Diverseworks Art Space

John Waters

shawna — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:00:31 +0000

John Waters (Writer/Director)

Born in Baltimore, MDin 1946, John Waterswas drawn to movies at an early age, particularly exploitation movies with lurid ad campaigns. He subscribed to Variety at the age of twelve, absorbing the magazine’s factual information and its lexicon of insider lingo. This early education would prove useful as the future director began his career giving puppet shows for children’s birthday parties. As a teen-ager, Waters began making 8-mm underground movies influenced by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Walt Disney, Andy Warhol, Russ Meyer, Ingmar Bergman, and Herschell Gordon Lewis.

Using Baltimore, which he fondly dubbed the “Hairdo Capitol of the World,” as the setting for all his films, Waters assembled a cast of ensemble players, mostly native Baltimoreans and friends of long standing: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole and Edith Massey. Waters also established lasting relationships with key production people, such as production designer Vincent Peranio, costume designer Van Smith, and casting director Pat Moran, helping to give his films that trademark Waters “look.”

Waters made his first film, an 8-mm short, Hag in a Black Leather Jacket in 1964, starring Mary Vivian Pearce. Waters followed with Roman Candles in 1966, the first of his films to star Divine and Mink Stole. In 1967, he made his first 16-mm film with Eat Your Makeup, the story of a deranged governess and her lover who kidnap fashion models and force them to model themselves to death. Mondo Trasho, Waters’ first feature length film, was completed in 1969 despite the fact that the production ground to a halt when the director and two actors were arrested for “participating in a misdemeanor, to wit: indecent exposure.”

In 1970, Waters completed what he described as his first “celluloid atrocity,” Multiple Maniacs. The film told the story of Lady Divine and her lover, Mr. David, proprietors of a freak show who lure unsuspecting suburbanites into their tents to witness “The Cavalcade of Perversions.” In 1972 Waters created what would become the most “notorious” film in the American independent cinema of the 1970′s, Pink Flamingos. Centered on the great battle to secure the title “Filthiest People Alive,” Pink Flamingos pitted Divine’s “Babs Johnson” against Mink Stole and David Lochary’s truly evil “Connie and Raymond Marble,” while turning Waters into a cult celebrity. Pink Flamingos went on to become a smash success atmidnight screenings in theU.S. and all over the world.

Waters followed the success of Pink Flamingos with three more pictures, spanning the remainder of the decade. In 1974 he created Female Trouble, the story of Dawn Davenport (Divine), a criminal who wanted to be famous so badly she committed murder. 1977 marked the premier of Desperate Living, a monstrous fairytale comedy starring the notorious Mafia moll turned stripper Liz Renay. In 1981 Waters completed Polyester, a wide-screen comic melodrama starring Divine and Tab Hunter. Filmed in glorious “Odorama,” ticket buyers were given scratch ‘n’ sniff cards that allowed the audience to smell along with the characters in their fragrant search for romantic happiness.

In Hairspray (1988), Waters created “an almost big-budget comedy extravaganza about star-struck teen-age celebrities in 1962, their stage mothers and their quest for mental health.” The film was a box office and critical success and starred the then unknownRickiLake, Deborah Harry, the late Sonny Bono, Jerry Stiller, Pia Zadora and Ric Ocasek.

The success of Hairspray brought Waters major Hollywood backing for his next feature, Cry-Baby (1990), a juvenile delinquent musical comedy satire, starring Johnny Depp. In 1994, Waters released Serial Mom, the well reviewed, socially un-redeeming comedy starring Kathleen Turner and Sam Waterston, which was the closing night attraction at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Pink Flamingos, the ultimate trash masterpiece, was again in theatres for a 25th Anniversary re-release in 1997, complete with newfound footage. Commenting on the long-lasting popularity of the film, director Waters proudly boasts, “it’s hard to offend three generations, but it looks like I’ve succeeded.”

Pecker, a feel-good movie about lesbian strippers, pubic-hair harassment and amateur photography, was released in 1998. It starred Edward Furlong and Christina Ricci. The Japan Times called it “a Disney film for perverts.”

Cecil B. DeMented, a comedy action-thriller about a young lunatic film director (Stephen Dorff) and his gang of film cultists who kidnap a real-life Hollywood movie goddess (Melanie Griffith) and force her to act in their own Super 8 underground movie, was released in 2000. Kevin Thomas of The LA Times, called Cecil B. DeMented “a fast, furious and funny fusillade of a movie.”

A Dirty Shame concerns head injury sufferers who, after their concussion, experience a carnal lust they cannot control. It stars Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, Selma Blair, and Chris Isaak. Rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called the film “wicked, kinky fun.”

In addition to writing and directing feature films, Waters is the author of six books: Shock Value, Crackpot, Pink Flamingos and Other Trash, Hairspray, Female Trouble and Multiple Maniacs, and Art: A Sex Book (co-written with art critic Bruce Hainley). His book, Role Models, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in May, 2010 and earned spots on the best seller lists for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Concurrent to his careers as a filmmaker and author, John Watersis also a photographer whose work, first represented by American Fine Arts and presently, the Marianne Boesky Galley in New York, has been shown in galleries all over the world since 1992. Three art catalogs have been published on John Waters’ photographs and sculpture beginning with Director’s Cut in 1997 (Scalo Books). John Waters: Change of Life followed in 2004 (Harry N. Abrams) to accompany a Waters retrospective exhibition at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. The exhibition traveled to the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, the Orange County Museum of Art and The Andy Warhol Museum. And finally, in 2006, the catalog, Unwatchable was published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name that opened simultaneously at The Marianne Boesky Gallery inNew York and de Pury & Luxembourg Gallery inZurich. In April, 2009, Waters’exhibition, “Rear Projection” opened at the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York and the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles.

