First Friday Focus

Sept. 5, 2008

by Lori Hill

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Published: Sep 3, 2008

CFEVA

Pooh Deer, by Carl Marin, mixed media (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

When she was a little girl, Julia Stratton would sit underneath her mother's piano and just listen. Now, she wants to create the same experience for an audience, writ large. While still in "the dream stage" — a potential collaboration with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA), Astral Artists and the Kimmel Center — Music Box is envisioned as a 20-foot cube in which people will sit underneath a grand piano with sound and video inspired by the music of turn-of-the-20th-century Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. "I didn't seriously start listening to Scriabin until four years ago," says Stratton, "when I heard a Glen Gould compilation with Scriabin's Deux Morceaux, a short piece in two parts. I listened to it over and over again. It was so atmospheric, human, complex, specific. It felt like an internal conversation puzzling over a decision. And all in under two minutes." Stratton blends the same ingredients into her CFEVA show this month. The artist had the opportunity to visit Russia on an Independence Foundation Fellowship. She spent three weeks traveling to its big cities and smaller towns, taking in the medieval churches, icon collections and the Scriabin Museum, where she saw casts of the composer's hands and one ear. All of this will come together in Stratton's vision for Music Box. In the meantime, viewers will have to settle for the artist's intimate yet dramatic bronze sculptures named for Scriabin works, which will be heard in the gallery. The romantic boxes are somewhere between a birdcage and a cathedral in mood, and recall Giacometti's sculpture, with a figure lost in a cold forest. Photos from Stratton's trip to Russia will supplement the show. Fellow Scriabin enthusiast and pianist Koji Attwood will provide musical accompaniment in a concert on Sept. 10 at Jacobs Music, with a reception following in the Benoliel Gallery at CFEVA. CFEVA has another worthwhile show this month, with "Ghosts and Shadows" at the Schuylkill Center's Second Site location in Roxborough, in which Jennifer Chapman, Keiko Miyamori, Kara Rennert and Marisha Simons created site-specific installations inspired by nature. "Scriabin Music Boxes," concert, Wed., Sept. 10, 5:30-6:15 p.m., admission free but reservations required (215-735-6999), Jacobs Music, 1718 Chestnut St.; artist reception, 6:30 p.m., CEFVA, The Barclay, Suite 3A, 237 S. 18th St.; exhibition runs Sept. 3-25. "Ghosts and Shadows," reception Sat., Sept. 6, 2-5 p.m.; artist talk and tour, 3 p.m.; runs through Jan. 2, 2009, Port Royal Avenue and Hagy's Mill Road. For more information, visit cfeva.org or call 215-546-7775.

Impressed by what she sees as "a revelation if not exactly a revolution," Projects Gallery director Helen Meyrick wanted to go out of her way to showcase the city's emerging artistic talent. "Fresh!" gives the spotlight to a handful of local artists, many of whom are grads of PAFA, Tyler and Moore. Brooke Holloway's Dumb Bitch puts a name on Barbie-slash-Disney Princess vacuity in pop culture. Not sure whether to be disturbed or tickled by Gregory Farrar Scott's series of adorned helmet masks, but either way, they're memorable. Carl Marin crafts odd sculptures from common household items that comment on man vs. nature, at one point using Pooh's visage in ways A.A. Milne never imagined. Lastly, a sleeper hit: Krista Rothwell's strikingly modern portraits invite the viewer — through clever perspectives, innovative use of color and an uncanny method of depicting figures' internal dialogue — to dive into her world. While you're at the gallery, stick around for the Fringe — Projects is playing host to two shows during the festival. Reception Fri., Sept. 5, 6-9 p.m., exhibit through Sept. 27, 629 N. Second St., 267-303-9652.

Willi Dorner, choreographer of Live Arts' Bodies in Urban Spaces event, asked photographer Lisa Rastl to focus her lens on the tootsies of his contemporaries for a show called, appropriately, "Feet," now on view at the Painted Bride. It may not always be pretty, but it's compelling portraiture nonetheless. Through Oct. 18, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914. ... Arcadia Boutique is hosting Sienna Freeman's surrealistic photomontages for its first anniversary. Cheers! Reception Fri., Sept. 12, 6-10 p.m., 819 N. Second St., 215-667-8099. ... Copy Gallery rallied 5 percent Beth Brandon and 5 percent Carrie Collins for "10% Tiger Fire," curated by Annette Monnier. Reception Fri., Sept. 5, 7-11 p.m., 319 N. 11th St. ... Finally, Edge Gallery's "4 Painters x 4 Perspectives" show zeroes in on the work of David Freeman, James Leonard, Ray Mantella and David Novak. Reception Fri., Sept. 5, 5-9 p.m., 72 N. Second St., 215-413-7072.

 

(l_hill@citypaper.net)

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