This is your last weekend to go journeying across the cosmos with the Johnson/Long Dance Company (see the “Exhibitionism” arts page this issue for Robi Polgar’s review of J/LDC’s Atlas of the Universe), but it’s far from your last chance to go crossing frontiers with this pioneering dance/theatre troupe. Company co-founder Andrew Long reports that the group and its resident composer Darden Smith have been commissioned by the Austin Symphony Orchestra to create a millennium work for presentation at ASO’s November 1999 subscription series concert. Sharing the stage with a bunch of classical musicians fits in nicely with J/LDC’s discipline-busting approach to art, and it provides pop-folk composer Smith with a nifty opportunity to score a piece with a big sound. Smith has been with Johnson/Long for six years and has composed scores for the company’s 9 Chains to the Moon, The Untouched Key, ‘Til Human Voices Wake and We Drown, and Walking on Water. For more info, call 467-0704.
Invasion of the Incredible Artistic Types, Part IV
Don’t be afeared; they’re only artists. If you note a substantial increase in the number of creative types wandering around downtown this weekend, that’s only because the Texas Commission for the Arts is hosting its annual Cultural Connections conference. Thursday through Saturday, artists and arts administrators from all across the Lone Star State will be gathering at the Omni Austin to discuss the art of the state, ways in which they might better promote themselves and the arts in general, and attract new audiences and broader community support. The keynote address for this year’s affair will be delivered by national arts consultant George Thorn. In addition, 34 artists from TCA’s Touring Company and Artist Roster will be showcased, and prominent arts supporters will be honored at an awards ceremony. For info, call 463-5535.
Skagen-Brakhage Split, Postscript
Last week we reported on the unfortunate demise of the art partnership of Rory Skagen and Billy Brakhage, creators of some of our town’s most fun, funky murals and 3-D sculptures. Anyone who doubted that this parting of the ways had a disagreeable edge to it needed only to drive by the former team’s studio at 1800 South First this past weekend. Sometime late last week, someone took some paint and made a little addition to the front of the building: a green triangle (of a shade that can best be described a bilious) in which were painted the words “Skagen Lies.” Not exactly a diplomatic acknowledgment of one’s differences, eh? More like a public assault … with a kind of creepy flourish to it not unlike something out of a bad horror flick. As to what this defacement might be referring, we don’t even care to speculate. We don’t even know if it’s what it looks like. It could be anything from a spiteful act of vandalism over a perceived wrong to a tasteless prank designed to get a rise out of the press. Suffice to say, it adds a curious postscript to this former partnership. Oh, and there’s a P.P.S.: The painted phrase was still up on Sunday, but someone had strategically added a letter “F” to it so that the phrase now read, “Skagen Flies.”
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This article appears in August 7 • 1998 and August 7 • 1998 (Cover).