Amazing!, the blog series in which I ask members of Justseeds to make a list of five things that have been inspiring them as of late. This time we get a list from Erik Ruin of Providence, RI.
1. Working with Barebones Productions again in Minneapolis- after a 7 year hiatus, I returned to designing shadows/projections for this amazing outdoor puppet spectacle. It was Barebones’ 20th anniversary, and it’s really grown in interesting/challenging/inspiring ways- on the final night of its 5 day run, the park was overflowing with more than 3000 people!
2. Paul Metzger- when in Minneapolis, I was introduced to the mesmerizing records of Paul Metzger, who plays the 16-to-23 string “modified banjo”- it manages to sound like a banjo and nothing like a banjo at the same time, and is just beautiful beautiful stuff- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KmiohaJIwk
3. William Kentridge exhibit and lectures- On the way to Mpls (this is kind of turning into a travelogue, huh?) some friends and I went to see Kentridge’s exhibit at the Marian Woodman Gallery– the show featured a lot of what Kentridge calls “mistranslations of form”- projections of flipbook animations beside the framed pages. paper forms in one film animated cast into bronze sculptures, loose ink drawings exactingly reproduced as linocuts.
Also, since I like to listen to audio while I cut and scratch, I’ve been listening to some of Kentridge’s lectures that are available online, esp this series, a few of which I was lucky enough to catch in person.
4. Empire Drive-In- On the same visit to NYC, I got to check out Todd Chandler and Jeff Stark’s ambitious project Empire Drive-In, wherein they hauled a bunch of junked cars to a museum parking lot in Queens and showed a pretty well-rounded and excellent program of films. I went to the Silents+ Noise night, where some favorites included watching Jim White & Guy Picciotto perform a live score to an impressionistic Jem Cohen film about Coney Island, and my friends Jackie Beckey and Jonathan Kaiser playing strings and loops to a film of Jonathan’s.
5. Ian Cozzens exhibit Material Resistance at URI KIngston- went to this the day after I got back from Providence. Ian’s work is top-notch- exacting, thoughtful, meticulous architecture, letterforms (sometimes lately) bodies. It was great to see over a dozen years of Ian’s work all lined up in one place. It was extra great to see a bunch of process stuff- drawings, notes, rubylith. It was extra extra great to realize how much of that stuff I’ve already been a party to in recent years, as a friend and occasional co-working companion.
