Book Launch Features Artist Joan Henrik's AMSOIL Arena Terrazzo Floor & Mosaic Design

To their credit, when the architects behind AMSOIL Arena planned a new building to accompany the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center (DECC) down on the waterfront, they didn't just look at functionality. They dug deep, reached high and produced a facility as aesthetically satisfying as the natural beauty our region' has become famous for. The result was an arena that shortly after made the Wall Street Journal's Top Ten places to see college hockey in North America. It's a superlative work of art, especially within.

If you're not into hockey, AMSOIL Arena has also been a home to national acts like Cher and Cirque Du Soleil, with plenty more on its event horizon. And when you visit, do make an effort to look full on to the singular terrazzo floor in the front lobby at the North end. It's a spectacle.

Holy Cow! Press has announced that this Sunday afternoon near the ticket office at the DECC, from 2 - 4 p.m., there will be a book release event for Joan Henrik's Winds & Currents: Native Stories, Retold and Illustrated. Henrik is the artist whose floor design was selected in 2011 by the National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association as one of the best terrazzo floors in the United States.

There will be presentations and readings, and books available for purchase. The event is free and open to the public; with refreshments to be served.

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Joan Henrik began her graphic design career here in Duluth where she attended the University of Minnesota. She has worked more than fifty years in advertising, including over twenty-five years with the Westmorland, Larson, and Hill agency.

Henrik's work was featured on an episode of The Playlist, which you can watch here:

Henrik created fourteen animal icons for the terrazzo floor design now inlaid in the AMSOIL sports arena complex. Her award-winning "Winds & Currents" was selected by the Duluth Public Arts Commission in an open competition. The book features  stories that show lessons we can learn from the natural world with origins in tribal culture throughout North America. After the floor completion, the stories were collected in this volume. Based on these iconic images, Henrik has included fourteen of her "ready to color" line drawings by which readers can interact and create their own interpretations of the visual art.

For more information, contact Holy Cow! Press at www.holycowpress.org, or holycow@holycowpress.org.

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Meantime, art goes on all around you. Get into it!

The "Art Top 5" Project

This past week I learned a project called called the "Art Top 5" in which some people were looking for bloggers to create a blog post that shares their favorites art or artists in each of 5 categories: paintings, photography, film, song or song artist, and performing art. Making lists is something I like to do anyways, so here is my contribution.

painting:  Guernica by Picasso

In the 1970's the Guernica hung at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Purportedly Picasso refused to allow its return to Spain until his homeland was a republic. All who had the opportunity to see the 11 foot tall by nearly 26 feet wide painting in person were rightfully moved. I certainly was.

The painting is a statement against fascism, showing the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country village in northern Spain, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces on 26 April 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.(1)

It's quite impossible to really select a single painting out of the vast sea of historically significant works. Nevertheless, there are certain artists who have produced a remarkable impact on the times they lived in, and the artists who lived in those times. In the 20th century few have equalled the output and influence of Pablo Picasso.

photography: Matthew Brady 

I tip my hat to the photographers whose devotion to capturing the glory that is nature has resulted in the enrichment of all of us. Growing up on reading National Geographic, we didn't catch their names but the work produced created images we never forgot. Of peers I tip my hat to the work of John Heino, who has been capturing and sharing (via social media) images of astonishing beauty.

Matthew Brady once said, "My greatest aim has been to advance the art of photography and to make it what I think I have, a great and truthful medium of history." Any student of the Civil War will have become familiar with the black and white reproductions of his work, especially the battlefield shots. The camera never flinched. He captured generals, soldiers and presidents, and though the brutal honesty of the camera never made him rich, he served an important role in the history of photojournalism. By means of graphic imagery it was photojournalists who helped bring the war home to the American public.

movie:  Groundhog Day or Paths of Glory

I've had quite a few favorite movies over the years. There are simply a lot of great films. Twenty years ago my list of "Favorites" -- which included books, stories and music -- looked like this. At the top is a list of favorite films. There are quite a few additionals that would have been added since then, but here are two that have stood the test of time.

