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Been There, Done That
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
SHOW: Scopes Monkey Trial lecture
GENRE: Lecture
SPEAKER: Dr. Janet Monge
ATTENDED: Wed., April 3, 6 p.m., Penn Museum
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: The Scopes Monkey Trial was a landmark American legal case in 1925 in which high school science teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach evolution. ... Join Dr. Janet Monge, Penn Museum Physical Anthropology Curator-in-Charge and Keeper of Collections, as she discusses this landmark event.
WE THINK: Any lecture on the topic of evolution and American scientific culture that involves a screenshot of Homer Simpson is bound for greatness. Using a combination of alarming facts and engaging humor, Dr. Janet Monge explored the culture that surrounded the trial in 1925, its effects on American education and scientific thought and the current views of evolution and science in the United States.
Knowledgeable and gregarious, Dr. Monge used a straightforward PowerPoint presentation to explain the devastating results of deep-pocketed Creationist pressure and lobbying to avoid teaching evolution in public high school, leading to generations misunderstanding the basic concepts of biology. Dr. Monge examined how more Americans become separated from scientific knowledge as religious fundamentalists write Biology textbooks and create museums based on the Young Earth theory. It's hard not to come away from this lecture frustrated with the current state of American scientific education.
—Elizabeth Gunto
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: She flies through the air with the greatest of ease… and gets a black eye on the flying trapeze.
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
CLASS: Daringly High Trapeze Classes
GENRE: Circus
GROUP: Fly School Circus Arts
ATTENDED: March 31, 11:30 a.m., UArts lot
CLOSES: April 27
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: "On October 30th, 1965, Model Jean Shrimpton shocked the Australian establishment by attending Derby Day, a significant horse racing event in Melbourne, wearing a mini dress with a considerably higher hemline than was acceptable. … Fly School Circus Arts presents Daringly High, a celebration of the empowerment, confidence, and freedom found in doing the unexpected, flying in the face of limitations, trying something you never thought possible."
WE THINK: Jean Shrimpton might be hard-pressed to see what her hemline has to do with a group of six women (and one tie-dye-clad man) taking turns dangling from a trapeze set up an a gravel-strewn vacant lot on South Broad Street as gawkers peered on through a chain-link fence. But poetic reaches aside, this two-hour class suitable for beginners is one of the most invigorating experiences you’ll find in PIFA — or anywhere else. Mary Kelly Fayel, a graduate of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College leads an enthusiastic and surefooted team of instructors who take attendees through backflips, upside-down hangs and, if approved for takeoff, a catch in the hands of a pro hanging from a second trapeze at the other end of the net. Sure, I managed to give myself a black eye in the process (we took a photo, shown) — but the Shrimptonesque sense of liberation (from gravity, if not gracelessness) was worth it.
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: Civil War ghosts just wanna sing!
“Let your beauty run wild,” read Philadelphia poet laureate Sonia Sanchez from one of six haikus (followed by a much longer poem assisted by saxophone) she wrote for Wangechi Mutu’s exhibition — the first at the expanded Leonard Pearlstein Gallery at the new URBN building, home of Drexel's art and design programs.
As Dr. Joseph Gregory, chair of the departments of Art and Art History at Drexel and overseer of the gallery, told me that evening, Sanchez was instrumental in bringing Mutu — an Kenya-born artist based in Brooklyn — and her work to Philadelphia. He introduced the two almost a year ago because Sanchez was interested in writing poetry based on Mutu’s work. When he pitched the inaugural exhibition at the Pearlstein to her, “She said yes on the basis of Sonia Sanchez being involved.”
And, as Sanchez said, Mutu’s work does run wild — syncretism being a necessity of her personal history, savage beauty being her aesthetic calling, and collage her primary medium. In that regard, the gallery doesn’t save the best for last, putting the chimeric “Three Huggers” and the even more bizarre series “The Histology of the Different Tumors of the Uterus” right up front. (Glitter will never be the same.)
Also showing are a few of her short films, the most memorable of which is “Eat Cake,” a solo performance (like most of her work) in which the artist squats before a tree in a white (wedding?) dress devouring a chocolate (wedding?) cake. The image reminds one not so much of Marie Antoinette, but of Bertha Mason (née Antoinette Cosway) of Jane Eyre and The Wide Sargasso Sea — precisely the sort of maligned post-colonial female persona that would figure in Mutu’s art.
The exhibition’s centerpiece is “Suspended Playtime” (shown, above), an installation of dozens of improvised trash-bag soccer balls suspended from the ceiling by golden strings. At some point early in the evening a few youngsters decided that it was an obstacle course to be walked through, and not gingerly. The adults soon followed suit, resulting in the coterie of young women who assist Ms. Mutu staying busy throughout the event untangling strings and salvaging dropped balls.
