Cairns Artful-e: Issue 13
A Collation of Opportunities Sent Almost Every Week from the good folks at Cairns Regional Council: Cultural Services & Facilities Branch
EDITION THIRTEEN: After Us the Savage God
Electronic Alert for a Growing List of Creative People in and around Cairns
(663 of you, and ever-growing)
About 100 years ago, German composer Max Reger received a rather unfavorable newspaper review of a concert of his music.
Reger dropped a note to the reviewer, and penned perhaps the best response to a critic ever supplied by an artist...
I am sitting in the smallest room in my house. Your review is before me. Soon, it will be behind me...
13.00
GOOD RIDDANCE YASI
13.01
AFTER WORK, GET CRAWLING
CELL ART SPACE (109 Lake Street, Ergon Energy Building ground floor) – Start your Creative Crawl at the ground floor of the Ergon Energy building and view Heart Felt, a new felt-based exhibition and installation by Sangit Tafelmaier. Welcome remarks by the artist begin at 5:30pm, with a reception to follow.
13.02
NEW MOVE NETWORK
For the first time in Cairns, an exciting new dance initiative is launching at the Centre of Contemporary Arts. In 2011 this will be the place to experience new dance work through Move – Dance TNQ and the ‘New Move Network’, an inaugural program of five, two-week choreographic residencies throughout the year.
Combining key practitioners and partnerships the ‘New Move Network’ will support independent artists in their practice through a Studio Season with Raymond Blanco (14 – 27 February), Bonemap / Rebecca Youdell and Russell Milledge (11 - 24 April), Monica Stevens (27 June – 10 July), Sarah Collins (5 – 18 September) and Jess Jones (7-20 November).
Creatively the chorographers will have the ability to share their experiences and explore themes of Indigenous, non-Indigenous and shared identity, personal histories and collective knowledge with peers and public through engagement in forums, artist talks, masterclasses, workshops and choreographic showings. The work the artists create will be made through a series of kinaesthetic, text, sound and media processes, that will generate appropriate, innovative and challenging context for new dance in tropical far north Queensland.
MOVE - dance tnq is a motivated network of dance practitioners who represent diverse interests and experiences within the Dance sector, expert industry members, and key stakeholders. In the spirit of reconciliation and tolerance, the vision of the MOVE - dance tnq network is to advocate sector sustainability through dance - evolution, ecology and engagement. For more information contact New Move Network project coordinator, Rebecca Youdell on 0407 794 385 or admin@movedancetnq.com and visit the website to learn more...
Combining key practitioners and partnerships the ‘New Move Network’ will support independent artists in their practice through a Studio Season with Raymond Blanco (14 – 27 February), Bonemap / Rebecca Youdell and Russell Milledge (11 - 24 April), Monica Stevens (27 June – 10 July), Sarah Collins (5 – 18 September) and Jess Jones (7-20 November).
Creatively the chorographers will have the ability to share their experiences and explore themes of Indigenous, non-Indigenous and shared identity, personal histories and collective knowledge with peers and public through engagement in forums, artist talks, masterclasses, workshops and choreographic showings. The work the artists create will be made through a series of kinaesthetic, text, sound and media processes, that will generate appropriate, innovative and challenging context for new dance in tropical far north Queensland.
MOVE - dance tnq is a motivated network of dance practitioners who represent diverse interests and experiences within the Dance sector, expert industry members, and key stakeholders. In the spirit of reconciliation and tolerance, the vision of the MOVE - dance tnq network is to advocate sector sustainability through dance - evolution, ecology and engagement. For more information contact New Move Network project coordinator, Rebecca Youdell on 0407 794 385 or admin@movedancetnq.com and visit the website to learn more...
13.03
HAYLEY'S BIRDS
13.04
BECOME A STEEL PAN STAR
They wowed the crowd at the 2010 Cairns Festival Parade, and that was just their first public performance (when they knew two songs). Now, after months of practice and six weeks of intensive learning, the Cairns Pan Stars are ready for a full on party: Saturday March 19 at the Tanks Arts Centre! Tickets are only $10, and the supporting acts include DJs Culture Harry, Marcus Fari, Kanaka and Ultraviolet: all delivering full servings off a Caribbean menu of calypso, soca, zouk and reggae.
