Manifest 4--Convergence

Convergence is the final huge event of the day. A gift to our seniors of spectacle and beautiful strangeness in partnership with Redmoon Theater.


everyone under a giant tent waiting for the party to start. giant red and white balloons come in first, pulled along by costumed folks. From each balloon hangs a little clear cornucopia speaker that's droning on about birds and history and and and. . .


followed by a costumed DJ being rolled in at the start of a procession of bird priests (from the labyrinth I posted earlier) and other costumed folks. They stopped briefly to hand gifts to our professional and student honorees.


An announcer on stage kicks everything off officially, followed by an announcement from. . .


a giant red phonograph that lets us know that we are descendants of the birds. . .


followed by first a song through electronic megaphones and then a joyful dance by a flock of turquoise mo-hawked birds. . . but then, what's that singing behind us?

An opera singer playing the part of the Phoenix, singing on a platform 15 feet above the crowd in a costume that would make Wagner proud.

And as her song starts to wind down, a young gentleman is wheeled into the midst of the crowd, balancing on the end of an extendable hook and ladder.


And when that hook and ladder extends and raises up into the air and he drops down a length of white silk, a young woman from the audience climbs it and starts performing a kind of aerial ballet beneath him (It's totally fair at this point to assume that I am having trouble taking pictures while simultaneously tearing up and trying to clap my hands together like a little gleeful kid at the circus).


He's falling in love with her and pulls her up on to the ladder with him. Where he chases and woos her, until. . .


they perform acrobatics below the ladder together and finally. . .



kiss and fall in love. (The crowd literally melted down with delight).



And then the tent goes dark while the two lovers watch the raising of the ceremonial star that signifies all of Manifest and the passion and heat and creativity of Columbia students.


I think it's fair to say that no college anywhere in the world gives a larger or more impressive gift to their graduating seniors than Columbia. . . that's probably true in part because no other college produces a more diverse, engaging, creative bunch of graduates anywhere in the world.

(And Convergence isn't the big party for grads in the Hilton that follows this. . . and isn't even the spectacle that is graduation the following two days. We're serious. . . )

Go Columbia! Go Art!

Manifest 3

There's so much great artwork to see and hear at Manifest--In a seven hour period (11AM to 6PM), something like 110 different activities happen.

I went to a lot of it--or maybe a third of it, which is still a lot of it--but mostly what I took pictures of was performance art. I'm not usually a performance art gal, but everything that was happening on the street this year was so much fun!

The Grad golf game was pretty much performance art. . . and then right up the street was this event.


It's a labyrinth that spectators are led through by bird priests. The participant wrote their best idea on a piece of paper and at the center of the labyrinth, through an elaborate ritual, the participant's best idea if burned to make space for new ideas. It was weird and charming and perfect.

In 623 S. Wabash, there was another Grad performance: "No Sweat". Students revolved between the four canvases, using work out routines to make art on the canvases. There was a coach sitting in the chair in the foreground who would spur them on and the teammates would consistently cheer each other on as well. It was very funny. . . and I'm sure there are plenty of artists who wished that art-making was this communal and supportive.


Double Rainbow!!!!! Right around the corner, my friends Joe and Jill were heading out to walk about campus as a double-rainbow. They were headed away, but took very little coaxing to turn around and come back for a picture.


And I don't know that anyone would call this "performance art," but A+D throws an art car derby every year. It reminds me of the all of the Cub Scout Derby's I went to as a kid with my family. But I was able to catch a snippet of the final match between the possible winners of the derby.


The cute red scooter for the win!

Manifest 2

At the kick-off, students competed for $500 in a hack-your-t-shirt competition. I hack my t-shirt every year, and I like to think that I inspired this. . .


Theatre students at the start of what can only be called the prettiest and most joyfullest kick-off to Manifest in its ten year history.


This was my favorite piece in the Book and Paper Arts gallery. . . A gorgeous handmade map of the world made of handmade paper. . .


The PGA (Please Generate Art) a "putt-putt golf course" built by Columbia Graduate Students. I think I hit a ball once and the rest was more like an art/golf course-themed maze. . . like a haunted house, but not scary? It was great. Giant rats, trees filled with legs, a room teeming with dancers, wrapping up in a tea party and a chance to add to a giant painting. It was funny and clever and well put together.

Manifest

Such a great day that I will have to divide it up across a few posts. Early morning, just bouncing around watching prep for the big festival, watching the crowds build, catching a quick coffee and danish with my professional photographer until kick off at noon.

Below is Maggie Sichter (please, someone, if I am wrong about this, please correct me, but I'm 98% sure it's her). Maggie is the young woman who was chosen to do all of the print design for this year's Manifest. She proposed an initial idea. The campus voted and chose her vision. And then she worked with the in-house graphic design office to spin the idea out into multiple posters, printed invitations, giant banners, pins, magnets, t-shirts. It's an honor, and a lot of work and Maggie did an amazing job--right down to hand branding the windows of 623 S. Wabash the morning of. . .


Once done painting, she hung paint soaked silk panels to finish the design. She's just ridiculously talented, Ms. Sichter.


This next pic. . . Who are you lacey-legged, bird-feathered hat, blue-haired cutie sitting outside the IAM Bitmap show? Do I or do I not see you at every Manifest? Should I know your name? Please, say hello to me one of these days and clear up the mystery. . .


