arts

Award-winning Performance Artist Returns for THE DOG AND PONY SHOW

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Kalamazoo College alumna Holly HughesShe’s back. And back again! Playwright and performance artist (and alumna…Class of 1977!) Holly Hughes presents The Dog and Pony Show, a hilarious one-person show about lesbians and their dogs. The performance takes place at 8 PM on Saturday, September 21, in the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse. There is no charge but reserving tickets is an option and encouraged for those with special needs or who are attending in partial fulfillment of course requirements. Reserved tickets will be held at the box office until 10 minutes prior to curtain at 8pm; tickets not picked up by that time will be made available to others who are interested. Call 269-337-7333 for ticket reservations and for more information. Hughes is a 2010 Guggenheim recipient and a professor at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design. She describes Dog and Pony as “a blend of autobiography, animal behavior and bald-faced lies…a poetic/comic meditation on the midlife crisis in the key of canine by the woman who drove Jesse Helms nuts. Or nuttier.” It will not be her first visit to campus. She performed her one-woman play “Preaching to the Perverted” on campus in 2000. That play was inspired by the 1990 revocation of grants that had been made to Hughes and three other artists by the National Endowment of the Arts. Hughes was an art major during her student years on campus (1973-77). she has won numerous awards for her work, including Kalamazoo College’s Distinguished Achievement Award (1995). The performance will be followed by a talk-back, book signing, and reception.

The difference between traditional theatre and performance art, she explains, is that the latter is more experimental, quasi-anarchistic, and rebellious. And that suits her perfectly. “If you’re really committed to change,” she said, “then you must be committed to being uncomfortable.”

The Dog and Pony Show is part of The Festival Playhouse Diversity Guest Artist Series. That program is committed to providing culturally diverse art free to the Greater Kalamazoo community. It is made possible primarily through funding from the Dorothy U. Dalton Enrichment Fund. Previous Guest Artist Series performances include Oni Faida Lampley in The Dark Kalamazoo, Lisa Kron in 2.5 Minute Ride, and Guillermo Goméz-Peña in The Return of Border Brujo.

Bike Pilgrimage Becomes Book Basis

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An illustration by Elayna Snyder
An illustration by Elayna Snyder ’09 from her upcoming book, Temple by Temple, which is based on her experience doing Japan’s 88 Temple Pilgrimage.

Elayna Snyder ’09 is gearing up to again bicycle an ancient pilgrimage route to 88 temples in Shikoku, Japan. The 900-mile route takes a circular path around Shikoku. Snyder is one-half of a writer-illustrator team that is working on Temple by Temple, an illustrated book about a girl’s journey to the temples with her cat.

Snyder does the art. Chelsea Reidy does the words. They both lived in Shikoku, Japan, for three years near the pilgrimage route where ohenro (pilgrims) are seen against the landscape of green mountains and blue seas. Before returning to the United States last November, Snyder and Reidy (along with Snyder’s sister, Alyse) completed the pilgrimage route on bicycles. The illustrations in the book are all based on photographs taken while they were traveling the 88 temple path.

Now they are planning to embark on the 88 temple journey a second time. Along with translating the book into Japanese, they will collect the materials needed to make 88 hand-bound copies of their book. Snyder is seeking to gain funds through Kickstarter, a web-based crowd-sourcing platform where creative entrepreneurs pitch their ideas.

The pilgrimage in Japan commemorates a Buddhist saint, Kobo Daishi. Many believe that his spirit still roams Shikoku, traveling with all pilgrims who do the journey. Although the route is Buddhist in nature, people of all faiths set off on the path for various reasons—to explore rural Japan, to pray for good fortune or for ill loved ones, and to seek adventure. Temple by Temple explores all the different aspects of the pilgrimage and pays homage to Daishi by including him in all the illustrations. He is hidden in the illustration above

Sophomore’s Poems Draw Acclaim

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Jane Huffman, a sophomore double-major (English and Theatre) is already getting poems and fiction published in good journals. Two of her poems–“Animal” and “Vegetable” appear in e-magazine Bad Penny Review. Two other poems will publish in forthcoming issues of print magazines: “Bad Poetry, or The Ways in Which we use our Hands” will appear in Galavant, and “Vegetable” will appear in NewerYork. Says Writer-in-Residence Diane Seuss, “Jane’s phenomenal.”

Faculty Honors in Art and Science

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Peter Erdi, Physics and Complex Systems Studies, has been selected to deliver the “Ignite” talk at the Science of Success symposium (June 17, 2013) at Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.). The title of his address is “Prediction of Emerging Technologies.”

In other recognition of faculty work, the artwork “Kohler Pile”–a collaborative piece that Associate Professor of Art Sarah Lindley and her husband Norwood Viviano created during their Arts-Industry Residency at John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, Wis.)–was accepted for publication in New Glass Review 2013. Their project was one of 100 selected from a pool of 2,973 submissions by 1010 artists/designers from 48 countries. New Glass Review is an annual survey of glass in contemporary art, architecture, craft, and design created in the previous year by emerging and established artists, as well as students. The works are chosen by a changing jury of curators, artists, designers, art dealers, and critics. The book/journal will come out in July.

