Lonestar Explosion 2014: They came. I saw, and all of us were compromised. (NSFW)

Dean Liscum

The second Houston International Performance Art Biennale (a.k.a. Lonestar Explosion) took place from Thursday, February 20 through Saturday February 22, 2014. During the festival organized by Julia Claire Wallace, Jonatan Lopez and Ryan Hawk, many local, regional, national, and international performance artists converged on Houston in a marathon of performances.


Jessica Santone at the CAM


Autumn Hays interviewing Jill McDermid and Erik Hokanson at the CAM 

They lectured at local universities (Sam Houston State and University of Houston), held a panel discussion at the CAMH, performed at such venues as Box 13, the Art League, and Notsuoh. While performing, some got dirty;


Dirty Dancing by Hilary Scullane 


Making the Perfect Line #2 by Josh Urban Davis 

some got naked;


Kristen Danae Keilman, Bound


Utero by Abel Azcona 


For Gloria by Emilio Rojas 

some got cold;


Romper La Noche by Carlos Martiel

some got blue;


Untitled by Nestor Topchy 

some got exploited, and some got injured and taken to the emergency room.

By the final performance, a few personal boundaries may have been violated, some psyche's may have been damaged, and some preconceived notions/prejudices may have died. Which is what is supposed to happen because those are some of the roles that performance art plays in its relationship with its audience.

I attended the entire festival and while I didn't see every performance, I witnessed most of them. Over the next couple of weeks/months, I'll recount what I experienced, share what I saw, and discuss how I interpreted it. And you can take it or leave because after an explosion what else is left but debris and impressions.

Pan Recommends for the week of July 18 to July 24

Robert Boyd

Last weeks was all about commercial galleries and big institutions. This week shifts the focus somewhat to alternative events and venues: performance, artist run spaces, unjuried shows, etc. Here are a few of this weekend's events.

THURSDAY



The Art Guys "Never Not Funny" at NotsuoH, 4 pm to midnight. The latest of the Art Guys' celebration of 30 years together is a durational performance--8 hours of stand-up comedy. (Will there be any young whippersnapper performance artists simultaneously doing 8 hours of heckling?)

FRIDAY


Forsman & Brodenfors, with Evelina Bratell (stylist) and Carl Kleiner (photographer), "Homemade Is Best," 2010

Graphic Design-Now in Production at the CAMH, including but not limited to Albert Exergian, Jürg Lehni and Alex Rich, Anthony Burrill, Pedro Fernandes, and Irma Boom, 6-9 pm, running hrough September 29. Well, this is something quite different--a show full of things that are designed to be visually interesting conveyers of information. It's nice to see this kind of artistic production acknowledged by art museums every now and then.


James McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl -- this masterpiece was in the first Salon des Refusés

Salon des Refusés 2013, part 1, with Le'Ann Alexander, Jim Arp, Missy Bosch, JB Carrillo, Monica Chhay, Sarah Cloutier, Felipe Contreras, Jenna Jacobs, Rachel Jahan-Tigh Vines, Bartz Johnson, Jeremy Keas, Peter Lucas, Rob McDonald, Tracey Meyer, Lorena Morales, Michel Muylle, Christopher Olivier, Donna Perkins, Kelyne Reis, Will Schorre, Robert Sennhauser, Brian Sensabaugh & James Scott, Herbert Shapiro, Rosalind Speed, Alexine Stevens, Kamila Szczena, The Human Tour - Carrie Schneider & Alex Tu, Donna Villarreal, Dandee Warhol and Mary Beth Woiccak at BLUEorange, 6 pm. For the past few years, some gallery someplace has shown work that was not accepted for the Big Show. This year it's BLUEorange, and they are splitting their Salon des Refusés into four 1-week exhibits, starting this weekend.

 
VILD's sculpture made of test tubes was shown at the Matchbox Gallery at Rice

VILD, Submerged: origins of a Species at Fresh Arts, 6 pm. VILD are a pair of Rice undergrads, Vinita Israni and Linh Tran Do, and this installation involves a combination of art and science which is the kind of brainiac art you might expect from Rice students (at least Rice students who, unlike me, aren't spending their undergraduate years in a haze of alcohol and THC).

 
I have no idea what this is, but it was on the Error Forest Facebook page...

Error Forest with Jonathan Jindra, Sandy Ewen, Pablo Gimenez Zapiola, Y.E. Torres, Robert Pearson and Marisa R. Miller at El Rincón Social, starting at 8:30 pm. Performances, projections, sound installations and musical performances. The invite suggests dressing lightly--El Rincón Social is an unairconditioned space, if I recall correctly.

