Franklin Furnace’s Goings On
February 7, 2006
CONTENTS:
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1. Lynn Cazabon, FF Future of the Present recipient 2004, launches website
2. Jerry Kearns at Michael Steinberg Fine Art, opening Feb. 9
3. Barbara Hammer, FF Alumn, at MoMA, Feb. 24, and more
4. Tom Trusky, FF Alumn, new dvd series on Nell Shipman
5. Deborah Garwood, FF Alumn, in Gay City News
6. Helène Aylon, FF Alumn, in The New York Times, and more.
7. Nina Sobell, FF Alumn, at Location One, Feb. 8
8. Ellen Lanyon, Robin Tewes, Anton Van Dalen, FF Alumns, at Adam Baumgold Gallery, thru Mar. 11
9. Leon Golub, FF Alumn, at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, reception Feb. 11
10. Diane Torr, FF Alumn, in Madrid, Spain, Feb. 10-14
11. R. Sikoryak, Doug Skinner, FF Alumns, at Dixon Place, Feb. 9, 8 pm
12. Stanya Kahn, FF Alumn, in ArtForum magazine, February 2006
13. Karen Finley, FF Alumn, at Univ. of Hull, England, Feb. 18, 7 pm
14. Larry Walczak, FF Alumn, at Monkeytown, Williamsburg, Feb. 13, 8 pm
15. Feral Childe, FF Alumn, at Makor, NY, Feb. 14, 7 pm
16. Isabel Samaras, FF Alumn, at Copro Nason Gallery, LA, thru Mar. 4
17. Jeff McMahon, FF ALumn, at Arizona State University, Feb. 16-19
18. Dominic McGill, Annie Sprinkle, FF Alumns, at Feigen Contemporary, NY, Feb.10-Apr. 18
19. Daniel Kit Kwong, FF Alumn, at NYU, Feb. 28, and in the L.A. Times
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1. Lynn Cazabon, FF Future of the Present recipient 2004, launches website
I have launched my web site that was funded by the Future of the Present grant. It can be found here: http://marseillebaltimore.net
Thanks,
Lynn Cazabon
zabon@earthlink.net
http://lynncazabon.com
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2. Jerry Kearns at Michael Steinberg Fine Art, opening Feb. 9
FOREVER MORE, a major exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by JERRY KEARNS, will open at Michael Steinberg Fine Art on February 9th, 2006, and be on view until March 11th.
MICHAEL STEINBERG FINE ART
508 West 26th St. Suite 215
N.Y.N.Y. 10001
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11-6
For more information please call: 212.924.5770
Forever More, a major exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Jerry Kearns, will open at Michael Steinberg Fine Art on February 9th, 2006, and be on view until March 11th. This show, which is the artist’s first solo show in Chelsea, will present Kearns’ most recent explorations of the interaction between popular culture and personal consciousness. The overlapping of images derived from upscale, luxury advertisements and Kearns’ invented landscapes – simultaneously dreamlike and realistic – generate an ambiguous psychological ambiance in which desire and discomfort compete for dominance. The unsettling emotional impact of the works is deepened by a summery palette that borders on the saccharine.
Speaking about the works included in Forever More, Kearns makes reference to a “muscular metaphysics” that has roots in his own Southern Baptist heritage. The individual figures within each work display no consciousness of each other,and exist exclusively in relation to the viewer. The isolation of each individual is reinforced by the unresolved contradictions in the picture plane; almost realistically depicted people set in spaces that cannot exist. Jerry Kearns lives and works in New York City. Born in West Virginia, he received his M.F.A. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Since 1985, he has had an extensive exhibition history, both of solo and group exhibitions. His work is included in many distinguished public and museum collections, and there is a considerable bibliography of critical writings about him.
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3. Barbara Hammer, FF Alumn, at MoMA, Feb. 24, and more
Barbara Hammer, FF Alumn at The Berlin International Film Festival/The Museum of Modern Art, NYC
LOVER OTHER, The Story of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, 2006, 55 minute video premieres in Europe and the U.S.
In her latest work, prolific filmmaker, archivist and commentator Barbara Hammer examines an intriguing chapter in lesbian cultural history. Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore cut mythic figures in the art world: They were stepsisters and lovers who, as key participants in the Parisian Surrealist movement in 1920s and ’30s, collaborated on collages, photographs and installations exploring gender-bending and lesbian eroticism. The pair later settled on the Isle of Jersey, where they went on to perform heroic acts of resistance against the Nazi occupation during WWII.
