09.18.08 kulturnatib

Art award, almost
Like many, I am a surfer dude. Yet, as with them, only in the safer waters of the internet, though some would argue that these waters are even more treacherous.

Certainly that can be said for the Too Good To Be True banners that proliferate in the internet like pimples on a teener's face. Still, people must continue to fall for this ruse because there they are continuing to snare people with,'You Have Just Won Something That Is Too Good To Be True.'

When I was told the other week that I have been nominated for an arts award, it was just like one of those TGTBT internet banners. But, more compelling.

Enough that I looked at the source of the news. And then like the conscientious journalist that I try to be, I looked for confirmation from an independent source.

There they were; Both original source and confirmation. Yet, I wondered, where was my invitation to the awards event? Still, I reasoned if this was really what it was, they cannot or will not turn me away. I should just show up.

The awards venue was to be at a community cultural center. Driving through the area earlier in the day, we didn't see the center. But we saw an old church. There was some confusion with some friends about which church this was. St. Patrick's, maybe, as it is on St. Patrick's Street. No, others disagreed. St. Patrick's is somewhere else.

Turns out that this church was the old St. Brigid's that has now been converted into the St. Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities, which, if you didn't know about the conversion and you stumbled inside, you would never know.

It is a more than century old church. And it showed. And, no disrespect to the religious sentiments of the faithful, what better showcase for the arts and humanities of which the divine is its loftiest goal than to keep it just the way it was?

The first guest band performers, though, quickly dispelled that sentiment or faith, if you like. It was no longer the way it was. It is no longer the way it is. And as if to underline this sense of confusion of text and context, this band -- metal or trash rock, I believe that's what they would be called these days -- was introduced with a reading from the Gospel of Mark where Jesus was casting out Legion or the demons. Hmmm.

The original notice, posted in one of the most widely used cultural and art events portal for Ottawa and the immediate region, said that this was a formal wear event. Sunday's best, in other words, which, makes sense especially for a church.

But artists, being who they are all over the world, this sense comes out a little different. A tie, I thought, would be just enough nod towards formality without being too formal that it would make me look like I was trying too hard not to miss my own funeral.

I wasn't too far off. There was only one person I remember going full monty formal wear-wise. He had reason to be. He had to have the look of Authority. He was up on stage handing out the envelopes with the winner's names, which, despite the look of Authority he screwed up a few times. Happens.

Mine wasn't among the winners, though it was called out. I was among what my friends at Habagat would call the first, second and third losers, though not in that particular order. It didn't matter.

But it did. I would be falsely humble to deny that it did. Or, does. Yet, only in the acknowledgment that I am, so to speak, in the game. Though, I am not playing for that alone. Hmmm.

09.11.08 kulturnatib

Same difference
Between 6.30 and 9 in the evening of the same day is a two and a half hour difference. But with a distance of more than 13,000 kilometers between the two events that would have respectively started on each of those two hours, the difference is both far apart and then quite close.

The other Friday, XO?'s, 'XO? Purdoy' started or was to start off at 9pm at the Tapas Lounge. At 6.30 pm that same night, Fait Maison's, 'Dennis Tourbin Redux,' was to start. However, it started late.

Had both been on the same time zone, this would have brought Fait Maison's starting time closer to XO?'s. But, no, the time zones of both are twelve hours apart and Fait Maison's tardiness would increase this even more. Yet, based on experience, XO? would have been late in starting as well.

This would even things out and was somewhat comforting. Artists, perhaps on all sides of the globe, are no Mussolinis. Their trains do not have to be on time and often are not.

Beyond this, however, there were a more close proximities that bring both events closer together than separate them in the differences of distance in time.

First off, both were performance art events. I am familiar with XO? and the performance art scene in Cebu. For now, XO? is about the only performance art scene there. No, that's not quite right. There is MindWorks of UP Cebu. But, not to disparage the work that the students put into MindWorks, that is just it: MindWorks is students' work. XO? is graduate school, doctorate level.

Fait Maison is the same. This was my second Fait Maison event. I was more impressed this time than the first one.

Fait Maison translates, in English, into home made. This name partakes of the pervasive DIY ethos of performance art that distinguishes it from the performing arts where specialization or virtuosity is often the goal and its display often the only point for performing.

In performance art, the mastery of a medium is requisite only up to the point at which its mastery is able to communicate the message or content. Thus, while some 'acting' could be involved, it doesn't amount to 'theater.'

Also, Fait Maison takes on the other meaning of home-made in that their events often take place in homes. Thus, this time, the venue is at the home of Dennis Tourbin, one of the most respected artists in Canada, for whom this event was a tribute.

This being mostly the case for Fait Maison's performance events, there are things that they can, and as I understand, often, do that XO? cannot. Mainly, I would like to believe, because, so far, XO?'s venues have been public and commercial.

Here is where the difference becomes wider than simple distance and time.

XO? has not featured nudity in any of its events, so far. Fait Maison has and, again, did during the Tourbin tribute. I will stand up against the blanket condemnation of the prudes and say that there is prurient or gratuitous nudity and there is artistic nudity.

The nudity during the tribute was entirely artistic. It referred immediately, at least for those who know their art history, to the nude in Edouard Manet's 'Olympia,' though in this performance she is decked with a headgear that makes plain what in the painting -- an orchid tucked in the hair -- is only alluded to; that she is a courtesan.

Yet, in the performance, the nude fans herself with a fan that one one side is written, 'object,' and on the other, ' abject.' Then she reads a poem about, “ this is what about I like being a girl.”

The performance thrusts in our face the hypocrisy of the 'objectification' of women who then are pitied for their 'abject' state and, what's more, judging that such state is the result of her 'immorality.'

XO? has tackled immorality. But not this kind and not in this way. But then again are the different kinds so different?

This will be an interesting question to ask when XO? and Fait Maison can come together for a joint performance event. Maybe next year. Inshallah.