Lennox ‘Madman’ Jordan is the genuine article: a Trinidadian, second generation steel pan maker, musical arranger and teacher. Back home, Lennox led 60-piece orchestra The Fascinators to the finals of Panorama, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual steel pan competition. Recently migrated to Australia, Lennox plays with calypso/jazz fusion quintet, The Badjohns, and is director of Panschool, a Sunshine Coast based outfit that has helped form steel bands in Melbourne, Darwin and our very own Cairns Pan Stars. From 7 February to 19 March, Lennox Jordan will be conducting steel pan workshops, open to interested Cairns musicians and community memebrs. To learn more, contact Violet Stannard: vstanna@tpg.com.au or 0409 092 101
13.05
OZ CO STUDIES CREATIVE INDUSTRY
A report on the future of Australia's arts and creative industries, vis-a-vis creative policy-making and the trends after postmodernism...
13.06
LIVING & PAINTING IN A GLASS HOUSE
13.07
ARTS IMPACT
13.08
PILCHUCK GLASS SCHOOL
13.09
NOT STRANDED
Cyclone Yasi has given Townsville's Strand a terrible beating but Townsville City Council and local residents have already started the clean-up to get it back to it's former glory. Preparations for Strand Ephemera VI are still on track, and the entry closing date has been extended to Monday 21 February. Work up your design submission and click below to learn more...
13.10
TAKE A LEAP
Calling all of the region's emerging visual artists: Cairns Regional Gallery wants to exhibit your work in its Loft Emerging Artists' Program. Check this out...
13.11
GEHRY'S MANHATTAN MASTERPIECE
Architect Frank Gehry finally has a skyscraper under his belt, and it ripples majestically, seemingly etched in rivulets of water, with a flat backside to Wall Street. The Times critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff says that
the tower in the skyline offers a view that seems to lift Lower Manhattan out of its decade-long gloom. Read more here...
13.12
ART BIKES FOR EVERYBODY
What if we provided free bicycles for those wanting to explore Cairns and our city's creative organizations and galleries? Or take a ride along the new Aerogeln Cycleway? What if they were awesome Dutch push-bikes, and they came with lights and a helmet? And what if the city commissioned artists to design interesting bike racks to serve as hubs for these "artbikes"? Hobart has beaten us to it: further evidence that there is a creative ground swell way down South...
http://www.hobartcity.com.au/content/InternetWebsite/Community/Arts_and_Culture/Public_Art/Artbikes.aspx
13.13
ART LOANS FOR ALL
Suppose you wanted people to acquire and cherish original works of art by local painters, sculptors, jewelry designers, and print-makers. Maybe you would offer no-interest loans of up to $7,500 for eager art buyers, and encourage people to support the community's visual arts sector. Again, Tasmania is first cab off the rank, and you can learn all about it here...
13.14
YEATS IS ON YOUR SIDE
13.15
KURANDA ARTS CO-OP
15 reasons to head up the hill and check out the arts scene in Kuranda...
13.16
ARTISTIC BIRDING
Cairns Regional Gallery has launched a collaborative exhibition of birds, bird cages, and interpretations of Hong Kong's Yuen Po Street. Birds of a Feather is on view now, so pop in during tonight's Creative Crawl (when you check out the Ranamok Gladd exhibition and reception there)...
13.17
AT THE RONDO THEATRE
Cairns Little Theatre launches its 2011 season, and comedy is in your future...
http://www.cairnslittletheatre.com/Cairns_Little_Theatre/SEASON_files/2011%20Season%20of%20Plays.pdf
13.18
BUY NOW AT KICKARTS
KickArts, at the Centre of Contemporary Arts in Abbott Street, has launched an exhibition of recent prints created in workshops at its Djumbunji Press. The works in Sting in the Tail represent a diverse cross section of Cairns-based artists featuring established and emerging visual communicators alike. All pictures on display are editions of 30 and are available for sale: just pop in at 96 Abbott Street, have a look, and enquire at the lobby gift shop.
