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Show I By he Beaimr ov un Artist s Hands Autumn Thatcher r celebrate its Utah Artist anniversary, Hands has created a small exhibit featuring various artists within Utah. The theme of the exhibit is hands, according to owner Pamela O'Mara. Within the simple exhibit, there are various styles of art, each piece containing an image of hands somewhere in the work. The works of art range from paintings, sculptures and woodworks. O'Mara even showed me a boa made out of goat's locks with little hand charms woven into it. The setting of Utah Artist Hands is very naturalistic. The store is small and simple but contains a variety of artistic treasures produced by Utah artists. Besides the main styles of art that one can purchase, there are also beaded works, rings, necklaces, candles and much more. The items are unique and genuinely beautiful. I found myself distracted from the celebratory exhibit by the various items for sale within the store. I felt comfortable and at peace in this artistic environment. The owner even has a cage with some birds chirping away as customers shop to the sounds of music. The best part yoga-styl- e about the store, however, is of o one-yea- course the different works of art adorning the walL Utah artist Tim Wilson produced many of the sculptures in the exhibit. One really cool piece was a Kanji scroll that had the sign for hands engraved into it. Another interesting sculpture by Wilson is one of a silver hand titled "A Child's Treasures." This small, sculpted hand held a marble, a feather and a seashell in its palm. I particularly liked that piece because it caused me to think of my childhood and the various simple treasures that I collected. Artist Dave Craghead also created a sculpture, produced out of mixed media containing copper, pulp and wood is titled "Hand in the Box." The metal box reminded me of the little talking clock on Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." It was short and stout with little hands sticking out of either side of the box. Springing out of the box is a painted mask with extravagantly long eyelashes. The eyes of the mask are in fact mirrors that reflect images in the store. The various paintings on the wall are all beautiful in their own way. The most interesting part of the exhibit was viewing how different artists chose to portray hands. Some used abstract ideas while other artists painted realis by Christian A. Gentry nsemble cr chamber music has been an art form that's V3 existence reaches fax into the dawning of Western music. It has taken on many guises and in reality is the most utilized. Although one wouldn't consider it, a garage band is a type of chamber ensemble, like the jazz combo, the bluegrass trio, etc. I guess you could even count all the hip hoppers with the featured soloist and his or her posse members who run around on stage making strange grunts and "oh yeahs" as a chamber ensemble. The latter U a definite stretch of the terminology. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the roots of such collaborations of musicians. The classical ensemble has benchbeen a mark of great musical performance. Not only that, but the smaller group of instrumentalists has been a forum with which composers have been able to pen and hear great without the aid of a larger body of musicians (i.e. the orchestra). Despite the change of this ensemble into the various guises that inundate the radio waves, the classical ensemble of strings, winds, keyboards and percussion is still a viable and functioning force in performance and'composition. Among the thriving classical ensembles of the day is eighth blackbird. The Virtuoso Series brought the ensemble to Libby Gardner Hall for its Salt Lake City debut. The turnout was rather disappointing, but the quality of performance should spread fast through word of mouth and create a greater following when they come back agaia This sextet (piano, violin, cello, flute, clarinet and percuse sion) is currently an at Northwestern . long-standin- g mas-terwor- ensemble-in-residenc- 1! c v H i f1 1 1 t 1 f ,r'" -ri This clock, " 1 ( SfSf St L t - n IJ $n?4 p-- as you can see, has hands, in multiple ways. Therefore it's ideal. f - M 3 tic images of hands at work. What makes this exhibit so interesting to view is the variety of pieces produced by different artists. This allows nearly every individual to find something that he or she likes. The atmosphere is fun and the works of art only enhance the beauty of the store. Utah Artist Hands is located in downtown Salt Lake City and maintains a pleasant environment, putting one at ease when entering from the sometimes chaotic streets of the city. The store was especially pleasant when I visited, as there were a number of animal activists protesting on the streets just outside of the store. The store somehow fit in with the protest, as it centers around art and nature. The store should be visited if not to