review
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Visual Arts / review / Good Times Fahamu Pecou’s '15 Project' was a sweet pre-holiday gift
Posted by Shannon Barbour on Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 2:45 PM
On Friday, December 17, Fahamu Pecou returned to the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center to host the 15 Project — his talk show styled fest featuring local tastemakers in the arts and entertainment community. The purpose? To bring folks together who may not interact in their everyday lives and careers. The program’s name is a nod to Andy Warhol’s famous quote on 15 minutes of fame.
Musical Director, D.J. Kemit dropped the sounds and the event was co-hosted by Pecou’s fellow artist, Fabian “Occasional Superstar” Williams. Williams appeared in “Christmas attire:” a green beret, green velvet jacket, green bowtie, red shirt and plaid slacks. He warmed up the crowd while alternately sipping cognac and Prosecco prior to Pecou’s entrance.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
review The problem(s) with Luminocity Atlanta's Hinterland
Posted by Debbie Michaud on Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 6:51 PM
- Tara-Lynne Pixley
- Higher! We still can't see you!
The build-up to Luminocity Atlanta's Hinterland last month promised "a unique public spectacle and Atlanta’s only 360 degree Performance Art Light Experience." The sprawling cast of characters included gloATL dancers, acrobats, steampunks, BMX bikers, people on stilts — even Big Boi — all awash in a sea of light. The event even came with a trailer that teased Hinterland with the pounding intensity of a new Michael Bay flick.
Lauri Stallings and Big Boi reuniting after their kick-ass collabo on 2008's big? Big Boi performing tracks off his new album? gloATL's most sprawling work to date to open its second season? All for free?
We got excited. We showed up in droves — Luminocity estimates that 15,000-20,000 people were at Woodruff Park Nov. 27. They had our attention. We were ready to re-experience downtown. So, how was it? Well, I'd tell you if I could've seen anything. Or heard anything for that matter.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Visual Arts / review Fabian Williams canvasses a ‘Composition of Chaos’
Posted by Shannon Barbour on Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 5:57 PM
- Jasiatic Anderson
- Williams as Exacto
The show itself didn’t start until around 10. This time, the center “ring” was bathed in red light as Williams’ masked character, Exacto, entered the scene. He warmed up the crowd with jokes containing a brief on the narrative: His return to art from a miserable career at “Scamway Global” and the bizarre medical condition, malignant cooties, that ultimately sent him over the edge, pushing him to “capture” artists and force them to battle. Two by two, the artists marched out with a catsuit clad “ring woman,” Sherreice De’Von. Williams’ brother Adrian appeared as a caped-and-masked referee named, Riunite, while hip-hop artist, Sean Falyon served as announcer.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
review / Look Mom! Cirque du Soleil's OVO or: How I learned to stop worrying and love roaches
Posted by Debbie Michaud on Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 8:15 AM
But then I'd have to kill them. I mean, they're (gag) cockroaches.
On the opening night of Cirque du Soleil's OVO, however, when a group of cockroaches set up under the yellow and blue big top to perform astounding feats of acrobatics, I refrained from grabbing the nearest flat, heavy object. In fact, I found myself silently cheering for the nasty things as they tempted death (or at least a bounce into the safety net) by flinging themselves from trapezes to the shoulders and palms of their partners about 100 or so feet above the stage.
OVO offers a glimpse into a world of busy-body little insects — these insects just happen to be master jugglers that can, say, touch their toes to the backs of their heads. One day a fly arrives, looking like he walked straight off the set of a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film. With big googly goggles for eyes and floppy flippers on his feet, he looks half mosquito, half deep sea diver. Strapped to his back with a tangle of rope is a giant egg. "Ovo!" he blurts to the suspicious group. The leader of the pack is a kind of neon beetle, who, uncertain of this stranger and his baggage, manages to snatch the egg away.
That's about where the narrative ends, and thank goodness. Sure there's a metaphor there for coming to terms with and (SPOILER ALERT) accepting The Other, but folks don't generally come to Cirque du Soleil for metaphorical slights of hand; they come for the in-your-face daredevil acrobatics.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Visual Arts / Books / review Oraien Catledge Photographs looks beyond Cabbagetown
Posted by Chad Radford on Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 12:01 PM
Therein lies a metaphor. In 2010 Cabbagetown ain’t what it used to be. It’s still a neighborhood that’s teeming with character but over time the generations of imported, Appalachian workers that staffed the looming cotton mill have vanished. With them went the drug-addled streets, the deep sense of land pride and the overwhelming poverty that consumed the neighborhood when the mill shuttered its doors forever; or at least until it could be turned into condos.
