Time Is On Our Side

[September 6th, 2006] It's that time again. Bare-breasted Balkan milkmaids, night vision dance shows, iconic post-punk sound mavens and hometown indie rockers. For the fourth year in a row, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art is hell-bent on turning this city into an arts free-for-all. Even as New York "guitar hero" John King's "Extreme Guitar Orchestra" prepares to descend on Pioneer Courthouse Square for TBA's free kickoff performance tomorrow night (6:30 pm Thursday, Sept. 7, free), more than 20,000 perf junkies from around the world are frantically poring over their TBA schedules, mapping out a strategy to attend the maximum number of shows (more than 50 acts are on the docket) in 11 days, at venues ranging from the Portland Center for Performing Arts and the Works (PICA's late-night, Eastside Industrial playground) to the Willamette River itself.

At the center of this highbrow, high-price fest (TBA immersion passes run $225, although the Works costs 15 bucks a night) lives the simple idea that if you pack a powder keg of artists, eccentrics and arts lovers into a small city in a short time frame—and maybe add booze—it'll yield explosively creative results. And it has (in varying degrees) since its inception. During this immersive arts bender, the stranger crammed into the seat next to you could end up being as intriguing as the artist you're watching onstage (hell, she could be performing her own gig next). With this in mind, WW tapped a handful of people, from TBA icons to festival organizers and local dancemakers, to find out what sets this fest apart—and what they won't be missing this time around.

^Laurie Anderson, performance artist

A violinist-composer, multimedia storyteller—and, yes, Lou Reed's girlfriend—Anderson is a pioneering figure of performance art. Her work The End of the Moon was created from recent experiences and research as the first artist-in-residence at NASA. Newmark Theatre, PCPA, 1111 SW Broadway. 7 pm. Friday-Saturday, Sept. 8-9. $20-$40 PICA members/$30-$50 general. (TDR)

WW: Artist Tim Miller once said you were important because you were "popular, but epic; showbiz, but avant-garde." How do you position what you do?

Laurie Anderson: I try not to. I try to make really good stories and sometimes end up doing them in really unusual places...like being booked into a really strange conference of businesspeople in Miami—where I was totally out of context, for them and me. Does that make me ready for a kind of roadshow for presentations at business conferences? I'm not sure how to answer that.

"Our plan is to drop a lot of odd objects onto your country from the air. And some of these objects will be useful. And some of them will just be...odd.... The United States helps, not harms, developing nations by using their natural resources and raw materials." I heard you speak these ironic words at a festival during the Reagan era. Do they still have resonance for you?

They have more resonance! I'd completely forgotten about them...how little things have changed. A lot of that stuff that was interesting in the '80s still is. In fact, we're still fighting the same war—which is the eerie part. I think Americans have this idea that wars are finite—that they all have names and themes, but when you look at what's going on and think back to then and the Iran-Contra affair—here we are.

What excites you about the TBA festival or Portland?

Portland has sophisticated audiences; when I performed there in the '70s, people were really onto what I was doing.... so that makes it a lot more fun for me; you're not a mystery to them. I've been out on a ranch for three weeks so I know nothing about anything...[on the TBA bill]. I'm looking forward to being able to look around; that's the lifeblood for me—seeing what other artists are doing. Also buying books. I'm leaving an empty suitcase to buy books—I go to Powell's every time I'm there, first thing.

^Marne Lucas and Bruce Conkle, Blinglab

Portland visual artists Lucas and Conkle spent last January holed up at arts nonprofit Caldera's retreat in Sisters, Ore., with a pile of baby dolls and felt. The result is The Untold Misadventures of Lewis and Clark, an absurdist take on the Northwest's ubiquitous explorers with requisite doses of homoeroticism and Bollywood-style song and dance. Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave. 8 pm Thursday-Saturday, Sept. 14-16. $7-$10. (BW)

WW: Is performing at TBA different from your previous experience as visual artists?

Marne Lucas: They're very supportive while you're a part of it. They're like, "So what do you need? What's your materials list?" We've never had anyone ask, as visual artists, "So what would you like? Email us your list of demands." And we're like, "Demands?"

What shows will you drag yourselves away from the studio to attend?

Lucas: I really want to see Laurie Anderson.... We tried to make that on our list of demands: Marne has to have tickets to Laurie Anderson. But it didn't even end up in the contract. Conkle: I want to see Jollyship the Whiz-Bang, the other puppet show. And David Eckard's floating contraption.

^Philip Bither, Walker Art Center

Philip Bither's been the senior curator of performing arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (the largest museum-based live arts program in the country) since 1997. He's part of a network of contemporary art center presenters that are meeting at TBA for the second year in a row. (TDR)

WW: As a seasoned presenter, what's attractive about TBA to you?

Philip Bither: For myself (and probably many of my colleagues who travel constantly to festivals), I'm grateful that TBA happens, because it's more relaxed. Unlike a booking conference, which crams everything into a short time span, or BAM [Brooklyn Academy of Music]'s Next Wave Festival, which happens over a three-month period, TBA offers the chance to get an immersive dose of programming, catch up with artists.... Here, keen interests are aligned and it's a lot like getting together with family.