shop in, then to simply appreciate its beauty and unique atmosphere. The art is especially enticing and the smell of coffee brewing for shoppers makes for comfort and relaxation. Expensive vacations are not necessary for just walk inside of Utah Artist Hands and relish in the beauty of simplistic nature and the stress will immediately subside. Utah Arts is located on 61 W. 100 South. The "Hands" exhibit will run until March 20, 2003. autumnred-mag.co- t 1 timm of Men Music ' f, A ! University and Chicago University. They have been awarded dis-- ! ' tinguished chamber prizes at ; the Fischcff National Chamber f Music Competition and the ' ' Coleman Chamber Music Competition. The ensemble' has'' f performed at the Lincoln ! Center's Alice Tuliy Hall, , 4 Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall," ? the 92nd Street Y, the Annenberg Center in j Philadelphia and San ' Francisco's Herbst Theater as t well a3 several chamber festi- vals including the Great Lakes Festival in Michigan, Caramoor International Music Festival i and Chautauqua Music Festival eighth blackbird is hailed as' "ambassadors of new music," ' i which signifies its dedication to' the performance of not only the established composers of the modern era, but also the young generation cf' . I composers. Included in the concert were works by Michael Torke, Chen ; Yi, John Harbison, Fred Lerdahl 1 and Joan Tower. All of these composers are representative of the varied and oft :n antitheti- cal compositional styles in ' l . f Americanmodernmusic.Th..'J ' Torke piece, The Yellow Pages (1985), was a great opener. The of piece itself is a ? ct the age of minimalism with some added elements of pop. , ' The repetitive nature of this piece could be too monotonous if it weren't for some added choreography done by the play ers a little bit of hip swaying and stuff of that sort. It was , -- entertaining. The next piece, Qi (1997), pronounced "chee," provided a great atmosphere of the lyrical versus the percuslve. Written by n Chen Yi, tht: taste of I another provided piece modern developments in musi- ? cal composition, namely the i amalgamation of folk music ' ! Chinese-America- - i with modern expressionism. Half the ensemble (violin, clarinet and piano) ended the first half of the conceit with Variations (1982) by John Harbison. This piecejexplores the traditional usage of theme and variations, often used by Brahms and Beethoven, using a very chromatic language. The communication and interaction between the instrumentalists, especially the clarinetist and violinist; was astounding. Yet, the piece seemed to go on a few too many variations for my tastes. Not only did the University of Utah have a great pleasure of having eighth blackbird in residence for a few days, it also had the honor of having the distinguished music theorist and composer Fred Lerdahl here as this semester's Maurice Abravanel Distinguished Visiting Composer, who was present at the evening's perfor-- ' mance. To start the second half, eighth blackbird used full forces, all six of them, to present a recent work by Lerdahl. Time after Time (2000) is a journey of sorts that uses a compositional device developed by the composer himself called expanding variations. The constant fluctuation of rhythmic and melodic passages that are intertwined among the Instrumentalists provided an environment where the listeners had to be actively engaging their senses to follow everything. It isn't the complexity that called for such acute listening, it is the close attention to detail and nuance by the composer, and consequently the performers, that sucked the audience in. Fred Lerdahl is certainly one of the most unique and inspiring voices of modem American music. To end the show, they played a classic modern chamber piece not, popular music isn't all that representative of the high caliber of talent that exists in America. Sometimes one has to look beyond the narrowness of the television and the radio to find pure talent and quality. written by Joan Tower. Petroushkates (1983) is a combination of Tower's great affinity toward Stravinsky and a portrayal of the grace and flov of figure skating, eighth black Dird did a remarkable job of employas well as ing drama, to not overdo this piece, since it has been overdone to one degree by other chamber groups. It is a rare occasion to hear such great music played greatly, eighth blackbird stands as an icon not only in modern "art" music, but also in the American culture itself. More often than self-restrain- ambassadors of new music, eighth blackbird introduces a different slant on the modern world a slant that uses the traditional ensemble to present something completely different and unique, yet something familiar and possibly more accurate than the diatribes of popular music. As t, christianred-mag.co- r -- 4. m A J 1 s ... 11 two-moveme- nt v "m The an members of eighth blackbird are ambassadors for new music. BED Magazine march 13, 2003 1 R7 |