13.19
VISIONARY WALSH
Australian new media artist, Craig Walsh returns to Cairns with the culmination of his recent project and itinerant studies. Craig Walsh: Digital Odyssey is the name of his two-year journey, which included stops around the country, and collaborative and community investigations of the sense of home. The result is a large video projection that includes histories, stories, and landscapes. Walsh's work will be shown at the KickArts Gallery 2, to March 12, so stop by and spend some time on his Digital Odyssey.
13.20
THE OTHER WALSH
London's Financial Times flies across the world to experience gambler David Walsh's Museum of Old and New Art, as Hobart's cultural scene continues to heat up, and the mathematical genius lucre continue to flow in...
13.21
MYF'S IMPRESSION
Sydney Morning Herald's Myf Warhurst takes a trip down art memory lane, and down to Hobart for the advent of the age of Monanism...
13.22
CHLOE'S CULTURE
Chloe Fox won a suite of awards at last year’s Energy exhibition, including a prestigious Creative Generation Excellence in Visual Arts award and the Tanks Arts Centre Curator’s Award. In her first solo exhibition, Chloe presents photographs, collographs, prints and assemblages.
“I have been on a journey, exploring my mixed heritage from Papua New Guinea and England. I have come to realise that most of us go through life with an inner turmoil of who we are and what makes us the people we have turned out to be. No matter where I go or the people I am around, I will always carry my culture with me.”
In preparing work for My Culture, Fox has been a young artist in residence at Djumbunji Press.
13.23
WOMEN IN FLIGHT
For International Women’s Day 2011, Tanks presents this very personal homage to Womanhood, from one of our city’s most colourful artists. The Women Who Taught Me To Fly is a collection of painted portraits of the female friends and family of Lilla Benigno, and the exhibition opens with a 6pm public reception on March 4.“I survived 10 years of homelessness, desperately lost in the streets of Melbourne, but I was extremely lucky to have come across thousands of women who helped me to change. … As a woman with a disability, I always felt I had to work harder to achieve my dreams, and yes, to a certain extent I had to, but I couldn’t do it alone. I always had a woman alongside me … some of these special women have passed away, but I know they are looking from wherever
13.24
TRANSFAUNA
London Artist, Tom Van Herrewege, is the latest arrival to Cairns as Artist-in-Residence at Tanks Arts Centre. His work explores fascinations and fears we have towards the animal world, and while in North Queesland, the artist will explore local snake life, as well as the other creatures in our midst. Van Herrewege will create a new series of drawings through march 10, and the public is invited to meet him at a launch of the exhibituion, Transfauna on March 11 from 6pm, at the Tanks.
13.25
NOLLYWOOD
An interview with South African photographer Pieter Hugo about his work capturing the scene of Nigeria's prolific film industry, Nollywood, on view during New Zealand's Auckland Festival...
13.26
FOLLOW TGHE MONEY
A few sources of possible project support, upcoming grant deadlines, and resources to do what you need to do as a Far North cultural producer. Arts QLD Regional Arts Fund Grant
Oz Council Go See travel granthttp://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/grants/grants/go_see_fund_for_presenters/go_see_application_form
Dance Project Granthttp://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/grants/grants/projects_dance
Festivals Australiahttp://www.arts.gov.au/arts/festivals_australia
Events QLD
13.27
MAN vs FASCINATOR
A new collaborative socio-photographic project begins to take shape at the Cairns Festival HQ soon. Photographer Jake Nowakowski will set up a studio and begin shooting the first Man vs Fascinator images for the 2011 Cairns Festival. Become a subject, explore your identity, convince your partner. Here's how it works...
