Time-Based Art Festival
Encyclopedia
The Time-Based Art Festival (TBA Festival) is an annual interdisciplinary art and performance festival presented by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
(PICA). It occurs over a ten-day period in September in Portland, Oregon
in the United States. Now in its ninth year, TBA:11 is scheduled for September 8-18, 2011.
TBA is "inspired by various European and Australian-modeled Festivals including the renowned Edinburgh
and Adelaide
Festivals" and features events in diverse venues across the city of Portland, OR, through partnerships with the Pacific Northwest College of Art
, Reed College
, Northwest Film Center
, and many other local peer institutions.
in 1972 through his writings in various publications including Studio International. He also established the first Time-Based Media undergraduate course at the University for the Creative Arts, Kent, UK in 1972 (then Maidstone College of Art). Use of the term has since rapidly spread around the world, particularly among academics, to identify moving image and sound work by visual artists - a popular development arising only comparatively recently in the mid to late twentieth century.
.
In 2006, PICA adopted a Guest Artistic Director model, hiring Mark Russell—former Artistic Director of P.S. 122
and current Artistic Director of the Under the Radar Festival
at the Public Theater
, in New York City
—to curate the Festival from 2006 to 2008. Russell was succeeded by Cathy Edwards, formerly of Dance Theater Workshop
and the Director of Programming for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, CT, who has curated the 2009 and 2010 Festivals. Edwards is currently programming for 2011, which will mark her third and final TBA Festival for the organization.
The Guest Artistic Director programs Festival artists and events in collaboration with Kristan Kennedy, Visual Art Curator for PICA, and Erin Boberg Doughton, the organization's Performing Art Program Director. Since 2006, the Festival has included TBA ON SIGHT, a month-long series of visual art installations, curated by Kennedy.
, along with performances by Bill Shannon
(Crutchmaster), Tere O'Connor, and Miranda July
.
, Khaela Maricich (The Blow
), thel (string quartet)|Ethel], Butoh artist Akira Kasai, and dance/theater company 33 Fainting Spells.
in Pioneer Courthouse Square
. Artists included DJ Spooky
, Daniel Bernard Roumain
, and British duo Lone Twin.
, which led into a public march across the Hawthorne Bridge
to watch an art flotilla by artist David Eckard on the Willamette River
. Other performers included seminal performance artist Laurie Anderson
, choreographer Deborah Hay
, the Spalding Gray
Project, and the Portland premiere of Nature Theater of Oklahoma. Visual art joined the Festival for the first time with a residency project by Matthew Day Jackson
, a film installation by Marina Abramovic
, and an exhibit by Harrell Fletcher
.
, Mikhail Baryshnikov
danced with Donna Uchizono Company, and Elevator Repair Service
performed Gatz, a seven-hour play based on F. Scott Fitzgerald
's The Great Gatsby
. The ON SIGHT visual art program exhibited Arnold Kemp, Larry Bamburg, and Guido van der Werve, and collaborated with the Cooley Gallery at Reed College
to present Peter Kreider and Marko Lulic.
's Blank Placard Happening and a symphonic collaboration between Antony and the Johnsons
and the Oregon Symphony
. Other artists who performed included Reggie Watts
, Jérôme Bel, Mike Daisey
, and the Superamas. Ryan Trecartin
, Lizzie Fitch, Jeffry Mitchell, and Mike Kelly
were all part of the ON SIGHT visual art program.
and Meg Stuart
, Australian theater company Back to Back Theatre, playwright Young Jean Lee
, and a sesquicentennial musical written by Pink Martini
, entitled Oregon! Oregon. Visual artists included Fawn Krieger and Kalup Linzy
in residency, performance duo robbinschilds, and local musician Ethan Rose, among others. On Labor Day, PICA coordinated with Slow Food
Portland to host an outdoor, public picnic.
performed on opening night of the Festival with the Oregon Symphony
, and featured Festival projects included monologist Mike Daisey
; performance troupe Nature Theater of Oklahoma; choreographer John Jasperse
; and an interactive, 360-degree film by the Wooster Group, marking the company's first production in Portland. The ON SIGHT program hosted a residency by Charles Atlas
, exhibits by local Whitney Biennial
participants Storm Tharp and Jessica Jackson Hutchins
, and the inaugural showing of People's Biennial, curated by Jens Hoffmann
and Harrell Fletcher
.
