To Be Determined… needed More Determination Sep 16, 2011

by CatherineC

Last night SuttonBeresCuller’s “To Be Determined…” opened at OtB.  As a season kickoff; a mash-up of party, site-specific artwork and unpredictable performances, the event was totally successful.  I was surprised and delighted by many of the visual elements the team had constructed.  Fellow audience members were drinking and smiling, which was what we had been invited to do, so in that way SuttonBeresCuller realized their vision.

The visual elements held their ground in a striking manner against which the “unconventional” performances were situated. However, I was disappointed by the inconsistency of the evening’s promised, “detailed craftsmanship.” The performances weren’t strong enough, unconventional enough, or well enough framed to create a powerful juxtaposition against one another, or the visual artwork that dominated the space. The haphazard environment was fun, but it did not move me, entertain me, or encourage me to grow, in the way I expect from artists who have the opportunity to share their work at On the Boards.  My friend Matt Henley and I discussed the event on the way home…

Shifting Perspectives

MH: Whenever you go to OtB you expect to see a completely different world.  Whether that’s an apartment being explored by a space traveler or a menacing puppet controlling his maker… you are guaranteed the opportunity to leave your everyday world behind and experience something completely different.  So it seems appropriate then that to start a perspective shifting season of new work, OtB invites us into a shifted perspective on their space.  At the meta-level, the space that shifts is now shifted…  We didn’t even make it past the lobby and depending on which way you look, you feel like you are either in a surreal piano bar enshrined in 20 Chandeliers, a dive-y comedy club, or waiting in line to get into a douchebag dance bar.  The main stage space is similarly complex, whatever you thought you were going to see, isn’t what you are going to see, which is what On the Boards does well.

CC: I agree.  I enjoyed the surprises around every corner and the moments when I wasn’t sure if the person in front of me was performing or genuinely confused.  I applaud OtB for inviting the artists to deconstruct their space in the process of constructing the installation. But I wish that the performances had been more interesting, once the surprise that they were happening wore off, which happened quickly. I found myself frequently startled, but never captivated.

Incongruity

CC: When I first arrived I found myself rushing through personal interactions because I was anxious to see the work that had been set up.  The space was too loud to actually talk to people anyway.  I enjoyed the idea of stumbling upon performances, but at times I felt more like the performances stumbled onto me. The installation excelled in its visual art components; a plane crashing in to the main stage audience and a wild cow in the entry way were striking, The Nick Cave or Arman, inspired assemblage of mass produced objects contributed to an intriguing environment, but the performances were simultaneously too loud, so they could not be ignored, and uninteresting, once they had commandeered my attention. It came off as a variety show, full of one liners and cheap tricks. I was also a bit taken aback by the elitism implied by the red velvet rope at the door, in contrast to the casual playfulness of what was inside.

MH: Yea- the visual overshadowed the performative.  Upstairs overshadowed downstairs. And the elitist environment created by the velvet ropes at the door, didn’t match the hodgepodge of humanity that one experienced inside.  Not to say that these are bad things.  It is very Seattle to mix the wealthy with the street, I mean, people wear polar fleece to the opera here, but the question with this is, were these incongruities intentional; did SuttonBeresCuller intend to create beautiful images that were then cheapened by performers found on craigslist?  Or did they spend all their creative energy in some areas, leaving other components untended to, and writing their amateur nature off to a certain postmodern, Seattleite, funky, hipster aesthetic?

Energy in the Space

MH: Because of these incongruities the audience is left not knowing what to do.  The space is clearly beautiful and worth talking about, but the performances continue to disrupt conversation and pull focus.  Surely different audience members showed up with different expectations, but it seemed like most people didn’t know how to react…  You could feel the sparse audience taking it in with question marks over their head.  It sets people on edge, but maybe that’s what SuttonBeresCuller wanted.

CC: I was struck, especially downstairs in the “club” by how empty and dead the space was.  Clubs and performances require a critical mass to inspire a shared experience, but the awkward equation between voyeurism and participant around an empty dance floor is just not fun. Upstairs a similar discomfort was present.  The main stage space was dominated by the three large installations, which would have been interesting enough without a mediocre musical performer or hula-hoop diva in the middle of them (or perhaps I was just jealous- cause I never learned how to hula hoop).  I felt that none of the spaces reached a critical mass and that weakened all parts of the show.  We were invited to wander, and that is what the whole evening did.  There was a sense of aimlessness in every space that didn’t break through into any sort of enveloping perspective.  Would I rather have been conducted through the space? Well, clearly that was not the point…

The Point?

MH: It is a great way to start a season, bringing all your patrons together, having them talk about art, shifting perspectives with in the space, this is what OtB is about, and it could be a great idea to start as a season kickoff every year.  But… it’s hard to put a finger on it, but there is a quality level that didn’t quite match OtB. Was the point to showcase how “bad” the performers were?  Were they “so bad it was awesome?”  In the right place these performers would have been fine and totally worth watching, but the context the creators set up for them cheapened their work. So it felt like I was witnessing a private joke that the creators shared at the expense the performers.  There was also a sense of, “well, down stairs will just be this…” There was a sense of incompleteness.

CC: Well, maybe that was the point.  It was called, “To Be Determined…”

-Catherine Cabeen

TAGS
SuttonBeresCuller / “To Be Determined…”