Vanguard Arts & Culture | 5 April 5,21,2010 May 2010
Putting a face to strangers Gus Van Sant shows off his newest artistic endeavor Roger Wightman Vanguard staff
All photos courtesy of Gus Van Sant/PDX Contemporary Art
Gus Van Sant has become, arguably, the city’s most famous celebrity. The creator of 14 feature films including 2008’s Milk, Van Sant has built a reputation on telling everyday stories with just a hint of quirkiness, a dab of originality and a definitive Portland presence. Fans of Van Sant should be pleased to know that their master of cinema is not monogamous with his art. Van Sant walks in the shoes of a filmmaker, an accomplished photographer, a collagist and a painter. PDX Contemporary Art will be hosting a rare appearance of Van Sant’s work in this month’s exhibit titled Cut-ups. During the casting process of Van Sant’s films, he takes photographs of the thousands of people who audition for roles. Needless to say, this collection of Polaroids has become extensive and is the basis behind his current project. Using the casting photos, Van Sant has literally “cut up” the faces, bodies, clothing—you name it—and reassembled the images to match the fuzzy, foggy, and meshed up version of the people we see around us every day. You don’t need to deal with thousands of people vying to be
in one of your films to understand the point behind Van Sant’s work. We all experience the sort of reality presented in the photos—strangers walking past us, the girl on the bus, the boy riding his bike, faces, faces, faces. Eventually we become numb to these people. Seemingly, they are only figures within our own story. With Van Sant’s images, we the viewer are left with a challenge. The layers upon layers of different photos leave you feeling a bit overwhelmed and not sure of which direction to go, whom to attach your eyes to or which set of eyes to engage. The exhibit is being shown as an introduction to Van Sant’s larger body of work, which will be exhibited in Eugene beginning May 16 at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Van Sant’s work will be shown in conjunction with rare Andy Warhol photos in a collaboration titled One Step Big Shot. The show will continue through Sept. 5. Many of the photos are crafted to appear as if the images stacked on top of each other are of the same or similar-looking people. The point is not to create someone new but provide commentary on how faces blend and how we each create the images that we see. Some of the photos have a single torso with multiple faces intermingling; others create more of a mess. The subjects come in all varieties: skinny, fat, handsome and ugly. Shirtless and clothed, men and women, these are the people we see and it’s up to us to notice them.
Gus Van Sant: Cut-ups PDX Contemporary Art 925 NW Flanders Tue–Sat, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Opening party May 6, 6–8 p.m. Runs through May 29
Stumptown Tart delivers sass Bridgeport’s fruity new beer has a raspberry kick Bianca Blankenship Vanguard staff
This week Bridgeport Brewing releases its “Big Brew,” a special beer that comes out once a year. This year their Stumptown Tart takes the same name as it has for the past two years, but its style and flavor have since changed. Bridgeport will hold a release party for the brew on Thursday at its downtown brew pub. Free samples of the Tart will be available for tasting, and limited editions of the 22-ounce bottles will be for sale. Bridgeport always uses some type of fruit in its Stumptown Tart. In 2008 it was marionberries. Last year a sour concoction of 2,000 sour-pie cherries was added to the brewing process. This year, 2,000 pounds of Oregon raspberries were thrown in to give the brew a sweet and moderately tart flavor. A sniff at this beer lends a surprising shade to its flavor. It smells flowery, almost like roses, but the flowery aroma doesn’t last long after a taste. This beer is certainly a tart beer, as its name commands,
but the addition of raspberries doesn’t make it overly sweet. It isn’t a fruity beer for the fruity beer drinker. The Tart is a bit tougher than that. At 7.7% ABV, and sold only in 22-ounce bottles, the beer is akin to a stout or IPA when it comes to alcohol content, but few would ever guess it. The Tart goes down a little heavy like an IPA, but the fruity flavor is more noticeable. A very slight malt makes it feel like a big beer, and it is. As a Framboise, it takes after Belgian beers, which are often heavy on the alcohol content. After all, 2,000 pounds is quite a bit of fermented raspberries. While definitely a tart brew, the Tart won’t make your lips pucker. It’s reminiscent of a fruity summer ale, except that it lingers on the tongue longer and doesn’t deliver the same sweetness. Still, it serves as a good medium to link the lover of wine spritzers and the devoted beer drinker. Both will be content. This year the ale is a 50/50 mix of fresh Belgian Tripel and aged Belgian Tripel which soaked in oak barrels for a year. It’s much easier to taste the fresh Tripel than to notice any hints of oak barrel. Bridgeport insists that there are overtones of spice and oak from the barrels, but a
sip or two reveals that it’s hard to get past the sweet and sour raspberry. As it has in the past two years, Stumptown Tart’s bottle features Portland model Bernie Dexter, who’s known for her classic pin-up photos and rockabilly and psychobilly style. Dexter will attend the release party and will be signing bottles and posters while presumably looking fabulous. Always trying to keep its ingredients relatively local, Bridgeport used raspberries grown at the Willamette Valley Fruit Company in Salem, Ore., to make the Tart.
Photo by Marni Cohen/PSU Vanguard
Bridgeport Stumptown Tart Release Bridgeport BrewPub 1313 NW Marshall St. Thursday, May 6 5:30 p.m. Free 21+
Big, fat list of shows: Wednesday’s live-music lineup Blackhounds, My Mantle, Capture the Flag Ash St. Saloon, 9:30 p.m., $5, 21+ High On Fire, Priestess, Black Cobra, Bison Dante’s, 8 p.m., $16, 21+ Reckless Kelly, Miranda Vettrus Doug Fir, 9 p.m., $15 advance, $17 door, 21+ Strange Holiday, People Under the Sun, Seven Saturdays Ella Street Social Club, 9 p.m., $5, 21+ Los Campesinos!, Signals Hawthorne Theater, 8 p.m., $15, all ages Angelique De Vil, Baby Le Strange, Gretchen Dances, Stellars Jay, Zora Phoenix The Knife Shop, 7:30 p.m., $4, 21+ Hornet Leg, Western Hymn The Know, 7 p.m., free, 21+ Tenspeed Warlock, Mrs. Esterhouse, Ninth Moon Black Rotture, 9 p.m., $8, 21+ May Ling, Dj Sexy Cousin and friends Valentines, 9 p.m., free, 21+