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submitted photo
The artists of Rogue Citizen play a game of exquisite corpse.
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Art beat // Exquisite rogues
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By Dylan Thomas
Art games at Stevens Square Center for the Arts
STEVENS SQUARE — The artists of the Rogue Citizen collective have a complicated relationship with technology.
They celebrate the fantastical imagery of popular science fiction, alluding to “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” in a collection of their work on display at Stevens Square Center for the Arts (SSCA). But the pastiche includes darker visions of the future, like those of “The Matrix” and “The Terminator.”
Then there’s the disharmonious fusion of the biological and the technological, a recurring theme in “Exquisite Robot,” a dive into Rogue Citizen’s collective unconscious.
For the show, the collective’s four members — Matt Wells, Shawn Dalsen, Eric Mattheis and Matt McGorry — played the old Surrealist game of exquisite corpse, passing around a piece of paper to make a group drawing. Key to the game is that no participant knows what the previous person added to the drawing, making the final product a random amalgam.
For the Surrealists, who celebrated the role of the unconscious in the creative process, the appeal of the game lay in its improvisatory nature, the potential for unexpected juxtapositions to give the final image greater meaning. Rogue Citizen, seemingly preoccupied with our increasingly sci-fi present, give us a glimpse of their hopes and fears for the future.
There are robots, cyborgs, bits and pieces of machinery and metal tentacles. Fluids leaking from tangles of tubing sometimes resemble blood and sometimes resemble motor oil.
The work seems a bit less refined than some of the previous Rogue Citizen collaborations, like the graffiti mural emblazoned on the side of Northeast’s Shuga Records during Art-A-Whirl. But the exquisite corpse exercise is, by its nature, less cohesive.
Still, there is a joy in the creative process that is obvious in the paintings and drawings at SSCA. You imagine a Rogue Citizen member following the pencil tip across the paper, not sure where it will lead.
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Go see it
“Exquisite Robot” runs through July 18 at Stevens Square Center for the Arts, 1905 3rd Ave. S. 879-0200. stevensarts.orSTEVENS SQUARE — About 260 people showed up for the Cinema & Civics series premiere June 16, a crowd organizer Sarah Jordet said was the largest-ever for opening night.
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An all-local Cinema & Civics It probably didn’t hurt that local hip-hop duo MC/VL opened for “The NeverEnding Story,” a film with a synth-heavy soundtrack to stir the soul — or the gag reflex, depending on whether or not you watched it a million times in the ’80s. For the Gen-Y apartment dwellers in Stevens Square, it’s an irresistible nostalgia trip.
Speaking of nostalgia, travel back to a time before actor Paul Rubens’ notorious, career-deflating arrest for indecent exposure with “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” screening July 14. Opening act Gay Witch Abortion is like a professional fireworks exhibition: explosive, precise, awe-inspiring rock from a band that sounds way bigger than its two members.
That’s also the night of the clothing swap, a chance for a free, mid-summer wardrobe reboot. Bring some old clothes and earn a coupon from Blacklist Vintage in Whittier.
July 21, the final movie night of the season, promises to be something special, with Kid Dakota opening for a lineup of 15–20 shorts by local filmmakers.
Sam Thompson spoofs ’80s instructional videos with his “Werewolf Prevention and Protection” series, recently shown at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. They should pair nicely with Heather Mayer’s “Zombie Sweater,” in which last-minute shopping for a wedding anniversary present has unintended, undead consequences.
Jordet said several local filmmakers would contribute music videos, including Tyler Jensen and the animation team of John Akre and Beth Peloff. The MPLS.TV crew will show their short documentary “Hip Hop High” on the High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul.
When Jordet talked about the all-local night in late June she was still looking for submissions to fill out the night’s lineup. Contact her at sarah@cinemaandcivics.org to pitch an entry.
