Category Archives: Performance

DJ

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DJ Robert Drake

DJ Robert Drake, Interview by Jimmi Shrode, 80’s New Wave Music

Robert Drake is synonymous with music in Philadelphia. When I met Robert in 1984, we were habitues of the Kennel Club, a now defunct New Wave/Punk Night Spot. The soundtrack of the Reagan era 80’s was New Wave/Post Punk music and we were steeped in it all. DJ Robert Drake is one of the most beloved radio and night club personalities in Philly. He started Sex Dwarf, a New Wave Dance Party following his 40th Birthday Party at Fluid Nightclub. Now in it’s 13th Year, Sex Dwarf is still going strong at Club Mousai at 1217 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. The second Friday of each month is a tribute to various influential New Wave Artists and music trends, such as the New Romantics, Synthpop and Electronic Music. You can listen to DJ Robert Drake on WXPN, Land of the Lost, all 80’s New Wave/Post Punk music, the Final Friday of the month from 7:00 – 11:00PM. Drake is also the co-host of Kids Corner, a live, interactive radio show for children and host of Q’Zine; a look at Queer Culture and Arts at 11:30pm on Sunday nights. Read Robert’s blog at http://djrobertdrake.com/.

Who is DJ Robert Drake? Tell me about yourself.

“Born and raised in Philly, I carry my torch for Philly high and proud …. I love my hometown and always look for a chance to showcase it to new people. I’ve worked in radio for almost 30 years – all at one radio station (unheard of in this industry). I love music – but treasure my quiet time alone at home. I have a dog named Nomi – after my idol Klaus Nomi.”

What is your favorite part of being a Philly DJ?

“Being able to create a vibe and mood that will (hopefully) resonate with those attending the party – creating memories, friendships and even sparks of love by last call.”

Where’s your favorite place to play? Radio or clubs?

“While I love spinning for the masses – there’s something very personal about being on the radio. Even though I am reaching thousands of people at any second, I am talking to just one of them – and hopefully connecting with them as well.”

When did you decide to be a DJ?

“I stepped into the DJ mode back when I was hanging at a punk bar in Philly called The Love Club at Broad and South Streets … they had two scratchy Radio Shack turntables and I offered to play some of my LPs one happy hour … I was hooked! That had to be, wow – almost 27 years ago!”

Why do you prefer 80’s New Wave?

“As most people, it’s the soundtrack of my youth. But it’s also more – it’s inspired the current wave of pop music artists and so much of the 80s New Wave sounds like it could have been produced today … I love showcasing it!”

How would you advise aspiring DJ’s?

“As much as you might want to learn the best computer software programs – resist. Take time to learn the music itself. Don’t let the computer dictate what song should come next. Learn to read the crowd and be ready to make changes at any second. There’s no such thing as a playlist – so do NOT go into a gig with a plan. Just have fun!”

Written by Jimmi Shrode

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Out

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Out of the Box, Open Juried Art Show at The Plastic Club

Out of the Box, Open Juried Art Show at The Plastic Club

UNLEASH YOUR INNER CREATIVE BEAST AT THE PLASTIC CLUB

The Plastic Club is inviting artists to break new creative ground for the club’s next juried art exhibition. The February show will feature the theme of ‘Out of the Box‘ – highlighting ‘work related to the notion of invention and inspiration’. The exhibition will run from February 5th to February 23rd, with an opening party on Sunday, February 5 from 2 PM to 5 PM.

The prospectus explains that the subject may be ‘personal, political, scientific, or otherwise’. Submitted work may also be ‘a piece that is itself an experiment, new subject matter, or new medium for you as an artist’.

“Some example ideas,” the prospectus explains, would be “a piece that represents a new direction in your practice or features a material or medium that is new for you; a portrait of an inventor or innovative thinker; a depiction of an inspirational place, event, or historical turning point; subject matter about a break in convention; an illustrative or abstract response to any of these concepts.”

The show’s prospectus is downloadable from The Plastic Club‘s website, www.plasticclub.org.

The show’s juror will be interdisciplinary artist Jacob Rivkin, a teacher at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and a member of Philadelphia’s OOF Collective, an animation collective.

Jacob Rivkin Bio

“I am an interdisciplinary artist living in Philadelphia, PA. I currently teach Fine Art courses in the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. I am currently a member of the OOF Collective. I received my MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013 and BA from Vassar College in 2007. My animations and sculptures focus on understanding how, and if, environments and its geological qualities imbue sentiment and distinct character to its inhabitants.

My animation work has screened at the Animation Block Party in Brooklyn, NY, Vox Populi in Philadelphia, PA, and the Peephole Cinema in San Francisco. My sculptures have been exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver, BC, The Chemical Heritage Foundation Museum, Philadelphia, PA, the Arlington Art Center in Arlington, VA and Julius Caesar Gallery in Chicago, IL. Awards include the Juror’s Prize at the 25th Annual McNeese Works on Paper Juried Exhibition in 2012, a Fulbright Grant in 2008 to study Chinese traditional landscape painting in Hangzhou, China, and the Weitzel Barber Art Travel Prize in 2006 to study Buddhist sculpture practices in Western China. In 2014 I was an Artist-in-Residence at the Hacktory in Philadelphia. My studio is located at the Queen Memorial Work Studios in Grays Ferry.” – Jacob Rivkin

The Plastic Club, located on quaint Camac Street, the Avenue of the Artists, was founded in 1897 to promote the visual (plastic) arts. Although initially formed as a women’s group, membership was expanded to include men in 1991. The Plastic Club has over 200 members from the Philadelphia area, long-distance members hail from three continents.

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Star

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David Bowie, Queer Star, Jimmi Schrode

Queer Star, David Bowie and Gender Anarchy

by Jimmi Shrode

At the age of 10, I had discovered David Bowie in the pages of 16 Magazine. The wholesome safe pop idols; David Cassidy, The Osmonds and The Jackson 5 were giving way to the Glam Rockers; Lou Reed, Alice Cooper and David Bowie. Bowie was the ring leader with a shocking vermillion rooster cut and tight satin pants. With shocking blue eyeshadow highlighting his mismatched eyes and lipstick, he lead the way for the Sexual Revolution by way of Gender Anarchy and Queerness.

As David Jones, young Bowie couldn’t get arrested with a string of forgettable Anthony Newley meets The Beatles songs that were too twee. Later he would don a maxi dress and sing folkish rock songs, some notice but not quite. The novelty of ‘Space Oddity‘ coincided with America’s Moon Landing brought minor fame, introducing us to Major Tom, an astronaut lost forever in the stars. It was Ziggy Stardust, a rock and roll messiah who came just in time for the end of the world to lead us to Mars, the world of Sexual Chaos. David had announced he was Gay despite being in a marriage with Angie Bowie and son Zowie (now filmmaker Duncan Jones). Bowie was launched into the stratosphere.

David Bowie, Queer Star, Jimmi Schrode

Bowie became godlike and seduced the teens of Britain and America. A clever ruse in an age where news traveled slowly. Bowie arrived on the shores of America with an entourage, claiming great status abroad in Europe. The record executives bought it all. Global success at last. Bowie’s androgyny smashed into the world of suburbia here in the USA and abroad. Queerness was on sale in a record shop near you. Boys dressed in make up and mom’s cast-offs, skinny jeans and experimented with each other leaving lipstick traces. Girls swooned for this Queer Elvis. Adults were dismayed. What was dirty and whispered about in secret was now wrapped up in Japanese Modernist Fashion and Kabuki via the LSD dreams of Timothy Leary, strutting under the spotlights for all the world to see.

Bowie rediscovered Lou Reed, Andy Warhol’s Superstar and leader of the Velvet Underground. The Velvet Underground had inspired Bowie when the Exploding Plastic Inevitable made it to the UK. The psychedelic multimedia show of music, lights and art inspired David Jones. Ever the avid student; he absorbed it and made it his own. His alchemy would extend into the music world and reinvent others as it had himself.

Iggy Pop, the sweaty, muscular singer with a proto-punk band The Stooges, was now clad in tight Lurex pants and had black eyeliner, mascara and lipstick. Bowie took Iggy into the studio and allegedly into his bedroom. Bowie’s aesthetic wiped off onto Lou Reed who now dressed in makeup and leather. Reed had taken a walk onto the Wild Side.

As he retired the glitter and paint in favor of Soul Boy clothes, the label of Queerness became an albatross. While good for breaking through indifference into Rock and Roll, rock was still a boy’s club. Even though some of them adopted Bowie’s fey ways, they were still hetero-normative. Bowie, addicted to cocaine and becoming increasingly paranoid retreated further away from Ziggy Stardust. With slicked back blonde hair, classic 30’s suits and a cigarette, he became the nihilistic Thin White Duke. Then Bowie made the famous Hitler Salute in Victoria Station, casting up shadows of fascism. It was apropos. Fascism had destroyed the Weimar Era Drag for the sturm und drang of masculinity.

David Bowie, Queer Star, Jimmi Schrode

As a chameleon, Bowie further reinvented himself and in the 1980’s had a renaissance into New Wave Music. Still, the shadow of homosexuality clung to him. Disavowing and ignoring it, yet, always present. Some Gay People felt betrayed that their idol who led them out of the closet had returned to the closet. It was a fearsome time when Reagan and Thatcher conservatism and AIDS ravaged Gay Liberation.

David Bowie always endured and was relevant in every decade nonetheless. The 90’s saw collaborations with Trent Reznor and Dr. Dre. In the Aughts; Bowie became the crooner he had been with his smash album Heathen. Then he dropped out of sight after a heart attack only to reemerge in time for his final curtain calls with his albums The Next Day and Blackstar. Blackstar saw the artist use his own impending death to craft his final statement, dying soon after.

David Bowie, Queer Star, Jimmi Schrode

To me and many others; Bowie’s act of Sexual Rebellion had forever changed us, bringing a deeper understanding of gender, sexuality and self-expression. Bowie’s image as Ziggy Stardust remains cemented in our psyche. Often copied and rebranded, a white faced Bowie with a bold red and blue lighting bolt in the center of his face crowned with orange hair is how we remember him most; the Queer Bowie. Our Queer Star.

Written by Jimmi Shrode

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Celebration

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Chinese New Year at Delaware Art Museum

Delaware Art Museum Hosts Free Chinese New Year Celebration

WILMINGTON, DE (January, 2016) — The Delaware Art Museum is pleased to welcome the eleventh annual Chinese New Year Celebration on Saturday, February 11 from 11:00am – 3:00 pm. Presented in conjunction with Hanlin Chinese Culture Association, this celebration includes traditional Chinese art activities, artist demonstrations, and a gallery scavenger hunt. Performances include a lion and folk dance and Chinese yo-yo performance by the Chinese American Community Center Folk and Lion Dance Troupes and Yo-Yo Club, and an additional special performance by the popular Chinese acrobat Yang Xiao Di. Artwork created by children from the Chinese School of Delaware to commemorate this holiday will be on view.

There is no Museum admission during Chinese New Year and all galleries will be open throughout the day from 10:00am – 4:00pm.

雄鸡的中国新年度2017年

Schedule of Events

  • 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
    Chinese New Year-inspired art activities
  • 11:30 a.m. – noon:
    Lion Dance and Folk Dance by the Chinese American Community Center Lion and Folk Dance Troupes
  • Noon – 1:00 p.m.
    Chinese dough figuring and Chinese calligraphy
  • 1:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
  • Opening Chinese Yo-Yo performance by the Chinese American Community Center Yo-Yo Club followed by a special performance by Chinese acrobat Yang Xiao Di
  • 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
    Chinese dough figuring and Chinese calligraphy

About Hanlin Chinese Culture Association

Founded in 2007, the Hanlin Chinese Culture Association promotes Chinese culture and art to the general public with a variety of educational and entertaining events, such as traditional calligraphy and painting exhibitions, dancing and martial arts performances, and Chinese music and flower arranging demonstrations. Learn more about the Hanlin Association at http://hanlincca.org/.

Partners and Sponsors

This program is presented in conjunction with the Hanlin Chinese Culture Association and supported by the Chinese American Community Center (CACC) and the Chinese School of Delaware. Special performances and demonstrations will be performed by Yang Xiao Di, the CACC Folk and Lion Dance Troupes and Yo-Yo Club. Photographs provided by Bill Tsai. This program is made possible, in part, by grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Chinese New Year at Delaware Art Museum

About the Delaware Art Museum

Founded in 1912, The Delaware Art Museum is best known for its large collection of works by Wilmington native Howard Pyle and fellow American illustrators, a major collection of British Pre-Raphaelite art, urban landscapes by John Sloan and his circle, and a survey of American art from early 19th century through the present. Visitors can also enjoy the outdoor Copeland Sculpture Garden and a number of special exhibitions throughout the year.

The Delaware Art Museum is at 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, DE 19806. OpenWednesday: 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Thursday: 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., and Friday – Sunday:10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Monday and Tuesday: Closed. Admission fees are charged as follows: Adults (19-59) $12, Seniors (60+) $10, Students (with valid ID) $6, Youth (7-18) $6, and Children (6 and under) free. Admission fees are waived Thursdays 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. and Sundays 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. thanks to support from generous individuals. For more information, call 302-571-9590 or 866-232-3714 (toll free), or delart.org.

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Instagram: @delartmuseum

Thank you to Jessica Jenkins, Manager of Marketing & Public Relations at The Delaware Art Museum for the content of this post.

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Sound

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Andrea Hornick: Unbounded HistoriesAndrea Hornick in Room 23. © 2016 The Barnes Foundation

SITE-SPECIFIC SOUND INSTALLATION UNLOCKS NEW WAYS OF
EXPERIENCING BARNES COLLECTION

Andrea Hornick: Unbounded Histories marks first sound installation
in the Barnes Collection

Philadelphia, PA, December 2016 – The Barnes Foundation presents Unbounded Histories, a new site-specific project by Philadelphia artist Andrea Hornick and the first “sound intervention” in the Collection Gallery.

From January 6 through February 19, 2017, visitors can listen to several dozen original poems written in response to specific works, including Seurat’s Models and Van Gogh’s The Postman, while they explore the Barnes collection (the recording can be streamed on any web-enabled phone). Filled with mysterious, dream-like imagery, Hornick’s poems spring from what she describes as a shamanistic practice: working directly in the collection, the artist puts herself in a trance-like state letting the art lead her toward the stories and images that the mind normally keeps buried. The resulting juxtaposition of sound and sight aims to encourage visitors to consider works in the Barnes collection in a new way—as portals to the unconscious as well as historical objects. To complement the audio portion, video footage showing Hornick’s creative practice will be screened in the collection’s classrooms. Information about the project, including the URL, and headphones will be available outside the collection gallery for the duration of the project.

Unbounded Histories is made possible with support from the William Penn Foundation.

“We wanted to try something new in the Collection Gallery,” says Dr. Martha Lucy, Barnes deputy director for education & public programs and curator, who is curating this project. “Sound art allows us to put living artists in dialogue with the collection without making any changes to the physical space.”

Hornick sees the piece as “a collaboration with the renegade Dr. Barnes.” Her strange, deeply personal poems reframe traditional narratives of art history. “The piece plays with authority and authorship,” Hornick says. “Through a meditative practice in connection with art history, I upend expected interpretations, inviting creative, personal connections to the collection.” Hornick will do a brief performance at the Barnes on January 6as part of First Friday.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Andrea Hornick received a BA from Oberlin College, and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her painting practice extends into text-based sound, performance, and installation. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and extensively in New York and Los Angeles. Her most recent solo exhibition, Journeys, at Savery Gallery in Philadelphia, took place in March 2016. Hornick is included in several group museum exhibitions in fall 2016 and winter 2017, including Natural Philosophy at Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, and Due South at The Delaware Contemporary. The catalogue Andrea Hornick. Recent Work: 1460-1865 was published for her exhibition at David Krut Projects, New York, in 2009, and Andrea Hornick: works from 1779–1798 was published in 1999 for an installation and performance of the same name. Hornick currently teaches in the Fine Art Department at the University of Pennsylvania, including a graduate seminar entitled Museum as Site: Critique, Intervention, and Production and undergraduate courses in drawing and painting. Hornick has also taught at Barnard College, Oberlin College, and Auckland University, and been a museum teacher at The Jewish Museum, The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, The Morgan Library, and The Museum of Natural History. She was a visiting artist at Oberlin College and the University of California at Davis. Hornick divides her time between New York City and Philadelphia.

ABOUT THE BARNES FOUNDATION
The Barnes Foundation (barnesfoundation.org) was established by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.” The Barnes holds one of the finest collections of post-impressionist and early modern paintings, with extensive works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Henri Rousseau, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, and Giorgio de Chirico; old master paintings; important examples of African sculpture; Native American ceramics, jewelry and textiles; American paintings and decorative arts; and antiquities from the Mediterranean region and Asia. The Barnes Foundation’s Art and Aesthetics programs engage diverse audiences. These programs, held at the Philadelphia campus, online, and in Philadelphia communities, advance the mission through progressive, experimental, and interdisciplinary teaching and learning. 

The Barnes Arboretum, at the Merion campus, contains more than 2,000 varieties of trees and woody plants, many of them rare. Founded in the 1880s by Joseph Lapsley Wilson and expanded under the direction of Mrs. Laura L. Barnes, the collection includes a fern-leaf beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Laciniata’), a dove tree (Davidia involucrata), a monkey-puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana), and a redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). Other important plant collections include lilacs, peonies, Stewartias and magnolias. The Horticulture school at the Barnes Foundation in Merion has offered a comprehensive three-year certificate course in the botanical sciences, horticulture, garden aesthetics, and design since its establishment in 1940 by Mrs. Barnes.

Thank you to Deirdre Maher, Director of Communications, The Barnes Foundation, for the content of this post. 215.278.7160, press@barnesfoundation.org

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