Arts Planner: Avant-garde bowls, blank page poetry and Oz
USC professor’s ceramic bowls a work of art
At an over-the-top dinner where creative tableware takes center stage, a Columbia artist’s shallow bowls will have a chance to shine.
Virginia Scotchie, a ceramic artist and head of ceramics at the University of South Carolina, was invited to create bowls for an “experimental gastronomy” dinner hosted by Dutch creative collective Steinbeisser. The vegan dinner is Sunday at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California, and is the first time the event is being held in the United States. Renowned Bay Area chefs create the menu, and 12 artists create cutlery and tableware.
The all plant-based menu is seven courses and costs $700.
For such an expensive meal, the tableware and utensils are purposefully challenging to use.
The dinner is meant to merge art and cuisine, so the tableware is touted as having “thought-provoking function” as well as beauty. Sometimes that takes the form of extremely long-stemmed spoons, a fork welded to the end of a pair of scissors, or, in Scotchie’s case, bowls that are just a little wobbly.
“It’s not like your regular bowl; mine have spheres on them and kind of rock a little bit. They’re not totally flat, so you have to work to eat from them,” she said. “It’s about experimenting with how we eat food.”
Scotchie made 75 bowls, which are uniform shapes but different colors, for the dinner.
Typically, Scotchie’s work is more sculptural, so the challenge of creating something utilitarian with ceramics was exciting, she said.
“This is the first kind of thing I’ve done like this. It’s not my work in a gallery. This is much more participation and interaction with something I’ve made.”
OTHER ARTS EVENTS AROUND TOWN
Blank Page Poetry: Word & Shadows
Blank Page Poetry is a site-specific event featuring poetry performance with dance movements designed around the theme of race and its historical, sociological and geographical implications in Columbia. Eight poets will present their original work behind a large, suspended sheet of white paper, casting a shadow while select words and phrases from each poem are projected upon the paper.
Poets are Ed Madden, Jennifer Bartell, Al Black, Tim Conroy, Worthy Evans, Terrance Henderson, Monifa Lemons Jackson and Ray McManus. Dancers are members of Terrance Henderson’s To Dance Inc.
8 p.m. Wednesday at 701 Center for Contemporary Art, 701 Whaley St. Free, but donations are encouraged. ifartgallery.blogspot.com/
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
The USC Theatre Program kicks off its 2016-17 main stage season with an imaginative production of William Shakespeare’s comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Director Robert Richmond said the production’s visual elements are inspired by films like “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Underworld,” with a magical forest set made entirely of umbrellas.
Friday through Oct. 8 at Drayton Hall Theatre, 1214 College St. $18 general public; $16 university faculty and staff, military and seniors; $12 students. artsandsciences.sc.edu/thea/draytonhall
Saturdays in Oz
Grab Toto and head to the S.C. State Museum for a new Wizard of Oz experience. Every Saturday in October, the museum will host a number of Wizard of Oz-themed activities, like scavenger hunts along the Yellow Brick Road, crafts, screenings of “Wizard of Oz 4-D Experience” and greetings from Wizard of Oz characters throughout the day.
The museum is at 301 Gervais St. Free with general admission. scmuseum.org
Art of Toulouse-Lautrec
The Columbia Museum of Art is showing eight works by 19th-century artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The French painter and printmaker is famous for his Bohemian posters of Moulin Rouge performers and nightlife in Paris. The one-gallery exhibition “Toulouse-Lautrec Works on Paper Featuring the Robbie Barnett and Kathy Olson Collection” is on view through Dec. 4.
The museum is at 1515 Main St. www.columbiamuseum.org