Paths of Glory is an early film by Stanley Kubrick that foreshadows all that made Kubrick's future films classic. Groundhog Day is an equally compelling film with an altogether different form, style and message. Each has continued to bring rewards upon subsequent viewings.

song or song artist: Bob Dylan, game changer

There are many who would declare Bob Dylan to be the most significant person in music of the past fifty years. By the 1990’s Dylan had been the most re-recorded songwriter in rock history. I don’t have the data on hand but his songs have appeared in conjunction with Hollywood films more than anyone I know of other than pro score composers like John Williams and Ennio Morricone. From Poor Little Rich Girl (1965) and Easy Rider (1968) to Henry Poole Is Here (2008) and The Help (2010), Dylan’s music has been used to bring home just the right mood and moment in so many varieties of film and television scenes. In light of the global reach of Hollywoo
d, in a culture that is increasingly splintered Dylan’s influence is a fluid thread that permeates all media forms.

To be asked to pick a single song or album would be a difficult -- if not impossible -- task for anyone, yet that smack of the drumstick that opens "Like A Rolling Stone" would have to be among the chosen few. For more than this, read my notes on Five Qualities Shared by Balzac, Picasso and Dylan.

performing arts: Cirque du Soleil

This was perhaps the most difficult. My thoughts slid from modern dance to symphony to theater with nothing really standing out, until I reflected on Cirque du Soleil. Circuses in America have a long history that goes all the way back to shortly after the Revolution, offering the masses a source of diversion and entertainment unlike anything else. In the days before radio and television there were as many as a hundred circuses weaving their way about the land. But circus was not just about spectacular entertainment. At the heart of the circus was an innovative showmanship and entrepreneurism.

The the advent of television, and moreso with Hollywood special effects, circuses would have to step up their game in order to compete. Cirque du Soleil has done exactly that, creating spectacle in altogether new ways leaving impressions not readily forgotten.

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You like looking at art and reading about what's happening in the visual/fine arts scene? Visit the artdaily.org

Meantime, art goes on all around you... in a whole variety of forms. Celebrate it.

(1) Wikipedia

The Amazing Cirque Du Soleil Is In Town

When I wrote last week about Dralion coming to Duluth this week I called Cirque Du Soleil "an admirable achievement." After having seen this production, my words simply too tepid. Dralion is a phenomenon. And I would urge everyone who has not seen it to go to one of the four shows left in this run. Two shows a day, today and tomorrow at AMSOIL Arena.

We took some friends to see the Wednesday evening show and were utterly blown away. We were an interesting mix: two teens and four "seniors" who have been around the block a few times. All came away awestruck, indicating to me that this circus is a cross-generational experience that will leave very few unmoved.

Dralion is a signature Cirque du Soleil® production that has now been experienced by close to eleven million people worldwide since it premiered in 1999 in Montreal, Canada. Like circuses of old, Dralion was a travelling circus that performed under the big top. Since 2010 it has been presented in arenas around the world. Inasmuch as the temps were hovering around zero outside that night, my guess is that indoor arenas help create a more comfortable experience.

The name comes from a fusion of East and West, as symbolized by the Dragon (East) and the Lion (West). Dralion is comprised of 3,000 year-old Chinese acrobatic arts with the multidisciplinary approach of Cirque du Soleil. Thematically Dralion draws inspiration from Eastern philosophy and its never-ending quest for harmony between humans and nature.

Like most Cirque du Soleil events there’s a storyline that serves as a thread providing continuity to the experience. But you don't really need to know the story to enjoy the wonder.

The show features 50 international acrobats, gymnasts, clowns, musicians and singers. Yes, it's live performance art, and not a pre-recorded soundtrack that serves as backdrop to the show.

I've already written about the characters and the costumes here. What's striking is the caliber of the circus acts themselves. Let's begin with the clowns.

Clowns serve as the glue that holds all the disparate elements together in a circus. When I was growing up the clown Emmett Kelly was one of my mother's idols, and a favorite of the Ringling Bros. Circus. In 1970 Fellini did a whole film on clowns alone. I learned early on that clowns come in all shapes and forms, and the Cirque stretches our boundaries even on this most basic of circus roles.

One reviewer at Yelp felt the clowns were "creepy" in Dralion, but our audience Wednesday seemed totally engaged by their bizarre humor. More than one in my group was impressed by their ability to grab the attention of a large audience with such ease. We laughed because we couldn't help it.