In person: Barbara Hammer
PANORAMA DOKUMENTE
Internationale Filmfestspiele
Berlin 2006
11.02.06 CineStar 7 17:00
12.02.06 CineStar 7 14:30
13.02.06 CineStar 7 20:00
17.02.06 Colosseum 1 15:30
Lover Other
NYC Premiere
Fri., Feb. 24, 8:15 pm
The Museum of Modern Art
11 W. 53rd St.
Free: first-come, first-served.
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4. Tom Trusky, FF Alumn, new dvd series on Nell Shipman
Graphics and release online at: http://news.boisestate.edu
NEW DVD SERIES IMMORTALIZES SILENT FILMMAKER NELL SHIPMAN
As part of “Idaho Film Day,” scheduled for Feb. 14 in Idaho’s Capitol rotunda, the Idaho Film Collection at Boise State University will announce production of “The Nell Shipman Collection,” a series of DVDs related to the pioneer silent film writer, actress, director and producer.
First in the series of three DVDs is “A Girl from God’s Country.” This initial release features Shipman’s 1919 international hit “Back to God’s Country.” The film is color tinted to match the original, with a score by British composer and musician Lindsay Cooper that incorporates the film’s title song. “Back to God’s Country” is the earliest surviving feature film shot (partially) in Canada and has been restored from prints found in the United States and England.
DVD extras include “The History and Restoration of ‘Back to God’s Country'” by Canadian film archivist D. J. Turner of Ottawa. Also included on the DVD is the Canadian History Channel’s 45-minute award-winning documentary, “Ah Gee, Forgetting Me – Nell Shipman,” written and directed by Patricia Phillips of Great North Productions, Edmonton.
Paul Brand of Pretty Good Productions, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, authored the Idaho Film Collection DVD while Brand’s daughter, Krista, did the cover and label design.
The Nell Shipman Collection, Volume 1, “A Girl from God’s Country,” will be available in March from the Boise State University Bookstore and on Amazon.com ($19.95 plus shipping and handling). Volume 2, “The Short Films,” featuring Shipman’s Mohave Desert chase-and-race automobile epic, “Something New,” will be available in summer 2006. Volume 3, “From Lionhead Lodge,” featuring Shipman’s magnum opus, “The Grub-Stake,” and three other films also made at Priest Lake in north Idaho, will be available fall 2006.
Contact: Tom Trusky, Idaho Film Collection, (208) 426-1999, ttrusky@boisesetate.edu
Media Contact: Kathleen Craven, University Communications, (208) 426-3275, kcraven@boisestate.edu
Boise State University is the largest institution of higher education in Idaho with about 18,600 students and 2,200 faculty and staff. More than 190 undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and technical degrees are offered within eight colleges. A metropolitan university located in the capital city, Boise State is committed to life-enhancing research, teaching excellence and public service.
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5. Deborah Garwood, FF Alumn, in Gay City News
Greetings!
Live link below. Comments welcome.
The show is up through Feb. 11, 2006
Best Regards,
Deborah
Volume 5, Number 5 | February 2 – 8, 2006
GAY CITY NEWS: GALLERY
DEBORAH ROAN
“The Greenbacked Tip”
Von Lintel Gallery
“Of Chance and the Public Sphere”
http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_505/ofchanceandthepublic.html By Deborah Garwood
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6. Helène Aylon, FF Alumn, in The New York Times, and more.
www.harvestworks.org/creativec/index3.html
Mailing Address: 55 Bethune (808) NYC 10014 (212) 924-4133
Helène Aylon’s “Bridge of Knots,” and also “The Earth Ambulance ’82-’92-‘02” is at the:
Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art; Peekskill, NY 914-788-7166, hvcca.com – open Sat. & Sun. 11-5
Featured in the following New York Times article is part I of the Bridge of Knots, 1982, the lines of knotted pillowcases with the dreams and nightmares of women cross-country regarding nuclear war.
Bridge of Knots part II will be installed on the facade of the Katzen Arts Center Washington DC, in a show of artists included in Peter Selz’ new book, “Art of Engagement: Visual Politics from California and Beyond.”