Decades later, the gruff, old Cabbagetown is romanticized in Atlanta’s collective subconscious as an intangible cultural treasure. Catledge’s photos are a concrete link to that past, but this book doesn’t attempt to present the work as an exotic documentary. Richard Ford’s introduction and Constance Lewis’ Q&A with Catledge bookend a cross-section of photos scanning Catledge’s body of work, while illuminating a bit about the man behind the camera, rather than staying fixed on the smudged faces of his subjects.
His childhood spent in Mississippi, his background working with impoverished people for the American Foundation for the Blind, as well as his own fading eyesight all contribute to Catledge’s character and his work. All of these elements are underscored by his close attention to his subjects’ faces, which mirror the rich details of the crumbling landscape. And being such an insular community, Catledge had to gain these people’s trust, which you can see in every one of his photos — be it a pair of hooligans on the street, a tired young mother smoking a cigarette on her porch, or the myriad children running wild on the street. They were all part of the landscape that accepted Catledge and his camera into the community.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Dance / review Get up, stand up: gloATL's Roem
Posted by Debbie Michaud on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 6:21 PM
- Tara-Lynne Pixley
- Toni Doctor Jenkins performing "Prologue: Turf"
The show began on the lawn in front of the museum and did so with hardly any notice. For "Prologue: Turf," the statuesque and affecting Toni Doctor Jenkins sprang about solo in the grass. People on the hill above craned their necks searching for the action; some of the crowd slowly began to trickle down for a better view. A break followed Jenkins' slow exit in reverse up the concrete ramp and folks got a little shifty. Should I move back to my spot? Should I stay here? Should I move further in? many of their faces seemed to say.
But as dancers drifted in from around corners, behind trees, and (fearlessly!) across intersections onto the lawn and then launched into the pounding, tribal pulsing of "Blades of Grass," there was no longer any question about where to be.
Visual Arts / review An open letter to Harrison Keys
Posted by Jessica Blankenship on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 12:17 PM
Harrison Keys...shit, man. Why you gotta play with my heart like this? I went to the opening for your show Pressure Luck at Get This! Gallery last Saturday, all atwitter with anticipation—I’ve much enjoyed most of what I’ve seen you do in the past, and I was hungry for more. This was going to be a juicy feast of tasty art goodness, I just knew it. I even skipped dinner. And then you go and leave me feeling empty.
- so have more interesting things.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Visual Arts / review / State of the Arts Three-for-one, art-for-all: Reviews of new shows at Young Blood, Kibbee and Beep Beep Galleries
Posted by Jessica Blankenship on Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 11:15 AM
- Allen Taylor
Then add to the mix relative newcomer Kibbee Gallery (positioned fortuitously half-way between Beep Beep and Young Blood, behind Fellini’s on Linwood.) They opened last year with a like-minded mission, backed the creative force of adept local arts conductor Ben Goldman, who is almost the curator of the current MINT Gallery show, America. Their induction into Atlanta’s subterranean arts fold was natural and immediate. Not surprising, since these galleries mark a community of businesses that promote artistic (and hopefully fiscal) success through cooperation and support, rather than exclusion and competition.
Each gallery has a pretty money spot around one of Atlanta’s busiest thoroughfares, plus the tireless creative and business energy of their proprietors (whose encompassing knowledge of Atlanta artists results in some truly inspired, gallery-initiated artist collaborations.) The culminating atmosphere among these spaces is something special.
- Hey look! It's the street we're talking about!
If you weren’t there last Saturday, never fear - the shows are ongoing and I’ve done the hard work for you. Check out these mini-reviews of the fresh offerings at Young Blood, Kibbee and Beep Beep Galleries:
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Books / review Which is the best Girl in Stieg Larsson's trilogy?
Posted by Curt Holman on Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 7:59 PM
In the past few weeks, I’ve had girls back-to-back-back. By “had,” of course, I mean “read” and by “girls,” I mean the three thrillers in Steig Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy:” The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and the newly-published finale, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. The Swedish page-turners have become international bestsellers — posthumously, since Larsson died of a heart attack shortly after submitting the three manuscripts to his publisher. All three books share protagonists and Larsson's penchant for convoluted plots and editorializing against his pet peeves. Larsson attacks misogyny in all three books, but he's no P.C. prude, and his uninhibited heroes have so much sex, it's amazing any time or energy left over for the sleuthing. All three books have been adapted into Swedish films, and a Hollywood take on the first is in the works. But if you could only read one, which should it be?
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