But Alice’s story, which Anastacia-Reneé tells through videos, wall poetry, installations of blood-spattered white laundry and piles of gifts inscribed with words like “home” and “sanctuary” rings true.įrom Alice’s interior monologues emerges a portrait of her body as a house near-crumbling under the pressures of gentrification, redlining and white supremacy. Even in savasana, she doesn’t feel like she can rest.Īlice isn’t real: She’s a fictional character dreamed up by Seattle poet and artist Anastacia-Reneé. She’s just gotta keep it going, keep it moving, stick to the plan. I’m fine,” Alice Metropolis assures us from the black-and-white video screen, a bottle of liquor in hand. The cancer of ‘keep going’ at the Frye Art Museum Piotr Szyhalski: COVID-19: Labor Camp Report runs through July 4. Julie Green: The Last Supper runs through Oct. 21. The other, a collection of (literally) graphic black-and-white wheat-paste posters by artist Piotr Szyhalski (popular on Instagram as is equally political and disorienting, as it recounts the failures, uprisings and deaths of 2020 by way of monochrome gut punches. One is an overwhelming wall of hundreds of blue china plates all painted by Oregon artist Julie Green, with the final meals requested by inmates on death row: Kentucky Fried Chicken, a single, store-bought cinnamon roll, steak, and nothing at all. While you’re there: It’s impossible to pick between two other gripping shows currently hanging, so we suggest you check out both. If you go: The Bellevue Arts Museum is open. “I want it to be all immersive where it's a bit disorienting.” “I want the space to look like a children’s museum,” Waters told me last year. Suffice to say: this show is best experienced in person. Hamer, Christopher Paul Jordan, Monyee Chau, Clyde Petersen, SuttonBeresCuller, Ari Glass and Kenji Hamai Stoll, brought together by Seattle curator Tariqa Waters. As for the rest of the show, there’s not enough space here to recognize the work of all the artists - Aramis O. With this installation (called Gahapon, Karon, Ugma, or Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow), Bustillo honors the art and cultural traditions of his ancestors, which the artist melds into something recognizable but new.
Though displayed as flags, these are patadyong, a tubelike wraparound skirt worn in the Philippines. Checkered banners dangling from the ceiling gently waved me in. One such gallery, by Seattle artist Romson Regarde Bustillo, exerted an irresistible pull, thanks to hot-pink and bright yellow walls hung with intricate, textured abstract collages. 5 at Bellevue Arts Museum, I felt like my eyes were two balls bumping around in a pinball machine: Colorful walls and tantalizing objects (A giant log made from cardboard! A rotating megasized lunch box! Hennessy on a pedestal!) vied for my attention, tossing me from one polychromatic display to the next. On a recent visit to the group show Yellow No. Nothing is certain in this life and certainly not during our COVID-era, so if you feel safe: mask up and take your chance, in case the window - and museum doors - closes again.
There is plenty of new fare, too, including a piercing solo show by beloved poet and multidisciplinary artist Anastacia-Reneé at the Frye Art Museum (which reopened last week), a historic Jacob Lawrence exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum (reopening March 5) and a moving show about diaspora and belonging at the Wing Luke (back open March 5). Now, those ghost exhibits - having waited in the wings for all this time - will finally get a well-deserved audience, as museums reopen at 25% capacity this month and next. Some, like the Seattle Art Museum, had installed exhibitions (such as Barbara Earl Thomas’ The Geography of Innocence) that had to close before they even officially opened, and many other exhibitions across the region were open for a few days or weeks.
Museums, along with other cultural organizations, got whiplashed last year when, after closing in March, then briefly reopening in September, they had to close again in November. The mood? Cautiously optimistic - emphasis on cautiously. (More Washington regions, and thus museums, got the green light last week as well.) No, you’re not having déjà vu: Seattle-area museums are indeed opening up again, following Gov. Jay Inslee’s recent announcement that the Puget Sound region could move into Phase 2 of the “Roadmap to Recovery” plan.
0 kommentar(er)
