After a summer hiatus the Salt Lake City Film Center is once again screening a series of art-related films at the Salt Lake Art Center on the second Friday of the month. On October 8th you’ll have the chance to enter the strange, baroque world of Jack Smith, a revolutionary photographer, filmmaker and performance artist, in Mary Jordan’s Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis. The documentary premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, and in a series of contemporary interviews and historic footage unveils an accessible and moving portrait of the artist who paved the way for the likes of Andy Warhol and Matthew Barney. In 1963 Smith released Flaming Creatures, a 43-minute film that due to its surreal and graphic depictions of sexuality was banned. In the hands of film promoter Jonas Mekas Flaming Creatures became a cause celebre and cult classic. Smith felt the film was misunderstood, and though he continued to be a seminal influence on the underground art world until his death of AIDS in 1989, he never completed another work, treating various film and performance projects as ongoing work. The visuals of Smith’s works are captivating and the sound of his plaintive voice gives the documentary a dreamlike tone that matches the work of the artist. The screening, at 7 pm, is free.
Jack Smith loved to dress his actors and patrons in exotic clothes. If you like the “baroque” world of Smith’s vision you might also enjoy two fashion events happening this month. On October 16, Art Meets Fashion 2010 will premiere exclusive spring lines with professional runway shows for local designers Keith Bryce, McKell Maddox, Jordan Halversen, Rachael Domingo, Rebekah McKinney and Krista Nielson. Presented by (a)perture Gallery, the event at the Salt Lake Art Center will also feature unique designs by Michelle Boucher amidst a live fashion photo-shoot, fashion art installations from SLCC Fashion Institute and an eclectic mix of performance art and entertainment. Food and beverages round out the evening. Ticket sales ($35-$50 through ArtTix) will benefit two local non-profit organizations; Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Salt Lake Art Center.
Fashion also hits Salt Lake this month in the The 10th Ever Fashion Stroll. The stroll happens Friday, October 29th, 6-10pm, on East Broadway and will feature a Halloween-themed street festival, a spooky runway show, street performers and local bands. Merchants and street-artisans will be decked out in classic Halloween costume and attendees are encouraged to dress in “costumes or high-fashion flare.” Prizes will be awarded.
Jen Harmon Allen
A parade of fashion models may have some visual resonance for anyone who has seen Jen Harmon Allen’s current exhibit in Provo’s SmartSpace Gallery. “Parade” features pairs of sculpted legs milling about an exhibition space where the paintings are frozen in time, their frames dripping to the floor, all in a space 18″ x 24″ x 30″. The SmartSpace Gallery, a concept begun by artist Jason Lanegan, is a free-standing pedestal that features a miniaturized gallery, complete with wood floors and recessed lighting and viewable through a glass fourth wall. The kiosk-style gallery is designed to be small enough to be placed in lobbies, hallways, foyers and other high-traffic areas where people aren’t used to encountering art. “It’s like slipping vegetables into your kids lasagna,” Allen quipped. It’s current placement on the 5th floor of the Harris Fine Arts Center — where before Allen’s show it hosted an exhibit by Pam Bowman –may put it in a “preaching to the choir” category for now, but its size makes the gallery easily portable, and if we’re lucky they’ll be sprouting up all over the state.
A number of additional events happening this month will be worth checking out. Some of the ones we’ll be blogging on in October are: the Classical Rock the Vote event being put on by Artists for Corroon on October 17, featuring classical musicians and modern dancers; would you like to become a fan, a unique opportunity to view new work by John Bell in his mid-century home built by John Sugden in Emigration Canyon; and the book-release party for Sean Diediker’s The Wax Onion.
UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Categories: Visual Arts
