Harvard Arts Beat

Last week, I audited Anthropology 1010: The Fundamentals of Archaeological Methods & Reasoning, basically an introductory course to Anthropology. But no, I didn’t take my notebook or my laptop; all I needed were my hands and five pounds of white earthenware clay to pound into shape.  At the ceramics studio, 136 Anthro students ventured into the ceramics studio for a special hands-on field day organized by their instructors and the Harvard Ceramics Program staff.

The students split into groups, assigned to each of the eight stations, which focused on a different aspect of claymaking—coil and slab building, paddling, wheel-throwing, carving, and even a tutorial on cylinder seals. By working with the clay themselves, the students were able to gain an intimate sense of the process behind the objects they were studying. Because clay is an ancient art, getting literally in touch with the various methods, and thus being able to identify them, proves useful when uncovering the history of human civilization.

The activities, timed to be ten minutes each, were framed by more educational lectures. At these stations, staff members taught students about the science of glazing, firing transformation, and morphology analysis—how to examine shards of pottery to determine by which process the pot was made. Of course, staying true to the fact that this is a Harvard course, each group was quizzed (lightly) at the end.

Seeing my peers smeared in clay dust and smiling amusedly and running from one station to the next when “Time’s up!” was much like observing excited kids at an arts and crafts fair. That is, to say, I could tell they deeply enjoyed themselves, and I’m certain that it was a painlessly enlightening activity for them. If only every Harvard lecture could be as lively and fun as this two-hour experience.

Photos courtesy Shawn Panepinto.

Fashion shows at Harvard often aren’t quite so much about fashion as about other things. Like (we say this tongue in chic) seeing your friends looking really hot and plenty of blaring music and dancing (Eleganza) or with a greater focus on cultural identity (Identities – for which I did PR). Project East, which ran on November 14th, then, aims to differentiate itself by focusing almost purely on the clothes and designers themselves, with charming video title cards of each designer done in chalk on blackboard announcing who dreamed up each design. The show aims to “promote issues in both the Asian and fashion communities.” Proceeds will be going towards building a school in rural China.

Backstage before the show, a crop of student models were trussed up in fantastical and whimsical and just plain beautiful clothing as finishing touches on hair and wardrobe were put into place by the team. Art director Andrew Cone explained that with the industrial space of Northwest Labs, he aimed to soften up and explore the contrast between the gray walls and red flowers that are Project East’s logo.

The show is in its third year, now under the tutelage of Alexandra Clark and Tamara Harel-Cohen, after being started by Timothy Parent and Kristin Kim in 2007. Big names this year included Vera Wang, Derek Lam, and Uma Wang, along with clothes from Parsons student designers.  VIP seats got a gift bag of Clinique skincare products

According to co-producer Tamara Harel-Cohen, that pesky recession meant that budgets were slashed, but on the plus side, a lot more money went to charity.

I got to hang out and chat with some models, as well as getting them to vogue for the camera before they went out and strut their stuff. What do you think? Headed for New York Fashion Week? Suffice to say, I had no idea so many tall, good looking people existed at Harvard.

A week ago today, Fred Ho received the Harvard Arts Medal. First he told his story in words. Then he told it again in music when he picked up his sax and played some of the sweetest sounds ever heard. We were on the edge of our seats. Thank you for your art, Mr. Ho, and for inspiring us to think more deeply about living life joyfully, naturally, creatively and occasionally wearing green body paint. A week later and for all time, we carry your beat in our hearts.

If you missed the Harvard Arts Medal event, you can still watch this short OFA video, a collage of Fred Ho images and music (which he provided).  

Seda Roeder is one of the most smiling pianists ever.

You probably had a sandwich for lunch today. I had Robert Fuchs’ Piano Sonata, op. 88. I’m pretty sure the music quenched a deeper hunger than any sandwich could have.

My midday “meal” was a concert in the University Hall Recital Series, a music “fair” of sorts that takes place about once a month in the Faculty Room of that historic hall.

The featured artist today was pianist Seda Roeder, visiting fellow at Harvard and teacher at MIT. Roeder is Turkish, but it’s Viennese piano music that captured her imagination today. Ergo Fuchs.

Fuchs, you say? Indeed, few in the room had heard of him or his music. Same for me, and I have a piano background. Turns out, Fuchs was hanging around Vienna the same time as Brahms. Fuchs himself never had an international career, but his students were Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Jean Sibelius. And his music bears some similarity to that of his friend Johannes B.

Roeder’s playing quieted my head and quickened my soul in the middle of a busy workday. Her lightest moments seemed to shimmer out from some secret place behind her raised eyebrows. But she also appeared to be discovering the depths of the music for the first time, as if she were magically encountering, puzzling and understanding each note. That type of practiced spontaneity is hard to come by.

After the concert, I asked Roeder if a noon performance is different from a night concert. She smiled (which she does a lot). “I wake up in the morning. I come and play,” she said. “With a night concert, there’s more time to get nervous.”

She also told me she eats chocolate to calm her nerves before performing. Which means she ate chocolate for breakfast today. That’s OK. I had a taste of Fuchs for lunch. I think Roeder and I both ended up full.

To find out about upcoming concerts in the University Hall Recital Series, which features classical and other genres of live music, email: musicdpt@fas.harvard.edu.

To learn more about Seda Roeder, visit her website at: www.sedaroeder.com. Be sure to check out her Black Box podcasts and touring calendar.