John Waters’ one man spoken-word lecture entitled “This Filthy World” is performed at colleges, museums, film-festivals and comedy clubs around the world. In 2010, he played to sold out audiences at the Traverse City Comedy Arts Festival, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Sydney Opera House. In 2006, Netflix released a film version of the live act that was screened at the Toronto, Berlin and Edinburgh Film Festivals. In 2004, the music compilation CD “AJohn WatersChristmas” was released by New Line Records and was followed up in 2007 by “A Date WithJohn Waters”.

As an actor, Waters has appeared in many motion pictures including Jonathan Demme’s “Something Wild”, Woody Allen’s “Sweet and Lowdown”, Herschell Gordon Lewis’ “Blood Feast 2: All You Can Eat” and Don Mancini’s “Seed of Chucky.” In February, 2006, Waters hosted a 13-episode television series on the here! TV Network called “John WatersPresents Movies That Will Corrupt You.” He also appeared in an episode of NBC’s hit show, “My Name Is Earl,” and played “The Groom Reaper” in the CourtTV series “Til Death Do Us Part.”

Waters is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is on the Wexner Center International Arts Advisory Council. Additionally, he is a past member of the boards of The Andy Warhol Foundation and Printed Matter and was selected as a juror for the 2011 Venice Biennale.

Director Filmography

2004 A Dirty Shame

2000 Cecil B. Demented

1998 Pecker

1994 Serial Mom

1990 Cry-Baby

1988 Hairspray

1981 Polyester

1977 Desperate Living

1974 Female Trouble

1972 Pink Flamingos

1970 Multiple Maniacs

The Diane Linkletter Story

1969 Mondo Trasho

1967 Eat Your Makeup

1966 Roman Candles

1964 Hag in a Black Leather Jacket

Lone Star Performance Explosion

sixto — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:06:05 +0000

Lone Star Performance Explosion
Houston International Performance Art Biennale 2012

Thursday, March 8, 7 – 11pm DiverseWorks
Friday, March 9, 7-11PM AvantGarden
Saturday, March 10 – Notsuoh, 7-11PM

for more information: http://lonestarexplosion.org/

Houston’s cultural art scene is set to EXPLODE. For four days and three nights performance artists from around the world will be in our city for the First International Performance Art Biennale 2012.

Hosted at Diverse Works, Avant Garden and notsuoH the festival will feature international artists Myk Henry from Ireland, Elena Nestorova from Finland, Gim Gwang Cheol from South Korea, Orion Maxted from London, John Boehme and Natali Leduc from Canada, Marcus Vincentes from Brazil, Rodney Dickson from Northern Ireland, Non Grata from Estonia and Ville Karel From Estonia.

National artists include Nyugen E. Smith from New Jersey, Jill Pangallo from New York and nine local artists including The Art Guys, Jim Pirtle, Nestor Topcy, Jenny Schlief. Julia Wallace, Jonatan Lopez and Emily Sloan.

John Waters – This Filthy World: Filthier and Dirtier

shawna — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:40:37 +0000

Performance and Benefit for DiverseWorks ArtSpace
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
8pm

DiverseWorks is pleased to present John Waters in his one-man show, This Filthy World: Filthier and Dirtier. This one-night-only benefit event replaces DiverseWorks’ traditional spring gala and provides crucial support for our visual and performing arts programming. A cocktail reception with Waters follows the performance.

John Waters’ one-man show is a “vaudeville” act that celebrates the film career and obsessional tastes of the man William Burroughs once called “The Pope of Trash.” Focusing in on Waters’ early negative artistic influences and his fascination with true crime, exploitation films, fashion lunacy, and the extremes of the contemporary art world, this joyously devious monologue elevates all that is trashy in life into a call to arms to “filth followers” everywhere.

EVENT INFORMATION:

This exclusive event takes place in DiverseWorks’ intimate 97-seat theater. With so few seats, sponsorships and individual tickets to this performance are limited. Sponsorships include additional benefits such as dinner with Waters, VIP seating, and more. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of This Filthy World: Filthier and Dirtier, please contact Executive Director Elizabeth Dunbar at elizabeth@diverseworks.org or call 713-223-8346.

Individual tickets to the performance and cocktail reception are on sale at a price of $250 each. Please contact Megan Batson, Development Assistant, at 713-223-8346 if you would like to purchase tickets.

DIVINE DONOR: $10,000

4 VIP seats at performance
4 invitations to private dinner with John Waters before the show
4 invitations to cocktail reception with John Waters after the show
2 autographed copies of Role Models by John Waters (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010)
2 autographed copies of John Waters: This Filthy World DVD
Sponsor recognition on invitation, interior signage & website
Sponsor recognition in all promotional materials

MONDO MANIAC MAVEN: $5,000

4 VIP seats at performance
4 invitations to private dinner with John Waters before the show
4 invitations to cocktail reception with John Waters after the show
2 autographed copies of John Waters: This Filthy World DVD
Sponsor recognition on invitation, interior signage & website
Sponsor recognition in all promotional materials

SERIAL SUPPORTER: $2,500

2 reserved seats at performance
2 invitations to private dinner with John Waters before the show
2 invitations to cocktail reception with John Waters after the show
Sponsor recognition on invitation, interior signage & website
Sponsor recognition in all promotional materials

Host Committee: Bill Arning & Mark McCray, William Betts, Lynn Goode & Harrison Williams, Michael Landrum & Pepper Paratore, Marshal & Victoria Lightman, Don Mafrige, Tim Moloney, Marilyn Oshman, Judith & Robert Pringle

This Filthy World: Filthier and Dirtier is sponsored by an anonymous donor, McClain Gallery, Nina & Michael Zilkha, Bill Arning & Mark McCray, Gensler, and Kellye Sanford & Fritz Lanham.