Kalamazoo College Hosts Conference on Art, Social Justice, and Critical Theory

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Kalamazoo College will host a three-day conference of international artists, philosophers, social justice practitioners, and other scholars examining how art and aesthetic experience are connected to human freedom and social thriving.

Art, Social Justice and Critical Theory will be held May 16-18 on the K campus. The conference is free and open to the public, but registration is requested. A complete conference schedule is available at https://reason.kzoo.edu/criticaltheory/conference along with information on presenters and registration.

“Some of the leading philosophers of art and aesthetics in North America and Europe will join with artists, social justice practitioners, scholars, and students to focus on the connection between art, freedom, and social justice,” said conference organizer Kalamazoo College Associate Professor of Philosophy Chris Latiolais.

“This will truly be a unique gathering and one that will appeal to academicians and lay audiences across a spectrum of disciplines.”

According to Latiolais, invited speakers and panel members will address questions such as: Do experiences of natural beauty and art change how we experience the world and ourselves? If artwork illuminates critical issues, what type of understanding or participation do they require from their audiences? Might aesthetic experiences open us to new personal and political commitments?

“Answers to these questions have perplexed artists, critics, and scholars for centuries,” Latiolais said. “We invite all attendees to listen, learn, and lend their voices our lively discussion.”

The conference, co-sponsored by Kalamazoo College’s Philosophy Department and Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, begins Thursday evening, May 16, with a keynote address on “Active Passivity” by Martin Seel from Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt, Germany. Latiolais describes Seel as “Europe’s most celebrated critical theorist of art and aesthetics.”

Lambert Zuidervaart, author, professor of philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, and a member of the graduate faculties in theology and philosophy at the University of Toronto, will join Seel as a featured commenter and panel moderator throughout the conference. Before moving to Toronto in 2002, Zuidervaart was a professor of philosophy at Calvin College for 17 years and served as board member and president of the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Other invited speakers include professors Paul Guyer (Brown University), Richard Eldridge (Swarthmore College), Michael Kelly (University of North Carolina), Elizabeth Millán (DePaul University), Sandra Shapshay (Indiana University), and Veronique Fóti (Pennsylvania State University).

According to Latiolais, Friday May 17 will focus on theoretical issues of art and aesthetics and includes a panel discussion on murals and public art featuring artists and scholars from Ireland, Wisconsin, and Kalamazoo, including Arcus Center Artist-in-Residence Sonia Baez-Hernandez. Martin Seel delivers a second keynote address Friday evening titled “Theses on Pictures and Films.”

Saturday, May 18, will be devoted to four panel discussions on performance art, the aesthetics and politics of food, museums and curatorship, and religious art and material culture. Panelists will include Grand Valley State University Professor of Art Paul Wittenbraker and numerous Kalamazoo College faculty members and students.

Golden Opening

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Rudi Goddard as Cinderella and Julia Smucker as Little Red Riding Hood in "Into the Woods"
INTO THE WOODS features costumes by Elaine Kauffman. Pictured are Rudi Goddard as Cinderella and Julia Smucker as Little Red Riding Hood

Kalamazoo College opens the 50th anniversary season of its celebrated Festival Playhouse theatre arts program, with Into the Woods, the groundbreaking musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, May 16-19. Performances occur in the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse on Thursday May 16 (7:30 p.m.), Friday May 17 and Saturday May 18 (8 p.m.), and Sunday May 19 (2 p.m.) Tickets are $15/Adults, $10/seniors, and $5/students. Into the Woods features iconic characters such as Little Red Riding Hood (played by Julia Smucker ’13), Rapunzel (Corinne Taborn ’13), Cinderella (Rudi Goddard ’13), the eponymous character from Jack and Beanstalk (Brian Craig ’14), and one antagonistic witch (McKenna Kring ’15). The ensemble cast performs memorable songs such as “Giants in the Sky,” “Agony,” and “Children Will Listen.” Assistant director and K senior Megan Rosenberg calls Sondheim’s score “an elegant lullaby that stirs up the shadows of classic bedtime stories. Its intricate storyline and beautiful, if somewhat creepy, music lend themselves perfectly to bold directorial choices. “Without giving too much away, our production will break some rules,” added Rosenberg. K Professors of Music Tom Evans and James Turner serve as musical and vocal directors, respectively. Assistant Director of Student Involvement Kate Yancho serves as choreographer.“Audiences will be struck by both the darkness and vitality of this musical,” said Yancho about the Tony, Drama Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Award winning show that puts a new twist on a fusion of old Brothers Grim tales. “Adults will love how numerous fairy tales they knew as children are intertwined into one entirely new story, with vibrant song and dance,” said Yancho, who earned a B.A. degree in dance from Ohio University and teaches dance to K students.

