It’s slim pickings this week. We think everyone has gone camping. But here we go:
Wednesday, July 3
6pm-ish. Art Walk in Downtown
Thursday, July 4
2pm onwards. Forgotten Works and Artoleptic @ 619 Western
Friday, July 5
6pm. Keeler Opening @ King County Art Commission
7pm & 9pm. “Mutant Aliens” @ Little Theater (showing to 7/7)
9pm. Seattle Scooter Insanity XV @ CoCA
Also, scroll to the end of this week’s list, for some thoughts regarding Fourth of July and Rwandan genocide.
Wednesday, July 3
Art Walk @ Various Downtown Galleries. Because this month’s First Thursday falls on a holiday some of the downtown galleries—mainly the more mainstream, commercial ones—are hosting Art Walk tonight. The smaller more independent galleries (see Forgotten Works below) are sticking with hosting First Thursday Art Walk on first Thursday, tomorrow.
A few of the galleries seem to be hosting Art Walk on both days—which brings us to Gallery FreshGoods, which is having both a Weds and a Thurs reception for their Sound Art Show. Despite the overblown wording of the press release saying, “The collection will highlight the space where sight and sound intersect and revel in conceptual similarity and shared intention,” (oh, puhleeze) the premise of the show—various artists utilizing both visuals and sound in pieces—sounds intriguing. Might be worth stopping by, if you are checking out Art Walk.
Art Walk at various downtown galleries, mainly concentrated in Pioneer Square. From 6pm-ish to 9pm-ish.
Gallery FreshGoods, 211 1/2 First Avenue S.
Thursday, July 4
Opening Reception for The Forgotten Works Challenge @ Forgotten Works Gallery. This is what the press release says:
Forty artists picked up their bundles of thirty, 8x10 canvases just one month ago for this unique show. Thirty six of them made the deadline... All pieces will be sold at $30, no matter how "good" or "bad", for the month of July at the Forgotten Works Gallery. Patrons will be able to purchase these pieces and take them immediately, so get there early if you want to see the whole show!
Party Volcano asked noted art critic, Scott Greer, to comment on this intriguing concept:
36 people asking 30 times- "Is this work finished?" It's a tough question that often reveals more about the creator than the art. Many artists are never satisfied- and that's what makes The Forgotten Works Challenge so compelling. For example: I recently began stalking my ex-girlfriend as part of a private, "real-life", performance piece. She seems to think I need help. Because she cannot comprehend a love so powerful- I need help? Anyway, it's been three weeks now. I want to stop, but when will I know I've been true to the scenario? 5 hang-ups between 1 and 4am? Setting her fence on fire? Sending copies of her diary to family members? Will this fully express the depth of my emotion? Perhaps I should drive through her yard or break a second window. Would the second window detract from the first window's representation of our shattered future? And must I demonstrate my urgent need to be sexually dominated by her best friend? The 36 artists participating in The Forgotten Works Challenge are surely asking themselves these very same questions. Their torment builds until the 13th or 14th canvas, when they mumble, "Fuck it, that's good enough."
This opening is being held in conjunction with Artoleptic, listed below. 619 Western Building, 4th Floor (Pioneer Square), 2 pm to 10 pm.
July 4th Artoleptic Party @ 619 Western. This will be a First Thursday Gallery Opening and Fourth of July Party rolled into one. It sounds pretty good. They will take over the parking lot just south of the 619 Western Building and there will be graffiti artists, food, performance art, fire trucks. The 619 Western is a cool building, and word on the street is that they will open up access to the roof so people can watch the fireworks.
619 Western Building (Pioneer Square). 2 pm to Midnight. Free.
Friday, July 5
Casey Keeler Opening @ King County Arts Commission. Although, Party Volcano has not yet seen Keeler’s work, we are intrigued. Apparently Keeler was inspired by paint residue—circles and splashes from previous projects—on his studio floor. As far as we can tell, the resulting images look beautiful (see the link below for pix).
King County Arts Commission, 506 Second Avenue, Suite 200, in the Smith Tower building (Pioneer Square), 6pm to 9pm.
http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/culture/arts/gallery/current/currentgallery.htm
“Mutant Aliens” @ The Little Theater. This is what the press release says:
Portland-based animator Bill Plympton is back with a new
twisted tale! Astronaut Earl Jenson, with the help of his
daughter Josie, her sex-starved boyfriend, and five
cuddly-yet-ravenous alien creatures, seeks revenge on the
evil tycoon Dr. Frubar. Based on his successful graphic
novel, Plympton's third hand-drawn animated feature delivers
his patented visual style and bizarre sense of humor.