Image courtesy of Greg Gorman

Creative Capital Information Session

shawna — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:12:24 +0000

Thursday, February 9, 2012
6:30-7:30pm
RSVP: grants@creative-capital.org

Sean Elwood, Director, Artist Programs & Initiatives for Creative Capital, will be present to answer questions regarding the Creative Capital’s current and upcoming grant rounds. Creative Capital supports artists creating adventurous and imaginative work in Visual Arts, Film/Video, Performing Arts, Innovative Literature and Emerging Fields. In 2012, Creative Capital will be considering proposals in Emerging Fields, Innovative Literature and Performing Arts. The online Letter of Inquiry form opens on February 1, 2012 and closes on March 1, 2012.

Far from a traditional funder, Creative Capital is committed to working in long-term partnership with the bold and groundbreaking artists that they fund, making a multi-year financial commitment while providing advisory and professional development services. Acting as a catalyst for the development of exceptional and imaginative ideas, Creative Capital supports artists whose work is provocative, timely and relevant; who are deeply engaged with their artforms and demonstrate a rigorous commitment to their craft, yet are also boldly original and push the boundaries of their genre; who create work that carries the potential to reshape the cultural landscape.

Any working artist with at least five years of professional experience who is a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident and at least 25 years old is eligible to apply. Selected grantees receive up to $50,000 in direct support and a suite of services valued at more than $37,000. The session is free and open to the public. RSVP to

grants@creative-capital.org.

For more information on Creative Capital, including past recipients and current work, please visit www.creative-capital.org.
“Creative Capital has been the single most nourishing and impactful foundation from which I have ever had the privilege of receiving support. The model of strategically giving support over time so the artist receives it at exactly the moments when she needs it most ensures that it will make a lasting difference. I am quite certain that the level of my career and my way of functioning in the world as an artist was bolstered immeasurably by this nurturing support.”

– Pamela Z, 2002 Performing Arts grantee

Stephan Koplowitz: Natural Acts/Artificial Water

sixto — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:32:58 +0000

Stephan Koplowitz
NATURAL ACTS/ARTIFICIAL WATER
May 19-20, 2012

Site and times to be confirmed

Internationally acclaimed choreographer/media artist Stephan Koplowitz returns to Houston after his 2000 site specific work that opened Rice University’s Humanities Building. DiverseWorks presents Koplowitz’s newest work that enlists an entirely Houston-based cast of dancers to explore the relation of public space, the body and water.

Anthony Barilla: Apocalypse Town

sixto — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:09:43 +0000

Anthony Barilla & the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Apocalypse Town

Thursday – Saturday, March 22-24, 2012
7:30 PM

Truth and Reconciliation Commission are Chris Bakos, Wayne Barnhill, Kevin Blessington, Jeff Miller, Cathy Power and Kirk Suddreath, with a special guest appearance by John Duboise.

DiverseWorks presents the world premiere of Anthony Barilla’s Apocalypse Town, a musicological memoir of a northern Kosovo, its music and Barilla’s experiences living there. The work is part monologue, part travelogue, and part concert. The performance features adaptations of Kosovo songs ranging in style from epic folk to hip hop to punk. At the same time, is also an examination of collective memory: the collective memories of that town, and our American collective memory—specifically our memories of a war and a place that most Americans have forgotten – a war that American fought only 13 years ago.

Barilla moved to Mitrovica, Kosovo five years ago, when his wife accepted a position monitoring and analyzing human rights issues for an international organization. Apocalypse Town is an account of his personal and musical experiences there.

About The Town: Bisected by the Ibar River into an Albanian south and Serbian north, the town of Mitrovica remains a flashpoint for Kosovo’s unresolved political and social tensions. These tensions have increased since Kosovo’s government declared independence three years ago. Hardliners on both sides of the river raised the stakes with protests, political maneuvers and physical confrontations. Most recently, concrete and gravel roadblocks have been erected around the Serbian half of the city. To date, Mitrovica remains in a state of suspended animation politically and economically while Kosovo has become a major thoroughfare for arms, drugs and human trafficking and a haven for corruption and organized crime of all sorts. It can also be a very pleasant place to live.

About The Songs: The story of Apocalypse Town was largely inspired by two bands: a rock band that disappeared with the conflict, and a punk band that arose after the war had ended. But, the songs are drawn from a wide variety of styles and ethnic sources and trace the particular history of music in Kosovo. The diverse selection includes the epic folk songs of Augustina Ukaj, the hip hop of DJ Blunt, popular songs of the 60′s and 70′s by artists like Nexhmije Pagarusha and Muharrem Qena, the 80′s rock of Viktorija and the modern punk of Hosenfefer. Most of the songs were adapted from translations by Abdullah Ferizi and, when possible, used by permission of the original authors, many of which remain largely unknown outside of Kosovo.

The songs of Apocalypse Town have a social meaning in Mitrovica and Kosovo beyond their potential artistic meaning. The predominate musical style preceding and following the dissolution of Yugoslavia has been turbo-folk, a blend of nationalist themes and techno styles that is at turns vapid, insidious, hyper-sexual, aspirational, jingoistic and always inescapable. In this context, other musical styles—and especially rock and pop—represent an alternate universe of what might have been for the people of that town and their artists.