K Alum Returns to Campus to Screen his Oscar-Nominated Documentary

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David France ’81, co-writer and director of the Oscar-nominated documentary How to Survive a Plague, will screen the film on campus Sunday, May 5, at 7 PM in Dalton Theatre (Light Fine Arts Building). France will participate in a discussion with the audience at the conclusion of the film. Everyone is invited, and the event is free. INDEX news editor Elaine Ezekiel posted an interview with France. ABC Studios has purchased the rights to France’s film with the idea of making it into a dramatic miniseries. France will prepare the adaptation, which will go broader and deeper into the subject of the documentary.

Improv Festival in Downtown Kalamazoo

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Professor of Theatre Arts Ed Menta, who also directs Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College, gives a shout-out to the 5th Annual Kalamazoo Improv Festival. Festival activities take place on May 10 and 11. Friday, May 10, features four shows (6PM, 8PM, 10PM, and 11:30 PM). Saturday offers two workshops (1PM and 4PM) and two shows (8PM and 10PM). All shows and workshops will be at Farmers Alley Theatre. More information and ticket reservation are available online, for call the Farmers Alley box office at 269.343.2727.

Home is where the art is

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Annie Belle installs her Senior Individualized Project
Annie Belle ’13 installs her Senior Individualized Project

Senior Annie Belle’s art SIP can’t be displayed on a wall or a pedestal.

“Basically I’m knitting a house,” Belle said.

The house will be up through Friday, April 19 in the Light Fine Arts Building gallery space, with a reception on Thursday, April 18 from 4 to 5 p.m.

Belle, who learned to knit when she was 16 and was taught by her mother, designed all of the patterns for the cottage-style house and the knitted furniture that will go inside it.

“When you look at things, they all basically are geometric shapes, so I’m just knitting a bunch of rectangles or squares,” she said. “I’ve gone through multiple design ideas. I think I’ve unraveled everything that I’m working on at least once.”

Belle uses wool roving, a thick material that she described as somewhere between wool straight off a sheep’s back and finer spun yarn. It knits faster than thin yarn, she said.

Plastic piping gives structural support to furniture pieces.

Belle looked at floor plans for microhouses — very small and often portable homes — when creating her own designs.

“They’re kind of what I think of when I think of a house,” she said. “Nothing terribly sophisticated — someplace to sit, someplace to eat.”

Belle says she cannot remember how exactly she came up with the idea for the project. She reflected for a moment before saying that the concept of home has influenced her time at Kalamazoo College.

“Looking back, I feel I’ve been concerned with domestic spaces, gender roles, and private versus public sphere.” she said.

Belle financed the yarn with funding from the K Art Department, but the project scale was large enough that the money did not cover the full cost of materials. She recently launched an online fundraising campaign that has raised more than $1,600.

“I don’t feel like I’ve really done that much with my art on campus, and if I’m going to go out, I want to go out big,” she said.

After displaying the piece in Kalamazoo, Belle plans to submit it to Art Prize, a large juried art competition in Grand Rapids, Mich. She said the project may ultimately end up as stuffing for a mattress after she dismantles it.

“There’s only so much room in the world for a knitted house,” she said. (Story and photo by Maggie Kane ’13)

Kalamazoo Poets

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If you like poetry and you like Michigan, check out a recent post (Awesome Mitten, Michigan Books Project) that includes a short review of four books of poetry, each with strong Michigan connections. The first of the four reviewed is Writer-in-Residence Di Seuss’s award-winning Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open. Other poets featured are John Rybicki, Laura Kasischke, and Jared Randall. Rybicki and Kasischke have done poetry readings on campus.

And in other news of Kalamazoo poets, Gail Griffin, the Ann V. and Donald R. Parfet Professor of English, won the annual poetry contest sponsored by FOLIO, a literary magazine published by American University (Washington, D.C.) Gail’s submission was her first ever “glosa,” a Spanish form of four 10-line stanzas based on a quatrain from another poem. Gail wrote, “I took some lines from a news story that particularly disturbed me and broke them into four lines of poetry. I’ve been working for a few years on poems and short prose inspired by weird, funny, or otherwise outrageous news stories.”

The contest judge was Martha Collins, a widely published poet who is affiliated with Oberlin College. Collins wrote, “I greatly admire the way [Griffin’s] ’Glosa: Man Held in Burning of Homeless Woman in Los Angeles’ moves through time, going back to Adam and forward to a ’millennium hence’ to elucidate a bit of news. The glosa form and a Genesis-inspired movement through the week are among the poetic strategies the author uses to create a richly-collaged reflection on the (gendered) need ’to love and loathe,’ as well as more generally disturbing aspects of our contemporary society.”

We look forward to sharing Gail’s poem when it is published in FOLIO later this year.