First Friday Rambles

Posted by arts_reviews

Posted: November 6, 2009 - 9:27 pm

Comments (0) |

By Mike Dunham

Alaska Womens Training Bra: Cindy Shake's contribution to "Wild Bras on Parade." Photo by Martha Peck
The "Wild Bras on Parade" fundraiser for breast cancer patients wound up without the proposed style show on Friday night. Many of the pieces of frolicksome foundations proved to be too fragile for facile handling and few were actually wearable. But that didn't stop a crowd from inspecting them and bidding on their favorites at Half Moon Creek Gallery, where the bras wound up after parading through nine other galleries or stores over the past month. My favorite was Diane Barske's clock-bearing "Felix the Cat." All of the art left the gallery with the owners as soon as the auction closed, but you can get a look at some of them at our online gallery.

Next to Half Moon Creek, at Doriola's, 510 W. Tudor, there's a group show of local encaustic art including some well-known names: Dot Tideman, Sheary Clough Suiter, Janaan Kitchen. But I was particularly smitten by Ashley Kelley's entertaining bunnies.
Silks by Wendy Smith-Wood: Sutton artist received a $500 award in this year's Earth Fire and Fibre show.
More fashion-art was on view at 2 Friends, 341 East Benson Blvd. Using red tape, they set up a "runway" down which models could parade several of the wearable art items available at the store. Exquisite died and shaped silk pieces by Sutton artist Wendy Smith-Wood is among the most appealing items. Her technique involves binding the fabric to dry, sometimes with creek rocks tied up with the cloth.
Judith Hoersting: "Coastal Trail" at APU
Painter Judith Hoersting has eight small cold wax impressions of Cook Inlet in APU's ConocoPhillips Gallery (a.k.a. Grant Hall) and fabricator Joe Hamilton has some intriguing totem-tiki birch carvings in the neighboring Carr Gottstein building. Hamilton's pieces are carved from local birch and painted smooth white so that they could be mistaken for plaster castings. The most touching item was the silhouette of a hearse adorned with images of bodies and a striking image of three souls in a boat.
Joe Hamilton: Carved birch before being painted white.
Time was running short as I turned for downtown - but en route I swung by the Consortium Library where, in the little Arc Gallery, the Japanese Consolate and UAA's art and language department is sponsoring a display of illustrations from "The Tale of Genji."
Illustrations from Japan: From "The Tale of Genji" exhibit at Consortium Library.
The illustrations replicated here are only about 500 years old; the tale itself, said to be the first novel ever written, is twice that old. Texts with each picture supply a sort of Cliff Notes for the plot, which is more complex than three years of "Dallas." The exhibit includes various presentations - including an anime version of the story shown on Friday night - and lectures and additional screenings coming up on Nov. 13. More information when I get it. Meanwhile, go take a look at these pictures.
iBubble: The Berth exhibit at International Gallery of Contemporary Art.
By the time I got downtown, many First Friday events were winding down, but at 427 D. St., the International Gallery of Contemporary Art was popping. The crowd came out the door. (I heard the opening of another group show, "Sharing the Spirit," at Alaska Native Arts Foundation, 500 W. 6th, was similarly packed.)
Most of the excitement revolved around art associated with a series of performance installations titled "The Berth" conducted around downtown in late summer. At least that's when I stepped onto Fourth Avenue to hear a percussive sound unfolding down the street as people clad in orange disposable suits made music - or something like it - on litter baskets and lightposts and such. One of the suits is on display along with photos of other "happenings." There's Jimmy Riordan's mobile bicycle library and a hypnotic video of the Bus Station (previously shown at the Bus Station) by Erin Pollock and Steph Kese.Image by Gretchen Weiss: Impromtu music was part of The Berth experience.
The most commanding thing at the International, however, may be Peter Graziano's big painting "Chant" in the gallery's back Guest Room. It's a mesmerizing piece composed of dots arrayed in softly colored circles. Each dot has a hemispheric dimension crowned by a tiny nipple. Graziano said he made the bigger dots by dipping different size wood dowels in paint and touching them to the canvas "about 50,000 times. Constantly. I didn't bathe for four weeks." The Red Room: At Sandy Gillespie's solo exhibit.I wound up at the opening of Sandy Gillespie's "Translations" at the Anchorage Museum, 625 C St. where there was another good crowd. Gillespie, who lives in Ester, uses words and literature to inform her ideas. Most of the pieces referred to one author or another. It was really three exhibits, elegantly laid out in three rooms. Of the three, I found the "icon" series of mixed media and collages to be the most interesting and varied. In comparison, the "pulse" series of small encaustics felt perfunctory and uninspired. The biggest work was the "trans" series of oil paintings, evocative of mood more than object. All followed a similar pattern of thickly placed squiggles. The primary variation was in the color of each piece. Hanging together they looked very important. But I couldn't help but think of an old New Yorker cartoon where a sculptor stands amid a roomful of stylized human forms with identical upraised arms. An eager patron who has just entered and hung his hat on one of the statues says, "I can't wait to see your work, old man."
The one thing I saw that stopped me in my tracks was also at the musuem, worn by Helen Simeonoff. It was a colorful jacket featuring Alutiiq petroglyph forms and a hood with a serrated fringe. "I designed it," she said. "But Tracy Bader made it for me."
That's what I saw. What'd you see? Add your comments below.

login or register to post comments