Art As Sacrifice featuring over 100 artists at Hardy & Nance Studios, 7 pm.  This event, organized by Pete Gershon, Stephanie Darling and the Hardy and Nance Studios is a giant art swap organized as a tribute to the late art scenester Anthony Palasota.

SATURDAY



CC∞ aka Countercrawl 8, starting at Market Square Park (300 Travis St.) and leaving at 11:30am sharp, wandering thence to various locations and featuring Thien, Bryan Lee, Renee' Cosette, Jacqueline Jai, Emmannuel Nuno Arambula, Traci Matlock, Linda Cornflake, Noah D. Clough, Unna Bettie, Hilary Scullane, Y.E. Torres and more. Music, art, poetry, performance and bicycles combine for the 8th time for an afternoon/evening of fun.


Jason Villegas, I think...


Jason Villegas: Nouveau Jersey at Settlement Goods, 6–9 pm. The master of the polo shirt returns, this time not at a fancy art gallery like McClain but at a fancy clothes and stuff shop, Settlement Goods. Being irremediably unfashionable, this will be my first time stepping foot into this place of business.

Political Projections of Our Puerile Politicos

Dean Liscum

Presidential Head Projections by Jonatan Lopez and Hilary Scullane had a limited run (Friday, June 28th, 9:30 p.m. to may be 11 p.m.) and played to a very exclusive crowd, those riding in June's Critical Mass. Nevertheless, it was (and is) extremely timely.



The piece consisted of Lopez and Scullane projecting looping video of their faces onto one of David Adickes' two-story tall presidential busts. The artists' expressions ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, dallying in somber-smile stares and then expanding into tongue-wagging, toothy grins.

The images alternated evenly between the two artists (gender equity with their political polemics) and were projected on to only one of the presidential busts, which appeared to be more of a matter of logistics rather than opprobrium for that particular president. A soundscape accompanied the projections. Although, I couldn't quite follow the content (too much echoing and reverb both intentional and not), the dissonance conveyed was disturbing enough.

Except for Wendy Davis doing an Abramovic tribute, I can't think of any more politically au courant art.  (Don't get me wrong, Coming Through the Gap in the Mountain on an Elephant at TSU's University Museum is politically timeless, and runs through August 25, 2013.)



Lopez and Scullane's snarky, tongue-wagging is pitch perfect with the Obama administration's defense of the NSA surveillance program. Their denial-justification plays out like an adolescence who's been caught.

We're only kind of spying on you. 

Everyone else is doing it. 

It's OK when I do it. Really! It's for your own good. Because I'm a good guy. I'm special and that makes it different. 

No really, just because I ignored and\or persecuted all the other whistle blowers doesn't mean I will you. That's just not fair to me. You're not giving me a chance to change."

The administration's disclaimers matched up with the artists' alternately wry and ridiculous facial expressions punch through the political pablum. (A mash-up with press conference sound bites would have been really cool, but perhaps a little too explicit...after all, the eyes and ears of the NSA are upon them and you and me.)

This video of the President Head Projections doesn't do the performance justice, but it's better than nothing.



For me, PHP was a poignant, political-artistic moment in the midst of a party. I wasn't expecting it; I was momentarily captivated by it, and then I moved on. I headed over to the food trucks, the drink lines, and the homemade slip-n-slide, because I'd just been on a 2-hour bike ride and the high temperature had been 100 F.



But it was memorable enough to stick with me through the party and the bike ride home.

Pan Recommends for the week of May 2 to May 8

Robert Boyd & Dean Liscum

Here are some but not all of the art events happening this weekend. Curious coincidence: there are three openings featuring artists named Regina or Regine (not to mention an artist named Reis, Portuguese for "king").

THURSDAY


Regina Foster, 2, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in

Ted Flicker and Regina Foster: Recent Works at Wade Wilson Art, 6–8 pm. Not your normal Wilson works: traditional sculptures of females paired with still lifes by two Santa Fe artists. (The video intro to Ted Flicker's website has to be seen to be believed.)

FRIDAY


 art by Regina Agu

An Echo, A Trace by Regina Agu at Darke Gallery, 6-9 pm. Bring your brain. The work addresses contemporary cosmologies, futurism, and storytelling.


We don't know what art will be shown at Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co., but here's a video by Hilary Scullane called meaning-less
 
ALL IN FORMS: Group Show featuring Almendra Castillo, Rochelle Kornas, Yma Luis, Nikki Thornton and Hilary Scullane at the Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company, 6-9 pm. Five women artists explore dreamscapes, personal trials, social issues, and femininity. Newish venue, newish artists, good old art.