Apocalypse Town does not just exist in the theater. The companion book contains extensive background information on the performance’s songs, as well as additional writing, photography, maps, secrets, lyrics, extra songs and other helpful and confounding materials related to the show. The book is edited and designed by Lindsay Kayser. Some illustrations were provided by Cathie Kayser and Tim Thomson.

The companion albums were recorded by Anthony Barilla and Chris Bakos, with performances by Barilla, Bakos, Power, Forster and Ruud Borgers

Much of Apocalypse Town was conceived during two residencies. The first took place in 2009 at the MacDowell Colony and the latter in 2010 as part of the Brown Foundation Fellows Program at the Dora Maar House in Ménerbes, France.

Anthony Barilla is a composer, musician and theater artist best known for his work with Infernal Bridegroom Productions, a Houston-based theater company widely respected for their challenging ensemble work. Between 1998 and 2007 he worked on 35 IBP productions, including the world premieres of works by Tamarie Cooper, Lisa D’Amour, Brian Jucha, Suzan-Lori Parks and Jason Nodler. In 2003 he was named IBP’s artistic director. During his tenure, Barilla was responsible for, among many other things, the development and musical direction of Speeding Motorcycle, a rock opera based on the songs of Daniel Johnston that went on to receive national attention and critical acclaim. He has composed scores for theater companies in Houston, Atlanta, Austin and Pittsburgh as well as for Public Radio International’s This American Life, and he writes and records his own songs under the name “The Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

In Kosovo he founded Blackbird Books, a non-profit library, bookstore and cafe. He has directed two theater projects in Kosovo with the support of the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans. He regularly works with some of the region’s best young musicians at the Mitrovica Rock School, an inter-ethnic initiative of Musicians Without Borders aimed at restoring the city’s proud rock music culture. He’s also been lucky enough to work with some of the regions best older musicians, many of whom he wrote about in Apocalypse Town, and he regularly tours and performs with a Serb/Bosnian/Dutch/Texan rock outfit called R.O.T.S.

Marina Zurkow: Necrocracy

sixto — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:33:35 +0000

Marina Zurkow
Necrocracy
March 17-April 23, 2012

Opening Reception:
Friday, March 16, 6 -8PM

Commissioned by DiverseWorks to be part of Fotofest 2012 Necrocracy is an immersive art exhibition exploring nature and petrochemical production that combines video animation, drawings and sculpture by Brooklyn-based artist Marina Zurkow. In the space, the public is invited to explore a labyrinth-like landscape, populated with an array of petroleum-based artworks and a series of new animated video works. A collateral materials lab and an online survey provide space for audiences to share their own ideas around issues of oil and landscape.

The three new video works, Hydrocarbons, The Thirsty Bird and Mesocosm (Wink, TX), visualize interactions between humans and nature that arise out of oil drilling in West Texas. Throughout the space, large banner-size drawings of oil-derived products will be interspersed with child-sized replicas of Dupont’s Tychem suits designed to mitigate ecological disasters.

In January 2011, DiverseWorks supported a two-week research trip for Zurkow to the Permian Basin. From Marfa to Midland, the artist met with geologists, naturalists, cattlemen, oilmen, and activists. She traversed the high southern plains of the Llano Estacado¾the ecosystem stretching from Lubbock to the Edwards Plateau – a landscape so subtle most people call it The Big Empty. During the trip she became hyper-aware of several things: “We-all of us who live on the USA grid-are soaking in petroleum and we wouldn’t know how to live, feed, shelter, clothe, or express ourselves without oil-based products.”

In the Permian Period 250 million years ago, the geological riches of the area were formed, as marine microorganisms accumulated in sediments on the floor of a vast saline sea. Over millions of years, the seas dried out, the landmass itself moved more than 2,000 miles into its present location and these creatures transmuted into hydrocarbons. In the past century, we have pumped over 100 billion barrels of oil and a hundred trillion cubic feet of gas from these Texas hydrocarbon reservoirs. The exhibit asks us to think about how we disturb, worship and are dominated by these long-dead beings: Necrocracy or the rule of the dead.

Mesocosm (Wink, TX)—the feature, large-scale video installation in Necrocracy—is part of an ongoing series of animated landscapes that develop and change over time in response to software-driven data inputs. The title is drawn from the field of environmental science and refers to experimental, simulated ecosystems, which allow for manipulation of the physical environment and are used for biological, community, and ecological research. They are drawn by hand, frame-by-frame, yet their choreographies are dynamic—not predetermined or canned.The exhibition also fills the DiverseWorks’ flickerlounge, in which Zurkow displays four algorithmic pieces from her NeoGeo series, a collaboration with Daniel Shiffman, which visually represent the work of an oil drill as it penetrates through an infinite series of geological layers, spraying oil as it advances ever deeper into the earth.

