Upcoming events: Sept. 24-28

There's a ton of stuff happening in the next week or so. First up is the Pete Froslie artist talk tonight, and then you can roll into daily artsy-type events for the next four days, if you so desire:

Thursday, Sept. 24: Reception and lecture 5:00-7:00pm in the Tahoe Gallery. Lecture 5:15pm in rm 320 (Prim library). If you've checked out the show and wondered what the connection is between wood maps, bloodstains, jazz, and an elderly gentleman with a chainsaw, here's your chance to ask some questions. Answers are not guaranteed.


Friday, Sept. 25: This event is being put together by the English Program: Pulitzer prize winning writer, Bob Hass, and fellow poet, Brenda Hillman, will be on campus reading from their books this Friday from 7:00-9:00 in TCES 139. Free and open to all. Here's a link to Hass' poem "Dragonflies Mating"; and a link to Hilman's poem "Little Furnace."



Sat & Sun, Sept. 26-26: Candy Dance! The Art Department will be flipping burgers at this event, which takes over the picturesque town of Genoa for a weekend once a year -- it's a mindbogglingly extensive arts & crafts faire (it always makes me feel funny to put an "e" on the end of the word "fair," but that's the way they do it). We make a bit of cash for the department, and in the process make our peace with sizzling grease.


Monday, Sept. 28th: Megan DeArmond: Lecture and light reception 5:00-7:00pm in the Tahoe Gallery. Lecture at 5:15 in rm 320 (Prim library). She'll be talking about her show, "Between Wonder."

R. R. Smith

Here are a few images from the Pete Froslie show now up in the Tahoe Gallery.


There's an intriguing mix of the sentimental and the grotesque. In the latter camp are the mechanized latex homunculi above, their bald heads and exposed organs all bathed in bloody red light, moving up and down like pistons, the extraneous strips of latex at their bases jiggling like flayed skin...



There's a wooden map frosted with splinters, a foggy portrait of an aging gentleman (R. R. Smith, I presume) composed of tiny smiley-face stickers...



A wall laden with biographical scraps clipped from the life of Bob Smith -- who, from the evidence at hand, was (or is) a musician and actor, and who spent some time in the military.



If you linger to read the clippings, you can savor the locutions of a bygone era. A review of a play Smith was involved in, performed at the Reno Little Theater, complains of the "dismal" parameters of the story, while politely complimenting the actors for weathering such subject-matter.



There is a video projected on the wall, which starts off in a static suburban sort of lull...


Until something terrible happens...


And judging from the below photo, something fairly awful happened in the recent past, as well...




A peep-hole opens up on a scene of some extreme yet obscure violence.




These aren't all the details of the show, but they give a taste of the overall effect -- an exploded scrapbook, with the intentionally enshrined memories interpolated with the messy entrails of an unspecified trauma. There's a mix of forthright disclosure and guarded obtuseness. The tone is at once affectionate, comical and discomfiting. Check it out for yourself. I know I'll be circling back to it while it's up -- and will probably have more to say after the Artist's Talk, on Sept. 24.

This week in SNC Art Events (Aug 24)

There are two main art events on campus this week, both starting today.

One is the opening of a new exhibition “R.R. Smith.” -- works by artist Pete Froslie. There will be a lecture and closing reception on Sept. 24th.


(image from Pete Froslie's site)

The second is the opening of "Collect... Respond!" -- hosted by the SNC Gallery Club. The little xerox flyer I was handed has the following message on one side:

Collect and Respond. You are invited to do just that: Collect & Respond. Monday, August 24th is the start of a community-wide collaboration. A bulletin board is located in the "reference Gallery" in Prim Library. This will be a space to map our community's thoughts/activities and provide opportunity to respond to others.

On the reverse there's a John Berger quote:

“Adults and children sometimes have boards in their bedrooms or living-rooms on which they pin pieces of paper: letters, snapshots, reproductions of paintings, newspaper cuttings, original drawings, postcards. On each board all the images belong to the same language and all are more or less equal within it, because they have been chosen in a highly personal way to match and express the experience of the room’s inhabitant. Logically, these boards should replace museums.”
- Ways of Seeing, John Berger

Can you build a room inside of a room? "R.R. Smith" Installation!

I have to admit...I had my doubts..building a room in a room...in one day?...but with many hours of physical man labor they pulled it off. And let's face it...I was probably more in the way than anything! haha

So....Here are some recent shots of Artist Pete Froslie and his crew..including Steve, Brother-Nick and Nick, and Dad. (I told them I would make sure their names made it into the show somehow.) It was great seeing them work together, obviously long-time friends/family and I am totally impressed at the results. Tomorrow the festivities will continue......

Come by the show "R.R. Smith" which runs from Aug. 24-Sept.25 with Closing Reception/artist lecture on Sept. 24th.

See more of Frosie's work at http://www.froslie.net/