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Go see it
The final nights of Cinema & Civics are July 14 and 21. Music starts at 8 p.m., and movies start at about 9:30 p.m. cinemaandcivics.org
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Art beat // Closing and opening
By Dylan Thomas
Art of This leaving current space, but won’t cease to existLYNDALE — A few weeks before they planned to shutter their Nicollet Avenue art space for good, John Marks and David Petersen of Art of This Gallery reflected on “Open Summer,” their ongoing, open door, last blast summer project. A free-for-all residency program that eventually enrolled 80-some artists, the slowly percolating “Open Summer” was building steam as it headed into its, and the gallery’s, grand finale at the end of August. And for all the potential pitfalls in telling some seven dozen people where the gallery key is hidden, about the worst thing that happened all summer was when someone spilled salsa in the refrigerator and never cleaned it up.
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On the mat // Green yogis in Linden Hills
By Sarah McKenzie
Devanadi Yoga, a new studio near Lake Harriet, is a trailblazer in the local yoga community. The small 525-square-foot studio, tucked behind the Bruley Center on West 43rd Street in Linden Hills, is the first yoga studio in the state to be certified by the Green Yoga Association for its environmentally friendly efforts. The studio’s green practices include using non-VOC paint, controlling the thermostat to keep the building energy efficient and encouraging students to walk, bus or bike to class. Tanya Boigenzahn Sowards, studio director/owner of Devanadi Yoga, said being green is “core value of the studio and it ties back to the yogic philosophy of doing no harm.” “Minneapolis frequently ranks as one of the top green
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Everyday gardener // Q&A
By Meleah Maynard
Struggling tomatoes, rain barrels and rootbound plantsEven though spring started in earnest in March this year, it still seems like summer is going by too fast. So, fast, in fact, my inbox has been a bit stuffed with questions. As always, I’ve replied directly to people who asked for help with various things. But here in the column I’m going to cover some of the questions that seem likely to be of interest to a lot of gardeners. By far, the questions I’m getting most are about tomatoes, so I’ll start there. Q: My tomato plants look good and have a lot of flowers, but I’m not getting a lot of fruit this year. What’s going on?A: It’s been too hot for tomatoes to set fruit
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Flavor // A smokin’ sensation on Nicollet
By Carla Waldemar
If you’re wondering what caused the traffic stand-still on South Nicollet the other evening, let’s just say I should have kept my window shut. When passing cars got a whiff of possibly the best aroma in the galaxy — I’m talking about barbecue, of course — they halted to demand, “Where’d you get that?” At C&G’s, of course. Greg Alford launched C&G’s Smoking Barbecue exactly a year ago; the anniversary balloons in the otherwise-Spartan, clean-as-a-whistle hole in the wall provided the only touch of whimsy in this serious business. Greg was born in Louisiana, which may explain his superior taste in food. He grew up in Detroit, one of 12 kids whose mamma set him to cooking when he was 5, he
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Wild city // Eating the yard
By Mary Jean Port
I love August. It is so lush. All summer, as I nurse the garden along, I anticipate these eating days. We now have too much of everything: tomatoes, green beans, heat, humidity, and also thunder, for those of us who have a dog frightened by it. I have been working our piece of ground for 14 years, and have good soil to show for it. Back when we first started, my husband was more of a lawn guy. He liked the idea of a garden, but drew a line in the grass with his toe. Don’t dig up anything beyond here, he said. So I dug my first of what are now 10 beds, and planted the pumpkin right on his line. The vines ran out of the garden and took over the whole backyard. My husband good-naturedly threw up his hands. We started with vegetables, and
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Kid rock
By Sam Lane
Twin Town Guitars hosts a camp that gives young musicians a chance to play and perform in a bandMore than 60 excited, camera-toting fans packed Cause Spirits and Soundbar on a warm August afternoon waiting for two headline bands to take the stage. The hotly anticipated musicians weren’t well known. They weren’t 20-somethings trying to strike a record deal. They weren’t middle-aged men trying to relive their youth. They were kids, ages 8–17, who spent prior weeks at Twin Town Guitars, 3400 Lyndale Ave. S., preparing for their first concert. In an economy where budget cuts deal constant blows to public school music programs, the owners of Twin Town have spent the last three summers providing a haven for aspiring
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