Marina Zurkow makes media works about humans and their relationships to animals, plants and the weather. These reconfigured and inclusive notions of our environment have taken the form of animated videos, customized multi-screen computer pieces, installations, prints, and participatory public art works. By turns humorous and mesmerizing, they question the relevance of Enlightenment ideals we still predominantly live by.Nature has long been a stage upon which we project ourselves, making ourselves other. The series “Crossing the Waters” focused on climate change: A contemplation on catastrophe, it pictured ways in which we imagine nature within us, and nature without us. The series “Friends and Enemies” (which includes the Mesocosm works and Heraldic Crests for Invasive Species) mines the intersection of bias, inclusion, and kinship in our relations with other species. This body of work includes special dinners and tastings, lectures, and printed materials.Since 2000, Zurkow has exhibited at The Sundance Film Festival, The Rotterdam Film Festival, The Seoul Media City Biennial, Ars Electronica, Creative Time, The Kitchen, The Walker Art Center, The National Museum for Women in the Arts, and Eyebeam, and other venues. She is a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow, and has been a NYFA Fellow, a Rockefeller New Media Fellow, and a Creative Capital grantee. Zurkow is on faculty at NYU’s Interactive Technology Program (ITP), and lives in Brooklyn, New York.For more information on Marina Zurkow, please visit http://o-matic.com/

DiverseWorks is a VAN Partner of the Visual Arts Network (VAN). This project is made possible in part through support from the Visual Artists Network Exhibition Residency, which is a program of the National Performance Network. Major contributors are the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. For more information: www.npnweb.org

Necrocracy received additional support from the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation.

Curated by former Co-Executive Director, Diane Barber and Artistic Director, Sixto Wagan.

Auditions for Dancers-Stephan Koplowitz Site specific project

sixto — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:05:55 +0000

Stephan Koplowitz returns to Houston after the grand site-specific dance that opened Rice University’s Humanities building in 2000. He will be working with DiverseWorks to create a site specific work in May of 2012.

Audition: Wed, Jan. 25, 6-10 pm

Barnevelder Movement Arts Complex, 2201 Preston St., Houston TX 77003

Performances: May 19 & 20
Rehearsal residencies: Thu-Mon, March 8-12 and Sat – Fri, May 12-18
Performers selected to participate will be compensated.

Who should come:

Adventurous dancers of all ages who are technically trained in contemporary movement, skilled in various improvisation practices, partnering and have experience in developing process based work for alternative spaces…

RSVP via email with a resume and send to: sixto@diverseworks.org

Please also bring a hard copy of your resume to the audition

About the work…

TaskForce provides the means to enter into a creative dialogue with a chosen area by creating site-specific performances for several sites within a community that actively engage a variety of artists and organisations derived from the community where the company performs. TaskForce aims to renew a people’s perspective on their environment and through performance enter into conversations about the creative process and public life.

About the Artistic Director…

Stephan Koplowitz is a director/choreographer/media artist known for his work on the concert stage and for creating original site-specific multi-media works for architecturally significant sites. Since 1984, he has created 56 works and has been awarded 40 commissions. He is the recipient of a 2004 Alpert Award in the Arts, a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography and a 2000 Bessie Award for Sustained Achievement in Choreography.

Koplowitz’ works include Genesis Canyon at the Natural History Museum (1996, Time Out Award for Best Dance Production) and Babel Index (1998, at the British Library) for Dance Umbrella and Fenestrations at New York’s Grand Central Station (1987/1999).

In 2004, he premiered his Grand Step Project: Flight, performed by 50 dancers, on six different grand staircases in NYC and seen by 16,000 people. Revealed (2007) was a site-adaptive installation/performance involving room size camera obscuras, installed at MASS MoCA and the Mead Museum, Amherst and seen by over 5,000 people in addition to generating a portfolio of museum quality photographs. His recent work includes participating in Breaking Ground (2008), A Choreographic Charette produced by Dancing in the Streets and a commission for the new Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston (2007).

GALLERY GUIDE – unBlocked: performance based video

shawna — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:57:53 +0000

flickerlounge-unBlocked: performance based video
Co-presentation with Aurora Picture Show
January 19–February 25, 2012

Blurring the distinction between performance, video art and body art, these young artists from the University of Houston’s Photo/Digital Media program’s graduating class work with ideas about media, personal narrative and social commentary. Using their bodies as tools for expression, short videos include a father’s excessive travel souvenirs that take on a life of their own, a poetic line of sand, illegal immigrant stories, tearful false eyelashes and many others.

A Ritual Cleansing, 3:00, Brittney Connelly
A performance screened as a three channel video piece; this sectional documentation represents a simulated birthing of household objects and constructs a ritual used for self-purification.

Oscillate, 4:30, Brittney Imwald-Mahar
A performance based video demonstrating an act of desperation through the use of an ordinary object and common activity. The bizarre devotion to obtain the
balloons without releasing them resembles an act of vulnerability and an overwhelming loss of control.

Artificial Artifact, 4:50, Melissa Tran
Artificial means are used to aid in a cleansing procedure.

Traveling Fatherhood, 2:00, Vanessa Godden
Traveling Fatherhood parodies the resurrection of international souvenirs given to the artist by her estranged father. Through the use of stop motion animation and photographic pastiche, she has salvaged documentation of the father-daughter relationship coveted for her lifetime.

Keep It Together, 5:15, Thais Verissimo
A line of red slowly diminishes while a hand futilely attempts to keep it whole.

To Dream, 6:00, Claudia Melgar
Along with millions of high school and college students, the struggle of being undocumented and unable to pursue a career grows for these three students. Karla, Sofia, and Luis tell about how they were brought into the U.S. at a young age and desire to live freely in the only country they know.

Fear, 1:40, Danielle Fessler
This piece explores the transition into fear, specifically fear of the unknown.

Desacralization, 3:00, Osman Galindo
The modern television set is the American shrine; Desacralization is the rejection and desecration of that shrine.

Maude, 2:20, Gisela Parker
“Maude decided it was time to stop hanging out with me, all because I’ve been ignoring her lately. Jerk.”