Julia Claire Wallace at the second Continuum Live Art Series back in December

Continuum Live Art Series, Closing Night at Avant Garden, 8 pm - 2 am. It will be everything you imagine and fear performance art will be...and then there's a party afterward. (See here, here, here and here for much more.)

 
Steve Brudniak piece that may or may not be in this show,

Steve Brudniak: The Science of Surrealism at Avis Frank Gallery, 6–8 pm. In case you're wondering what it would be like to live in the video game Myst (I'm dating myself), I suspect being surrounded by a bunch of Steve Brudniak objects would be a good approximation.

SATURDAY

 
Harald Schmitz-Schmelzer, Diskos 7, 59 x 18 cm. I do't know if any of these "Diskos" pieces will be in No Paint, but I hope so! 

No Paint featuring Aldo Chaparro, August Muth, Mario Reis, Harald Schmitz-Schmelzer, Regine Schumann, and Hills Snyder at Gallery Sonja Roesch, 5–7 pm. Paintings without paint. Is this exhibition these artists' version of the emperor's new clothes? Come see for yourself.

 
Tuyet Ong-Barr, untitled 17, acrylic on canvas, 40"x 36" 

Tuyet Ong-Barr at d. m. allison, 6–8 pm. Get your Helen Frankenthaler/Sam Francis/color field fix with Tuyet Ong-Barr's paintings.


Not sure whose art this is, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be in the Joanna's upcoming show

Ana Villagomez, Dylan Roberts, and Miguel Martinez at the Joanna, 7–10 pm. To quote the Joanna "This show will be different from the others. It will be really really really good.” And if not, there's always beer for a small donation.

Pan Recommends for the week of December 13 to December 19

As we glide into Christmas, the number of shows and performances dwindles. Everybody is too busy shopping and drinking eggnog, I guess. Here are a few things on tap in Houston this week.

FRIDAY


Cat hugging a puppy, swiped from this

HUG: A Performance by Alonso Tapia at the Caroline Collective, 6:30 to 9:30. "Artist Alonso Tapia will stand in the middle of a vacant room at Caroline Collective, and members of the audience will be invited to hug him for as long as desired." Personally, I'm not into hugging. I prefer a firm handshake, or even a brief wave from across the room. But if Friday rolls around and you need a hug, Caroline Collective is the place to be!

SATURDAY

Counterclockwise at Lawndale Art Center, 3 pm to 5 pm. With James Ciosek's Human Hamster Wheel as the centerpiece, Counterclockwise is a carnival/performance art festival. Artists include Unna Bettie, Koomah, Jonatan Lopez, Kiki Maroon, Jessica Mendez, Raindawg, Hilary Scullane, Militia "Malice" Tiamat, Rowdy Tidwell, Y.E. Torres, Jana Whatley, Sway Youngston and The Amazing Mind Reading Cat. But will the cat give you hugs?

Curtis Gannon and David Anderson: Between Coats And Layers at Meyer Metro Gallery, 6 pm [open through December 29]. Curtis Gannon is known for his deconstructions (literally) of comic books. I don't know anything about David Anderson except that he's a painter.

Jon Read: Notes From The Dark Ride at Domy, 7 pm [through January 17]. Jon Read is the operations manager at Diverse Works, but like many who hold such positions, he is also an artist. The Dark Ride is a work in progress, a literal self-propelled ride through an environment of Read's creation. (If he needs a site to put it up, there's 75 vacant acres just south of 610 between Kirby and Fannon that I recommend.) This show presumably will consist of sketches and plans for the ride.

WINNERS!

by Robert Boyd

The answers are in! Thirteen of you smart people completed The Great God Pan Art History Quiz. At the bottom of this post are the correct answers. First, a few stats. The perfect score was 37, which was achieved by three of the contestants. (As per the rules, their prizes will be awarded in order of who turned in their answers first.) The scores ranged from 26 to 37, which suggests that next time I should make the test a little harder! (Another change for next time--no penalty for wrong answers. I think I want to encourage guessing because people's guesses were so intriguing. For example, one contestant guessed Elizabeth Murray for the Hans Arp, which immediately made me think that, yeah, there is a big similarity between these two artists.)

The most missed artist was Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier. I knew he would be difficult, which is why I included him. Seven missed with him. Other widely missed artists were Hans Arp (five wrong), Tadanori Yokoo (four wrong) and Michaelangelo Pistoletto (four wrong). I was surprised that so many got Yokoo right--I figured his being a poster artist might put him off the radar of "fine art" fans.

