Artscape 2007 - Pt 2

Amy and I parked on Eutaw and Franklin Street and walked up Howard Street on our pilgrammage to Artscape. Passing Laure Drogoul's place, we peered in the front window and lo and behold, there was "The Root" (pictured at left), her huge devil head sculpture that was awarded the first Julie and Walter Sondheim Prize in 2006. (Laure wisely creates works that can be easily deconstructed to fit through doorways; this one broke down into 17 separate parts, like Tracey Ullman's broken heart.) A colossal head the size of a small SUV is not your normal living room decoration, but then artists are not normal people.

As we crossed Read Street, we decided to stop and check out what was there. Neither of us had been on Read Street since the glory days of The Leather Underground (the bet place to buy cards - I fondly recall getting my Abe Sherman "Holiday Schmoliday" and "Seasons Beatings" Christmas cards there back in the early '80s), the original Atomic Books, Modern Music, and the Read Street Festival back in the '90s. My sister used to get her hair cut at the legendary Hair Garage here, before that biz went under in a big drug scandal (the place allegedly gave new meaning to the term "blow dry").

But even before we used to hang out there, Read Street was a happening counterculture spot. According to the Maryland Historical Society, it was "Ground Zero for the state's counterculture in the late 1960s," with businesses like the Psychedelic Propellor, Omar’s Tent Factory and the Clothes Horse catering to hippies "with incense, paisley, and water pipes." Check out this Audrey Bodine photo of "the scene" from the Maryland Historical Society's Special Collections Department:


Groovy Read Street circa 1969.

We first passed Pete Babones' Beatnik Barbership (where Modern Music used to be), then spotted Read Street Books and Coffee. "I think this was where Atomic Books used to be," I told Amy. We went in and the woman behind the counter of this bookstore/cafe, Lisette, verified that it was ye olde Atomic. Read Street Books sells new and used books, vintage paperbacks, lesbian fiction, espresso, herbal teas, Italian sodas and desserts. I was impressed by the layout and the inventory, all esoteric arts books and leftist-leaning liberal media magazines (the kind I like). I even found an out-of-print British film history book, that I put aside to pick up on our way back from Artscape.

We did stop back after the festival, and there was quite a surprise awaiting us - one that made me realize why Atomic and Modern Music had moved out of this neighborhood. They'd been robbed. And they had it all on the closed circuit TV, so Amy and I got to watch the robbery in real-time, like a muted episode of COPS. Lisette said the Video Store owner on the corner had been robbed two nights previous by the same man. Apparently there's some rehab halfway house around the corner that acts as a staging area for these once-and-future criminals. Ah, junkies and crime - it's so Baltimore!

But I digress. A few blocks later we hit the Art Cars exhibit across from the Meyerhoff. But first, looking down, we had an Asphalt Elvis sighting.



Art Cars

The first car we spied was this treehouse pickup that had a bird's nest in the back. You can see Amy eyeing the eggs in the basket (I had to convince her that they were non-edible "art" eggs!). This car would have been considered the equivalent of a Hummer in Fred Flinstone's day.


Don't overheat this engine!


Don't be fooled by imitations. The license plate indicates that this is THE Art Car.

This one was called the FAUX JAG even though it was clearly a Karmen Ghia. Amy liked that's its interior was a lepoard skin bedsheet that matched mine.


Karma Karmen Khameleon?


This car gives you the bird's-eye view.


This one just gives you the Eye!


Full frontal view of the Igloo Car


Cool Girlfriend Amy Cools Off in the Igloo Car


"Understatement" is clearly the aesthetic of this art car.


An external gas tank?


A car only the Quay Brothers could love.


Rotary engine?


Detail from roof of an art car.


Art Bikes: These two bipeds were parked behind an art car.


Art Cars: You are what you drive.

Tomorrow: more Artscape pix.

Related links:
Artscape 2007 - Pt 3

Artscape 2007 - Pt 1

"I think this has been the best Artscape ever."
- Spoon Popkins, July 21 , 2007

Artscape at the BMA
Following the Thursday night preview of Laure Drogoul's sideshow-vibed Ceci n'est pas a Booth, Kiosk or Gazebo and Other Radical Shacks, I took in Artscape proper on Saturday. First stop was the Baltimore Museum of Art so I could see "Artscape at the BMA," an exhibit honoring the seven finalists for the 2007 Julie and Walter Sondheim Prize, which is organzied by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts. The winner of this year's $25,000 prize was Baltimore native and well-liked Maryland Institute College of Art instructor Tony Shore, whose specialty is black velvet paintings. The other finalists included sculptor Richard Cleaver, photographer Frank Hallam Day, filmmaker Eric Dyer, Geoff Grace, Baby Martinez, and filmmaker-artist Karen Yasinsky.

I was really wowed by Richard Cleaver's incredibly detailed ceramic and wood sculptures that were embellished with all sorts of eye dazzling minutia, from fresh water pearls and garnets to Swarovski crystals and gold; there were a lot of pieces and any of them could easily have taken the top prize IMHO.


Leave It To Cleaver: Richard Cleaver's Woodworks

But I have a soft spot for filmmakers, so of course I loved the entries there by local filmmakers/film instructors Eric Dyer (Visual Arts & Animation, UMBC) and Karen Yasinsky (Film/Media Studies, Johns Hopkins University), who is married to filmmaker and Charles Theatre co-owner John Standiford.

Eric Dyer was also a finalist last year and once again he had an amazing "cinetrope" projection entry, Marching Bellows. Cinetropes is the term Eric coined to describe the zoetrope-like sculptures that he puts into motion, films with a high-speed shutter camera, and projects onto a wall. His Marching Bellows zoetrope was modeled by John Rouse and Eric Smallwood. Alas, it was only one piece, and I think that factored into the judges scoring. Still, Eric made the finals two years running and that's quite an accomplishment in itself.