Accompanying the exhibition was the Drexel Dance Ensemble, choreographed by Tania Isaac, whose work clearly shares Mutu’s preoccupations. The dozen or so dancers, outfitted in multicolored and feathered flesh based unitards, entered the gallery from several directions, posing and writhing in pairs until joining together for an extended finale that saw the ensemble divide, subdivide, coalesce, splinter again, recombine, and build its momentum from the slow and eerie to the frenetic. It was an attentive dedication to Mutu’s work, containing within it some of the uncanny mix of violence, provocation, and grotesque seduction that has made the 40-year-old Kenyan so major.
Through March 30.
View galleryThis past weekend, the Academy of Natural Sciences hosted their fifth Bugfest, a kid-filled but all-ages-welcome event filled with live critters, informational talks, insect-related crafting, beetle pining and chocolate-chip cricket cookie eating, among other activities.
This year's theme was butterflies, so cases and cages of monarchs, swallowtails and the like filled the museum's rooms. Curatorial assistant to entomology Isa Betancourt says the festival draws more vistors than other weekend events, perhaps because insects are inherently interactive and hands-on. "Being able to touch them is so much more of an experience," says Betancourt, than having patrons simply look at photographs. City Paper took some photographs on the scene.
Green space isn't common in Center City and landmarks around Rittenhouse Square are slow to change. So don't be surprised when walking down Walnut Street that the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has taken over that odd vacant lot right across the street from Rittenhouse Square and turned it into a garden focused on growing food for the City Harvest program. City Paper went to the opening and took a few pictures.
Saturday, the Norris Square Neighborhood Project (NSNP) held its annual Festival de Bambulaé, a Puerto Rican celebration and fundraiser in the community's vibrant garden space. NSNP supports local Latino youth through areas such as the arts and community involvment. The neighborhood's inspirational effort permeated all aspects of the event, from the paper flowers to the pork roast to the homegrown mint in the mojitos.
The first annual ReelAbilities: Philadelphia Disabilities Film Festival (which we told you about in this week's Agenda section) began its week of “films by and about people with disabilities” at the Painted Bride Art Center yesterday afternoon. The venue was decorated with works by students of Oasis Arts and Education, a Philly-based org dedicated to the cultivation of artistic achievement in people with mental illness or intellectual disabilities.
Guests were treated to a screening of Courtney Bent’s Shooting Beauty, a documentary that chronicles the filmmaker’s relationship with a group of individuals afflicted with varying degrees of cerebral palsy. In the film, Bent is an aspiring fashion photographer who jury-rigs several point-and-shoot cameras for her new friends and asks them to “document their lives in pictures.” Bent discovers that this practice yields critical insight into the lives of people whose identities are too often reduced to their disabilities.
During a post-film discussion, Bent described her subjects as a “vivacious, wonderful group of people.” She explained that photography gave this group a voice to express themselves and, simultaneously, these people “gave [Bent] a voice” by making her “feel confident and loved.” They inspired her to complete the film.
Last night's Punk Rock Prom, at the Barbary's upstairs bar, Barbarella, drew a modest crowd of punk-rock enthusiasts, who came out in their finest glam gear to dance to New Radio's lady DJs Emily, Avalon and Ally, plus a smattering of guest turntablists. This "regular prom ... for punks," of course, showcased "all punk rock, all night."
With Memorial Day over, so ends the new Barnes Foundation’s 56 straight hours of free opening festivities, readying it for its new life as a titan on the Parkway. I was one of those with a ticket that got me in during the wee hours of the night, 3 a.m. on Monday to be exact. As we approached the Museum, I strolled past Ellsworth Kelly’s Barnes Totem that overlooks a pool and path surrounded by Japanese maples: Not the same as the idyllic suburban location in Merion, but still tranquil enough to usher transformation from busy city into a peaceful park space.
Once inside, I noticed the lower level hosted the usual museum amenities — a coat check, gift shop, classrooms, auditorium and waiting areas. The upper level of the expanded space provided a special exhibition gallery that was dominated by a number of Barnes’ letters and other writings for those who desire a glimpse into the long-deceased curator’s thoughts.
Grand bronze doors greeted the stream of patrons moving into the principal museum area that holds Dr. Albert C. Barnes' impressive collection. One is immediately overwhelmed by the scale of the center gallery, the sheer number of pieces crammed into one room and Barnes’ idiosyncratic layouts. The figures from Matisse’s colorful mural The Dance II invite viewers to avert their eyes upward and then around at equally awe-inspiring pieces by masters like Cezanne, Picasso and Renoir.
Having visited the original location in Merion in 2004, the new space lived up to my memory of what once was. Among the notable changes was Matisse’s Joy of Life being moved from a staircase to a small room upstairs facing the aforementioned mural. While I can appreciate the eccentricity of Barnes’ gallery plans, I often found myself wishing I could look at some of the pieces at eye level. In the current space, general admission is $18, galleries are limited to 250 patrons at a time and there is enough on display to keep casual viewers busy for a couple hours — even if it's at the ass crack of dawn.
On Friday, I got word that there was this big biker party called Skate and Ride down at the FDR Skate Park, so I quick hopped on my bike and went down to get some photos.
Photos by Brittany Thomas
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