This blog is going to be full of links, because it will make the most sense if you know what I'm talking about.
I love this city. There is so much wonderful stuff happening and I love that I get to be a part of it. Two weeks ago was the 6th annual Transmodern Festival (
transmodernfestival.org), for which I joined up with The Cause Company and Ambush Theater for "
Get Strolled," an act in which the city itself comes to life and escorts strangers on their strolls down the street. I was a traffic barrel. see here: (
Click for Photo) Then the day of events culminated in
Fluid Movement's Love Parade, where all of the separate performing groups and a bunch of other volunteers and freaks joined in a parade around the neighborhood, making our way to a big gathering in the park. Walking up to the park, seeing all these colors and smiles and hearing the Barrage Band Orchestra
(BarrageBandOrchestra.com) playing, I was rejuvenated and filled with a joy and love of Baltimore's community of artists.
It happened again last week at Independent Practice. We had about the same number of people attend this second session, but almost all of them were new! So that's very exciting, word is getting out. It was so precious to have new people teaching new skills. A gentleman named Brad brought plates and a ukelele and taught us how to spin plates, while several new people learned how to juggle, and some acrobats practiced their new act. See:
Lizzie Lyra & Brent Balancer practice their acrobatics while Shelly practiced plate-spinning:
Then, this weekend, yesterday, in fact it happened again in a huge way. I spent from noon until 2 bouncing around the BMore Fair in Carroll Park on my jumping stilts & with my hoola hoop, then zipped up to Druid Hill Park for Ecofest to see The Frontier Dentists (
myspace.com/thefrontierdentists) and run around dressed as a bush with
Ambush Theater. Then BACK to Carroll Park to put my stilts BACK on to march all the way from Carroll Park to the Inner Harbor with the United Workers Association (
UnitedWorkersAssociation.org) protesting working conditions and human rights injustices in the Inner Harbor. I only made it about as far as the arena, where there was a 2-day cheerleading contest going on. It was really interesting to see all these painted up adolescent faces peering out the windows of the arena in confusion and wonder at 200 protesters marching down Baltimore St. But that was as far as my legs could take me on as little food as I had had all day. Fortunately my next destination was Zella's (
zellaspizzeria.com), where Sarah House (
Click for info & artwork) was opening a new art show. Free really good pizza, water, oh my god water, half a glass of wine, and some wonderful company later, I was feeling tip top again! We left there to go to the Whole Gallery (
wholegallery.blogspot.com), where "Off the Wall," a show of sculpture and installations was opening. It was beautiful.
I don't know if I've ever been to an art show where I loved EVERY piece in the show, but last night I did. There were 18 different artists and each piece had its own identity and style and none were quite like the others, but they all hung together beautifully and warmly. The same went for all of the people in attendence and I believe that was highly influenced by the mood in the space that the show created. It was otherworldly transformed. There was a large installation by Alzaruba (
Click for info & artwork) that felt extremely womb-like with soft colored fabric, foil, and plastic hanging from the ceiling and draped over furniture with well disguised oscillating fans and shifting lights over blankets and pillows and a giant yarn egg. I swear I thought that was going to turn into a piggy pile by the end of the night. The only thing missing was the ecstacy and vapo-rub. It was a party, but it was wholly more than that. An incredible installation by Melissa Webb (
inamaterialworld.com), attendants were sprawled across the kitchen floor crafting their own pieces of fabric art, attaching them to lines on pulleys and lowering them into the installation on the roof of the light-shaft. It's genius. People were so focused on their little piles of yarn and cloth that the party going on around them was completely background. The same happened with Liz Zacharia's hanging domes, which I took to calling "thinking caps" because of the way one's entire world was isolated when the head was put up into these domes. I want one for home use so I can get some thinking done. It would probably make things like writing this blog not take all day. Anyway it was an awesome show with some talented artists, beautiful people, loving community, righteous action, and peaceful joy. What a wonderful day! I love this city!
Here are a couple pictures from Off the Wall:
Work by Freda Mohr & Christina Martinelli:
Rebecca Nagle pictured with work by Liz Ensz, Matt Gemmell, Rebecca Habtour, and Jeanne Marie Burdette:
Freda Mohr pictured with work by Melissa Webb:
Work by Jen Kirby, Phuong Pham, Sarah Matson, Annie Gray, & Liz Zacharia:
Work by Edward Knapp, Jill Greenberg, Rachel Schmidt, & Gina Denton:
