If you couldn't score tickets to tonight's Lady Gaga show at The Q, you can head downtown anyway and inhale some of her cast-off glitter at FORTRESS Nightclub. The "Filthy Glamour Party" will feature special DJ sets by Semi Precious Weapons as well as Gaga's DJ and "very close personal friend" Lady Starlight. 

Gaga has acknowledged Starlight (for the sake of simplicity, we'll do away with the honorifics; our apologies if either Lady actually is landed gentry), an influential figure in the New York City club scene since the early 2000s, as a welcoming presence in the world she's come to dominate. "My friends that I made downtown in New York really welcomed me into this society of freakish kids that band together. I was actually talking to ... Lady Starlight today, and I just said, without you guys, I wouldn't be where I am today, for sure," said Gaga in the July 8 issue of Rolling Stone.

Also appearing will be FORTRESS house DJ Kosher Kuts. Doors at 9; the event is free until 11pm and $10 after. 21 & over.

Rage on, little monsters!

These are the last few days to view Detour at SPACES Gallery, presenting the work of five artists rerouted by an obstruction. Prior to the exhibit's opening, the artists met to discuss their practices and share their areas of comfort and discomfort. By the end of the evening, each was assigned an obstacle by his or her peers. Their challenge was to create work for the exhibit while dealing with the assigned obstacle, all the while paired with a documentarian who would provide "color commentary" on the process. OhioAuthority arts writer and critic Eleanor LeBeau was asked to participate; this is the second in a series of her blogs - originally published on SPACES' website - documenting the experience of artist Arzu Ozkal. Detour closes July 16.

THE ENDURANCE PERFORMANCE: DAY FOUR

9:29 a.m.

I email James Luna, who lives in SoCal.

HELP! Please send advice about my upcoming performance score/script and possible live performance.

[Addendum 05.11.10:  Did you notice how fear prevented me from seeing beyond my own navel? And, most importantly, I’m not focusing on Arzu’s process. Pedagogical moment # 17.]

9:54 a.m.

As promised, Arzu sends her morning email:

Good morning! 

I got some rope yesterday; will try a few things today. Will let you know how it goes. :)

Arzu

10:12 a.m.

I email Arzu to ask what she intends to do with the rope. 

11:47 a.m.

Arzu responds by email:

Hi Eleanor, 

Lygia Clark's performance is an inspiration: Lygia Clark "Propositions," 1966-1968.

Will write more tonight.

12:27 p.m.

Luna responds. The minimalist, as always, but right on point:

ELB

The moment you stand up and turn to the audience you are performing.

Communication can take many forms if you are not a public speaker. You can prerecord your statement, you can write it out, you can hand out notes or pass one around. Whisper to each one: Don't do Bob, Bob did it.....

Think about how you would like to be communicated to. 

Be yourself. 

I have no idea as to subject. That is between you and the artist.

Mr. Luna

11:52 p.m.

All day I’ve been wondering how the work of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark (1920-1988) might influence “Love At First Si/ght/te.” The trajectory of her oeuvre in one sentence: She transitioned from Constructivist painting to sculpture to relational art (for lack of a better word) and finally to what has been called “therapy.” 

She is not a household name in the U.S. (how many female visual artists are?), but very much respected in the art world. Maybe Clark is not well known because her entire oeuvre thwarts fetishization of the object and thus presents major curatorial challenges. “She attempted to escape both the notion of artist as ‘genius,’ and the supremacy granted to the object which implicitly forces the viewer into a role of passive contemplation,” Juan Vincente Aliaga notes in a 1998 issue of frieze. 

After 1965, she labeled all of her works “propositions”: a set of rules created by the artist, using easy-to-find props, that are activated (or “made”) by others. The propositions only exist in the “now” and cannot be documented or sold or exhibited post-activation. You should also know that many of Clark’s propositions emphasize non-visual experience (auditory, kinetic, haptic, olfactory) and attempt to collapse the mind/body duality. Said another way, the maker of a proposition may have an experience that compels him/her to reconsider the way s/he’s been taught to think about the body/self. I don’t know for sure. I’ve never made a proposition. I’m only imagining. Indeed, Clark, like Arzu, is binary terrorist who collapses dichotomies: mind/body; intellect/senses; objective/subjective; author/spectator; object/spectator and so on.

What does Arzu plan to do with the rope and elastic bands? Is she using other props that she’s not telling me about? Clark’s propositions require the makers to wear plastic boiler suits and Mobius-strip handcuffs. 

Is Arzu’s last email a proposition for you and me, the spectators? She’s set some parameters (or rules) - the performance’s title and Lygia Clark, for example -and now I use what I think I know so far about “Love At First Si/ght/te” to produce color commentary about Arzu’s artistic process. 

Am I not making my own “Love At First Si/ght/te”?

Image: Lygia Clark, Sensory Masks, 1967

Through July 16, Detour at SPACES Gallery presents the work of five artists rerouted by an obstruction. Last month, prior to the exhibit's opening, the artists met to discuss their practices and share their areas of comfort and discomfort. By the end of the evening, each was assigned an obstacle by his or her peers. Their challenge was to create work for the exhibit while dealing with the assigned obstacle, all the while paired with a documentarian who would provide "color commentary" on the process. OhioAuthority arts writer and critic Eleanor LeBeau was asked to participate; this is the second in a series of her blogs - originally published on SPACES' website - documenting the experience of artist Arzu Ozkal. Join SPACES for Detour through July 16.

THE ENDURANCE PERFORMANCE: Day Two

6:08 a.m.

I wake excited and panicked. How am I going to pull off this play-by-play color commentary? I have obstacles, too:   

• Day job
• Distance from here to Oberlin
• Access to Arzu

Plus another big one: Is it even possible to document the creative process? Especially the creation of a performance? All I know is what Arzu tells me verbally and in writing. In the name of mischevious play, she could very well mislead me. There are no sketches or maquettes to give snapshots of her thoughts. 

How does she work? Does she make notes? Write a performance score? Does it happen all in her head? I drink three cups of coffee (milk, no sugar). I listen to music—not NPR’s morning news—on my commute to work. I don’t need anything else to fill my head.

2:53 p.m

I’m at my day job. Arzu beams an email while she’s in class at Oberlin: I have some ideas forming. Shall we meet tomorrow night to discuss? I have to meet with a choreographer at 4 (yes for Detour), so it would have to be after 6, if that’s okay with you.

A choreographer! What kind?

7:38 p.m.  

I hit Arzu’s Web site to learn more about her work. I watch a half-dozen videos. I read everything, except for an article written in Turkish. Slam! I’m shut out. Now that’s a pedagogical moment. Here’s a CliffsNotes version of her practice.  Keep in mind that form and content are inextricably intertwined: 

FORM:

• New Media: video, Web sites, sound
• Public interventions
• Objects: original and appropriated
• Graphic Design
• Lectures
• Teaching

CONTENT: 

• The body as a site of social and political discourse.
• The body as a site of state surveillance and control.
• How is “knowledge” produced?
• What is the relationship between “knowledge” and myth?
• Semiotics: The processes of signification: How do words and objects accrue and produce meaning?
• Strategies used by the “state” to inculcate feelings of  nationalism—i.e. a collective identity and goals—in its citizens. How and why do national symbols like flags evoke profound feelings of nationalism? How is language used to inculcate identity?
• What is the purpose of nationalism?
• Homogeneity is a consequence of nationalism. What are the consequences of homogeneity?
• Personalized digital technologies can be used as a form of government and corporate surveillance. Arzu writes in “Technology Hijacking the Public Sphere,” a 2006 paper delivered at a symposium in Istanbul: Today, everyone in the world—even the youngest member of the populace—is encouraged to connect and stay connected to the network 24/7. It looks great to see those mini-laptops-for-children campaigns in the name of supporting education. Certainly, there will be many positive imapcts. But on the other hand, one should not dismiss that every computer hooked up to the network, every IP address assigned to a person will identify another traceable individual to be surveyed for national security and/or corporate interest.  
• The effects of war on children.
• Strategies for breaking down socioeconomic and racial/ethnic barriers in communities.
• The power of passive resistance.

Good night.

This evening marks the opening reception for Detour at SPACES Gallery. The exhibit presents the work of five artists rerouted by an obstruction. One week ago, the artists met to discuss their practices and share their areas of comfort and discomfort. By the end of the evening, each was assigned an obstacle by his or her peers. Their challenge was to create work for the exhibit while dealing with the assigned obstacle, all the while paired with a documentarian who would provide "color commentary" on the process. OhioAuthority arts writer and critic Eleanor LeBeau was asked to participate; beginning today we'll share her blogs - originally published on SPACES' website - documenting the experience of artist Arzu Ozkal. Join SPACES tonight 6pm to 9pm for the opening reception of Detour, and check back with OhioAuthority to read LeBeau's take on the experience.

Composed on May 7, 2010 about 10:09 a.m.

THE ENDURANCE PERFORMANCE: DAY ONE

05.05.10

Prologue

When French art critic and curator Nicolas Bourriard famously described a work of art as “a dot on a line,” what he meant was that a great deal of thought, research, planning and labor precedes the realization of a painting, document or performance. The public only gets to see the dot.  Most of the time, the critic only gets to see the dot. Detour is a rare but much-needed chance for the critic and the public to see the line - and then the dot.   

6:20 p.m.

Arzu Ozkal and I were the first participants to arrive at Detour’s meeting of five artists and five critics (pictured above). Christopher Lynn, SPACES’ genial director, introduced us. Arzu rushed from Oberlin College, where she teaches studio and new media art. I came from a nine-hour shift at my day job, headquartered somewhere in Ohio City, which shall remain unnamed for confidentiality reasons. Arzu grabs a beer from the spread of refreshments Chris has laid out for us. I grab an oatmeal cookie (bad girl) to go with the coffee I brought along. Behind us, multidisciplinary artist Bruce Edwards peels a tangerine. I comment on the refreshing smell. Bruce offers me a slice. I eat it, grateful for the gesture. Participants trickle in and soon the room’s abuzz.

8:15 p.m.-ish

Excited by the smart conversation, I’m losing track of time. Using their websites as jumping-off points, the five artists brief us on their practices. I’m intrigued by all, but most intrigued by Arzu’s work. The Turkish-born artist uses videos, websites, public interventions and performances to explore the “concept of the body” (as she puts it) and its “relation to social and political discourses.” Yes! She’s been reading Michel Foucault and probably the work of Amelia Jones, a prominent scholar of performance art. Yes! Chris asks the artists and writers to pair up. I immediately turn to Arzu. She nods. I’m thrilled. 

During a break I discover that Arzu has met the subject of my very long master’s thesis: James Luna (Luiseño), a performance-installation artist whose body — and its “relation to social and political discourses”—is a main component of his work. Arzu’s eyes brighten when I mention Luna. “He’s one of my favorite artists,” she says. Arzu met Luna when she was a graduate student at SUNY Buffalo. She had a studio visit with him and, inevitably, he was intrigued by her work.  

9:30 p.m.-ish

We’re still in the process of choosing the obstacles for each artist. The conversation is electric. Ideas are swirling around the room. Arzu is fairly quiet throughout the process, mainly sitting back and observing. The artists are struggling to impose obstacles on each other. “Are we supposed to make each other miserable?” someone asks.

“Well, I wouldn’t rule out misery, as long as it’s not misery for misery’s sake,” Chris replies.

We come to Arzu. There’s talk about asking her to work in a gallery space, since she’s never done that. Her artworks are performances on the streets of  Buffalo, websites like “A Daily Media Diary of Turkey” and videos posted on the Internet. Chris suggests we might ask her to become an “insider,” since many of her projects deal with her being an “outsider.” Earlier, Arzu told us that she came to the U.S. as a “quasi-Middle-Easterner” right after 9/11, and her work began to deal with this identity as a “foreigner.” Chris also notes that she tends to take a passive role in her public interventions/performances. In Unattended Body, Arzu sat silent and motionless on black-topped strip-mall parking lots and grassy patches next to bank buildings, her videographer waiting to capture a passerby’s confused stare. Her venues are public spaces. Her audience — though often unwitting — is the public. 

The group decides. She gets more obstructions than the other artists:

1) Be active

2) Stage something

3) Bring an audience

I feel confident that she can rise to the task. I also feel guilty because I suggested she try more than one. Will she later thank me or curse my name?

10 p.m.-ish

Excited but weary-eyed, Arzu and I agree to email the next day. Tomorrow we both work day jobs, but make plans to meet on Friday. 

Image courtesy of Brandon Juhasz.

Collaboration requires baked-in leadership, and we’re not just talking about pie. Progress is made when leaders lead where there’s a need, galvanizing others in the process. The folks in the Lake Erie Building at Templar Industrial Park are leaders. They decided collaborating on an open house was the perfect way to usher in spring and showcase the West Side’s inner ring artistry. A local professor continues to lead beyond instruction: his weekend-long poetry exposition offers a soapbox for amazing writing and perspectives, bringing in poets from far and wide. A local dance company’s cutting-edge performances continue to lead in the Midwest – and have drawn in a couple of organizational fans for a new breed of benefit concert. That’s three Fresh Starts just for you. None of them happens in a vacuum.

Jawing In Kent

It’s been a long time since the Classic Cleveland Poetry Slam at the Beachland Ballroom came to an end. Thankfully, there are many events across Northeast Ohio that have filled the gap. Kent State University poetry professor Maj Ragain helms one of the best: the annual Jawbone Poetry Reading and Pie Festival, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this Friday, April 30 and runs through the weekend. The affecting catalyst, as revered as the late Daniel Thompson by some, provides an open poetry forum with featured guests from across the region and the country. The whole weekend ends up being a venerable who’s who for regional poets. Of course, there’s pie, too. Lots of pie. This is a must for anyone with a poetry jones. Learn more at Standing Rock’s website.

Screw You

Take in the Screw Factory Artists Spring Open Studio this coming Saturday, May 1 from 1 to 8 pm, at the edge of Birdtown in Lakewood. Artists Arabella Proffer, Gina DeSantis, Shannon Okey and more than two dozen other local artists open their Lake Erie Building studio doors for a no-cost, open to the public open house. The mediums on display for this auction-exhibit include fiber, photography, painting, sculpture, ceramics, glass and mosaics. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Friends of Madison Park. Organized in 2007, FOMP is a community group committed to enhancing Lakewood’s Madison Park as a “backyard park” for children and families.

Watching the ‘Wheels

Here’s one that’s sure to end up on many “Best Of” lists at the end of the year: Dancing Wheels Dance Company and School joins forces with two marquee arts organizations for a benefit gala/concert at the State Theatre at Playhouse Square Saturday, May 1 at 7:30 pm. Titled And All That’s Jazz!, it features special musical guests the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, along with the heavenly Singing Angels and students from the physically-integrated dance company and school. The program features two world premiere dances, including one by Broadway legend Donald McKayle, who will give a pre-performance talk prior to the performance. The gala, featuring hors d’oeuvres, desserts and a silent auction, immediately follows in the theatre’s swanky lobby.