Oops! That's art
James D. Watts Jr. World Entertainment Writer, 10/03/2001
The New Genre Festival will feature work by the performance art ensemble nc5.
NC5 Brings it's seat-of-your-pants performance to New Genre
Of all the changes that have taken place in the relatively brief life of nc5, the Tulsa-based performance art aggregation, the one that has proved to be the most profound, the most liberating has been the discovery of humor.
"A lot of the stuff we've done in the past has been, to be honest, pretty heavy and dramatic," said Andrea Jobe, who with her husband Robert are the nucleus of nc5. "We try to deal with serious ideas, and we'd approach them in very serious ways."
"But once we realized it was possible to treat the same subjects with a little bit of humor, that really opened up all sorts of possibilities," Robert said. "We started asking ourselves, `How can we make a piece that will still be thought-provoking, but also will be fun or bizarre enough to make people want to see it again?'
"I mean, we've got a piece that we do about martyrs," Andrea said. "And we have one where we'll shoot rolls of toilet paper into the audience."
Added Robert, "Whatever we need to get the ideas across, we'll use it, whether it's serious or silly."
Some of nc5's works will be presented in the course of the ninth annual New Genre Festival, presented by Living Arts of Tulsa. The festival, which features contemporary visual and performance artists from throughout the world presenting cutting- edge works, takes place over five days and six venues around the city.
This is the first time nc5 has taken part in New Genre; they will be one of two masters of ceremonies during the ceremonies, which gives them the opportunity to perform three times. The ensemble will take part in the "Performance Open," a new program of short performance art pieces, 8 p.m. Thursday night at the NIGHTINGALE Theater.
The group will also open for Jose Torres Tama's performance of "In Exile Close to the Equator," 10 p.m. Friday at SoBo2, and for the 8 p.m. Saturday show by Die Audio Gruppe at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.
The pieces that nc5 will present during these performances are part of a larger work titled "Radioactivo," that the couple hopes to have in finished form by the spring of 2002.
"We do have things that are scripted, but I'm one of those people who loves to fly by the seat of the pants," he said. "I love those moments that happen spontaneously in the course of a performance, that you try to capture and use them to completely alter what you're doing. And most of the time that means involving the audience in the piece. You might say that we're the illegitimate children of artists like Blue Man Group, in the ways we try to involved the audience and try to mix in humor."
He laughed, then added, "Of course, not every one likes to perform that way."
The fundamental idea of "Radioactivo," the Jobes said, is about "trying to live in a toxic world." This does not mean, however, that the work deals with environmental issues.
What sets the Jobes' work apart from the majority of performance art is the fact that it comes from a devoutly religious sensibility. The Jobes have worked for Impact Productions, the Tulsa company that earned international recognition for its allegorical Christian musical "Toymaker's Dream," working in various capacities on that show and on the firm's film, TV and video projects.
The couple also have presented works of their own in the Tulsa area, such as "Accion de Gracia," a performance-dance piece that dramatized the search for, and the struggle to maintain, faith that was performed as part the contemporary dance theater programs offered by the now-defunct LocalMotion Foundation.
"We have a character we call the Naked Man, who is our Everyman figure," Robert said. "The costume is a flesh-colored swimsuit with a black bar in the front, and he's sort of the symbol of how vulnerable we are in a world that is full of poisons. Not just physical poisons, but cultural and spiritual ones as well.
"We don't try to offer any sort of answers -- our pieces are really designed to prompt even more questions," he said. "We're wanting to explore all the things that perplex us, that we end up ignoring because we're too wrapped up in living from day to day. And we try to get the audience to come along on with us, to explore these things together."
Festival of firsts
Living Arts of Tulsa executive director Steve Liggett describes the ninth annual New Genre Festival as "something of a festival of firsts."
"It's the first time we've needed five days to present everything, to begin with," he said.
This will be the first year multiple shows of the festival's major performance art pieces will be offered.
"That's been one of the most frequent comments we've received over the years," Liggett said.
"People would have to pick and chose which of the performance works they wanted to see, and they would end up missing something. This way, it's possible to see just about everything."
The New Genre Festival has traditionally drawn visual and performance artists from around the country to Tulsa, but the 2001 edition marks the first time Living Arts has featured an international performer.
Die Audio Gruppe, a group from Berlin, Germany, led by Benoit Maubrey, creates and performs in "electroacoustic clothes" -- garments equipped with speakers, transistors, samplers and computers that transform the wearer into what Liggett described as "a human Theramin, controlling the sounds they produced through the movements of their bodies." For more information, visit the group's website, www.audioballerinas.com <http://www.audioballerinas.com>.