Bridge of Knots part II at the:
Katzen Arts Center of American University, Washington DC, April 19-July 29, 2006 kac@american.edu or rasmusse@american.edu
Helène Aylon stated, “Although this article has me living in Brooklyn and a bit younger, it does inspire me to make more Earth Ambulances!”
Sunday, January 15, 2006
The New York Times
Magic Ambulance Seeks To End Warfare
By Benjamin Genocchio
There are meaningful and unusual artworks on permanent display throughout Westchester, hidden in plain sight in a variety of museums and alternative spaces. If the public often passes by unaware, most art mavens know the value of these works, and exactly where to find them. Here I want to linger a moment over one.
It is Helène Aylon’s “Earth Ambulance,” which is on long-term display at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill. It may have struck a viewer as grimly earnest before the latest Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but it now seems prescient and urgent. It is, you see, about saving the planet from warfare.
There are artists who seem to harbor a strain of cockeyed optimism. This has spawned, over the years, everything from Thomas More’s ‘‘Utopia’’ (1516) to John Lennon’s “Imagine” (1971). At its core is the perhaps naive hope for a better world, for collective peace and prosperity.
Ms. Aylon, 71, an artist living in Brooklyn, may be counted among their number. In May 1982 she created the “Earth Ambulance” for a road trip to American Strategic Air Command bases, to rescue earth, metaphorically, from the dread of nuclear war. She collected soil samples in pillowcases at each of these sites, later transporting the sacks in her retrofitted ambulance (a converted U-Haul van) to safety at the United Nations in New York City.
The idea behind the original “Earth Ambulance” was to make the creation and experience of art coextensive with real events happening in the wider world. It worked, too, for on June 12, 1982, the day of a mass disarmament rally at the United Nations, the earth-filled pillowcases from the original project were carried on army stretchers down the steps of Ralph Bunche Park, across the street from the United Nations complex. Crowds cheered.
The artist, over the last two decades, has carried out related projects in the Soviet Union, Japan and Israel as well as the United States. One of the more memorable occurred in 1992, when in celebration of the end of the cold war she installed a seed-filled ambulance at the Anchorage, an alternative space in New York City. Hanging about the walls were long knotted lines of the used pillowcases collected from previous projects.
In 2002 the “Earth Ambulance” was re-created as a long-term installation at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. Viewers are invited to sit inside the ambulance, which is outfitted as a kind of interior meditation space with photographs and video documentation of several previous “Earth Ambulance” projects, along with neat piles of clean white pillowcases, ready for future possibilities.
The interior doors and seats of the vehicle — this one a fully functioning ex-ambulance rehabbed as an artwork — are covered with handwritten text, recalling earlier projects. Naturally this is discomfiting, for the text is filled with evidence of official intransigence. But the artist tempers her political zeal with some candid reporting on the events of the times and the public reactions to her project.
Ms. Aylon may best be described as a kind of eco-feminist. Most of her works are about the environment, human rights and the power of women to unite and change the world. The 2002 “Earth Ambulance” was conceived after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, intended as a kind or pre-emptive protest against the war she knew would come.
Thinking about all this the other day on a visit to the center, after weeks of very troubling newspaper headlines, it struck me that it might be time for the “Earth Ambulance” to get back on the road. It would seem we really need it, what with mounting reports of government-sponsored torture and infringements of civil liberties.
Perhaps Ms. Aylon (or an acolyte) might make another road trip to collect soil samples near all of the prisons around the nation where political prisoners are being held. These days, perhaps, she could no longer take it to “safety” at the United Nations.
“Helène Aylon: The Earth Ambulance,” permanent installation, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, 1701 Main Street, Peekskill. Information: (914) 788-7166 or hvcca.com.
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7. Nina Sobell, FF Alumn, at Location One, Feb. 8
Location One 26 Greene Street (between Grand and Canal)
February 8, 2006 at 7:00 PM
*IMHO*, Heather Wagner
Open House Wednesdays: a monthly conversation with an artist who is using (or misusing) technology in an interesting way. This month: Nina Sobell.