Cairns Festival realizes that the Fascinator, a type of fanciful head-dress worn at social functions throughout Australia, is an important aspect of the Queensland woman's wardrobe (especially when equestrian activities are happening nearby). This small, often feathered object is a staple of race-going and party-making and seen at key events during the year. One of these events, The Amateurs, is held within the Cairns Festival season.
The Man vs Fascinator project starts by asking local women to dig deep into their wardrobe and select one or two of their favourite Fascinators. Then, here's the twist, they must present it to their partner, and convince him (or her) to try it on. If everybody is comfortable, the logical next step is for man to meet project artist Jake Nowakowski, carefully don the Fascinator with clothing normally worn during the work week, and then sit for a masterful portrait (opportunities will be scheduled between now and August).
We're now taking names! Photo shoots with the initial test subjects will follow soon. So ladies (and gentlemen) consider your head-gear, and be part of the origins of Man vs Fascinator. Select portraits will be show in an exhibition during the Festival, timed to coincide with the pomp, circumstance, and elaborate head-dress of the Cairns race days. To learn more, reply to this email or stop by Festival HQ during the upcoming Creative Crawl.
13.28
EVENTS AND INFO WANTED
Cairns Artful-e is an information conduit compiled by Eric Holowacz, producer of the Cairns Festival. He seeks out upcoming events, obscure quotes, interesting links, inspiring stories, and content that might support Far North artists, audiences, cultural producers, and creative thinkers. If you have news or ideas that might feed this cyber-conduit, please reply with details and help us expand the Artful-e effect.
13.29
LOFTY WORKS
Local artist Sam Creyton has a new exhibition, 100 Pieces, opening tomorrow, February 12 at the Cairns Regional Gallery's Emerging Artist Loft. Be there at 2:30pm to check out her carefully-constructed mark-making and mixed-media collage (and striking investigation of fragments) and meet Sam at her official launch and reception. She will also present an artist's talk at 2pm, and there's more information at the Gallery's website...
13.30
BOOK YOURSELF IN
Book Creators' Circle is a professional, international organisation of people in the book industry. If that's you, please join the local group for topical conferences on the third Saturday of each month. They meet at Blue Mango Cairns
13.31
CONSERVATORY / TANKS
There will be a public reception tonight at the Tanks Arts Centre for Conservatory, an installation by Adelaide artists Sasha Grbich and Lisa Harms. The work follows their January artist residency in Cairns, and was made in response to the architecture and war time history of Tanks Arts Centre. Starting from a conversation about border protection and expanding to encompass broad experiences of making home, Conservatory offers a poetic reflection on belonging. And the artists will be present during tonight's Creative Crawl to discuss the notion of home, migration, family, and place. Stop by and check it out, and add your own voice...
13.32
CLOSURE
Here's a quick look at the timeline of our local sugar industry, from its 1880s origins to the looming closure of Babinda Mill.
13.33
POST-SUGAR BABINDA
Cairns Regional Council will springboard a multifaceted plan for the future of Babinda in the wake of the announcement of the closure of the town’s sugar mill. Mayor Val Schier said Council will rally a force consisting of Council staff and specialist consultants who will work with the community to come up with alternative ideas for the economic future of the town. Could the arts play a role in the town's revival? Might that imposing mill become home to sculptors, glass artists, and creative workshops? Read more...
13.34
WORLD STAGE
Pondering Belarus Free Theatre and life and art under dictatorship...
13.35
SALTY ENTERTAINMENT
Favourite waterside bar and restuarant, Salt House, always serves up a healthy dose of live music and creative things. Check out the upcoming slate of events here (click Entertainment, and try the green papaya salad if on offer)...
13.36
MOFO, YOU RASKAL, ALL I WANT
Check it: a truly excellent video for Raskal's All I Want, shot at Mofo in Cairns. And a most delicious tune emerges...
13.37
CREATIVE CRAWL STOP
Circa 1907 Gallery in City Place will host a reception for Effervescence, a series of abstract images captured underwater, revealing detail, texture, shape and form. Meet artist Rebecca Claire Edwards, and add another stop to the evening's Creative Crawl. About her work, Edwards says...