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art in Portland, Oregon, United States was founded in 1996 by Kristy Edmunds, formerly the Director of the Portland Art Museum's "Art on the Edge" program...
(PICA). It occurs over a ten-day period in September in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
in the United States. Now in its ninth year, TBA:11 is scheduled for September 8-18, 2011.
About the Festival
According to PICA, the TBA Festival isTBA is "inspired by various European and Australian-modeled Festivals including the renowned Edinburgh
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks from around the middle of August. By invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music , theatre, opera...
and Adelaide
Adelaide Festival of Arts
The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...
Festivals" and features events in diverse venues across the city of Portland, OR, through partnerships with the Pacific Northwest College of Art
Pacific Northwest College of Art
The Pacific Northwest College of Art is a private fine art and design college in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Established in 1910, the art school grants bachelor of fine arts degrees and master of fine arts degrees and has an enrollment of about 550 students...
, Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
, Northwest Film Center
Northwest Film Center
The Northwest Film Center is a regional media arts resource and service organization based in Portland, Oregon, United States that was founded to encourage the study, appreciation, and utilization of film...
, and many other local peer institutions.
Origins of the Name
The term Time-Based Media (and Time-Based Art) was first introduced by UK video art pioneer David HallDavid Hall (video artist)
David Hall is a British video artist, whose pioneering work did much to establish video as an art form.-Life and work:David Hall attended Leicester College of Art and the Royal College of Art. During the 1960s he worked as a sculptor and showed his work internationally...
in 1972 through his writings in various publications including Studio International. He also established the first Time-Based Media undergraduate course at the University for the Creative Arts, Kent, UK in 1972 (then Maidstone College of Art). Use of the term has since rapidly spread around the world, particularly among academics, to identify moving image and sound work by visual artists - a popular development arising only comparatively recently in the mid to late twentieth century.
History
The first TBA Festival occurred in 2003; it was curated by Kristy Edmunds, who founded PICA in 1995. As artistic director of the PICA, Edmunds curated the TBA Festival through 2005, when she left Portland for Australia, to direct the Melbourne International Arts FestivalMelbourne International Arts Festival
Melbourne Festival is a celebration of dance, theatre, music, visual arts, multimedia, outdoor and free events held for 17 days each October in a number of venues across Melbourne, Australia.-History:...
.
In 2006, PICA adopted a Guest Artistic Director model, hiring Mark Russell—former Artistic Director of P.S. 122
Performance Space 122
Performance Space 122, generally known as P.S. 122, is a not-for-profit arts organization and one of the longest standing venues dedicated to contemporary performance art in New York City. Founded in 1979 in the abandoned Public School 122 building at 150 First Avenue at East 9th Street in the East...
and current Artistic Director of the Under the Radar Festival
Under the Radar Festival
The Under the Radar Festival is a theater festival in New York City, founded in 2005 by Mark Russell, former Artistic Director of P.S. 122 for over twenty years and also Guest Artistic Director for the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's Time-Based Art Festival in 2006...
at the Public Theater
Public Theater
The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as The Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers. It is headquartered at 425 Lafayette Street in the former Astor Library in the East Village...
, in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
—to curate the Festival from 2006 to 2008. Russell was succeeded by Cathy Edwards, formerly of Dance Theater Workshop
Dance Theater Workshop
Dance Theater Workshop, colloquially known as DTW, is a New York City performance space and service organization for dance companies. Located as 219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, DTW was founded in 1965 by Jeff Duncan, Art Bauman and...
and the Director of Programming for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, CT, who has curated the 2009 and 2010 Festivals. Edwards is currently programming for 2011, which will mark her third and final TBA Festival for the organization.
The Guest Artistic Director programs Festival artists and events in collaboration with Kristan Kennedy, Visual Art Curator for PICA, and Erin Boberg Doughton, the organization's Performing Art Program Director. Since 2006, the Festival has included TBA ON SIGHT, a month-long series of visual art installations, curated by Kennedy.
