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Friday, May 21, 2010
Dayton Circus rocked with ‘Sideshow 5’
While it’s true there was lots to do at the last Urban Nights event, I think it’s also true that there was only one place downtown that evening to see an anatomically correct plastic baby doll sitting in a beat-up beige lounger amidst a pile of remote-controls and old VCR tapes, wired from the head directly into a stack of TV sets with their screens caved in and spattered with day-glo paints.
Or at least, I think there was only one place.
The arrangement in question — rather thoughtfully on point, if slightly squirm-inducing and not at all subtle — was an installation by Neal Chaney, who stood nearby as visitors dropped by to have a look. Chaney — young, black T-shirted, hands in pockets — glanced around the very busy room in which his piece jostled against others by nearly 60 other Dayton artists. “I just hung out and got involved,” he said. “They’ve been very supportive of what I do.”
“They” are his fellow members of the Dayton Circus Creative Collective, and the space in question was the top floor of the Armory Building, on East Sixth at the edge of the Oregon Arts District. It was the scene for “Sideshow 5,” the Circus’ annual exhibition of visual art, music and performance, all local, which ran May 14 and 15.
The shows are free and usually in different venues year to year. For the Friday of Urban Nights, there was a long line to get in, and organizers were pleased with the crowds they drew.
Those crowds saw a shaggy, chewy, eclectic blend of work that ranged from new work by young artists on the way up to fringe stuff by dark visionaries like DJ Justice to thoughtful, more mainstream pieces by established, familiar names such as Leesa Haapapuro and Christina Pereyma
“We’re a collective that’s trying to bring art and music and creativity to the grassroots level so that people who might not have the ability to get into a big show can still have one,” said Kidtee Hello, 26, a Dayton fashion and portrait photographer who was the lead organizer for this Sideshow.
“You’re in for a wide variety of artists who are really passionate about making art in many different mediums,” said Jonathan Missall, whose ghoulishly attractive zombie portraits were his contibution to his second Sideshow.
“It’s all really new art — and during the day, it’s pretty family-friendly.” The idea, he said, is to be provactive but not shocking or rude, so that the show can be all-ages. “They just get better every year,” he saids, as a tight, punky band started its loud set over in the corner.
Nearby were Daniel Brown’s oversize oils of old cars, done in a dreamy, retro-murk. Not far from those hung several crazy-nimble dancing figures from Delora Buford-Buchanan, whose work Tim Burton would love.
Sean Baumgardner displayed minutely detailed ink drawings of good, evil, love, death — big themes squooshed down into tiny, crowded scenes. Josh Arnold showed poignant photographs of toys and miniatures and seemed to imbue them with expression and emotion. They were great images, in a room full of same
As the band played, a young woman in a white dress blew up and burst balloons. A couple of women danced. People watched slick, grainy video art from a couch, holding hands. It was a scene.
And it was all produced by a group of several dozen young people who got together a few years ago — on their own, with no money, without urging — for the express, single purpose of making Dayton a friskier, cooler place to live and work.
“When I moved here,” said Kidtee Hello, who chose Dayton seven years ago from small-town Indiana, and loves it here, “there was nothing like this. Most of the people in the group are really stubborn, and see this as really important. The more these grassroots organizations pop up, the more there is to do.
“We’re just trying to make Dayton better and beautiful.”
From business boardrooms to the brick streets of Oregon, a lot of other folks are spending more and more time these days trying to figure out how to do that, too. Here’s hoping voices like hers remain a strong part of the conversation.