But enough of the boring preliminaries--on to the winners. The first person to get all of the answers right was Chris Cascio, which means he wins First Prize! Way to go Chris! Chris is a Houston-based artist who recently had shows at Cardoza Gallery and Front Gallery.


Chris Cascio, winner (left) and Pablo Cardoza at Diverse Works

He gets Texas: 150 Works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Esopus #19, the Aldo Rossi/Tim Rollins & K.O.S. catalog, and an original piece of art by yours truly, which I am embarrassed proud to show you now.


Robert Boyd, The Great God Pan He Dead, May 19, 2012, acrylic paint on watercolor paper

Second Prize goes to Elaine Cash of Beaverton, Oregon! Elaine used the quiz as a way to procrastinate from working on a real art-history paper. Elaine deserves special notice and a medal for Art History Beyond the Call of Duty for not only getting the names of the artists right, but providing titles for most of the works shown! Elaine gets a copy of Esopus #19 and the the Aldo Rossi/Tim Rollins & K.O.S. catalog. Congratulations Elaine!

Third Prize goes to another Houston artist, John Jenkins! Formerly part of the collective KJT Art Factory, he now does his work solo--you can check it out on his website. He got his entry in just under the wire, but it was 100% correct, which is all that counts. John will also get a copy of Esopus #19 and the Aldo Rossi/Tim Rollins & K.O.S. catalog.Congratulations John!

Fourth Prize goes to Hilary Scullane, an undergraduate art student at U.H. You can see a couple of Hilary's perfomances here and here. Hilary wins a copy of the Aldo Rossi/Tim Rollins & K.O.S. catalog.Congratulations Hilary!


gif by Brian Piana


 Here are the correct answers:

1. Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907
2. John Chamberlain, C’Estzesty, 2011
3. Tadanori Yokoo, Japanese Culture of the Postwar Years 1945-1995, 1996
4. Joseph Beuys, Eurasia Siberian Symphony 1963, 1966
5. Lawrence Weiner, A wall pitted by a single air rifle shot, 1969
6. Marisol Escobar, LBJ, 1967
7. James Rosenquist, F-111, 1964-65
8. Stuart Davis, Odol, 1924
9. Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913
10. Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier, 1807, Friedland, 1861-75
11. Jean Hans Arp, Enak’s Tears (Terrestrial Forms), 1917
12. Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel, 1913
13. Henri Matisse, The Red Studio, 1911
14. Giorgio de Chirico, The Seer, 1914-15
15. Kazmir Malevich, Painterly Realism of a Boy with Knapsack - Color
Masses in the Fourth Dimension, 1915
16. Claude Monet, part of the Water Lillies series
17. Fernand Léger, Woman with a Book, 1923
18. Pablo Picasso, Seated Bather, 1930
19. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled, 1991
20. Yves Tanguy, The Furniture of Time, 1939
21. Jackson Pollock, One: Number 31, 1950, 1950
22. Francis Bacon, Number VII from Eight Studies for a Portrait, 1953
23. Alberto Giacometti, Annette, 1962
24. Jasper Johns, Target with Four Faces, 1955
25. Ed Ruscha, Oof, 1963
26. Michelangelo Pistoletto, Man with Yellow Pants, 1964
27. Dan Flavin, untitled (to the “innovator” of Wheeling Peachblow), 1968
28. John McCracken, The Absolutely Naked Fragrance, 1967
29. Donald Judd, Untitled (Stack), 1967
30. Eva Hesse, Untitled, 1966
31. Daniel Buren, Striped cotton fabric with vertical white and colored bands of 8,7cm (+/- 0,3 cm) each. The two external white bands covered over with acrylic white paint recto-verso, 1970
32. Vija Celmins, Gun with Hand #1, 1964
33. Barbra Kruger, Untitled (You Invest in the Divinity of the Masterpiece), 1982
34. Marcel Duchamp, To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close to, for Almost and Hour, 1918
35. Paul Cezanne, Still Life with Apples, 1895-98
36. Frank Lloyd Wright, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1943-1959
37. David Shrigley, How Are You Feeling, 2012

Most of these artworks were seen at the Museum of Modern Art (which has them on its web site, so you could have easily looked them up there. I never said that this wasn't an open-book test). The John Chamberlain and Frank-Lloyd Wright were from the Guggenheim Museum (obviously). The Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier was at the Metropolitan Museum. And the David Shrigley was next to the High Line park.

Thanks to everyone who entered: Chris Cascio, Elaine Cash, John Jenkins, Hilary Scullane, Rachel Hooper, Maeve McCambridge, Bart Beaty, Bill Davenport, David McClain, Nicole McCormick, David Peterson, Darren Emanuel, and Lauren Moya Ford.