Imani Uzuri with members of Harvard’s KeyChange

There’s already been quite a bit written on Visiting Artist Sanford Biggers’ installation “Constellation (Stranger Fruit).” I know this, stepping in to Memorial Hall’s transept for yesterday’s special vocal performance. I’ve been thoroughly prepped and vetted; I know the levels of allusion and symbolism working within the piece; I know something of the artists’ thought process going in; I know what other students and viewers think of the work. And I know all this — look how confident I am — without ever having seen the work itself.

Which is why, yesterday afternoon, sitting on the cool floor of the transept and listening to Sumie Kaneko’s haunting koto performance and Imani Uzuri’s otherworldly vocals, I decided not to think about any of it. I wasn’t going to “know” anything about this piece, but rather, just tell you what I saw and heard.
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Calla Videt

A few days ago, I caught up with Artist Development Fellow and recent alum Calla Videt ’09, who talked about theater before and after graduation, making something from nothing, and learning to live with, and maybe even love, uncertainty. She is currently working with the London theater company, Complicite, which is known for its exploratory, collaborative processes.

Did you come to Harvard wanting to practice theater?

No. I actually went to Harvard because I thought I wanted to be a physicist. Then I realized I wasn’t smart enough to be a physicist, and at the same time that I really wanted to bring theater more into my life and make that a priority during school.

I ended up doing a special concentration that brought physics and theater together and let me to study models in science and in art.
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By guest blogger Melissa Armstrong

When making small talk, someone inevitably asks what I do, and I find I’ve gotten into the habit of saying, “I’m an artist …” (dramatic pause) … “which means I work at a bakery.“ Everybody gets a good laugh, and we move on to other topics, safely avoiding any further explanation. What they don’t realize is that working at a bakery is a fascinating and eye opening experience about ceramics. This is why I have found that balancing my work at Harvard Ceramics and my work at Flour Bakery and Cafe is  surprisingly rewarding. I have found connections between baking and ceramics that I never would have otherwise found. These images show the similarities.

First, there is the science of making the dough or clay body from scratch

We both use the exact same tools... scales, strainers and mixers

Tools for shaping: funny how pvc, which you might expect to see in a studio is used at the bakery, and rolling pins are key in ceramics...

The exact same wheel is used for trimming and decorating cakes and pots

Same tiny nozzled squeeze bottles and pastry bags for adding fine detailed decorations

Both are OCD about collecting containers of all shapes and sizes

Bakers racks are treasured finds at the ceramic studio

The real magic happens here, in our respective ovens where chemical transformations turn unusable dough into functional objects

And what comes out seems to have no relationship to what went in! Both are now functional and ready for consumption

And the relationship between the two end products could make for an entirely other conversation

 Both professions start with a malleable simple medium, both are shaped by hand, both go through radical transformations upon being baked or fired, and both provide endless possibilities and variation in the end result. Both are art forms in their own right, can give great pleasure to their end users, and have extremely strong, small, and tight knit communities that I have been blessed to be a part of. Next time you’re baking cookies at home, or throwing a pot on the wheel, think about the connections between baking and making. Maybe it will change the way you do each; I know it has changed both for me.

“Turn your grief to anger!”  So incanted one of the performers in the performance art work by Trevor Martin ‘10, entitled “Who Wants to Live Forever?”  Trevor staged his searing work in the main gallery of the Carpenter Center, using the current exhibit, ACT UP New York: Activism, Art and the Aids Crisis, 1987-1993, as a platform — both literally and figuratively — for his inspired response to the AIDS activism movement, its visual and verbal symbolism, and its place in our nation’s conscience.  The performance art piece transformed the gallery at once into a theater in the round, with images of the ACT UP exhibit assuming on an altar-like aura and structure surrounding the performers.  As the Trevor and two fellow student performers traversed the gallery as the vignette-like scenes of vigorous progest and silent reflection seamlessly changed from one to the next, the audience of students and faculty walked along, following the performers.  Alongside walked a member of the audience whom Trevor charged with a large video camera, signifying the pivotal role of video in the AIDS activism movement, which, as Gregg Bordowitz wrote in “Picture a Coalition,” seeks to create itself as it attempts to represent itself.

After the performance, I asked Visual and Environmental Studies concentrators Julia Rooney ‘11 and Sara Stern ‘11 for their immediate reactions.  I also spoke with Emily Hecht ‘11, one of the performers, and Trevor Martin ‘10, who choreographed and directed “Who Wants to Live Forever?”, in which he also performed.
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Guest Blogger Adam Kassim

Not until I was trying to relax my muscles in a hot shower did I fully understand that perhaps my original estimations of a Musical Theatre Dance class were naïve and that perhaps, just perhaps, I was not as fabulous a dancer as I remembered myself to be.

Okay Class. We are going to take pliés in first second fourth and fifth, two demis and a grande – don’t take a grande in fourth because we don’t want to hurt the knees – instead take a relevé and hold it – then we will go onto tondus and degagés in first and fifth.

WHAT?!

Tondu – who? Dega – when? Hold where? My mind vaguely recalled these terms from dance class 15 years ago, but my body apparently didn’t get the memo. Don’t worry, I thought, you are not taking the class for credit.

Thankfully, Kristin was teaching our class. Whether explaining body mechanics or reviewing Fosse choreography, Kristin is generous and so very patient. Were I in her place, I would have gone “Norma Desmond” weeks ago. Under Kristin’s guidance, I managed to muddle my way through Sweet Charity’s shimmy, West Side Story’s mambo, A Chorus Line’s quick-kicks, and Hairspray’s ball-changes.

Well, a little more than muddle. But not much more.

Toweling off, my muscles still felt the battle wounds of the day’s dance class. But somehow, I didn’t mind. I had earned each sore, my badges of honor. Maybe I was not the dancer I fancied myself to be, but at least I was dancing.