All the best,
Nina Sobell
264 E. Broadway, C-701
New York, New York 10002
212.533.6169
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8. Ellen Lanyon, Robin Tewes, Anton Van Dalen, FF Alumns, at Adam Baumgold Gallery, thru Mar. 11
Ellen Lanyon, Robin Tewes Anton Van Dalen- “Fine Line” Group show at the Adam Baumgold Gallery,
74 East 79th street, NY
on view thru March 11 th, 2006
exhibition preview at: adambaumgoldgallery.com
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9. Leon Golub, FF Alumn, at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, reception Feb. 11
Ronald Feldman Fine Arts will exhibit paintings and drawings by Leon Golub, one of America’s leading postwar painters. Golub, who died in 2004, explored themes of power and vulnerability, experimenting with paint surfaces that matched the ferocity of his subject matter. The exhibition, the first since his death, features selected works from different periods that have contemporary relevance. Included are paintings from the Gigantomachy, Combat, and Napalm series of the ‘60s as well as some of his last and toughest works from this decade. The Feldman Gallery has also assembled many of the smaller paintings that Golub completed towards the end of his life, which have never been seen before in such a complete group. Alternately titled This Could Be You and We Can Disappear You, many of these paintings were included in his installation at Documenta 11 in 2002.
There is a complementary exhibition of Golub’s work at GRIFFIN in Santa Monica, California from January 28 to March 11.
An activist, author, and teacher, Leon Golub was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a 1996 recipient of the Hiroshima Art Prize (jointly with Nancy Spero). Museum collections include the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Malmö Konsthall, Sweden; and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany.
Two books about Golub’s work were published in 2004: Dog (onestar press, Paris) with layout and design by Golub; and Don’t Tread on Me: Drawings from 1947-2004 (Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Griffin Contemporary, and Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London). A second edition of Leon Golub: Echoes of the Real by Jon Bird (Reaktion Books, London) will be published in 2006.
There will be a reception February 11 from 6:00 to 8:00. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 to 6:00. Monday by appointment. For information contact Sarah Paulson (212) 226-3232 or sarah@feldmangallery.com.
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10. Diane Torr, FF Alumn, in Madrid, Spain, Feb. 10-14
Diane Torr, FF Alumn, at Festival Escena Contemporanea, Madrid
February 10-14
Performance at Lugar La Juguetería
11 February – 24 h
Drag King workshop – 10 February – 14h to 22h and 11 February – 12 to 15 h
More info: www.escenacontemporanea.com
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11. R. Sikoryak, Doug Skinner, FF Alumns, at Dixon Place, Feb. 9, 8 pm
Dixon Place presents
“CAROUSEL”
Cartoon slide shows & other projected pictures, presented by a glittering array of artists, performers, graphic novelists, & other characters. Curated & hosted by R. Sikoryak
In this episode:
Brian Dewan
M. Sweeney Lawless and Jim Torok
Flash Rosenberg
Doug Skinner
and RS
(and more!)
Thursday, February 9
Show at 8 pm (door opens at 7:30 pm)
Dixon Place, 258 Bowery, 2nd Fl, between Houston & Prince, NYC
Tickets $12 or TDF, $10 Students and Seniors
More info (212) 219-0736
This event is part of the Dixon Place Under Construction Series.
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12. Stanya Kahn, FF Alumn, in ArtForum magazine, February 2006
The work of FF Alumn Stanya Kahn and Harry Dodge is reviewed in the February 2006 issue of ArtForum magazine.
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13. Karen Finley, FF Alumn, at Univ. of Hull, England, Feb. 18, 7 pm
KAREN FINLEY
The Dreams of Laura Bush & The Passion of Terri Schiavo
THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA AND MUSIC and HULL ART LAB presents two performances by the internationally renowned New York artist Karen Finley. She has long provoked controversy and debate. She fights for freedom of expression, harnessing the power of live performance to critique social conventions and beliefs.
The Dreams of Laura Bush is a reconstructed dream journal of America’s First Lady with a cast of celebrities and politicians including Tony Blair and Goldie Hawn.
The Passion of Terri Schiavo is based on the recent news story of Terri Shiavo who became brain dead but was kept alive by a feeding tube against her husband’s wishes. In her performance an ink drawing becomes a projection of an American Culture obsessed with saving Terri.