TBA:03
The inaugural Time-Based Art Festival (curated by Kristy Edmunds) was held September 12-21, 2003, and featured an opening night dance by Japanese duo Eiko and Koma in Jamison SquareJamison Square
Jamison Square is a city park in the area of downtown Portland, Oregon, known as the Pearl District. It was the first park added to the neighborhood.-Design:...
, along with performances by Bill Shannon
Bill Shannon
Bill Shannon is an American artist who resides in Brooklyn. Shannon holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Born with a degenerative hip condition, he developed a way to express himself through dance and skateboarding on crutches.-Performances:Performances and video work...
(Crutchmaster), Tere O'Connor, and Miranda July
Miranda July
Miranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...
.
TBA:04
In 2004, the second year of the TBA Festival, which took place September 10-19, featured performances by Diamanda GalasDiamanda Galás
Diamanda Galás is an American avant-garde composer, vocalist, pianist, organist, performance artist and painter.Galás has been described as "capable of the most unnerving vocal terror", with her three and a half octave vocal range. She often screams, hisses and growls...
, Khaela Maricich (The Blow
The Blow
The Blow is the moniker of Brooklyn, New York-based musician Mikhaela Yvonne Maricich, who has recorded several albums for K Records. Jona Bechtolt, aka Yacht, was also a member of The Blow from 2004 to 2007....
), thel (string quartet)|Ethel], Butoh artist Akira Kasai, and dance/theater company 33 Fainting Spells.
TBA:05
TBA:05 (September 9-18, 2005) marked PICA’s 10th Anniversary and the departure of the founding Artistic Director, Kristy Edmunds. Over 6,000 people attended the free, opening night performance by Elizabeth StrebElizabeth Streb
Elizabeth Streb is an American choreographer, performer, and teacher of contemporary dance.-Background:Streb was born and raised in Rochester, New York and, after graduating from the dance program of State University of New York at Brockport in 1972, she was interested in experimental works and...
in Pioneer Courthouse Square
Pioneer Courthouse Square
Pioneer Courthouse Square, affectionately known as Portland's living room, is a public space occupying a full 40,000 ft² city block in the center of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States...
. Artists included DJ Spooky
DJ Spooky
Paul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
, Daniel Bernard Roumain
Daniel Bernard Roumain
Daniel Bernard Roumain is a classically trained composer, performer, violinist, and band-leader noted for blending funk, rock, hip-hop and classical music into an energetic and experiential sonic form. DBR is of Haitian-American heritage and he attended Dillard Center for the Arts in Fort...
, and British duo Lone Twin.
TBA:06
The 2006 TBA Festival (September 7-17) was Mark Russell's first as Guest Artistic Director. The events began with a multiple guitar orchestra led by ohn King (musician]|John King] in Pioneer Courthouse SquarePioneer Courthouse Square
Pioneer Courthouse Square, affectionately known as Portland's living room, is a public space occupying a full 40,000 ft² city block in the center of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States...
, which led into a public march across the Hawthorne Bridge
Hawthorne Bridge
The Hawthorne Bridge is a truss bridge with a vertical lift that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, joining Hawthorne Boulevard and Madison Street. It is the oldest vertical-lift bridge in operation in the United States and the oldest highway bridge in Portland...
to watch an art flotilla by artist David Eckard on the Willamette River
Willamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...
. Other performers included seminal performance artist Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...
, choreographer Deborah Hay
Deborah Hay
-Life and work:Deborah Hay was born in 1941 in Brooklyn. Her mother was her first dance teacher and directed her training until she was a teenager. Hay moved at age 19 to Downtown, Manhattan in the 1960s, where she continued her training with Merce Cunningham and Mia Slavenska...
, the Spalding Gray
Spalding Gray
Spalding Rockwell Gray was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist and monologuist...
Project, and the Portland premiere of Nature Theater of Oklahoma. Visual art joined the Festival for the first time with a residency project by Matthew Day Jackson
Matthew Day Jackson
Matthew Day Jackson is an American artist whose multifaceted practice encompasses sculpture, painter, collage, photographer, drawing, video, performance and installation...
