Semantic Ascent!

"Oh shit"….phew, for a moment I thought it was a dark, dreary post election November. I am speaking about Jack Metcalf's and Brett Hargeshmeir's collaborative show at the MAM's April Artini event. The show transforms Newt Gingrinch into a dancing Grinch dressed in a leotard and speaking in semantic-colorful-meaningless-soundbites. Albeit, there was not any connection between Dr. Seuss' Grinch and this show, but it's what comes to mind when I think of Newt Gingrich…to me he sucks everything good and pretty out of life.  However, in this imaginative reformation of this political icon, Metcalf & Hargeshmeir convey to me the meaninglessness and absurdity of the whole political situation.

"Semantic Ascent" features many woodcuts of a grotesque, multi-limbed Newt donning leotards and funny hats. Each Newt has an emotionally charged facial expression, and through repetition appears to be dancing around the space like a deformed-mud-puddle-stained ballerina.  Incorporated into this somatic display are brightly colored, geometrically painted speech bubbles by Brett Hargesheimer.   I enjoy how these appear like nonsensical blurted statements, although their appearance is too pretty compared to the general vomit, I mean, speech that we normally hear from our pal Newt. But I suppose that is part of the "semantic" portion of the show’s title.  

"Wait? Semantic?"  I ask myself. "What does "Semantic" actually mean, anyway, and how does it relate to this show?"  Wiki tells me Semantics is the study of meaning with a focus on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols. Ok, I am getting somewhere in understanding the function of the speech-bubble-paintings, but this still wasn't enough. So I ask Jack Metcalf. He tells me about this 20th century analytical philosopher with a long name who defined the term semantic ascent as "a shift from talking about the world to talking about words." Hmmmm…ok???  Metcalf continued to describe situations from graduate school to the bar where most of the miscommunication he witnessed came from linguistics, i.e. the words, rather then the actual, understood world around us.  So there is a disconnection between the words that we use and the reality they are used to describe.  At first glance it's like "duh," but I am not so sure we are completely aware of the subtlety and pervasiveness of this event and how it plays out in our lives. Jack continues, "This disconnection is frustrating in the way it advances the way we use language into a meaningless realm."

Well this is all fascinating, Jack, but why Newt?” Beyond some personal connections, Metcalf tells me he chose Newt because, "I considered Newt to be a ridiculous, meaningless, contradicting individual, and it is these very qualities I wanted to borrow from him."  Aha! The light shines in and illuminates the darkness. To  recap, Ballerina Von Newt points to Newt’s ridiculous and contradicting qualities. While, the flawlessly painted speech bubbles represent the highly polished sound bites we hear from Newt.  These blurbs in regards to semantics and due to this communication-disconnect can sound true but can still be meaningless, empty, and ultimately false.

The Newts weren't the only ones dancing at this collaborative mega event. The Bare Bait Dance crew improvised movement that nicely complement the dancing Newts and they wore clothing that were similar to the color of the speech bubbles.  I would have liked to see the dancers engage with the audience and artworks more, however I didn’t see all of the dance performance so maybe I missed what I was looking for.  The Best Westerns done sang some fine soundin' country music, while some BFA printmaking students printed woodcuts onto shirts for the show’s attendees.  Burke Jam played some videos and Kris moon spun records providing a nice soundtrack for both the real dancers and the Newts.

The ephemeral nature of this one night event contributed to Semantic Ascent’s powerful playfulness, and certainly offered some contrast from the previous show in the MAM's main gallery the never-ending Ansel Adams exhibit!  At the end of the night, and again unlike the Ansel Adams show, Metcalf invited the audience to take home whatever portion(s) of Newt you wanted…how cool is that?  The ladders were highly sought after.

Overall, the artworks were highly engaging on the visual and spatial sense, and I really enjoyed the grotesque, humorous and satirical nature of this show.  It was a good fun experience, while also carrying a strong sense of content that invited me to think and look deeper for my own semantic ascent.

Calling you....artmelt is a BOOK

artmelt is really excited to announce that we are making a custom, hand-bound, book of awesomeness, and we want you to be in it! See the call to artists at the end of the post.

When notions of artmelt first emerged 3 years ago or so, the idea was for it to be a print gallery. So every First Friday there would be this gallery that existed in print.  However, due to procrastination and lack of time and money we figured a blog would be the most tangible way to begin the melting of art.

But alas, the times have changed, and procrastination doesn't stand a chance.  artmelt will be releasing a custom made, hand-bound book, with multiple types of printing and original artworks scattered throughout. Yet, we need your help to fill it with great art, writing, information, rants...you name it we want it.

