The Dill Pickle Club is back with yet another great lecture night! Guests, veteran music mover and shaker Calvin Johnson, filmmaker Vanessa Renwick, and hip-hop artist Cool Nutz, will headline the night with diverse perspectives on the Northwest scene. As always the night will be hosted at the intimate Williams cafe, the Waypost where the ticket includes a lavish vegetarian dinner.
Tomorrow night, Disjecta's satellite space, the Templeton Building, will play host to Arty Words. This is the 4th team effort between Tin House and Disjecta, and sure to be memorable, showcasing the wordsmithing talents of Keith Lee Morris and Lee Montgomery and musical guests AGESandAGES. For more information on the event and the goodies you receive upon entry, click here!
Stop Fighting Yourself and Do Your Art is a new workshop series by Debbie West! On top of making wonderful woodblock print cards, (a variety of which are in stock now!), West has also created a 2 part workshop that explores our creative processes. If you've been having trouble creating work lately, this may be a great event to check out. Part 1 will be held at SCRAP, tomorrow at 7pm.
For more information, check out Debbie West's website!
Sarah Mirk (of IPRC and Portland Mercury fame) and the wonderful folks of the Dill Pickle Club have concocted a plan to document Oregon history through comic zines. Involving 10 illustrators and 10 historic stories, the project will be composed into a boxset of radness. Only thing is, production costs are a little heavy to handle on their own-help see this project through with a donation to the Kickstarter!
Tonight avant-garde filmmaker Barbara Hammer will be at Reading Frenzy speaking from her recently published book Hammer:Making Movies Out of Sex and Life.
Many of her films have come together under the genre of meta-documentary, where, as she has stated in past lectures, "ideas and questions propose possibilities and points of view that are often self-reflexive". Her first book similarly reads as a meta-autobiography. Part essay on the times, part grippingly personal narrative, Hammer works her way through childhood memory on into her formative years as a budding, lesbian filmmaker in the 70s.
The book embellishes in lesser known short films such as Superdyke, where dykes armed with cardboard Amazon shields take over San Fransisco's City Hall. And on a Northwest note, Hammer has included performances in Portland, where, in 1979, she blew up a 12 foot weather balloon and projected a Gloria Churchman movie! In reading Hammer, definitely expect to be bombarded with a constant barage of seriously amazing performance stills and personal photos.
I was able to catch up with her briefly between cities this past week, though unfortunately we were cut off at the beginning of our conversation. Guess we'll be continuing our conversation tonight! Hope you too will make it out to hear more of her "glorious time of feminist ideals and lesbian bed-hopping"!
In lieu of 110 images in 4 minutes, Brooklyn Art Museum calls Dyketactics a "lesbian commercial". Although of course the work runs deeper, did this sentiment, of exposing lesbian culture to a broader audience, work its way into the process of creating this short? Did you feel as though you were presenting lesbian culture, or simply documenting your experiences?
I actually jokingly call it a lesbian commercial. Each image has the sense of touch in it or an image of touch. It isn't about the lesbian culture but about my own artistic aesthetics where I believe becoming a lesbian increased my sense of touch through touching a body similar to my own. My perception is tactile. What I see with my eyes I feel with my body. I was making a film of my experience and hoping to connect with others. That is the best we each can do.
What was the queer scene in the 1970s largely like? What were the resounding responses to your first works?
A vital, emerging scene with women, that's who I know about, coming out one after another. If you read my book you will read that a friend today could be a lover tomorrow and an ex the following week. We were an experimenting social group creating a new order and trying to make social change.
Responses to first works were sometimes positive and sometimes negative.
Anika Sabin
The Queer Zine Archive is coming to Portland! Since 2003, QZAP has been continually building a "living" archive of past and current queer-based zines. Milo Miller and Chris Wilde of the Wisconsin-based project will be at the IPRC next Sunday night to discuss everything from the history of queer zines to the archival process. And while you wait for next weekend, definitely check out their online database of queer zines, amazing!
Crafty Wonderland is at it again with a Super Colossal Spring Sale! Spread out over the first weekend of May, the sale will be the culmination of local Portland vendors who have busily worked through the winter. Come see new work, and make your own with a continual program of DIY activities for shoppers. Hello Craft will also be on hand to provide more information about the upcoming Summit of Awesome!
As always admission is FREE and the first 200 shoppers get rad goodie bags of homemade swag.
This weekend PNCA will be holding a panel discussion with numerous artists who have been influenced by, or interact with, Donald Judd in their artistic work. This is part of a month long look at Donald Judd's life and collection. Hosted by the University of Oregon, this historic conference and retrospective are well worth the travel down to Eugene. For more information, go here!
The 7th annual Stumptown Comics Fest is about to invade NE Portland! For years now, the event has scooped up the best in the biz for a weekend of panels, showcases and workshops. This year is definitely no different, with appearances by Dean Haspiel and Paul Pope. Local tours of art galleries featuring comic artists will also be held throughout the weekend.
For a complete list of guests and events throughout the weekend, jump over to their
website.
Next Saturday, Em Space will see their one year anniversary. And, to get their second year off to an awesome start, they're throwing a massive party! The night will include DJs, food and drink, and an art opening to boot! Not too mention a raffle with rad prizes, gift certificates to cafes, artwork, and wine. 7pm to midnight! For more information on the art opening, and upcoming workshops, hit up their website here
Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney is putting out her debut album! We got the first taste of her solo work at a Reading Frenzy benefit show last year. And wonderfully for all of us, the benefit show proved to be a creatively challenging assignment, from which her new album draws from.
For a full read, check out Spinner.
This past Thursday the IPRC unveiled two new paintings by Lori D. The paintings flank the doorway to the IPRC's new multi-purpose classroom, and feature a wonderful array of characters eating flapjacks and reading zines. Yet another wonderful excuse to head up to the IPRC and check 'em out!
CART