Mr. Sprinkles, 4:45, Mike Burgos
The artist does not like cats and made this video to make fun of cat lovers. He portrays Mr. Sprinkles, a cat who does not care about its owner.

flickerlounge is a season-long cinematic experience featuring an eclectic lineup of rotating full-length films, shorts and video presentations to accompany visual arts exhibitions in the Main Gallery. Lounge. Watch. Learn.

DiverseWorks is a non-profit art center dedicated to presenting new visual, performing, and literary art. DiverseWorks is a place where the process of creating art is valued and where artists can test new ideas in the public arena. By encouraging the investigation of current artistic, cultural and social issues, DiverseWorks builds, educates, and sustains audiences for contemporary art. For more information, go to diverseworks.org

Aurora Picture Show is a non-profit micro-cinema that presents artist-made, non-commercial film and video. We are dedicated to expanding the cinematic experience and promoting the understanding and appreciation of moving image art. For more info, go to aurorapictureshow.org.

Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6pm
Admission is free and open to all

(Above Image: Artificial Artifact by Melissa Tran)

DiverseWorks is generously supported by:

Underwriters
Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.; Anonymous; Brown Foundation, Inc.; Brad & Leslie Bucher; The City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts; Doris Duke Charitable Fund; Houston Endowment; Joan Mitchell Foundation; KUHF (88.7FM) / KUHA (91.7FM)*; LINC (Leveraging Investments in Creativity); Louisa Stude Sarofim Foundation; MAP Fund/Creative Capital; National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency); National Performance Network; New England Foundation for the Arts; Texas Commission on the Arts; University of Houston; Birgitt Van Wijk; The Wortham Foundation, Inc.

Patrons
Foundation for Contemporary Art; Fritz Lanham & Kellye Sanford; Nightingale Code Foundation; Regulatory Economics Group, LLC; Visual Artists Network;
Fabéne Welch

Major Donors
Bernie & Mary Arocha; Rosalie Buggs; Felix Sanchez Photography*; Patrick & Tracey Keegan; Que Imaging*; Shannon & Leslie Sasser; Saint Arnold Brewing Company*; Bob & Lillian H. Warren

DiverseDonors
A Fare Extraordinaire*; American Express Charitable Fund; Diane Barber & Karen Niemeier; Adam Brackman; David Brown*; Boheme Cafe & Wine Bar; Shannon Buggs; CenterPoint/June Deadrick; Jereann Chaney; Cozen O’Connor; Jason Fuller; Greentree Foundation; Guitar Center*; Houston Chronicle*; Houston Independent School District; Allison Hunter*; Italy-America Chamber of Commerce of Texas – Houston*; JBD Foundation; Mark Johnson; J.B. Kobayashi*; Marshal & Victoria Lightman; Lester Marks & Penelope Gonzalez; Tierney Malone*; Paul Mandell; Sari Miettinen; Lan Norwood & Bryan Vezey; Judy & Scott Nyquist; Poison Girl; Pura Vida Tequila*; Real Ale Brewing Co.*; Howard Sherman*; Kaneem Smith*; Christina Solís; Target Corporation; Chuy Terrazas; Emily Todd; Mark Dean Veca*; Wade Wilson Art*; Sixto Wagan & Matthew Dirst; Sarah Walters; Frank White*; Whole Foods*; Josh & Tina Zulu*

*in-kind donation

Board of Directors
William Betts, Adam Brackman, Loli Fernández-A Kolber, Jason Fuller, Rob Greenstein, Stephen Hill, Patrick Keegan, Marshal Lightman, Kellye Sanford, Christina Solís, Sarah Walters

Artist Board
Soodabeh Babcock, Elizabeth Barrera, Elaine Bradford, Lucinda Cobley, Sasha Dela, Casey Fleming, Mark Francis, Ryan Geiger, Hank Hancock, Laura Harrison, Thomas Helton, J Hill, Maria Cristina Jadick, Mick Johnson, Laura Lark, Libbie Masterson, Greg Oaks, Louie Saletan, Soody Sharifi, Katherine Veneman

GALLERY GUIDE – zoe | juniper: A Crack in Everything

shawna — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:55 +0000

Image: Courtesy of zoe | juniper

zoe | juniper
A Crack in Everything: Installed (2012)
a DiverseWorks Commissioned project

January 19–February 25, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 19, 6–9pm

zoe | juniper performances:
Thursday–Saturday, January 19–21, 7:30pm

Additional performances:
Saturday, January 28, February 4, 11, 18, 25 at 1pm Featuring: Kristen Frankiewicz, Catalina Molnari, Kara Newton, Tina Shariffskul, Kelly Todd

Artistic Directors:
Zoe Scofield & Juniper Shuey

Choreography:
Zoe Scofield

Production Design:
Juniper Shuey

Lighting:
Robert Aguilar

Costumes:
Erik Andor

Sound:
Matt Starritt

Composer:
Greg Haines

Additional Music:
Johann Johannson, Franz Schubert
and Morgan Henderson

zoe | juniper Dancers:
Christiana Axelsen, Raja Kelly

Houston Dancers:
Kristen Frankiewicz*, Catalina Molnari, Kara Newton*, Tina Shariffskul, and Kelly Todd
(*also performing weekend of January 19-21)

Rehearsal Director:
Raja Kelly

Production Team:
Jon Read, Ryan Perry, Blake Smith and Rowdy Tidwell

Flash photography prohibited. Any commerical or artistic use of images must receive consent from the artists.