So here we are, doing the typical...we are posting a call to artists, and we might even be able to pay you...maybe. Click on the link below to read the full call to artists.

Link to full call to artists

Deadline is July 30th, 2011 for submissions and you can email your proposals and works to artmelt@gmail.com.  If you have originals to put in the book then we can arrange a drop off.

Holy Hell!!

Dood what? Patrick Swayze & James Earl Jones!!! Yeah I am into it! Holy Hell is a group creation featuring Jack Metcalf with colorist Brett Hargesheimer, sound artist Burke Jam, sculptures by Louis Habeck, and a video by Will Hutchinson. The gents provided some real fine visuals and auditorials (yeah made that one up) in the basement of the Top Hat. Yeah there is a sweet gallery down there (so nice i wanna have a show down there too, make sure to check out the gallery in the future!). Metcalf's and Hargesheimer's drawings and prints fluently exhibit tight illustration and are both super serious and hilarious all in one fail slap in the face. Also diggin' Habecks monster and kids bike sculpture.  I am pretty sure it was a one night showing so you can't see it in person, but luckily someone brought a camera...enjoys.

to see it all click more read more...

Festival of the Dead 2009

As Debby mentioned in the previous post it was a great year for the Festival of the Dead parade.  With good weather, fantastic costumes, and a good turn out I could not ask for more from our little art parade that celebrates the dead and simultaneously the living. It was fun runnin' up and down looking for images,  trying to find the best combination of street lights to get a good exposure. So without further or do the pictures.

A whole lot more pics after the jump...that means clicking on read more

Day of the Dead, Sacred Art

Last Tuesday, at the Arts Forum I helped put together via the Missoula Cultural Council and Humanities Montana, Katie Knight showed slides of people using art to communicate spiritual and survival information. Colorful concentric circles represented maps of watering holes . Cultural information was embedded in embroidery. She talked about a time when art had a purpose, and how -- to abridge an entire evening of discussion -- Western society developed this notion of abstraction, individual expression, and hence art began to deviate from its civic purpose. For better or worse, art is no longer seen as intrinsic to our communication, where artists, who are everyone, play a shaministic role in their act of creation. Imagine art being intrinsic to the nature of a society, and to the nature of the individual.

Enter Day of the Dead. This year was the finest Day of the Dead parade in years. It wasnt 20 below, it wasn't raining, and the full moon was actually rising behind the African dancing, the tuba-playing, drumming, car stereo-playing Manu-Chao, giant skeletons bowing, the billowing steamroller prints , and all the skull-face painted bike riders you could ask for. Not to forget, the Dead Debutantes.

I watched it over by the XXX's with my friend Mark. All my friends recognized me , even though my hope, when I smeared my own skull-like blob face on with tempera paint, was to blend in. In fact everyone I knew, even Abe, whose face was totally covered with a weird beard and a hood, was simple to spot, which I find remarkable, that we transcend our appearances so vividly. Obscuring ourselves in paint and costume draws out this other way we "know" who each other are. Whether you view it as sensory or spiritual, to know another human being due to a more holistic recognition seems to me just one aspect of art-meets sacred, and is a community-building, socially strengthening practice, even if you aren't fully aware that you're doing it.

The Parade itself is the more obvious place where art meets the sacred. And wait--- let's not get too lofty with the term sacred--- I think its sacred includes when people are silly together, or when people kind of meekly not quite know what they are doing but theyre marching in a parade anyways, together. And "When the Saints Go Marching In " has to compete with "Me Gusta Tu," or when the giant Bernice's skeleton puppet is handing out bone-shaped donuts.

I watched it three times, running alongside it to the beginning, my own ritual was so fun, seeing everything coming again, my anticipation remaining consistent each time. It was thrill for me to be true to my impulse to do this. As a creative person, (or really just as a person) letting these impulses be done is essential, nurturing, encouraging. As I ran, I thought about the 3 people and one very special golden retriever I know that have died this year, in fact all within the last 6 months. And when I stopped running, I was kept in the present moment by the energetic mob once again. My only wish for this parade is that public crying did not seem a downer or like it's attention-seeking. But I think that taboo is part of Western Culture, and too big a fish to fry in this entry... Regardless, it's healing to grieve properly for those we miss , and of sacred importance to consciously focus for a minute on how blessed, crazy, imperfect, strange, intense, creative, and truly precious this life is. And this is how I view public, community art as a way of (healthy) survival.