, a film installation by Marina Abramovic
Marina Abramovic
Marina Abramović is a Belgrade-born New York-based Serbian performance artist who began her career in the early 1970s. Active for over three decades, she has recently begun to describe herself as the “grandmother of performance art.” Abramović's work explores the relationship between performer and...
, and an exhibit by Harrell Fletcher
Harrell Fletcher
Harrell Fletcher is an American artist in Portland, Oregon who creates socially engaged interdisciplinary projects.-Early work:While completing his degree at California College of Arts and Crafts, Fletcher began collaborating with artist Jon Rubin...
.
TBA:07
The fifth-annual TBA Festival, guest curated by Russell, was held from September 6-16, 2007. Composer Rinde Eckert led the Portland Flash Choir in an original choral performance about migratory birds, held in Pioneer Courthouse SquarePioneer Courthouse Square
Pioneer Courthouse Square, affectionately known as Portland's living room, is a public space occupying a full 40,000 ft² city block in the center of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States...
, Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
danced with Donna Uchizono Company, and Elevator Repair Service
Elevator Repair Service
Elevator Repair Service are a New York-based theater ensemble founded by director John Collins and a group of actors in 1991.ERS have performed in various New York including Performance Space 122, The Performing Garage, HERE, The Ontological at St. Mark's Church, The Flea, The Kitchen, and Soho...
performed Gatz, a seven-hour play based on F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
's The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
. The ON SIGHT visual art program exhibited Arnold Kemp, Larry Bamburg, and Guido van der Werve, and collaborated with the Cooley Gallery at Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
to present Peter Kreider and Marko Lulic.
TBA:08
Russell's third and final TBA as curator took place September 4-14, 2008. The Festival opened with a reenactment of Anna HalprinAnna Halprin
Anna Halprin helped pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to herself as the breaker of modern dance. Halprin, along with her contemporaries such as Trisha Brown, Simone Forti, Yvonne Rainer, John Cage, and Robert Morris, collaborated and built a community based...
's Blank Placard Happening and a symphonic collaboration between Antony and the Johnsons
Antony and the Johnsons
Antony and the Johnsons is a music group presenting the work of Antony Hegarty and his collaborators.-Career:British experimental musician David Tibet of Current 93 heard a demo and offered to release Antony's music through his Durtro label. The debut album, Antony and the Johnsons, was released...
and the Oregon Symphony
Oregon Symphony
The Oregon Symphony is an American orchestra based in Portland, Oregon. Founded as the Portland Symphony Society in 1896, it is the sixth oldest orchestra in the United States, and oldest in the Western United States...
. Other artists who performed included Reggie Watts
Reggie Watts
Reggie Watts is a Seattle-based comedian and musician. His shows are mostly improvised and consist of stream of consciousness stand-up in various shifting personae, mixed with loop pedal-based a cappella compositions. He also performs regularly on television, radio, and in live theater...
, Jérôme Bel, Mike Daisey
Mike Daisey
Mike Daisey is an American monologist, author, and actor best known for his full-length extemporaneous monologues. His breakthrough work 21 Dog Years is an account of life as an Amazon.com employee during the dot-com boom. Since that time he has created monologues about Nikola Tesla, L...
, and the Superamas. Ryan Trecartin
Ryan Trecartin
Ryan Trecartin is an artist and filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a BFA in 2004...
, Lizzie Fitch, Jeffry Mitchell, and Mike Kelly
Mike Kelly
Mike Kelly is a columnist for The Record, a newspaper serving Bergen County, New Jersey. He is also the author of Color Lines: The Troubled Dreams of Racial Harmony in an American Town, a book about the 1990 shooting in Teaneck, New Jersey of Phillip Pannell, an African-American teenager, by Gary...
were all part of the ON SIGHT visual art program.