Recreational photographs posted to facebook, flickr, or any form of social media should be tagged #diverseworks #zoe|juniper.

About A Crack in Everything: Installed (2012)
An experiment in permeability and containment, aggression and catharsis, A Crack in Everything seeks to expand and examine the liminal space between action-reaction, cause-effect, and before-after. The installation and performance are meditations on moments that divide people’s lives into linear experiences of time and how memory creates its own separate physical life, space and time. A Crack in Everything premiered in July 2011 at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, and will be on tour through 2013. DiverseWorks commissioned zoe | juniper to expand upon their original performance and create a site-specific installation.

From the Artists:
Our company is driven by the idea of mythologizing the experience of our senses; creating performances and visual art that challenge the viewer’s perception of time and perspective as well as allowing our work’s intention to be spacious enough for empathetic experiences to emerge. Our work realizes and exists in the state of liminality–the sense of being “in-between.” By working across different disciplines, we filter our sensual experiences into the mediums that best embody facets of myth that underlie our concepts. A Crack in Everything (ACIE) is a meditation on the moments that divide people’s lives into before and after. This project spans dance performance, photography, and sculptural video installation. Within these intersecting elements, we create experiences that maintain the idea of liminality; the thresholds of conscious/unconscious, action/reaction, before/after and cause/effect. While this idea of mythologizing serves as the trajectory of our work, our concerns are with relaying non-linear “story-ness,” originating and distilling significance from rigorous physicality, calibrating the dialogue between the mediums in which we work, and literally creating tangible artifacts from the performance within the installation and calcified memories within the photography.

The collaboration between Juniper and Zoe is defined by tandem visual and choreographic designs that seamlessly integrate aesthetics and form. The purpose of our collaboration is to immerse the audience in the conjunction of the physical and fantastical realms.

Image: Courtesy of City Arts

BIOGRAPHIES

ZOE | JUNIPER was co-founded by choreographer Zoe Scofield and visual artist Juniper Shuey for the creation of dance, video installations and photography works. Their collaboration began in 2004 with I am nothing without you for On the Boards’ NW New Works Festival, and eventually led to the formation of their company in 2006. Since then their work has been presented/commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, On the Boards, Bumbershoot, SCUBA 2007, Bates Dance Festival, PICA’s TBA Festival, DiverseWorks ArtSpace, Spoleto Festival, Wesleyan University, Spectrum Dance Theater, American Realness Festival, Dance Theater Workshop/NYLA, World Music/CRASHArts, Frye Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center, Trafo House of Contemporary Art, Body Festival, Southern Lights Dance and The Myrna Loy Center. Zoe, Juniper and composer/musician Morgan Henderson were the co-creators of the Secret of Gold Festival in 2006, an annual multi-disciplinary arts festival in Arlington, WA. The company has received funding from the Artist Trust, New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Project, National Performance Network, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Dance Theater Workshop, MacDowell Colony, MAD AIR, and the Mellon Foundation.

ZOE SCOFIELD studied ballet and modern dance at Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts in Boston. She has danced with Prometheus Dance and Bill James among other choreographers in Toronto, Boston and Seattle. Scofield has received the Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award from Wesleyan University, Artist Trusts GAP Grant and Artist Fellowship Award, Seattle Magazine’s Spotlight Award, The Strangers Genius Award short list, Alpert Award Residency and the Princess Grace Foundation Choreography Award. As collaborators, Scofield and Shuey have shown their work at Howard House, SOFA Gallery, Soil Gallery, TBA Festival and the Tacoma Art Museum.

JUNIPER SHUEY is a photographer, video installation and sculptural performance artist based in Seattle. His work has been featured in exhibitions at SOFA Gallery, Body Festival, Howard House, Tacoma Art Museum, Fashion is Art curated by Thread, Noodleworks, Bumbershoot, Bellevue Art Museum, and La Mostra in Palazzo Pio, Rome. He has received several awards including the Curators’ Choice Award from the Tacoma Art Museum’s Northwest Biennial 2004, the People’s Choice Award from the Bellevue Art Museum’s Northwest Annual 2001, and the 2000 Lambda Rho Art Honorary from the University of Washington School of Art. Shuey was commissioned by composer Huang Ruo to create a video installation for his chamber quartet’s upcoming tour.

ERIC ANDOR is a costume designer currently based in Seattle. He has created costumes for theatre, opera, cabaret, ballet, dance, circus, film and television in Seattle, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, and Paris.

ROBERT AGUILAR is the managing director and resident lighting designer of Contemporary Classics and is a former Co-Artistic Director of Washington Ensemble Theatre. Aguilar is on staff as a lighting assistant for the Seattle Repertory Theatre. His projects include: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Seattle Children’s Theatre and Speech and Debate, Seattle Repertory Theatre.

CHRISTIANA AXELSEN is a NYC-based artist with a degree in dance and geology from Mount Holyoke College. She has been dancing with zoe | juniper since 2006 and has had the pleasure of working with dance makers including Dai Jian, Mana Kawamura, Korhan Basaran, Jules Skloot, and Allison Van Dyke. She received the Chris Komar Merit Scholarship to study at the Merce Cunningham Studio where she performed alongside the Repertory Understudy Company in reconstructions of seminal Cunningham works.

KRISTEN FRANKIEWICZ, a native of Houston, earned her BFA in Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. Frankiewicz has performed and choreographed throughout the United States. Frankiewicz freelances on projects with different artists and companies in between her company work with Suchu Dance and Frame Dance Productions. A competitive rhythmic gymnast growing up, Frankiewicz also coaches The Houston Illusions, the only rhythmic gymnastics program in Houston for both youth and beginning adults.