Saturday 18th February Doors open 6.30 Performance 7.00pm
Ferens Art Gallery, Queen Victoria Square, Hull – UK
Tickets £5 (£3 Concessions)
For further information please contact Helen Iball ( h.iball@hhull.ac.uk)
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14. Larry Walczak, FF Alumn, at Monkeytown, Williamsburg, Feb. 13, 8 pm
eyewash PRESENTS
Potential Partners
A film by Mandy Morrison
February 13, 2006
Screening at 8PM
Monkeytown
58 N E 3rd Street, Williamsberg, NY
suggested $10 Donation
Subways: L train Bedford Stop
Potential Partners is documentary exploring the hearts and minds of single men and women of varying ages, experiences and attitudes on the subject of sex, intimacy and relationships. Stories of inner turmoil and doubt contrast with insights and occasional wisdom. The film draws on relationship experts including Dr. Martin Bergmann, the renowned psychoanalyst who appeared in Woody Allen’s ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’ commenting on our evolving approaches to dating and the influence of fantasy in this pursuit. Whether in a relationship or not, please join us in a provocative exploration of the emotions and forces that shape the most personal, yet universal of endeavors: the quest for a partner.
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Mandy Morrison/mandymachine is a performance and video artist who has been creating interdisciplinary work for the past 12 years, exhibiting in the US and Europe. Her work was selected for the 2000 Whitney Biennial, which featured her video, ‘Desperado.’ She is also a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in media, an Artist-in-Residence Fellowship from the University of Wisconsin and a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Potential Partners is her first documentary film.
All proceeds to go toward post-production expenses.
Potential Partners is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization serving independent artists and their projects. Contributions made to Fractured Atlas and earmarked for Potential Partners are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information contact Fractured Atlas 1123 Broadway, Suite 1109 New York, NY 10010. Tel: (917) 606 0857, Fax: (212) 277 8025 www.fracturedatlas.org.
eyewash is a migratory gallery founded in 1997 & based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. eyewash curates & then collaborates with other galleries and spaces to present exhibitions, performances & installations throughout New York City for emerging & mid-career artists.
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15. Feral Childe, FF Alumn, at Makor, NY, Feb. 14, 7 pm
REAL ART TODAY presents “Significant Other: Collaboration and Collusion” a panel discussion featuring Feral Childe, Lisa Levy, Marni Kotak, andTom Schreiber, moderated by David Gibson, Makor Steinhardt Center, 35 West 67th Street, on Tuesday, February 14, 7:00 PM
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16. Isabel Samaras, FF Alumn, at Copro Nason Gallery, LA, thru Mar. 4
Copro Nason Gallery is proud to announce the opening of
“Nostradamus: Three Waves to the Apocalypse”
Copro Nason Gallery, now through March 4, 2006
(in their new location at Bergamont Station)
2525 Michigan Avenue T5
Santa Monica CA 90404
310-829-2156
www.copronason.com
Artists Anthony Ausgang, Charles Manson, David Lynch, Isabel Samaras, John John Jesse, Kevin Peterson, Ron English, Sas Christian, Shag, Shepard Fairey & many more, honoring the most widely read seer of the Renaissance, Nostradamus. Michel de Nostredame, more commonly known as Nostradamus, has intrigued the world for five centuries, considered by many to be the greatest prophet who has ever lived. While most prophets recorded vague visions of future events, Nostradamus pinpointed his predictions using specific dates, astrological configurations, climatic events and anagrams naming the villains hundreds of years before they appeared.
His prophetic writings were known as Centuries which contained one hundred prophetic verses of four lines each known as quatrains mostly dealing with disasters of various sorts and predictions of an Apocalypse in the beginning of the next millennium. It is believed he conjured his visions by staring into a mirror until it became cloudy and visions of the future appeared.
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17. Jeff McMahon, FF ALumn, at Arizona State University, Feb. 16-19
Dear Friends:
I have choreographed/directed a new solo, IF MAPS WERE NOVELS… to be performed by undergraduate ASU Dance Performance major Steven Reker, as part of the EMERGING ARTISTS II ’06 concert presented by the ASU Dance Department.
Steven was featured in my 2003 multimedia play, A CERTAIN RELEASE, as a “virtual actor,” and is an immensely talented actor, dancer, singer/songwriter, and choreographer in his own right. Steven is an exceptionally promising young talent, and I hope you can come see the work we have done together. The piece features movement, texts, and songs we created collaboratively since we began working last Fall.
