Artist Residencies at Centrum

Gillchun Koh Open Studio at Centrum

An open studio featuring the work of South Korean visual artist Gillchun Koh will be on display at Fort Worden State Park’s Building 205 from 10 am to 4 pm on Wednesday, January 6. A reception open to the public will be held in his honor from 4 pm to 6 pm.

 

Gillchun will show his etchings that symbolically depict the loss of bird habitat on Jeju Island, his homeland off the coast off the coast of South Korea. He feels a connection between his culture and that of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, he said, evidenced through similarities in many spiritual rituals.

 

In 2003, Gillchun came to Port Townsend for the first time as a Centrum artist-in-residence. During that time, his imagination was sparked by the small wooden boat—known as the Chetzemoka—lying in Fort Worden’s shoreline grasses. Through the years the strength of that image stayed with him, and now he is back at Centrum to present his newest installation: Flying Chetzemoka. By hanging several large origami representations of the Chetzemoka boat, Gillchun attempts to connect that marine image to the freedom of flying. Lanterns near the boats are beams of light, in contrast to the life-size graphite frottage of the Chetzemoka on display.

 

The Centrum residency program has since 1980 served artists from all over the world. Each year, several hundred artists, including many Washington state artists, pass through Centrum as a resident, experiencing the time, space, and inspiration to create new works of art at Fort Worden.

 

Debra Stuckgold's Worlds within the World

Debra Stuckgold  is an Oakland, California visual artist creating large scale, mixed media works on paper and mylar. She has just completed a residency in Costa Rica at Julia and David White Artist's Colony, and will be at Centrum December 22nd through early January to continue the work started there. 
She describes her series "Mapping"... 

                

Untitled Landscape 2009

acrylic on mylar, acrylic rods and magnets   40" x 168" 

"In 1999, after spending a summer participating in an archaeological dig, I became interested in the notion of historical continuity that had long played a role in my work. I began to lay out rolls of paper on my studiooor, saturating them with layers of ink, cold wax, earth, sand, hair and raw pigments. I applied the materials directly with my hands, building up and then scraping away materials, like layers of stratified terrain...  Mapping began with images of ancient floor plans. I had printed these on layers of mylar and had them lying haphazardly on my studio floor when I became aware of the innate beauty created by their layering. I then began to print multiple layers of these images on a variety of papers and polyester film. As I joined the layers together, the history and stratification of the landscape was revealed."

The Centrum Jam is Here!

There's something new and interesting happening at Centrum this weekend, and you can see it at 8:00pm on Friday December 18th in Building 204 at Fort Worden State Park. 

The "Centrum Jam" is comprised of artists within a specific community of dance who have come together to work on an improvised form of movement. This is done through "labs" (labs are open forms for working on a  specific focus, issue or problem). The labs are collectively and collaboratively designed and determined, and each artist takes part in the process. As various suggestions are put forth, the lab is set by what is most appealing to the most people. 

Then... they Jam! 

I asked Cyrus Khambatta of Phffft! Dance Theater Company  and the organizer of this collaborative residency of movement artists, to describe the process to me in layman's terms... 

"Contact Improvisation is different than many set forms... a more open and collective form with an extended group of people who practice it. The best analogy I can make is to jazz music in its infancy. A group of jazz musicians would often get together and "jam," and then other musicians would drop in, often unnannounced, to play along with them. The Jams are a format where people refine and practice the form, without any guidance (but their own) from any outside teacher."

The dancers will be working throughout the weekend, and visitors may stop by to observe in the afternoons. Please remember that this is not a workshop, but a collaborative artistic residency. While observers are welcome, we ask that you respect the artists' space and time as they develop their new work here at Centrum. And check out this great video of Phffft! presenting Mass Movement, a stealth dance project in a Washington mall.

Dipika Mukherjee in Residence

Ms. Mukherjee, fiction novelist and accomplished poet, came to Centrum from Shanghai for a December residency. While here working on a novel, she also read at Lehani's Poetry Night, and attended the Readers' Party at Northwind Arts in Port Townsend.

Ms Mukherjee's poetry has been published in literary journals in the US, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong. She has been a Paumanok Poetry Contest finalist, and has performed her poetry at the Sugar Factory, Amsterdam, and at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. 

Her first poetry collection, "The Palimpsest of Exile" (Rubicon Press), was published in March 2009. 

"It is a beautiful, highly evocative collection examining what it means to belong to many places, and the ways in which we find home."

Sawnet Review by Ashini Desai

Phffft! Dance Theater Company Makes Contact

Cyrus Khambatta and the Phffft! Dance Theater Company  are bringing a unique collaborative residency to Centrum. Cyrus and his principal artists will begin work on December 15th, developing a new "Contact Movement" piece. The residency will conclude with two days of choreographing the new piece with a large company of dancers. 

The Company contrasts rigorous partnering and athletic movement with authentic human content to create emotionally moving dance that is both visually beautiful and physically demanding.

Critics describe an evening with Phffft!:

The entire Phffft! company demonstrated smooth partnering skills and fluid ensemble work that belied the strength and precision timing they took to execute."

Michael Upchurch - Seattle Times

"Khambatta's choreography has plenty of merit, keeping to the theme in all sorts of cogent and remarkable ways. He made a statement with words, then let movement do the rest"

R.M. Campbell - Seattle Post Intelligencer

The Phffft! Dance Theater Company also offers a variety of outreach programs throughout the state. Mr. Khambatta has worked over 20 years with public schools, government agencies, neighborhood development programs, and other community-based organizations. Christian Swenson, a Centrum Young Artists Project faculty member, will participate as one of the dancers. Collaborative Residencies are a great way to bring new artistic projects to life, and Centrum is excited to be part of this new work in progress!