512 Art

Find Austin art events, Austin museum exhibitions, and Austin art news here, including Austin music and theater productions.

February 26, 2012

Weekly Roundup

11:52 AM Posted by Unknown
February 26 - March 3
Artsy events for the coming week

Sunday 26
Monday 27
Tuesday 28
Wednesday 29
Thursday 1
Friday 2
Saturday 3

February 13, 2012

Austin Shakespeare is on a Roll

12:50 PM Posted by Unknown , , ,

I had the opportunity to attend the opening of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia presented by Austin Shakespeare at the Long Center.

Well, Austin Shakespeare has done it again!  I'm hooked.  I've only attended two of their performances (Hamlet being the other) but I will go to every new production, barring life threatening illness.

I've been a Stoppard fan since I saw Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in high school and proceeded to read many of his radio plays, but Arcadia was not amongst the lot.  I plan to read it now - many of the jokes were witty and fast and a few flew over my head as I was still contemplating the previous line(s) of dialogue.

The setting for the play is an English manor in 1809 and in the present.  The situations of the characters are slightly mirrored in the different time periods as the modern folk try to uncover some of the mystery of the 1809 characters' lives through snippets in diaries and journals, as well as sketches left behind.  A lot of the content of the play revolves around "new" theories of mathematics and intellectual thought, both in the past and in the present.  I admit I wish I knew more about Lord Byron going into the play and more about mathematics in general, but I consider leaving a play wanting to read more and research more a success.

If you have the chance, this is a production well worth seeing & this is the last week to do so. Visit their site for more information regarding tickets & times.

Side Note: I was curious why a Shakespearean group was tackling a Stoppard play, so I looked them up.  Austin Shakespeare was founded in 1984 and focuses its productions on Shakespeare, but not exclusively.  If you have more questions or are curious about their season, check out Austin Shakespeare at www.austinshakespeare.org.

February 12, 2012

Weekly Roundup

12:00 PM Posted by Unknown
February 12 - February 18
Artsy events in the Austin area this week


Last week to see Tom Stoppard's Arcadia
Next to Normal still running this week @ Zach Theatre
Sunday 12
Monday 13
Tuesday 14
Wednesday 15
Thursday 16
Friday 17
Saturday 18

January 31, 2012

Street Art

4:32 PM Posted by Unknown ,
Austin is not known for its graffiti. The city is graced with numerous locations in which city-approved or private owner-approved art graces exterior building walls and colorful sculptures are a common sight.  But actual graffiti?  That can mainly be found on trains passing through the city.  However, in the midst of a hilly Austin neighborhood there is a treasure trove of awe-inspiring graffiti.
Austin, TX. 2012



On Baylor and 12th Street near Castle Hill there is a lot with concrete walls, the foundations of a presumably never built structure.  A couple of years ago the walls were plain grey concrete; now there is a smattering of color on every surface.





Austin, TX. 2012
From the grandiose to the hastily scrawled messages, this spot has it all.  I visited during the late afternoon and found the lot fairly busy.  A group of students were filming a video, a few couples were wandering around enjoying the view, others were milling about, and a photographer was giving a private lesson (which my friend and I ended up a part of by accident...apparently hula hooping provides fodder for photo technique teaching).




Austin, TX. 2012.

In some spots there was still the lingering smell of spray paint and in other areas the paint old and weathered.









If you wear some good shoes and don't mind steep inclines and lots of broken glass, you can climb to the top of the little hill and check out a great view of the Austin skyline.
Austin, TX. 2012.

January 29, 2012

Guest Blogger: Barbara Lundquist

2:23 PM Posted by Unknown , ,

Architects of Air came to Austin! & I was unable to view it, a point of contention that will induce a frown when mentioned. However, Barbara Lundquist, a friend and fellow art historian, was able to go and kindly offered to write about her experience for us:

I was lucky enough to see Mirazozo during Architects of Air’s brief exhibition at the Long Center, and then I was silly enough to misplace my camera for a week. Now that I’ve gotten it back, I am finally able to share my experience with the help of visual aids.
First off, Mirazozo is an inflatable sculpture called a luminarium. It is made of carefully cut and spliced plastic sheets, air, and light. Opaque and translucent sections of plastic alternate, controlling the amount of sunlight filtering through the red, blue, and green sections, and creating beautiful glowing patterns on the walls and ceilings.

(with flash) 

(without flash)











I visited Mirazozo in late afternoon, with strong slanting rays of sunlight hitting the western walls of the sculpture. I was actually able to follow the path of the setting sun through the colored plastic. On the eastern walls of the sculpture, the colors were mixing brilliantly. Every surface was shining.  
 
With my own eyes, I could never make out all the distinct colors captured by cameras. Perhaps this is because the light is constantly shifting, and the plastic walls are never still, even for an instant. Perhaps it is simply the way the camera works - I am by no means an expert on photography.
The layout of Mirazozo is basically a diamond surrounding a large multicolored center dome. There is a smaller dome of green, red, or blue at each of the first three points. As you wander through the paths connecting these domes, there are small alcoves or pods off to the sides where you can sit down and relax, or people-watch like I did.



The point farthest from the entrance is a sculpture called the Tree. It has a trunk of green plastic rising up from the center of the floor toward the sky, and branches reaching out to the walls. The red and blue light coming from the walls reflects off the opaque sections of the branches, perfectly juxtaposing the different qualities of light within the sculpture. 
 

It took me about 15 minutes to reach the tree, not because the sculpture is large, but because I was moving very slowly, walking each path forwards and then backwards, making complete circles from each corner dome to the center dome, and then reversing them. I was mesmerized by the shadows of clover leaves playing across the base of a pod, and by tiny patched holes where a bright point of light would shoot through. Seeing children throwing themselves against the walls and sliding down, I couldn’t help wondering how much it would take for the plastic to rip and send the whole thing deflating onto our heads. 
 

I was part of the last group admitted into the luminarium, and it was quite crowded, a little noisy, and occasionally smelly. Children were running and shouting, couples were snuggling in pods, photographers were sprawled on the floor - contorting themselves to get the perfect shot. I saw one man moving from dome to dome to add the music of his singing bowls to the ambient music by David Bickley. I will admit, the first time I saw him I naively thought he was about to have his supper.
My absolutely ideal way to experience a luminarium would be as a place to gather with my friends, one of whom described it as “a moon bounce for adults, without the bounce, yet with all the otherworldliness.” I need to gather some materials and try my hand at crafting a small backyard dome just for this purpose.
For more photos and details about Mirazozo and Architects of Air check out:
http://www.architects-of-air.com/luminaria/mirazozo.html
The rest of my photos are here.

Weekly Roundup

12:18 PM Posted by Unknown
January 29 - February 4

Wicked is still running this week @ Bass Concert Hall
Next to Normal is still running this week @ Zach Scott Theatre
Sunday 29
Monday 30
Tuesday 31
Wednesday 1
Thursday 2
Friday 3
Saturday 4