The acts themselves were far from the normal dancing bears and trapeze artists that we're used to in smaller circuses. Dralion features trampoline artists, juggling, gymnastics, and rope skipping like you've never seen before. Everything is amped to such a degree so as to astonish, whether solo or in teams.

The set design is likewise an integral part of the show. The engineering alone must have been an achievement of design. The 60-foot wide set has a ceiling entrance and space beneath for entrances all about the stage floor. You never know where the next performers will appear from. The things acrobats do on the back wall make you want to run down there to check out how they do it.

Much more could be shared, but my only aim is to say that if you can get to one of this weekend's show, you really should. You won't regret is.  

My advice: Go! And enjoy the show. 4 p.m. and 7:30, today and tomorrow. AMSOIL Arena. 

Cirque Du Soleil Coming To Duluth: Interview with Aerial Performer Tarek Rammo of Dralion

Tarek Rammo is a featured performer in the travelling Cirque Du Soleil show Dralion, specializing in an Aerial Silk duet as well as his solo Aerial Straps and other acrobatics. Rammo, who was born in Beirut, moved to Holland with his family at age one. At nine years old he took an interest in gymnastics. After eight years of competing he saw his first Cirque du Soleil show which generated a spark, and produced an interest in performing. He has now performed all over the world with companies such as “The 7 Fingers”, “DanceWorks Rotterdam/Andre Gingras” and “The Ulrike Quade Company”.

EN: Did you have an interest in the Olympics while young and competing?

Tarek Rammo: I was doing competitive gymnastics for about ten years. I was on the national junior team of Holland and I did have a dream of going to world championships and the Olympics but the urge to pursue the performing arts was a lot stronger. When I was about 17 I decided to switch careers?

EN: How many Cirque performers come out of a background in the Olympics.

TR: Not sure of the number but there’s quite a few who have competed at a very high level, including some who have won medals in the Olympics, that find a new career at the Cirque du Soleil after they finish competing.

EN: Do performers who become part of the Cirque choose the show they want to be part of? How does that work?

TR: Basically what happens is you do an audition, which is a general audition if you’re a gymnast for example. If you can make it through a rigorous day of auditioning you end up in a database, a big file where all the potential artists for Cirque du Soleil end up. Once they have an opening in a show, they look specifically in the database for someone who will fit that part. Then they may or may not contact you. It may be a month or a year or three years before you get a spot on the show. It depends on your skills and availability.

EN: What makes Dralion so exciting.

TR: It’s an interesting show. As the title suggests, East meets West, Dragon and Lion… drawing the most supreme acts from all over the world. All this combined with lights and a live band makes it a spectacular show.

EN: What are the challenges?

TR: In terms of personal challenges…. As artists we’re living out of our suitcases. We’re moving every week. So you really have to adapt your life, knowing that you have to be portable.

It’s also, of course, being away from home. Away from your family. Away from your friends. And though we choose this because we love it, it’s not an easy part.

EN: Do you have a wife and kids?

TR: I have a wife. And funny enough, she just arrived here this week because my old partner who I was doing the aerial duet with unfortunately had an injury. My wife is also an acrobat and she was also in the database for the Cirque du Soleil. Because we’d worked together, they just brought her in to replace my old partner for the upcoming weeks, so I am actually the luckiest guy right now in the Cirque.

EN: It must be demanding.

TR: We’re doing about 7-8 shows a week. It’s all very physical, and with the travelling combined it’s quite an effort because in every city we have to do rehearsals and make sure everything is all right in terms of height. Everything is different everywhere, but we have a very good technical team that makes sure everything is exactly the same in every city we go to. We have to do the checks; we have to do the rehearsals, because it’s all high risk.

EN: Do you have any favorite acts in this particular show?

TR: I really enjoy doing my own act, but some of my favorite acts in the show… I would say the hoop diving number by the Chinese troop. It’s a number where they stack circular rings on top of each other and they do all kinds of crazy jumps through them, landing on the stage. It’s a very high stakes number and very energizing.

We have a very good juggler, too. He’s a great dancer as well, in perfect harmony with the music. Very energetic and engaging.

EN: How do performers maintain high energy levels for these shows and not get jaded so that it’s routine?

TR: That really depends on the person. Some people need a lot of sleep, for example. They go to bed quite late after the show but spend most of the day in bed. Others will wake up early – I’m an early riser. I need to go outside for a bit, get some fresh air, do my personal work, relax a bit.

