BURNAWAY does its best to get to as many openings, closings, performances, readings (and the like) as we can. Most are free and offer great opportunities to interact and support the local arts community. We’ll attempt to share our whirlwind experiences with you, but we take no responsibility for causing FOMO (fear of missing out).
Weekend of November 6-8
Is this Seattle, or Atlanta? We know the joke has been made, but we’re tired of being under water and longing for sunshine. This didn’t stop the weekend flow—new venues were explored, Flux Night declared the show must go on, and our art-seeking souls were like fire burning on the dance floor—or in this case, Edgewood. We got some good exercise, free shots, and even more responses.
Stacie Rose’s Structures and Anomalies at Kibbee Gallery, on view through Dec. 5.
The pieces I’ve been working on lately are really about opposing forces. I like trying to combine gestural and geometric work together, it’s kind of challenging to make it balance. The wood is new for me and it can go either way. It has a nature factor but it’s also been processed by a human. This is also the first time I’ve done a site-specific installation, the stairs are an awkward space for hanging art because people don’t know if they should stand on the steps. So I decided I wanted to do something there and Ben [Goldman] said, “Just experiment.” — Stacie Rose
I like how it feels like a jazzy riff on Escher’s staircases. — Angela Bortone
Jaynie Crimmins, Structures and Anomalies at Kibbee Gallery, on view through Dec. 5.
My work is made from my shredded junk mail; it’s basically a way that I examine the cultural artifacts of my life. This is my identity. My process is really meditative, but because of what these materials are, the material world always comes back to me. This [motions to all of the works in the show] was probably only a week’s worth of junk mail. I bought one thing from Crate and Barrel and I‘ve been on their mailing list for 10 years. — Jaynie Crimmins
Junk mail definitely doesn’t have a unsubscribe button and it overwhelms me, so I like the idea of recycling it. — Angela Bortone
George Long and David Baerwalde present PILE, on view until the end of the year at Ponce City Market.
This is an installation in a mall called Ponce City Market. [David and I] have both been working separately on tangents and riffs that are so similar that when we started working on this space and sharing images with him, I had actually done drawings that looked like his sculptures. It was like they already were communicating, everything was already kind of working together. Instead of running away from how creepy that actually sounds, we called it PILE, and are taking it just to the brink of cheeky. It’s a gallery, it’s an installation, it’s our living room. We basically are trying to keep our honor as artists. We aren’t afraid of trying to make money off this, but we are trying to be who we are. We are very aware of where we are, so we are gonna play games with people, and make more piles of things. — George Long
Freedom Fighter – Round 1: Fight for $15 by Center for Tactical Magic. Produced in collaboration with ATL Raise Up with performances by Dad’s Garage Theatre Company and music by IFLY’s Extremely Michael for Flux Night 2015: Dream.
They said there was $15 prize. It looked really easy to win, so I thought, free $15! Um, I try to eat healthy a lot, but I do like some fast-food. — “Fuck Yeah” Julian, winner of the first round against Jack in the Box
Raising the Arc by Jennifer Wen-Ma for Flux Night 2015: Dream.
I think we counted six computers back there, running this all. We have eight mics in this field, recording what people are saying, and all their voices will be put in the finale at the end of the night. I’m in charge of the sound design for this project. There’s three of us, we wrote a lot of software from scratch to do all of the analysis of the recording and categorizing it by pitch so we can play it back later. We will actually be releasing the software open source after its inclusion in Flux Night.
This really belongs outside. I think it demands this open space. For me there’s something really beautiful, when you hear people shouting into the mics, but a lot of what they are doing is very kind of almost private thing. We are only almost 10 feet away, but you have no idea what they are saying because sound is just diffusing in the field. We can see what they are doing and we are going to hear what they are doing later. And there’s this notion of public space versus private space that I think would just not happen if this were indoors. — Jason Freeman
“I wanted to reflect on his [MLK’s] legacy by including other people, not about again just one person. He’s a personal hero, but what does it mean currently, today for us? There’s this quote that he said, “the arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice,” that’s something I heard many years ago. It’s been a personal mantra of mine during times of difficulty, so I wanted to something with that. I thought about all this social unrest and all this civic injustice that’s happening, the dialogue we’ve been having, how do I make a work that includes the individual? So this idea that an individual’s voice counts, and you can see how you can effect change immediately. It’s not like history is in the past, the movements are by historic men and women that have nothing to do with us. It really is from a single movement, a single step makes another person follow and then you have a movement.” — Jennifer Wen-Ma
Imagine Peace Maps by Yoko Ono presented at Flux Night 2015: Dream.
I am the volunteer coordinator for all of these projects going through here. I enjoy working for Flux, because as you see, it’s big time. Flux is just Anne [Archer Dennington], Louis [Corrigan], and Mary [Walsh]. There’s really not a whole lot of organization, so they bring a bring in a ton of volunteers, and we kind of pour ourselves into it. It’s always last minute, but it always comes through pretty well. We made this just yesterday, but we had a good time. We enjoy it. — Roy Sockwell
Disarm by Pedro Reyes. Performed by Bent Frequency for Flux Night 2015: Dream.
I was worried about this piece; Reyes is based in Mexico, and every instrument is made from guns, which you cannot legally import into the United States unless you prove that the firearms have been rendered inoperable. I wasn’t sure how Flux would get around this. I think they did it right, though, every instrument looks like it has been completely manipulated. You can’t use the guns as they were initially intended. And that is why this is ingenious! Reyes has taken the death out of these objects and given them a new, albeit haunting, purpose. This gets my vote for favorite thing at Flux. —Haylee Anne
Old 4th Distillery, open for tours and tastings every Thursday and Saturday.
A special shout out is in order for Old 4th Distillery. As the night had varying pockets when rain, cold, and confusion ran head first into technical difficulties, a free shot or three of bourbon and gin (so smooth, too!) was exactly the warmth we needed to get back on the street. Cheers!
