At the March 5th Arts & Music at Wedgewood/Houston, visitors to abrasiveMedia got a behind-the-scenes look at art in creation. We featured photography, dance, aerial, writing, painting, sculpting, music, and more! Approximately 400 people came through our doors to witness work being created by over 20 artists.
The Artists at Work
Rebekah Hampton-Barger, Shelby Ring, and Ryann Lievens of FALL (aerial & contemporary dance) gave a stirring improv performance on aerial silks. Their dynamic movements made striking use of the small space. Gasps were heard in the audience a few times as the performers suspended themselves in the aerial fabric. Jonah Eller-Isaacs painted a new abstract piece during the crawl. His beautifully-balanced and yet chaotic use of colors perfectly captured the nature of the evening.
Bridget Wietlisbach and Emily Venturino brought their own distinctive painting styles to the event, while Laura Jane Martin presented her illustration work. CHRISOLUX was on hand with his students for screen printing, offering a highly stylized, abstract composition for the night’s prints.
Dancers from New Dialect presented a taste of their always awe-inspiring and intensely physical style of contemporary dance. Their structured improv was a sneak peek of their upcoming performance at Oz on April 1st, Souvenirs.
Audra Almond-Harvey (abrasiveMedia’s Executive Director) and her writing partner Tavius Marshall led the audience in a mad-lib-ish poetry composition on the walls. Attendees gave their favorite words to the duo, who then constructed “poems” out of the offerings. The end result was surprisingly low in profanity and unsurprisingly high in rather long words.
Miranda Crump created her fanciful, detailed, this-is-not-your-grandmother’s embroidery art, while Blue Moves offered the audience a chance to “sculpt” the dancers as they moved throughout the space. Speaking of sculptors, a whole crew of them joined us from Western Kentucky University and worked on wax sculptures during the evening.
Robbie Lynn Hunsinger joined us to present an audience test of her interactive wiimote exhibit. Kelly Tilson, Rachel Cypher, and Joel Lain of Typebox composed poems on-demand on their typewriters. Nearby, Jacob Gregory illustrated a seriously impressive piece based off the video game Contra. His precise pen-and-ink work is a welcome showing from this artist, who also creates abstract paintings.
Our very own Justin Harvey invited crawl attendees to participate in his photo series, “All The Rage”, in which otherwise calm and rational people were captured in a moment of violent outburst. Of course, the “rage” was all faked (to varying degrees of realism), but there were a few primal screams which may or may not have startled unsuspecting attendees in other areas of the studio.
Rounding out the evening, Kat Jones graced us with her operatic-punk vocals, accompanied by Andrew Collins as she shared excerpts from her upcoming album, I am Warm Young Blood. Kat can next be seen at The Family Wash on April 1st and in collaboration with FALL during the upcoming Nashville Sideshow Fringe Fest. Kat was also joined by Joshua Dent, a frequent performer with groups such as chatterbird. Joshua also graced us with a strikingly melancholy solo cello performance.
Thanks to all of the artists who joined us, and to the awesome crowd that came out to support the show!
In April, join us for the work of Dennas Davis, who has been painting, illustrating, and designing in Nashville for 33 years. His work balances light, color, composition, beauty, expression, and a sense of the paint itself. We’ll also be hosting a Book Swap/Book Drop, to help build abrasiveMedia’s library.