EMERGING ARTISTS II ’06
Dance Studio Theatre
Physical Education Building East #132, Arizona State University Main Campus
Tempe, Arizona
Thursday, February 16th 7:30pm
Friday, February 17th 7:30 pm
Saturday, February 18th 7:30pm
Sunday, February 19th 2:00pm
There will also be Dress Rehearsal Wednesday, February 15th at 4pm
Our piece is 12 minutes long, and is the second piece on the program, which will allow you to leave early if you cannot stay for the entire concert.
For more information http://herberger.asu.edu/calendar/eventOne.php?ID=46&
Ticket Information: https://secureherberger.hc.asu.edu/ticketing/info/boxoffice.html
or 480-965-6447
Jeff McMahon
School of Theatre and Film
Arizona State University
POB 872002, Tempe, AZ 85287-2002
(480) 965-9444
jeffmcm@earthlink.net
www.jeffmcmahonprojects.net
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18. Dominic McGill, Annie Sprinkle, FF Alumns, at Feigen Contemporary, NY, Feb.10-Apr. 18
Blessed are the Merciful
Feigen Contemporary
535 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011
Tel 212.929.0500 Fax 212.929.0065
Gallery@FeigenContemporary.com
Exhibition Hours Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Office Hours Monday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Located between 10th and 11th Avenues. Parking available across the street.
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19. Daniel Kit Kwong, FF Alumn, at NYU, Feb. 28, and in the L.A. Times
Just a note to let you know that my colleague Peng Jingquan and I will present a short excerpt of our new collaborative performance, “Sleeping With Strangers” at NYU on Tuesday, February 28.
7:00PM
Burrows Theater
Tisch School of the Arts
NYU
721 Broadway Main floor
We’ll perform about 25 minutes of low-tech excerpts, then talk and show video from our recent run here in Santa Monica, then take questions from the audience.
Daniel Kit Kwong, FF Alumn
Please also read below for a review of my work from the LA Times
THEATER REVIEW
Humor and insight found in cultural juxtaposition
By David C. Nichols
Special to The Los Angeles Times
February 4, 2006
Superpowers collide and commingle in “Sleeping With Strangers,” a remarkable collaborative duet at Highways that pools the considerable abilities of Chinese American performance artist Dan Kwong and traditional Chinese opera trouper Peng Jingquan.
The set consists of four wooden cubes and two sleeping mats on a platform, before which two bald figures mime vaguely questioning attitudes, then disappear. After a tart video prologue juxtaposes each artist in Los Angeles and Beijing, Kwong and Jingquan reenter, luggage and cultural attitudes firmly in hand, and a brisk bilingual vaudeville is upon us.
Before “Sleeping With Strangers” reaches its synoptic conclusion, both performers have found commonality without sacrificing viewpoint, which of course is the point of the whole enterprise.
Kwong, a wry, endearing multimedia mainstay for almost two decades, and Jingquan, whose elastic physicality and eloquent face announce a major find, make a wonderful seriocomic team. Batting paternal histories back and forth, enduring each other’s nighttime quirks as bunkmates, folding Asian techniques into slapstick and symbolism, Kwong and Jingquan hold the house in their outstretched hands throughout.
Highlights abound. Jingquan’s astonishing displays of authentic Chinese theater — sword dances, acrobatics, playing all the roles in an opera — by themselves demand attendance. Kwong’s arthritic attempts to mimic his wary comrade are hilarious, which also describes the set piece of both artists as puppet-bodied infants.
The running social commentary, sly subtitles and ironic urgency establish opposing positions without undue polemic, and no words do justice to Kwong and Jingquan in their climactic Karl Marx / Bill Gates challenge dance. The parallel father / son issues, a motif that could easily descend into schmaltz, resolve in a quietly galvanic summation of theme and subtext.
Technical elements are as resourceful as the performers, with the lighting by Jose Lopez particularly expressive. Pert, smart and refreshingly unpretentious, “Sleeping With Strangers” won’t solve the American/Chinese conundrum overnight, but it makes a delightful diplomatic start.
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Goings On is compiled weekly by Harley Spiller
~~end~~
click http://www.franklinfurnace.org/goings_on.html
to visit ‘This Month’s World Wide Events’.
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Harley Spiller, Administrator
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