Some people are really focused on their diet, their eating habits, to maintain their energy level. Others are more casual with that, so I would say it’s really different for everyone. Some people work out every day before a show because that’s what they feel they need.

EN: What was the first Cirque show that you saw?

TR: I saw Alegria when it was in Amsterdam in the Big Top. I’ve seen about three or four others after that.

EN: Costumes for this show originate from Africa, India and China. Are the performers also from Africa, India and China?

TR: They’re from all over the world. We have a very large troop from China. One of the main characters is from Africa, she’s an African dancer. The Water Element has an Indian background, though she was raised in the U.S. her heritage is Indian. I’m from Holland with a Lebanese background, and there’s Russian, Ukrainian, people from Argentina… a total of 18 nationalities on this tour.

EN: You go to different cities for a week at a time…

TR: We usually travel on a Sunday. After our show or shows, we board a bus and travel through the night. We’ll have Mondays and Tuesdays off. Wednesday is usually the busiest day because we have to do all the checks. That’s really the start of our work week.

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Dralion will be performed this coming week on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the AMSOIL Arena. Check Ticketmaster for details.

The photos here are publicity stills provided by Cirque Du Soleil. My full story on Dralion is featured in this week's Reader.

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Cirque Du Soleil's Quidam Is Here

The story line goes like this: Young Zoé is bored; her parents, distant and apathetic, ignore her. Her life has lost all meaning. Seeking to fill the void of her existence, she slides into an imaginary world where she meets characters who encourage her to free her soul.

It hardly sounds like a circus. At least not the circus I went to as a boy with trapeze artists, high wire acts, men shot out of cannons, clowns and dancing bears. Cirque Du Soleil is not your ordinary circus. It’s a re-configured phenomenon for the 21^st century where music, choreography and story weaves a mesmerizing spell.

Circuses in America have a long history that goes all the way back to shortly after the Revolution, offering the masses a source of diversion and entertainment unlike anything else. In the days before radio and television there were as many as a hundred circuses weaving their way about the land. But circus was not just about spectacular entertainment. At the heart of the circus was an innovative showmanship and entrepreneurism.

In their day the Ringling Brothers weren’t far off the mark when they called their travelling road show The Greatest Show On Earth. They not only had masterful entertainment, but they also had become skilled in managing the enormous entourage of people and animals. At its height the circus took up 14 acres when they came to town. The railroad train itself was a mile long.

The Great Depression and bad investments killed the Ringling Bros. Circus but it did not kill the love for sensational diversions.

Clowns have always played an important role at circuses, diverting attention from the practical setups and tear-downs that occur in plain view, and the best have truly made names for themselves. When I went to the Grotto Circus I had a chance to see the famous Emmett Kelly with his "sad clown" look. I didn't know him from any other but my mom seemed to gush over the fact that we were going to see him, so every time he was out there in the arena all eyes were on him, including mine. 

The promotional literature for this week’s story explains the meaning of its title this way… “Quidam means a nameless passer-by, a solitary figure lingering on a street corner, a person rushing past and swallowed by the crowd. It could be anyone, anybody. Someone coming or going at the heart of our anonymous society. A member of the crowd, one of the silent majority. The one who cries out, sings and dreams within us all. This is the quidam whom this show allows to speak. This is the place that beckons - a place for dreaming and genuine relations where all quidams, by proclaiming their individuality, can finally emerge from anonymity.

Art, entertainment, story, sensational skill, abandonment to imagination and awe... it's a modern spectacle with modern sensibilities designed to produce an unforgettable experience. There will be shows Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend at the AMSOIL Arena. I'll be there. How abut you? 

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In other action, there are several Homegrown Art Openings this week. (It's Homegrown Music Fest here in Duluth/Superior.)
Tonight: Red Mug Coffee House in Superior, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 or so.
Tomorrow, May 4: Ochre Ghost is hosting an opening for the Abstract shows opening at Ochre Ghost and Beaners tomorrow. (I have two pieces at Ochre Ghost and will be there at 6 o'clock before rushing off to the circus.)
Saturday, May 5: "Saturday Morning Cartoons" will be having its opening at the PROVE Gallery from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

It's all free. Get out and take it in.

"Meantime, life goes on all around you."