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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 2009)
OREGON S GAY/LESBIAN/BI/TRANS NEWSMAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6 ¿009 VISU AL ARTS > A rnold J Kem p is a re ce n t San F rancisco tra n s p la n t a n d the new c h a ir of P a cific Northwest C o lle g e of Art s M aster o f Fine Arts in Visual Studies p ro g ra m in the essence of the black arts, or occultist magick.This brings with it a certain framing or embodiment of queerness into light. As we talk more about his roots it is most interesting to discover the logistic commonalities we readily shared growing up gay punks in Boston in the ’80s and ’90s. He worked in a used camera store in Har vard Square, where I shopped and lived just blocks away. While I was studying at Mas- sArt, Kemp was pursuing his undergradu ate degree across the street at the Museum School at Tufts University. We had never met until now, some 20 years later. Learnihg how music of the era helped to inform his “Daydream Nation” series—the big black stretched linens dotted with plastic googly eyes atop a huge field of shiny black glit ter—a vortex, a void, suddenly clicked. In time Kemp craved a larger sense of critical engagement of his work, its growing penchant for the conceptual paving the way to his inclusion in a pivotal Thelma Golden- curated show entided Freestyle (2001) at Harlem’s Studio Museum. This was one of the decade’s focal exhibitions showcasing young black artists, and it would have a pro found effect on Kemp’s career. It also bridged the artist’s sense of identity with canvases that were sized per his own body height and would eventually become the basis for his graduate thesis at Stanford University. During our conversation, he mentions Robert Ryman and late great dadaist Mar cel Duchamp as key influences. The impact of such modern minimalists fits well into works such as “Cant,” “Descant” and “Re cant”—pieces he’s been working out since 2007 using patterns of tiny stick-on doll eyes across bands of pure black Flashe and mixed media. The work stares right back at the viewer, a collective of hundreds gaping like surveillance through a midnight sky. In This Quiet Dust, Ladies and Gentle men, the artist has also included a selection of sizable photographic carbon prints titled “(Them)Trees/(Them)Changes,” which he V. •’* THiS Buy 3 $9.99 Videos MONTH J _ only : for Only $24.99 PARADISE 14712 SE Stark S t , Portland OR 97233 ADULT VIDEO op ™ Now selling Glass Tobacco Pipes, starting at $2.99 Friendly, clean & private the Art Video Arcade channels of ___ New Releases HUGE SELECTION OF: ARNOLD J. KEMP s This Quiet Dust. Ladies a n d Gentlemen, runs November 3-28 at PDX Contemporary Art. 925 NW Flanders Street. Portland. Hours: II a.m.-fe pm.. Tuesday through Saturday. www.pdxcontemporaryart.com J^-Toys & Novelties -)K DVDs starting at $4.99 & Accessories icants9|F Magazine commonly refers to as “prosthetics.’’The title makes lyrical reference to the jazz-speak of Duke Ellington, while the ranging field of tree limbs is truncated by the act of crop ping. These works seem more personal, less about the surface. There’s something more cinematic here—perhaps about the misgiv ings of false starts/endings. The artist discusses the gestural splatter ing of the world’s most cherished expres sionist, Jackson Pollock, but for me the work speaks of the body and its internal circulatory system, passing through the flesh and digging much deeper, revealing another level of a common humanity. In these trees, a disquieting subtext emerges while Kemp spins a lovely web with which to be reck oned. TJ Norris is an interdiciplinary artist and curator. For more information, please visit www. tjnorris. net. Join Hearts PDXSEX RECONCILING IN CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCHES Bethlehem Lutheran fact: Lots of guys have an STD & don't even know it. Want to play safer? Test every 3 months (it's always confidential). NE 39th Ave, Portland, www.bethlehemportland.org Central Lutheran NE 21st Ave, Portland, www.centralportland.org Mission of the Atonement Lutheran/Catholic Beaverton, www.motaspirit.org Mt Carmel Lutheran First Unitarian Church 1011 SW 12th Ave., Portland Commitment Cerem onies Welcome. w w w .firstu n ita ria n p o rtla n d .o rg SW Portland, www.mtcarmellutheran.com Redeemer Lutheran NE 20th Ave, Portland, www.redeemerlutheranpdx.org St. James Lutheran Park Blocks, Downtown Portland, www.stjamespdx.org 2 9 J X info: w w w .m a n 2 m a n p d x .u s • d o w n to w n ST D Clinic: 5 0 3 . 9 8 8 . 3 7 0 0 C H O O S E W H A T W O R K S F O R Y O U : le arn • p ro te c t • test » treat [condom s help prevent ST D s but do not protect you 1 0 0 % )