“My motivation when I capture an image is to create an artwork that is beautiful to the viewer’s eye. Images are planned and studio lighting is carefully considered. This series is a result of situation and experimentation and an attempt to capture the unusual. Photography is my outlet and through each photographic experience I receive, grow and learn.”
13.38
THE GOOGLE MUSEUM
The Google Art Project is putting the museum experience on-line and into new virtual territory...
13.39
GO FOR RADF GRANTS NOW
Artists in the Cairns region are encouraged to bring their talent forward and think big by seeking funding for their projects through the first round of the 2011 Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF). Cairns Regional Council invites artists and art workers to apply for funding for their projects. The first of two funding rounds for this year opened this week. Read more
13.40
MUSICAL GIFTING
The 2011 edition of Opening Notes, a culturally rich and creatively made pakcage of music and images, will be coming together over the next few months. Opening Notes is a Cairns Festival initiaitves, representing our unique sense of place, and the CD, booklet, and package are given to every baby born in the far North: on teh day of birth and at the place of birth. The generous project is made possible by Cairns Regional Council and Cairns Penny Savings Bank, and hundreds of contributing creative people. If you'd like to become part of the 2011 edition, or have a local sogn to contribute, please contact the Cairns Festivla office (or reply to this email). Learn more about the Opening Notes project here...
13.41
CREATIVE CRAWL STOP
Cell Art Space and 12 Bar Cafe should be another one of your stops on the February 11 Creative Crawl. Cell Art, in the Ergon Energy building, will be showing Heart Felt, a new installation of felt art by Sangit. Her collection of wet-felted pictures, wall hangings and sculptures will fill the space with brilliant colours and rich textures. As well as artwork, Sangit creates a lot of 'wearable art' like nuno-scarves, hats, vests, jackets and bags. Here's how she sums up her inspiration...
“I have always loved to express myself through painting and drawing and now I have found my ultimate medium: painting with dyed wool that I can not only see but also touch, the tactile aspect of felting has changed my whole approach to art and life, actually. To be able to be around colours and the softness of wool & silk all day long as I am working - its a blessing, indeed!”
“I have always loved to express myself through painting and drawing and now I have found my ultimate medium: painting with dyed wool that I can not only see but also touch, the tactile aspect of felting has changed my whole approach to art and life, actually. To be able to be around colours and the softness of wool & silk all day long as I am working - its a blessing, indeed!”
Meet the artist at Cell Art Space from 5:30pm on February 11, and then enjoy food and drinks at 12 BC in City Place, before proceeding on tonight's Creative Crawl.
13.42
BRAVE NEW HALL
Miami's New World Symphony gets a 21st century home for concerts, community, and coming together...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703555804576101953537399630.html?mod=rss_Arts_and_Entertainment13.43
FESTIVALS FUNDING
Cairns Regional Council offers grant funding for community festivals and events. The next round opens in April, and all you ned to do is follow this link to find out how to make your case...
13.44
MAJOR FESTIVALS FUNDING
Consider your event a larger animal, and need major funding. Cairns Regional Council offers grant funding for major events that want to happen. The next round opens in April, and all you ned to do is follow this link to find out how to make your case...
13.45
MAYORAL FUNDING
If that doesn't work, why not ask the Mayor's Community Fund for help? Cairns Regional Council offers special funding for good things that want to happen. Find out how to make your request by reading over the simple application form here...
13.46
DIVERSIFY ME
While you are at it, try to make sense of the Economic Diversification Fund Grant Program Guidelines, a lucrative Cairns Regional Council award of up to $20,000. You have until March 21 to figure out where business meets paradise, and achieve successful lodgment...
13.47
IT HAPPENED TODAY
An almanac of interesting and curious literary history can be found here...
13.48
ART-O-MATICALLY GOOD
Thanks to Cairns Festival, Far North Queensland is home to the only Art-o-mat machine in the Southern Hemisphere. The unique original art vending machine will make its debut in the public lobby of KickArts, in the Cairns Centre of Contemporary Arts. Workshops and starter packs for local artists will follow. Check the upcoming edition of Artful-e for news about a launch, opportunities for Australian artists to get involved, and how you can stop by and purchase your very own Art-o-mat works from around the world...