What specific work excites you this year?

The Spalding Gray Project was something I'd considered but wasn't able to do, but now I can see it; Nature Theater of Oklahoma—I saw it on video. Did I get it? I don't know—I'm very curious. Cynthia Hopkins has a pop accessibility mixed with a quirky vanguard sensibility that is seductive—she's got a simply magical stage presence.

^Tahni Holt, choreographer, Monster Squad

Since TBA debuted in 2003, local dancemaker Tahni Holt has been a festival spectator, a featured choreographer with her group Monster Squad in 2004 and even a glorified roadie—happily schlepping water bottles and gathering arcane props like canary grass for Lone Twin last year. Holt's back this year as a performer in postmodern dance icon Deborah Hay's challenging Room (see preview, page 58)—a pair of back-to-back solos with local mover Linda Austin. Brunish Hall, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, 1111 SW Broadway. 4 pm Sunday, Sept. 10. 6 pm Monday-Wednesday, Sept. 11-13. $15 TBA members/$20 general. (KC)

WW: What's the one thing that stays constant at TBA?

Tahni Holt: What stays constant is the generosity that you feel though the fest...how the organization treats the artists. Adding art onto that is pretty amazing. It's cheesy, but it's like a dysfunctional commune. Anybody can pop in for a week and then get spit out.... [At each TBA there's] always something that you really, really fall in love with...and there's a piece that's like, "Oh my god, how did that get in here?"

How is TBA or PICA changing the local arts scene?

Portland's a really small place in the world...isolated. It's so essential as an artist to have some perspective on where you are and what's out there. And PICA has instilled that in this community.... Some people would dispute this, but TBA has allowed for more people in the [local] community to perform and participate. Jennifer Monson is using five local dancers. John King is using 50 people from Portland. That's insane.

What can't you miss this year at TBA?

I'm not gonna miss Stan's Cafe....it's six hours a day of tedious work, picking up rice and putting it in different categories. I'm interested in how people bring a concept to life and don't dumb it down. I'm not gonna miss Fleshtone—Jayme [Hansen] is a powerhouse and I'm excited to see it come out of Portland. And [Jennifer] Monson's work—my partner, Toby Query, is the botanist that's helping her [with Flight of Mind]. He's volunteering time to be a specialized botany art consultant. Now, there's another concept.

^Mark Russell, guest artistic director, TBA Festival

Russell was the first artistic director of New York's famed PS 122 from 1983 to 2004. During his tenure he was vital in jump-starting the careers of everybody from Whoopi Goldberg to Doug Varone. And now he's ours this year, as TBA's guest artistic director. (TDR)

WW: One of the things local artists say they're responding to this year at TBA is a sense of adventurousness. Was widening the playing field a strategy this year?

Mark Russell: It was a pretty conscious strategy, crossing art forms and crossing the river...and it sort of happened organically. The Works ended up turning into a major venue for us as opposed to an afterthought. I think a lot of the soul of the festival (some of the best work) will be happening at the Works.

Is there anything that feels like a coup for you in this year's TBA?

I feel really excited that we were able to get [Vivarium Studio/Philippe Quesne's] The Itching of the Wings to come. That's going to be a very special performance. The Kiki & Herb performance will be legendary. If people get a chance to see [Nature Theater of Oklahoma's] Poetics: a ballet brut, they'll get one of the points of the festival.

If my mother has the notion that performance art is people covered in chocolate or defiling crucifixes, what can I take her to to make her appreciate live art?

I haven't met your mother, but I'm imagining that she's actually pretty hip, so I'd say if she can stay up that late, she'll probably like Cynthia Hopkins—she's a major artist. TBA essentially starts with Laurie Anderson and ends with Cynthia. Cynthia in my book is an inheritor to the throne.

^Mark Murphy, Executive Director, REDCAT

From his office in the Frank Gehry-designed Disney Concert Hall, Mark Murphy oversees the Los Angeles arts center known by its whimsical acronym, REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/Calarts Theater). (RS)

WW: Are you excited about Mark Russell's contribution to this year's TBA?

Mark Murphy: I've known Mark since 1985. His program this year is extraordinary. I think he's invited some artists that really should be seen by Northwest audiences and artists. To be honest, I was a little worried when PICA shifted from year-round performance programming and focused just on the TBA festival [in 2003]. The ongoing program seemed important, and [former PICA head] Kristy Edmunds and I often collaborated on projects I was bringing to Seattle—I was artistic director of On the Boards from 1987 to 2001. But it seems like TBA has hit its stride this year. It's considered to be an important American festival—and there aren't enough of those.

What's on your must-see list at TBA this year?

I'm only going to be able to make it to Portland for the last couple of days. I wish I could be there for the weekend that features Yubiwa Hotel (see preview, page 58). I definitely recommend Bebe Miller's Landing Place—it's a very smart dance/media work, which I was proud to present at REDCAT last Fall.

