If you haven’t checked out Fat Village Arts District in Fort Lauderdale yet, Saturday night could be the time to get a taste of it.
It’s the night that the people who run Girls’ Club, 18 Rabbit Gallery and 1310 Gallery have been planning for months as a celebration they’re calling Art Fallout: A Day For Contemporary Art. Now that the word’s out, other area art venues including the Museum of Art (which will remain open until 8 p.m.) and IWAN: The Bubble have hopped aboard with their own exhibitions and celebrations. Locations will be clearly marked with round purple fallout signs. A free bus will be available from 5-9 p.m. to transport people from one event space to the next, and free parking is available at Northwest First Avenue between Northeast Fifth and Sixth streets in F.A.T. Village and Northeast 2nd Avenue across from Girls’ Club.
Here’s a rundown of the main events:
THE MYTH OF POWER
The Myth of Power , will include art by JC Bravo, Lisa Rockford, Noelle Mason, Tony Kapel (whose work is pictured at right) and Maitejosune Urrechaga (whose work is at left) and around 40 other artists who responded to an open call requesting their conceptions of power in visual form. This had to be a hefty effort for artist Lisa Rockford, who acted as juror for the show, which will include three floors of sculpture, painting, site-specific installations, video, mixed media works and performance art throughout the evening.
Misael Soto will be do a participatory performance titled “what would you like me to dance for you?” As he explains in his blog, “People are asked simply ‘What would you like me to dance for you?’ They are invited to put on a pair of headphones, go through my iPod, and chose songs they would like me to dance to. I am also wearing headphones connected to the same iPod, producing a shared, intimate, at times awkward experience.” Another performance he will do the same night, titled “I Will Fall and You Won’t Catch Me and I Will Make You Fall,” involves a bunch of people who will line up and then fall down like human dominoes, much like they do in this video proposal for this piece. Catalina Jaramillo will also do an installation/performance titled “Noise.” Jaramillo says her piece celebrates the obsessive tendencies some manifest in the face of loss and grief, the naive quality of teenage love and the magic of chance.
In addition to all the work from local artists, the exhibition will include “mail art” works contributed by out-of-area artists who created work specifically for the show. Cash awards will be issued for innovative works, including an audience choice award selected by opening night attendees. The shows runs 5-10 p.m. at 1310 Gallery at Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts, 1310 S.W. Second Court, Fort Lauderdale.
ALTERED STATES
Altered States, a show about mind-body relationships featuring work by Joni Younkins-Herzog, AdrienneRose Gionta (whose work is pictured here), Donna Haynes, Michael Russo, Pepe Mar, Ricardo Chavarria, Douglas Hoekzema and 18 Rabbit Gallery owners Leah Brown and Peter Symons, will open 7-11 p.m. Saturday at 18 Rabbit Gallery’s new digs at 17 N.W. Fifth St., Fort Lauderdale, 828-279-1481, 18rabbitgallery.com.
GIRLS’ CLUB
Girls’ Club invited all South Florida artist to participate in a show that will be informally judged by a panel of South Florida arts professionals. It’s a great opportunity for artists, some of whom may have never shown their work, to have it seen and commented on. The public is also be invited to provide their personal feedback on the works via a system of handwritten messages. I think this is a fabulous idea …. for so many reasons. The comments, I’m sure, will be as interesting as the art.
Carole-Anne MacFarlane will exhibit “Large Target #5″ (at right), her digital print from a series that she says addresses “the Male Gaze as women experience it today.”
“The Male Gaze that I am talking about is experienced by a woman when she is sized up or evaluated based on what that particular man feels is attractive to him,” she explains. “As women, we have felt the eyes on our bodies, the gazes to our chest and behind that make a man want to ogle or approach us. We can tell when a man is talking to us solely because of the shape of our bodies. He stares at the chest or butt, cares nothing about what you are saying or thinking or who you are as a person. He has the sole goal of fullfiling his own sexual desires. As a woman, you are stripped from the multi-dimensional, multi-faceted woman that you are and are rendered to a two dimensional target, serving one purpose – the expenditure of male sexual desire from fantasy into reality.”
“I am eager to get tangible feedback from my work,” she adds. “I believe my work will turn some on and others off. I believe it will get them questioning and that’s my goal at this point, to have them ask questions about social issues. I think my work is thought-provoking and I want to hear from every perspective.”
Girls’ Club, which will be selling limited edition 2010 Art Fallout T-shirts designed by Kevin Arrow, will be open from 5-8 p.m. at 117 N.E. Second St., Fort Lauderdale.