To my great delight, one of the first speakers at kick-off was CeCe--a young woman who I met first in the Behind the Curtains class of High School Summer Institute. I think she may be one of my very first graduates from HSSI. I believe she participated the first year I was in charge of it and she just graduated from college this weekend. I'm so thrilled proud of her. . .

Industry Night

No real pictures of Industry Night--though it was fabulous. I was out with visiting high school guidance counselors and arts teachers showing off the event and all of our visual artists' work to our guests. But I was able to take a second to sit down and relax my back and feet and notice how beautiful the city and the weather was being.


Our students, faculty and staff at Columbia College work incredibly hard to put on Manifest, and the day is a celebration of that hard work and the innovation and creativity of the community. But the strange magic of the day wouldn't be the same without its cropping up in Chicago.

Manifest Emissaries

Last year, in lead up to Manifest to the hooligans running around building anticipation were Magritte inspired, colorfully-vested, trench-coated, bowler-hatted pranksters.

This year, they were more sober, steam-punkish, hard-working folks. Two to three khaki enrobed workers dragging around a wheeled desk in which cardboard eggs and typewriter were nestled in live grass. On a pedestal above--a red emergency phone and a Chinese lantern. And always, following in their wake, a darkly dressed gentleman taking notes and speaking into a small recording device, investigating their work. . .

Why is he so disapproving?

I love it. . .

Comedy Studies

This past Tuesday, Dan went with me to kick off a little early Manifest fun.

Columbia has been running the leading "study abroad" program in ensemble improv comedy training on site at the Second City, taught by their gifted training faculty and called "Comedy Studies." As a capstone project of the semester-long program, the students put on two nights of shows for friends, family and the public on Second City's ETC Stage.

I've tried to make it to most of the final performances. I missed them for the first few years, but have been going every semester since. . . because the Comedy Studies students are ridiculously funny. Their work is savvy and smart and witty and a little vulgar (which I love, because they're not just making me laugh. . . their parents are there, too).

My favorite piece this year, was a song called "Ambiguously Asian."



And every year, Jason who works for the Second City and the program brings me a ridiculous drink. I do a little paperwork for the program and it's incredibly nice for Jason to reward me with far too much garnish.

One of the Best Weeks of the Year

Blog-wise, I usually get out ahead of this each year, but it's been an really busy spring. Anyhoo, this past week was one of my most favorite of the year--the week that ends in Columbia College Chicago's Manifest.

It's a magical week on campus--students are wrapping up their finals, seniors are dreaming about graduation, street art and performance art starts to crop up around campus. And we had the added bonus of hot sunny weather almost the entire last week.

The first thing I saw that let me know Manifest was gearing up was this great installation by (don't fret.). Super talented wheat paste artist that Columbia gave a wall to play on. Obviously, he doesn't need to be given a wall. His job is to find walls and take them over. But I think it's a lovely testament to the college's dedication to all forms of art that we invited him to do his thing on one of our buildings!

Beautiful Day + Log

This spring has been a cold and rainy one in Chicago. But last weekend we had a sunny day and again today, a sunny day. And it was in the low 70's. So, I took my bad back outside into the sun and did a little yard work (emphasis on the "little"). One thing I did do? Cut a few non-magnolia stumps out of our pretty magnolia bush.



And then L.P. went to town on the tiny stumpy logs.





L.P. had the best day of any dog in town today. No contest. Don't even try, other dogs, because L.P. loved that log. . .

It Doesn't Look Like Much Yet. . .

But you just wait, the front of our house is going to look better in a month or two. And in 2-4 years, it's going to be the envy of the block!

But for now, it looks like this ("Hi!" to Dan waving from the back yard):


I have this terrible habit of imagining what a garden spot could look like in ten years, and then planting that garden immediately. That's not really how gardens work. Nevertheless, I imagined the northeast corner of our our lot being a shady, sun-dappled little glen--with a dwarf, gnarled, apple-tree as the center piece, with hostas and lily-of-the-valley growing blue and green and gold in its shade.

But the apple tree is a stick and won't be much more than that for another year or two. Regardless, with the image of a wooded glen in mind, last year, I immediately planted hostas and lily of the valley right up against the sidewalk--which is a pretty sunny place. Dumb.

So, I moved some things around today. I moved hostas back into the shade of the house--some lilies, too. And a huge rhubarb plant came with the house when we bought it. It was a giant monster in the backyard, and looking at it, I realized it's easily 6-7 rhubarb plants trapped in a tight spot growing on top of each other. So, I divided two off and have planted them in the front yard. They look sad right now, but they'll perk up! (fingers crossed!)


The neighbors have pretty tulips blooming in their front yard right now--the red with black center of poppies. . .


And the backyard got some love today, too. Dan cleared out old leaves and did some weeding. And I have filled loads of containers with new dirt and seeds. In a few weeks, I hope to see the start of hot pepper plants and nasturtiums and zucchini.

Casey Riordan Millard

Went for a second view of my best friend Casey Riordan Millard's show at the Schopf Packer Gallery in the west loop of Chicago. Her work is as brilliant as ever--pretty (like hardcore schoolgirl-in-pigtails-crinoline-and-patent-leather-shoes pretty), and gorgeously executed and sad. If you haven't seen her work before, you're missing out.

Check out her website: caseyriordanmillard.com

This is my favorite piece of hers. . . ever: "Shark Girl Riding Blue Bird"