13.49
ARTERIAL NEWS
Peruse the Australia Council's latest art-filled newsletter, Artery, on-line here...
13.50
IMAGE IN THE NEW CHINA
The Getty Museum take s close look at photography from the New China, including the extraordinary staged images of Wang Quingsong, the socially-rich studies of Hai Bo, and the utterly striking Zhang Huan. See them, and learn more, here...
13.51
LA MAMA WORKS
Over 40 years ago, Off Off Broadway jumped hemispheres and inspired a new Australian theatre scene in a small Melbourne building in Carlton. 1,800 new stage works later, La Mama has helped forge the careers of David Williamson, Barry Dickins, Cate Blanchett, Lloyd Jones, and Julia Zemiro. Beginning with Jack Hibberd's play Three Old Friends in 1967, La Mama has provided a low financial risk model that supports innovation and enables artists to explore new ways of expression. There is no other stage quite like it. Learn more about Melbourne's La Mama here...
13.52
THE PLAY'S THE THING
And the $20,000 prize is yours, if your play is the thing. Click here to learn how to submit your stage script to the Richard BUrton Award for New Plays, Australia's richest playwright booty...
http://www.australianstage.com.au/201102054178/news/industry-news/submissions-open-–-richard-burton-award-for-new-plays.html
13.53
TALKIN' CREATIVELY
What if Cairns Festival asked a bunch of creative people a bunch of questions, and they all told us more about what they do. We did, and they did, and the links are here...
13.54
HELPING A CULTURAL FACILITY HAPPEN
Have ideas for a possible new Cultural Precinct? Maybe you think it should have 100 studio spaces for local artists? or soundproof music rehearsal rooms? or workshop spaces for beginners? a glas-blowing studio and hot shop? or a world class concert hall and museum facility? Perhaps you want to suggest that it include a creative industries campus for university students? or an aquarium where the tanks also house sculptures by Australia
http://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/about-our-region/cultural-precinct/support-for-cairns-cultural-precinct
Take a look at the comprehensive feasibility study here
13.55
FILM YOUR ADVENTUROUS NATURE
The second annual Cairns Adventure Film Festival is Australasia 's only adventure and extreme sports film competition. The films showcase the talent and wild side of local film makers and adventure sports people, and many feature beautiful and raw natural locations in the far North. The action thus far has been intense, and this will be made clear at the main show night on Saturday 28 May 2011 at AJ Hackett in Cairns
The call for entries is now open: if you have an adventure or extreme sports film, submit it! And if you don't, get out there and make one...
13.56
STARTING WITH ART
ArtStart grants for graduate and final year artists open for applications in January. Click here to go to the Australia Council website to learn how you could be $10,000 richer as you launch your creative career...
13.57
VIBRANT CITY
Look at all the live music and stuff coming up at the Esplanade and City Place
13.58
YOUR NEWS OR EVENT HERE
Reply to this message if you have information or opportunities to list in the next edition of Cairns
13.59
GET YOURSELF A COMMUNITY HALL
Did you know that Cairns Regional Council has a portfolio of two dozen community halls, and all of them are just waiting for your idea or event. From Daintree Hall to Gordonvale Community Hall, all you need to do is click on the below link, contact the Council (or number indicated) and set yourself up as the next community user of one of these fine community halls...
If you missed last week's edition, or want to delve into the archives for a special tidbit of information, find past versions stored here (and there are some good links on the left as well)
13.61
CONTACT CAIRNS
To be removed from this email list...
To be added...
To submit contents, events, opportunities, or comments to contribute to...
To simply make contact...
or 07 4044 3086
This issue of Cairns Cairns
13.62
ENDNOTE
A recollection of the opening night of Alfred Jarry's absurdist play, Ubu Roi, as recounted in Roger Shattuck's study of the Bell Epoque and early Avant Garde, The Banquet Years...
