing that they cannot sufficiently change their circumstances. For others, a new life unfolds containing a dream of happiness they never thought possible. Moreover, what it revealed is the melancholy that lives below the surface of each and every desire.

There are six characters: Dr. Givings, who is providing new treatment for "hysteria"; Mrs. Givings (Catherine), who just gave birth to a baby daughter; Mr. Daldry, whose wife, Sabrina, is receiving treatment from Dr. Givings; Elizabeth, the wet nurse hired by Mrs. Givings; Annie, assistant to Dr. Givings; Leo Irving, the artist. The play explores the deep, complex relationships between each of these individuals, and decompartmentalizes rooms, the multiple layers, of very real human relationships. Sarah Ruhl unravels and complicates relationships between neighbors and friends, doctors and patients, husbands and wives, employers and employees, and mothers and children. We also embrace issues of race, gender, and social class. To top it off, add discussions of art and same-sex relationships.

I laughed, and cried, and laughed a lot more than I expected I would. Two moments stand out in my mind, and hopefully sharing them will entice you to go see the play:

In one scene, Catherine and Elizabeth are in the room talking about motherhood (that's simplifying it 200%). Lots of back and forth -- very deeply touching -- about each mother's love and sense of duty and conflicting emotions about their own children. As Elizabeth laments her inability to give life's milk to her own child, she begrudges giving that same source of life, which rightfully belongs to her son, to Catherine's daughter. On the other hand, Catherine grieves over the loss, the disconnect, between her and her daughter whose life is nourished by another woman's milk. Elizabeth wonders why Jesus would take her son, and ponders if it was because she loved him too much so that Jesus wanted to take him back. Catherine compares herself to Jesus, saying she wants to give and give and give but there is nothing of the broken body to give, while Jesus's body is broken in order to be given over and over and over.

In another scene, Mr. Irving the painter says he loves a lot of women so that he can be an artist; if he were to love less, he would be a musician; if he were to love more, he would be a poet. (Aaaahhh... now I know why I got my MFA: so I wouldn't be a musician or an artist?)

It was an incredibly funny, poignant, intelligent piece of art. You must go see if it comes to your area.

Always looking for resolution where there is/are none?

If you're looking for two-and-a-half hours of heart-wrenching, head-hurting, emotionally-riling insight into the controversial, gritty, high-blood-pressure, contentious, deeply ("weighty") disturbing, unrelenting, tumultuous world of high-schoolers, then please go see Yellowjackets at the Berkeley Rep.

I'm not quite sure I can explain what the play is about. All I know is that the play unrelentlessly tackles extremely tough issues in an uncomprisingly smart way. That the play is set in Berkeley High makes the play even more amazing -- b/c surprisingly I had forgotten that even high school students deal with big issues. What am I saying! Teenagers deal with bigger issues than adults do sometimes. That's the point. Teens grapple with weighty issues (violence, racism, sex) every day and we can't simply say "they're too young to have such issues." And Yellowjackets shows us, too, that sometimes (oftentimes?) adults have no idea how to deal with the fall-out.

This is what I think of the play (by 30-yr-old genius Itamar Moses, who makes me cry just thinking about how talented he is), which has already been eloquently stated by the Examiner:

“Provocative and involving…the lightning-paced dialogue and slam-bang scene changes keep the play hurtling forward at breakneck speed…It’s smart, political, contentious, relentless, confusing and so full of weighty issues you may forget you’re actually dealing with teenagers here.”—Examiner.com

The play was stunning. Several times throughout the evening, I found myself holding my breath b/c of the emotions gushing out in the words being spewed out at breakneck speed. At one point, I wanted to jump up and shout at the characters. During one scene in the second act, I was so caught up in the moment that I actually believed something off-stage was happening for real (I started looking around for cops (b/c of the flashing lights) and realized, with chagrin, that I was totally fooled into thinking we really were watching a teen rebel being arrested by cops for trying to climb a fence).

Itamar Moses has captured in the microcosm of one high school (set in 1994) the entire gravity of our humanity. Please, please go see this smart, smart play.

If you don't believe me, read what the critics are saying.

Yellowjackets will be playing at the Berkeley Rep through October 12th.

Itamar Moses, Playwright : Itamar Moses is the author of the full-length plays Bach at Leipzig, Back Back Back, Celebrity Row, Completeness, The Den, The Four of Us, Outrage, the musical Reality! (with Gaby Alter) and various short plays and one-acts. His work has appeared off-Broadway and elsewhere in New York, at regional theatres across the country and in Canada, and is published by Faber & Faber and Samuel French. Itamar holds an M.F.A. in dramatic writing from New York University and has taught playwriting at Yale and NYU. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, MCC Playwrights’ Coalition and Naked Angels Writers Group, and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Itamar was born in Berkeley and now lives in Brooklyn.

Dinosaur Church

This is what we call the "dinosaur church." The architecture of the building is amazing. Abby's husband is an architect and he too can't figure out how the original architect came up with the design. We agree that the guy must have been high on something. The arches that hold up the buildings create something that looks like concrete backbones and spine of a large dinosaur. You have got to stand in the church to see and feel what I mean. It is an awesome space and we are honored that Central UMC has allowed us to exhibit unFound in their space.