RAJA KELLY, a DancerWEB Scholar, performer and image-maker, lives between NYC and Seattle as a company member with David Dorfman Dance, zoe | juniper, RaceDance, Christopher Williams Dance and with Malcolm Jason Low/ Formal Structure. He has performed with Kyle Abraham/Abraham.in.motion in THE RADIO SHOW, which received a New York Dance & Performance Award. Kelly is a co-producer of a summer dance series in Bushwick, Brooklyn: RoofTop Dance and is company manager for Race Dance and zoe | juniper. Kelly holds a BA in Dance and English from Connecticut College.

CATALINA MOLNARI is a native of Bogota, Colombia. She holds a BA in Theater and Dance from the University of Houston. She has also trained at the Instituto Superior de Arte in La Habana, Cuba, and at various national and international festivals. Her choreography has been seen at ACDFA, Big Range Dance Festival, San Jacinto College, DiverseWorks’12 MinutesMax!, HopeWerks, and Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance at Miller Outdoor Theater. Molnari has performed for various artists in Bogota, La Habana, Ireland, France, and Houston, and she currently works at GYROTONIC® Houston, teaches at Hope Center, and performs with Vault, Karen Stokes Dance, and Hope Stone Dance.

KARA NEWTON is a contemporary dancer from the Houston area. She is a recent graduate of the University of Texas, where she received a BFA in dance. Kara has had the opportunity to travel and work with a diverse group of choreographers including Alvaro Restrepo in Cartengena, Colombia; the Salzburg International Ballet Academy in Austria; and Charlotte Boye-Christensen from Ririe-Woodbury. Newton enjoys exploring movement in the modern, post-modern, and contemporary styles and is always looking for her next adventure in dance.

TINA SHARIFFSKUL has been performing with the contemporary dance company Suchu Dance / Jennifer Wood since 1993. She has also had the opportunity to work with a number of artists including Natasha Manley, Dana Wessale, Daniel Adame, Toni Leago Valle of 6’ , and Rebecca French and Robert Thoth of Freneticore. Other movement styles include hip hop, Thai folk dancing and muay thai. In 2007, Tina was a Buffy Award finalist.

MATT STARRITT is a freelance sound designer and writer from Seattle. He designs sound for both theater and dance and was a founder of the Washington Ensemble Theatre, where he was also the resident sound designer for the company’s first four seasons. His most recent designs have been for the Seattle Reparatory Theatre where he designed the sound for The Seafarer, boom and The Imaginary Invalid.

KELLY TODD received a BFA in Modern Dance with a double minor in Environmental Science and Biology from Texas Christian University. She attended the American Dance Festival on a talent scholarship in the summer of 2010. Todd has been featured in modern dance works by Doris Humphrey, Robert Battle, Susan Douglas Roberts, Loretta Livingston and Kanji Segawa. Todd is looking forward to her future in the art of dance and is honored to be working with zoe | juniper.

Image: Courtesy of zoe | juniper

United States Artists Individual Donors for the ACIE Installation:
Orin, Allen Johnson, Geroge Bayuga, Lauren Morrow, Chance Reschke, Glenn Kawasaki, Richard Costello, Mean old Uncle Jack, R Stumberger, Mandy E Greer, Erin, Cassie, Dayna Hanson, Amanda V, Judy, Beth, Vic, Kyle Abraham, Rocky Flowers, Brett Love, JT, D&T, T issac, Dan Thornton, Lauren Hester, Daryle Conners, Matthew G. Echert, Machele and Matthew Curtis, Ann and Boo, Dorah, Kay Stone, J&C, Laura Poitras, Jocelyn, Tina Valdez, Fumi Murakami, Ken Williford, Anonymous 1, Catherine Hillenbrand, Anonymous 2, Andrew, Project Site Team, Derek & Doug, Johnson-Bogart, Gabriel Pederneiras, Kisabelle, John Mc Neary, Keely Isaak Meehan, Pamela Z, MKL, Wyly astley, Marisa J, GoGo Camel, Coralie Winn, Rainbow Fletcher, John Bylan, Tim Summers, Carol McNeary, Jenna Riegel, Bebe Miller, Chery-lyn Philo, Lou, Dawn Aiken, Skoz, Neal Anderson

*Matched funds by Artist 2 Artist

THANK YOU: Sixto Wagan and DiverseWorks, Erin Boberg Doughton and our friends at PICA and the TBA Festival, Lane Czaplinski and On The Boards, Carla Peterson, Janet Stapleton, and the z | j board.

A Crack in Everything is made possible by the Contemporary Art Centers (CAC) network,administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), with major support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. CAC is comprised of leading art centers and brings together performing arts curators to support collaboration and work across disciplines, and is an initiative of NEFA’s National Dance Project.

A Crack in Everything was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

DiverseWorks is a Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). This project is made possible in part by support from the NPN Performance Residency Program. Major contributors include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org.

A Crack in Everything is funded in part by the Princess Grace Foundation.

Sponsored by KUHA (91.7FM), KUHF (88.7FM), Modern B & B, Saint Arnold Brewing Company and Whole Foods.

DiverseWorks Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6pm
Free Admission and open to all.

DiverseWorks is generously supported by:

Patrons
Foundation for Contemporary Art; Fritz Lanham & Kellye Sanford; Nightingale Code Foundation; Regulatory Economics Group, LLC; Visual Artists Network; Fabéne Welch