NEW GENRE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
WEDNESDAY
Visual: "The Culture of Breath," interactive computer projection installation by Tiffany Holmes, professor of new media at the Chicago Art Institute. An investigation into the physiological, biological and psychological aspects of breathing. At Living Arts Space, 308 S. Kenosha Ave. Opening reception, 5-8 p.m. Continues through Oct. 25. For more: www.artic.edu/~tholmes <http://www.artic.edu/~tholmes>.
Visual: "Misery Loves Company," installation by Janet Davidson-Hues, ongoing through Oct. 25 at the Hogue Gallery.
THURSDAY
Visual: "The Appearance Machine," internet streaming installation by Willy Le Maitre and Eric Rosenzveig. Garbage from the streets of New York City is collected, arranged on a display then videotaped and streamed live to sites in New York, Amsterdam, Brazil, Germany and the Alexandre Hogue Gallery in Phillips Hall at the University of Tulsa, 2935 E. Fifth St. Opening reception, 5 to 7 p.m., with a gallery talk by Rosenzveig at 6 p.m. Continues through Oct. 25. For more: appearancemachine.com.
Performance: "Local Reality Test: Temporal Continuity Test," an out-of-theater performance art piece by Chris Wildrick. Between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Wildrick will walk around Tulsa, asking the time from those he meets. By comparing the answers he receives with his own watch, and mapping where these encounters happen, Wildrick will accumulate a vast amount of data regarding the discrepancies between time and space in Tulsa.
Performance: "Performance Open," a collection of short performance art works by local and national artists. Program includes: "An Object-Oriented Balcony Scene" by Broke Theater; "Ira T.D. Consumer Sr. Rants and Reveals Himself as Mainly Full of Largesse" by Walt Kosty; "PEARLisms" by Jayson Taylor; "Mutations" by nc5; "The Ties that Bind" by Traci Tullius; "Line In/Line Out" by Tulsa Experimental Theater; "I Want ..." by Theater Tulsa. 8 p.m. at NIGHTINGALE Theater, 1416 E. 4th St. Admission $8 ($6 students).
FRIDAY
Performance: Die Audio Gruppe. 8 p.m. at Doenges Theater, Tulsa Performing Arts Center, 110 E. Second St. Tickets $12 ($6 students), reservations by calling 596-7111.
Performance: "In Exile Close to the Equator," performance work by Jose Torres Tama. An autobiographical visual collage that combines personal stories about one man's immigrant experience to address universal ideas about the American dream. 10 p.m. Friday at SoBo2, 309 S. Detroit Ave. Tickets $12 ($6 students). For more: www.torrestama.com <http://www.torrestama.com>.
Performance: "Fan Club," by a.k.a. The fan is used as object and image in this work that investigates "the minefield of human relationships." 10 p.m. at NIGHTINGALE Theater. Tickets $12 ($6 students).
SATURDAY
Workshop: "Exploring the Personal to Comment on the Political," with Jose Torres Tama. 1 p.m. at SoBo2.
Performance: Die Audio Gruppe. 8 p.m. at Doenges Theater, Tulsa Performing Arts Center, 110 E. Second St. Tickets $12 ($6 students), reservations by calling 596-7111.
Performance: "In Exile Close to the Equator," performance work by Jose Torres Tama. An autobiographical visual collage that combines personal stories about one man's immigrant experience to address universal ideas about the American dream. 8 p.m. at SoBo2, 309 S. Detroit Ave. Tickets $12 ($6 students). For more: www.torrestama.com.
Performance: "Fan Club," by a.k.a. The fan is used as object and image in this work that investigates "the minefield of human relationships." 10 p.m. at NIGHTINGALE Theater. Tickets $12 ($6 students).
SUNDAY
Video: New Video Matinee, showing "nowhereland" by Ted Mills; "Noise in My Backyard" by Geoff Adams; "Time out of Joint" by Ed Hill and Suzanne Bloom; "Left" by Chris Houck; "Lost in Motion" by Jared Gilbert; and "Three Quick Ones" by John Galusha. 2 p.m. at Williams Conference Room, Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 S. Rockford Road. Tickets $7 ($6 students).
Ninth annual New Genre Festival presented by Living Arts of Tulsa
When: Wednesday through Oct. 7
Where: Living Arts Space, 308 S. Kenosha Ave.; Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Second Street and Cincinnati Avenue; SoBo2, 309 S. Detroit Ave.; NIGHTINGALE Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St.; Phillips Hall on the University of Tulsa Campus, 2935 E. Fifth St.; Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 S. Rockford Road
Tickets: Festival Pass, $40, available through Living Arts, 585-1234. Individual events, $7-$12, available at the door (PAC events require reservations; call 596-7111)