Plympton is a noted cartoonist with a loose, breezy style of drawing; and Party Volcano has been hearing some good buzz about this animated feature. Edmund Husserl, our newly retained party reporter--replacing recently fired Sebastian Junger--has this to say: “Plympton’s earlier cartoon feature, ’25 Ways to Quit Smoking’ wwas extremely funny. Indeed, it was so good it provided a base of inspiration for my own work, specifically, a number of the ontological underpinnings of my book The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy. I expect that ‘Mutant Aliens’ will, also, be most illuminating.”
The Little Theater, 608 19th Ave. E. (cross street, Mercer), July 5 -7, 7pm & 9pm.
Little Theater schedule: http://www.wigglyworld.org/littletheatre/
Info on Plympton: http://www.awn.com/plympton/
Party reporter Edmund Husserl’s web page: http://sweb.uky.edu/~rsand1/Husserl/
Hip Husse’s latest blockbuster: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/081010458X/qid=1025558301/sr=1-7/ref=sr_1_7/104-4866452-5971159
Seattle Scooter Insanity XV @ CoCA. Although none of us at PV are scooter riders, we think we will like this event since most of the scooters will doubtless be Vespas which are both cute and Italian-made---just like our former Party Volcano company car, a Lamborghini, in which we used to ride to art openings, until noted art crritic, Scott Greer, borrowed it and destroyed the drive train while plowing through the rhododendrons in his ex-girlfriend’s front yard (see his comments in the Forgotten Works blurb, above). Sigh. Anyways, apparently CoCA will also have a Surf music band, and you can still see the work of the NW Invitational in the gallery.
CoCA, 1420 11th Ave (between Pike and Union on Capitol hill), Cost: $5 to public, free for CoCA members, 9 pm-ish
http://www.vespaclubofseattle.com/
Photos from last year’s Seattle Scooter Insanity XIV: http://www.geocities.com/cretinsmc/la/insanity.html
Photo of PV’s company Lamborghini before use by noted art critic, Scott Greer:
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/partyvolcano/vwp?.dir=/Invitations&.dnm=Before.jpg&.view=t
Photo of PV’s company Lamborghini after noted art critic, Scott Greer, drove through his ex-girlfriend’s rhododendrons: http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/partyvolcano/vwp?.dir=/Invitations&.dnm=After.jpg&.src=ph&.view=t&.hires=t
Thoughts on the Fourth of July: Birthday and Massacre
Okay, it’s once again, the Fourth of July, celebration of this country’s birthday—with all the attendant slightly kitschy but still fun (admit it) barbeques and fireworks, and the hackneyed but still slightly stirring (admit it) homilies to freedom, individual rights, and other American ideals, etc.
The Fourth of July also marks the anniversary of the end of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In the course of 6 weeks, 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were murdered. It was, to quote Samantha Power, “…the fastest, most efficient killing spree of the twentieth century.”
The coincidence of the same date of July 4 is, of course, meaningless, but it is, nonetheless, striking when you think of American ideals celebrated on this date, and then juxtapose that to the US’s (under Clinton, et al) knowing and deliberate inaction and, indeed, successful blockage of any United Nations’ peacekeeping efforts. To quote Samantha Power’s again:
[The United States] led a successful effort to remove most of the UN peacekeepers who were already in Rwanda. It aggressively worked to block the subsequent authorization of UN reinforcements. It refused to use its technology to jam radio broadcasts that were a crucial instrument in the coordination and perpetuation of the genocide. And even as, on average, 8,000 Rwandans were being butchered each day, U.S. officials shunned the term "genocide," for fear of being obliged to act.
Of course most of us know that US foreign policy is often, in reality, not geared around supposed US ideals (other than, possibly, the free market), but I guess I was thinking in particular about the Rwandan horror after reading that the US has recently reinstituted a plan to offer rewards of up to $5 million for the capture of the instigators of the Rwandan genocide. It’s so disingenuous it’s almost funny. What about rewards for those who blocked efforts to stop the genocide? Could I turn in Clinton’s name and then retire?
Samantha Power’s article in The Atlantic Monthly: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/09/power.htm
Reuter’s story on US bounties for Rwandan genocide instigators: (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020612/wl_nm/rwanda_usa_campaign_dc_1 )
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