^Pavol Liska, artistic director, Nature Theater of Oklahoma

Slovakian-born director Pavol Liska first came to the United States at age 18—and he came to Oklahoma. He says he'd read, in Franz Kafka's Amerika, about the "nature theater of Oklahoma," and he was interested in joining it. "But you know, when I got there, it wasn't there," he told WW. And so, several years later, his theater company was born. Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave. 6 pm Tuesday-Wednesday, Sept. 12-13, and 9 pm Friday-Sunday, Sept. 15-17. $20 PICA members, $25 general. (SMB)

WW: In your show, mundane "everyday" movement is reimagined as something beautiful and poetic. What do you think PDXers will take away from your performance?

Pavol Liska: Hopefully they will be excited about life...they will leave the performance and see the reality around them with fresh eyes, and be able to appreciate the simple everyday things we do, and not take them for granted. Ideally the performance will start after the audience leaves the theater: on the bus, at work, on the street.

What will your company be up to while you're here?

We'll take the opportunity of being together to generate more material for our new work...[and] see some of the city. I am hoping for more out of Portland than what I've come to expect in New York.

What is your must-see TBA show?

Deborah Hay...I'd love to see what she's up to. And Laurie Anderson and Jennifer Monson, too.

^James "Tigger!" Ferguson, boylesque artist

Tigger!—as he is commonly known—is an NYC resident who has perfected the art of "boylesque" (that's burlesque for boys) in performances across the globe. He recently won the first-ever "Mr. Exotic World" title, and the Golden Pastie Award for "Performer Most Likely to Get Shut Down by the Law." He brings his brand of ass-brandishing to this year's TBA Festival. The Works, 226 SE Madison St. 10 pm Friday, Sept 15. $10 members/$15 general. 21+. (SMB)

WW: So what is "boylesque"? Are people going to be shoving dollar bills in your G-string or pulling on your pasties?

Tigger!: Pasties don't come up very often—a little nipple glitter is usually all the clothing I need—and the dollar bills, yeah, sure! I used to get calls, like, for go-go boys or random parties, people asking if I've worked with Chippendales. The whole notion of taking your clothes off for complete strangers is both completely fucked up and funny.

Are you coming here for work or for play?

Both! Portland will have both Mister and Miss Exotic World at their disposal, and I hope they take advantage of that.

What TBA Fest show are you jazzed to check out?

Umm, I'm not even sure what else is going on. [WW reads a few highlights to Tigger!] Oh, absolutely check out Pavol's [Nature Theater of Oklahoma] show. Despite some arty credentials he really believes theatre should be entertaining.... Halle-fuckin-lujah!

^9 to watch: WW's own TBA PICKS

Taylor Mac: Blending cabaret and sociopolitical commentary, Mac makes his P-town debut. Get ready for what Next magazine calls the "stark-raving fabulousness" of this fearless performer. The Works, 10 pm Friday, Sept. 15. $10 members, $15 general. 21+.

David Eckard, Float: David Eckard takes to the water with a pile of megaphones as the Willamette's own dada evangelist. Willamette River, Hawthorne Bridge. Thursday, Sept. 7. Dusk. Free.

Illegal Art: Disneycorp may own Mickey ad infinitum, but these artists give the puffy, gloved finger to the war on fair use. Feldman Gallery, PNCA, 1241 NW Johnson St. 9 am-9 pm daily, Aug. 28-Oct. 21. Free.

Yubiwa Hotel, CANDIES: Arty, feminist Japanese cabaret. Highbrow cosplay, anyone? Artists Repertory Theatre, 1516 SW Alder St. 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 9-10, and 7 pm Friday-Saturday, Sept. 8-9. $20 members, $25 general.

Cynthia Hopkins/Gloria Deluxe: Part Lotte Lenya's long-lost daughter, part Suzanne Vega on speed, with a kick-ass band to boot. The Works. 10 pm Saturday, Sept. 16. $10 members, $15 general. 21+.

Kiki & Herb: High-camp cabaret with songs ranging from the maddening (Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time") to the melodramatic ("Total Eclipse of the Heart"). See Queer Window (page 56) for a different view on the duo. Newmark Theatre, PCPA, 8 pm Monday, Sept. 11. $20 members, 25 general.

Brad Adkins: At 2 pm daily throughout the festival, the Montana-born Adkins shows up and talks about stuff he's done or heard that day, or maybe takes you somewhere else. A hit-or-miss event, to be sure. TBA Central, 2 pm daily, Sept. 7-17. Free.

Jennifer Monson/iLand, Flight of Mind: Two decades of experimental work reaches a fever-pitch with Monson's Flight, a five-year project exploring migratory patterns of birds. Disjecta, 230 E Burnside St. 6 pm Thursday-Sunday, Sept. 14-17. $15 members, $20 general.

Marina Abramovic, Balkan Erotic Epic: This 1970s-era perf art pioneer trades in her trademark endurance tests exploring the limits of pain, exhaustion and danger for an equally compelling video work that mines the eroticism and sexuality of ancient paganism in Serbian folklore. Corberry Press, Building B, Northwest 18th Avenue and Northrup Street. Noon-6 pm Thursday-Sunday, Sept. 7-17. Free. Mature audiences.