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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Visual Art / Events Peregrinations in the burbs
Posted By Barbara Schreiber on Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 11:38 AM
Just as there are folks in the leafy suburbs who think that urban life is a living hell, so are there city dwellers who believe that culture evaporates once you stray a certain distance from downtown. Next week, though, some of the most interesting stuff is happening on the north side of town and beyond.
Trek out to Concord on Sunday, Nov. 15 for a studio open house at Patrick Glover’s and Ross Wilbanks’ vast new space at 152 Kerr Street, in the Gibson Village Neighborhood. Wilbanks characterizes the event as “a simple open house for the Kerr Street/Concord neighborhood, similar to a church meet 'n' greet where people can see the space and talk openly about what they would like to do ... Patrick and I are looking to use the space for a new process that is directly involved with the community around it.” In addition to art and film, the evening will include music by Erika Blatnik and Ben Henry. (Info: rosswilbanks@gmail.com or 704-580-5558.)
Closer in, Alfredo Jaar — installation artist, architect, interventionist, and filmmaker — will speak at UNC Charlotte, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 7 p.m., in the Cone Center’s McKnight Hall as part of the university’s Distinguished Speakers Forum. The Chilean-born Jaar, who lives in New York, creates work that is deeply political and often takes place in the public sphere, incorporating such diverse elements as billboards, lights and fire to address a range of issues including inequality, deprivation and war. This event is free and will be followed by a reception and book-signing. (Info: Stephanie Schmidt at 704-687-7159)
Sonja Hinrichsen, one of the fall artists-in-residence at the McColl Center for Visual Art, has been teaching “Mapping Charlotte,” a special topics class, this semester at UNC Charlotte’s College of Arts & Architecture. Students were challenged to research and explore the city’s past and present with the goal of creating a collaborative installation employing photography, video, sound and other media. The opening reception for their exhibition, “Charlotte: A Layered Perspective,” is Nov. 19, 5 p.m.-7 p.m., at the college’s Rowe Main Arts Gallery. Perusing the class blog, you get the sense that this project was a total leap into the unknown for some of these students. Many are lifelong Charlotteans, and it’s probably safe to assume that they now have new ways of thinking both about art-making and their hometown. On Nov. 20, 10 a.m., Hinrichsen will give a lecture on the project in room 130 of the Rowe Arts Building. (Info: Janet Williams at 704-687-0208 or jwill416@uncc.edu)
And finally, a memo from the Shameless Self-promotion Department: Since some folks whose projects I was hoping to mention never got back to me, I’ll just use this remaining space to plug a show I’m in. Hope you can make to the Max L. Jackson Gallery at Queens University this Thursday, Nov. 12, 5 p.m.-7 p.m., for the opening of Approaches II/Annäherungen, an exhibition of work by four artists from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Germany (Jutta Bressem, Ines Diederich, Rainer Fest and Ulf Rickmann) and three Charlotte-Mecklenburg artists (Erika Diamond, Annabel Manning and me).
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Visual Art Dugg Dugg redux
Posted By Barbara Schreiber on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 4:24 PM
Those who remember this spring’s brief efflorescence of Dugg Dugg — a group of upbeat, informed young artists who, shortly after lighting up the sign outside their 36th street warehouse space, scraped up against code violations — may have feared that re-emerging was going to be more aggravation than these folks could handle. (CLT Blog did an excellent piece on the whole saga, which you can read here.)
But re-emerge Dugg Dugg did, and while 130 W. Bland Street may lack the size and finish of Dugg Dugg’s original home, it was rife with energy and freshness October 23-25, when the exhibition America’s Children’s Home was on display.
Dugg Dugg was founded by Andrea Brown and Iris Williamson; now, Michael Southard is part of the team. The group’s exhibitions and projects are dominated by artists making the sort of contemporary, sometimes experimental, sometimes market-resistant work we need to see more of in Charlotte — especially when it’s made by younger artists who are still forming their aesthetic. You may not like everything you see, but most of it is worthy of discussion — and it is always far better to be provoked than bored. Dugg Dugg is the very thing we need here — a locus for the ambitious, but sometimes unproven, to stretch themselves, to not have to wait around until they’re deemed worthy. Because instead of waiting around, they can just as easily go somewhere else.
America’s Children’s Home included work by Ari Richter, Chris Thomas, Darren Goins, David Sackett, Heidi Landau, Jon Prichard, and Mike Calway-Fagen, who hail variously from Charlotte, Austin, Los Angeles and New York. (Of course, I loved Goins’ hyperactive paintings on holographic paper — even if they had to labor mightily to compete with the brick walls — but since I own one of his pieces, writing about him is a conflict of interest ... so, dear readers, just pretend this sentence doesn’t exist.) I was particularly taken with Landau’s oblique, contemplative drawings from her series All My Family Kept in Files.
“We will continue to rotate spaces throughout Charlotte, bringing more group shows, solo exhibits, and site-specific work,” says Brown.
Dugg Dugg is restless and inspired, doing physical exhibitions in alternative spaces, Internet exhibitions on their Web site, and just about everything else on their blog.
Glad they’re back
(This is the second in our series on artist collaboratives. Check out the first one here. Images courtesy of Dugg Dugg.)