TBA:09
The seventh TBA Festival was the debut of Guest Artistic Director Cathy Edwards and occurred September 3-13, 2009. The performance program of the Festival presented works by choreographers Miguel GutierrezMiguel Gutiérrez
Miguel Gutiérrez is a Mexican football forward who played for Mexico in the 1958 FIFA World Cup. He also played for Club Atlas.-External links:*...
and Meg Stuart
Meg Stuart
Meg Stuart is an American Choreographer and Dancer based in Brussels, Belgium. She is one of the key figures in the European and International contemporary dance world -Biography:...
, Australian theater company Back to Back Theatre, playwright Young Jean Lee
Young Jean Lee
Young Jean Lee is a Brooklyn-based playwright and director working in experimental theater. She is the artistic director of Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, a not-for-profit theater company dedicated to producing her work...
, and a sesquicentennial musical written by Pink Martini
Pink Martini
Pink Martini is a 13-member "little orchestra" from Portland, Oregon, formed in 1994 by pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale. They draw inspiration from music from all over the world – crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop.-History:...
, entitled Oregon! Oregon. Visual artists included Fawn Krieger and Kalup Linzy
Kalup Linzy
Kalup Linzy is an American video and performance artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.-Early Life and Work:Linzy grew up in a small rural community in Florida called Stuckey. He had a large, close-knit extended family, and was raised by his Aunt and Grandmother...
in residency, performance duo robbinschilds, and local musician Ethan Rose, among others. On Labor Day, PICA coordinated with Slow Food
Slow Food
Slow Food is an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. It was the first established part of...
Portland to host an outdoor, public picnic.
TBA:10
TBA:10 was Edwards' second Festival, from September 9-19, 2010. Noted pop musician Rufus WainwrightRufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...
performed on opening night of the Festival with the Oregon Symphony
Oregon Symphony
The Oregon Symphony is an American orchestra based in Portland, Oregon. Founded as the Portland Symphony Society in 1896, it is the sixth oldest orchestra in the United States, and oldest in the Western United States...
, and featured Festival projects included monologist Mike Daisey
Mike Daisey
Mike Daisey is an American monologist, author, and actor best known for his full-length extemporaneous monologues. His breakthrough work 21 Dog Years is an account of life as an Amazon.com employee during the dot-com boom. Since that time he has created monologues about Nikola Tesla, L...
; performance troupe Nature Theater of Oklahoma; choreographer John Jasperse
John Jasperse
John Jasperse is an American choreographer and dancer. Since 1990 he has been artistic director and choreographer of the New York City-based John Jasperse Company....
; and an interactive, 360-degree film by the Wooster Group, marking the company's first production in Portland. The ON SIGHT program hosted a residency by Charles Atlas
Charles Atlas (video artist)
Charles Atlas is a video artist and film director who also does lighting and set design.He is a pioneer in developing media-dance, also called dance for camera, which is work that is created directly for the camera...
, exhibits by local Whitney Biennial
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennale exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973...
participants Storm Tharp and Jessica Jackson Hutchins
Jessica Jackson Hutchins
Jessica Jackson Hutchins-Malkmus is an American artist based in Portland, Oregon.She is the wife of Pavement band member, Stephen Malkmus. She is a graduate of Oberlin College...
, and the inaugural showing of People's Biennial, curated by Jens Hoffmann
Jens Hoffmann
Jens Hoffmann Mesèn is a writer and exhibition organizer. He has organzied exhibitions since 1997 and is currently the Director of the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco where he also directs the Capp Street Project artist-in-residence...
and Harrell Fletcher
Harrell Fletcher
Harrell Fletcher is an American artist in Portland, Oregon who creates socially engaged interdisciplinary projects.-Early work:While completing his degree at California College of Arts and Crafts, Fletcher began collaborating with artist Jon Rubin...
.
External links
- Time-Based Art Festival (TBA) – Official webpage at PICAPortland Institute for Contemporary ArtThe Portland Institute for Contemporary Art in Portland, Oregon, United States was founded in 1996 by Kristy Edmunds, formerly the Director of the Portland Art Museum's "Art on the Edge" program...
; incl. "History and Milestones" [PICA "About Us"].) - Time-Based Art Festival 2006 (TBA) – At Portland Art Center, July 14, 2006. Archive: Listing of 2006 workshops and other activities]. Accessed January 13, 2008.