Performance Works NorthWest presents
the Alembic Artist Series
2 weekends
2 artists each weekend
Our four Alembic Artists have been in residence at Performance Works NorthWest since January, researching, dancing, vocalizing, creating video, brainstorming, and sharing ideas and snippets of work with each other. They are now ready to share work-in-development with a larger circle of people.
COVID SAFETY POLICY
Attendees at performances must wear masks completely covering nose and mouth while in our studio theater. Please wear a high-filtration mask with a tight fit to the face, such as a KN95 or N95. We encourage full COVID vaccination and boosters!
Weekend One:
dee bustos and Blue McCall + Jamondria Harris + ensemble
November 4-6
Friday and Saturday at 8pm
Sunday at 5pm + livestream—> LINK HERE
Tickets: Sliding Scale starting at $12
$5 Arts for All available for Oregon Trail Card holders
Blue McCall + Jamondria Harris + ensemble, Touch System
What is live performance in an age of hyper-mediation?
Touch System is a polyphonic, multidisciplinary evening of dance+ emerging from Portland’s subcultural underground. In seeking saturation of experience – of feeling – of sensation, Blue McCall enmeshes a group of dancers, installation, video projection and live-hacked tech within a living sound installation by Jamondria Harris (meroitic).
Introducing a decentralized ensemble of queer and trans dancers, spun up for the season: Sophie Andrus, Ysabella Bonnieux Richard, Wolfgang Black, Sam Cimino, Nikki Cormaci, Heidi Kleder, Hannah Krafcik and Emma Lutz-Higgins. The ensemble is accompanied by creative coder and visual hacker Ashley Ona Bott.
Find more info and view a score archive on the project’s website, bluemccall.com/touchsystem
Jamondria Harris, meroitic is a living black/indigenous/queer interdisciplinary artist, poet and composer. Their work uses words, sounds, wires, instruments, textiles & what falls into their hands to engage with blackness, desire, spirit/source, decolonization, fairy tales, & embodiment. Their sound art emerges from deep-listening fluidity between rhythm & source, engendering sonic cartographies woven from samples, feedback, the electromagnetic field of bodies & rooms and both digital and analog synthesizer soundscapes.
Blue McCall is interested in antenarrative, touch, subcultures, social dance, cycles of dissent-revolt-rest, and eroding dynamics of power. They create immersive environments, performance and poetic worlds. Blue is the author of “Slip Wip,” a multimedia fantasy novella that follows a genderfucked worker named Ambidextrous LoverLiar through exploits in the *Ick Factory. The novella is released serially on No Bounds Radio (Manchester/London). Their painting practice has been supported by RACC, Conduit at Utopian Visions Art Fair, Portland Textile Month, and the Cooley Gallery. Blue is from Southern Appalachia. They work across disciplines and scenes in an effort to decentralize the hierarchical workings of art worlds.
MOLT by Alembic Artist dee bustos (movement, vocalization, video), joined by Gemini Moon (soundscaping).
MOLT is an attempt at reconciling the severance between voice and body. with audio wizardry by Gemini Moon and movement + vocalizations by dee bustos. we hope you find something in it.
collage by dee bustos || photos by diana esquerra
dee bustos is an artist inspired by the act of remembering and pausing around wounds. most times, they feel too sensitive to leave their house. they are grateful to be given this opportunity to be seen and express themselves in a context that is radically different from their past. growing up singing in church, both catholic and gospel settings, dee is on the journey of discovering their voice outside of a religious context.
Gemini Moon is the solo project of multimedia artist Jen Tam. It is a reflection of the past, ancestral secrets and release, and time spent and lost in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Using digital elements, live loops and vocal sampling, Gemini Moon builds a nostalgic soundscape reminiscent of 90s r&b radio jams and takes them all down with a wash of noise.
Performance Works NW || Linda Austin Dance 