"December 11, 1896, the opening night, is worth describing in detail. There had been nothing like it since the wild premiere of Victor Hugo's Hernani in 1830 . . . .
"Before the curtain went up, a crude table was brought out covered with a piece of old sacking. Jarry appeared looking dead white, for he had made himself up like a streetwalker to face the footlights. Nervously sipping from a glass, he spoke in his flattest, most clipped tones, for ten minutes . . . In these earnest nonsense lines Jarry was already insinuating that the play is more than it appears, that the true setting of farce is (like Poland, a country long condemned to the nonexistence of partition) an Eternity of Nowhere, and that contradiction is the mode of its logic. The speech did not exactly insure a sympathetic reception. . . ."
"' . . . the scenery was painted to represent, by a child's conventions, indoors and out of doors, and even the torrid, temperate, and arctic zones at once. Opposite you, at the back of the stage, you saw apple trees in bloom, under a blue sky, and against the sky a small closed window and a fireplace . . . through the very midst of which . . . trooped in and out the clamorous and sanguinary persons of the drama. On the left was painted a bed, and at the foot of the bed a bare tree and snow falling. On the right there were palm trees . . . a door opened against the sky, and beside the door a skeleton dangled. A venerable gentleman in evening dress . . . trotted across the stage on the points of his toes between every scene and hung the new placard on its nail. (Studies in Seven Arts.)'
"Gemier, swollen and commanding in his pear shaped costume (but without a mask, despite Jarry's campaign), stepped forward to speak the opening line -- a single word. He had not known how to interpret the role until Lugne-Poe had suggested he imitate the author's own voice and jerky stylized gestures. The midget Jarry truly sired the monster Ubu. In a voice like a hammer, Gemier pronounce an obscenity which Jarry had appropriated to himself by adding one letter.
"'Merdre,' Gemier said. 'Shite.'
"It was fifteen minutes before the house could be silenced. The mot de Cambronne had done its work; the house was pandemonium. Those who had been lulled by Jarry's opening speech were shocked awake; several people walked out without hearing any more. The rest separated into two camps of desperately clapping enthusiasts and whistling scoffers. Fist fights started in the orchestra. The critics were on the spot, their reactions observed by both sides. . . A few demonstrators simultaneously clapped and whistled in divided sentiments. Malarme sat quiet, waiting to see more of the 'prodigious personage' to whose author he addressed a letter the following dy. Jarry's supporters shouted, 'You wouldn't understand Shakespeare either.' Their opponents replied with variations on the mot of the evening. . . ."
"Finally, Gemier improvised a jig and sprawled out on the prompter's box. His diversion restored enough order to allow the action to proceed to the next 'Merdre,' when the audience took over once more. The interruptions continued for the rest of the evening. . . Pere Ubu and Mere Ubu use language more scatological than erotic . . . The curtain rang down that night and the next on the only two performances of Ubu Roi until it was revived by Gemier in 1908. For the Theatre de l'Oeuvre it was the catastrophe that made it famous.
"Also present in the house was a young Irishman by the name of William Butler Yeats. Despite a very limited knowledge of the language, his description of the performance is worth repeating. 'I go to the 1st performance of Jarry's Ubu Roy, at the Theatre de l'Oeuvre, with Rhymer . . . The audience shake their fists at one another, and Rhymer whispers to me, 'There are often duels after these performances,' and explains to me what is happening on the stage. The players are supposed to be dolls, toys, marionettes, and now they are all hopping like wooden frogs, and I can see for myself that the chief personage, who is some kind of king carries for a sceptre a brush of the kind that we use to clean a closet. Feeling bound to support the most spirited party, we have shouted for the play, but that night at the Hotel Corneille I am very sad, for comedy, objectivity, has displayed its growing power once more. I say, After S. Mallarme, after Verlaine, after G. Moreau, after Puvis de Chavannes, after our own verse, after the faint mixed things of Conder, what more is possible? After us the Savage God.
posted by Cultural Engineer @ 1:25 pm
<< Home