New Oregon Arts & Letters (formerly 2GQ)

Critical Quandaries

BY RICHARD SPEER.

"How did you become an art critic?"  people love to ask me, and often there's an edge in the voice asking it that betrays the subtext:  "Hey buddy, why are you qualified to pan or praise my art?"

Richard Speer dishes the truth on what it's like to be an art critic, particularly in Portland, particularly now. Read his exclusive article for 2GQ.org.

BETSY BOYLE'S "RESPITE"

There is a quiet pause in girlhood on the cusp of adolescence. -BB

Knives, beds, a suitcase, a door, Sears gold-rimmed furniture, personal histories, things lost in time. In Betsy Boyle's new collection, "Respite", these things seem to be in limbo, lying in wait to be of use once again. Longing and lonliness. The tones
are rich in color, deep hued greens and red populate a diminishing urban landscape. There are moments of wonder when there are people in the photographs, but it is in the absence of peoplewhich makes the humanity of her work that much stronger. There is a struggle between innocence and adolescence where choice has defined a need to keep from reaching out towards memory, and one's ability to move on into adulthood. Betsy's is a voice which has a deep sense of her own past and is looking for answers in some of the emptiness left in the cobwebs of her childhood memories. What she finds is magic in the inbetween spaces of life. At her best Boyle is an anthropologist of the self, looking within to see herself from the outside.
-John Longstocking

SAGE WISDOM: WIPERS FRONTMAN GREG SAGE SPEAKS

by John Chandler
Originally appeared in the first version of 2 Gyrlz Quarterly, an online magazine, on June 13, 2003. It was then printed in 2GQ's print zine-journal, issue #3, in 2005. See www.zenorecords.com if you're trying to find the music. ---Ed.

“The Wipers’ music is so simple, but so cool, it makes you wonder why anybody thinks doing stuff with tricks is a valid approach at all.” — Steve Albini

Greg Sage is an odd, complicated guy. As an interview subject he’s a laconic pain in the ass. As an artist, he’s certainly responsible for some of the best rock music ever produced in Portland, and no one—OK, maybe Elliott Smith—has made music that so perfectly sums up life in the cracks and crannies of our rainy little community.

DECLASSIFIED: Psychedelic Jesus vs. the Rude Flag

In the printed zine-journals of 2 Gyrlz Quarterly, DECLASSIFIED was a recurring feature exploring censored and suppressed artwork and literature.  From the journal archive, here's Cortney Harding talking to two Portland artists, Thomas Rude (creator of "American Standard," left) and Joshua Camozzi Milligan about psychedelia, religion, and political content keeping their work from its intended venues.

QUEER & PLEASANT DANGER: THE KATE BORNSTEIN INTERVIEW

by Llewyn Máire & Lisa Newman
Originally appeared in 2GQ #3, Portland, 2005, pp. 24-26.

We recently performed at the 11th annual Performance Studies international conference at Brown University, alma mater of renowned transsexual writer, performer, and gender outlaw Kate Bornstein. Kate hirself was kind enough to facilitate discussion with our audience and ask some tricky questions about what we had just done.  We returned the favor after attending hyr brand spankin’ new and absolutely genius solo performance, “Queer and Pleasant Danger."

The show is Kate's first fully theatrical solo performance piece since Virtually Yours in 1996. She describes the full-length two act piece as "a solo performance exploring through story, video, and a couple of songs, the comedy and tragedy of a sadomashochistic transsexual dyke inhabiting the simultaneous identities of daddy, daughter, father, and son as put into motion through a fundamentalist lens." What follows is an interview about the new work.

CENSORSHIP & ART SUPPRESSION: "Fifth Branch" Declassified

"Starbucks is not going to hang the next 'Piss Christ.' "  You heard it here first.

The following DECLASSIFIED interview explores the suppression of art in the post-9/11 United States o' America. How do we as artists and writers, but also as publishers and presenters and curators, deal with controversial material? Artist Joshua Berger, publisher Camela Raymond, attorney Kohel Haver, art critic Richard Speer, and an unnamed ACLU representative all weigh in on this surprisingly thorny subject. Originally appeared in the "Exquisite Language" issue of 2GQ's print journal.

London Mauling (A Theatre Tale, archived)

A delicious droplet by Steffen Silvis from 2GQ #1, "London Mauling" follows Steffen's journey from Portland to London, where a play he wrote is being produced.:   

To purchase a copy of the print journal in which this originally appeared, look for "Issue No. 1: The Issue of Summer Finery and Weak Tea" . We have about five copies left.

The Landscape of Possibility: An Interview with Lance Olsen

Trevor Dodge interviews Lance Olsen, award-winning author and former Writer in Residence for the state of Idaho. Olsen--who says he is "drawn to strange and surprising work that can take lots of different forms, but that in some way always resists the blandness of the literary mainstream"--has appeared in the Enteractive Language Festival (pictured left) and wrote about Northwest small publishing for 2GQ (soon to appear on this site).

Lance Olsen was born in 1956 amid the proliferation of shopping malls in northern New Jersey, but spent his first years growing up in a jungle compound in Venezuela, where his father helped set up oil refineries for Exxon. Olsen's earliest memories include the sound of hundreds of crab shells crunching beneath the tires as his family inched along the dirt roads in their Land Rover; the pale mustard stain on his bedsheets from the venom of a bullmaster snake that had taken up residence in the washing machine; and how a thirty-foot python once attacked his father's Volkswagen Beetle.

Soriah: Portland Performance Profile

"I strive for a state of being where I relinquish all forms of guilt, ego, and hesitation." So states Enrique Ugalde, who performs under the name Soriah and draws from a wide array of musical, ritual, and performative traditions. In his work, one can see and hear Tuvan throat singing, Butoh, classical Indian raga, magickal transformations, Judeo-Christian lamentations, and an occasional burred wail that might be descended from Diamanda Galás. The effect is mesmerizing and mind-altering, as the audience teeters on the brink of raw emotional catharsis.

Mother Tongue: Diana Abu-Jaber, Laila Lalami, and the Superhuman Reader

Intrepid 2GQ reporter Nora McCrea interviews authors Diana Abu-Jaber (Arabian Jazz, Language of Baklava) and Laila Lalami (Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Moorishgirl.com; pictured right), exploring the mysteries of polycultural identity and community.

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