Eric Dyer's camera sees this zoetrope in motion...


and projects these marching bellows.

I had never seen Karen Yasinsky's work, but I knew she was well-respected in her field, having already exhibited internationally for years and winning numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Foundation Grant in 2002. I was pleasantly surprised to see her 6-minute stop-motion film La Nuit and the 15 drawings comprising her Curious She Stands Alone work.


Still from Karen Yasinky's LA NUIT.

I'd be remiss not to mention Tony Shore's black velvet paintings of his peeps, depicting ordinary Baltimoreans doing ordinary things but made to look like epic murals by Olde Masters thanks to the lighting and color and the larger-than-life size of the canvas. My girlfriend Amy liked this one the best, because she said the guy in it had "Reverse Plumber's Crack" action going on with his pantaloons:


Tony Shore's BOOPER'S TABLE lets it all hang out.

Having seen all the finalist exhibits, we headed out of the BMA, but it's hard to do that without stopping by the gift shop (my second favorite, after the American Visionary Art Museum). There I picked up a postcard of erstwhile Fluxus experimental filmmaker Nam June Paik. One of my friends from the library, Wonsook Baik, said she might be related to him (the Korean alphabet is apparently pretty flexible on its P's and B's), which makes sense since she is also an artist (MICA MFA 2004) and it must be in her genetic code. Anyway, I had never seen a photo of him, so thanks to the BMA's commercial outlet, I now have.

That said, we hopped in my car to head down into the belly of the beast, the traffic jam vortex that is Artscape proper. How fitting that our first stop would be the bumper-to-bumper Art Cars exhibit on Mount Royal Avenue.

See: Artscape 2007 - Pt 2

Ceci n'est pas a Booth, Kiosk or Gazebo...

and other Radical Shacks



Performance artist-sculptor Laure Drogoul, winner of the 2006 Julie and Walter Sondheim Prize and founder-director of Maryland Art Place's 14 Karat Cabaret, is curating a show at this year's Artscape that spoofs the arts festival's reputation as being nothing more than "Foodscape," a place for Baltimorons to eat bad food.

Hence we have Ceci n'est pas a Booth, Kiosk or Gazebo and Other Radical Shacks, a play on the title of surrealist painter Rene Magritte's picture of a pipe that he called Ceci n'est pas une Pipe (This Is Not a Pipe).
The point being that, just like Magritte's painted pipe that viewers can't smoke, the booths occupied by the artists in the food court don't sell food, they only look like they do.

Anyway, I came, I saw, I interacted with the art. This kind of thing usually isn't my bag, but I have to admit that everyone was really nice (especially the LEXI MOUNTAIN BOYS, who are in fact lovely ladies) and I really enjoyed Dan Van Allen's TREE HOUSE FOR AN AUTUMN MOON and the video installation and synthesizer sounds provided by SNACKS (Tom Boram and Dan Breen, the later of Trockenis) at their YE OLDE ELECTRO-MATIC SMOOTHIE SHOPPE booth. The Snacks boys also played tubas that generated power to run blenders filled with red and white wine, which they then dispensed to lines of supplicants in a sort of performance art Holy Communion.

OK, enough talk. Here are some photos of the exhibit.


The Entrance Gate
Abandon all hope of real food, ye who enter.


Tim Scofield's kinetic AERIAL SCULPTURE at rest


Fly guy Tim Scofield prepares for takeoff


Tim Scofield getting high as a kite


I've run out of high jokes. But he is. Very.


Tim Scofield gets a rise of out of the audience


Whatever you do, don't look down!


"Fuck! There goes my bus fare!"


Tim demonstrates his World's Highest Yo-Yo Trick.


Tim does his Puppet-on-a-String impression


"And this is how I do the back stroke."


"Here we go Allez-Oops!"


What goes around comes around. (We hope!)


"Clear the landing strip!"


"Damn! My socks don't match."


"Ha! From up here you humans look so puny!"


R.L. Tillman's COTTON SALTY stand


Dan Van Allen's TREE HOUSE FOR AN AUTUMN MOON


TREE HOUSE Close-up


TREEHOUSE extreme full frontal close-up

Girls just wanna have Treehouse fun



TREEHOUSE long shot


Dan enjoys an upskirt view of his TREEHOUSE


Dan Van consults with Dr. Angela about the green slime on his chin


Dan Breen in front of the his Snacks Video Installation

For me, this was the highlight of Artscape 2007, a simple yet clever video that seemed to feature every artist or "scene-maker' in Baltimore.


Odd in Quad: Snacks Videos Loop Mismatched Tops and Bottoms


Snacks: Iron(ic) Chef


Birthday girl Spoon and roomate Uli send a shout out. (Spoon must have gotten a grant because she's drinking Bud instead of Natty Boh.)

The "#$%@!!" Gnome Hut
created by Melissa Webb, M. Jane Taylor & Co.


The "#$%@!!" Gnome Hut Redux


>#$%@!! Gnome Icon


Imus would call these tough-looking gnomes "Nappy-headed"


I'd jump through hoops for this gnome
(the lovely Paige Shuttleworth)


Mama's got a squeeze box


Girls will be LEXI MOUNTAIN BOYS.
Here they are in front of their CLEARAMID.

Related Links:
Ceci n'est pas review in Baltimore Sun
Dan Van Allen (Soweboarts.org)
Snacks Review (City Paper)
Lexi Mountain Boys (MySpace)