#409: JoAnn Verburg + Rhythmic Circus

Minnesota Original is made possible by The State Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the citizens of Minnesota. (female narrator) of Minnesota Original-- JoAnn Verburg known photographer who's large-scale work deals with concepts of time and perspective. experience as an immigrant, Chilean-born Alonso Sierralta materials in his sculptures. Percussive dancers, backed by a 7-piece band, Rhythmic Circus explores musical genres beat box, and salsa. Hit the ground Hit the ground electronic music plays synthesizer plays softly (JoAnn Verburg) When you're born, as a unique individual. world the way you do. learn your skills, you're challenged, it's really hard sometimes, and you're not alone; we're all in it together. And yet at the same time, you're the only one that looks at it that way. doing sort of comes out of that. alone, and we're not alone. When I was 6, Santa gave me a camera. laughs in Baltimore for Christmas, and I photographed Splash, at the Baltimore Zoo. That was my first roll of film. transformation of experience into this little rectangle, and it still is. The first pictures that I did they were justifying the time and everything else, that I was doing underwater with an underwater camera, and then I made blueprints, a piece of watercolor paper, then exposing it to sunlight. with this work was that I realized that I was not just trying to describe reality, but that photography creates an alternate reality. I was thinking about when I was underwater with the camera, looking at these pictures, there was something I saw in them that I think I would say ah, was smarter than me, and I think art does that. you didn't mean to go. need two of everything. to have the woods and the picture of the woods. That to me is totally boring. But if you let your materials lead you into something you don't know, oftentimes what will happen is you'll be dealing with things differently than walking through the woods. that art can create that is, why bother factor. When I was in graduate school, I had the opportunity to buy a 5 x 7 camera. It was big enough for me to be able to see really well and use what are called the swings and tilts of the camera that throws certain things in focus and others out of focus, you know the very, very narrow range of focus on just his eye, and a little bit on his fingertips, part of the trees behind him. I don't want you to look at this and think about the techniques. know any of that, consciously. It's all about seducing the viewer into um, I want to say intimate relationship to the person that you're imagining. (woman) Because she almost always frames things in a way with multiple focus, unconventional space, sure what our perspective is, the works have this living, breathing quality. Her work is much more comparable in a space in the world. And so somehow through photography, which tends to capture a moment, moment alive and organic. everything kind of makes sense, then it's, it's not interesting. the City of Spoleto, hill town in Umbria, in Italy. There's a way in which in Italy I will never understand and that's very freeing. I can do it correctly, that's in my way, whereas in Italy is incorrect, the way I speak Italian is dreadful, so I can be incorrect and not worry about it. What it means as an artist is there's no right way and I can just keep trying different things. And that's what I need to be able to do. I would love to find another way to work and I keep coming back to it. It has to do with the relationship to reality that a photograph implies. it seems to be real; it seems to be repeatable, and yet it is so ephemeral. It's just light; it's nothing. really to me, speak to the human condition. there's a corporeal side, without a spirit, without the personality, that are so ephemeral? And it feels a little bit like that, you know, it's-- object-- there's this lens it is right now, period. And yet, the imagination makes it It's magical! in bright rhythm every good piece of art visual tension, you know, it captivates you as a viewer and also as a maker. I really enjoy is trying to make it work very, very important. this is a tree trunk. I chose this particular piece right here because of its curvature. It's a really unusual bend, and you don't normally in a tree, in a tree branch. I use the fiberglass cloth, which is very common. You can get it at any store, any hardware store, then some gel with hardener, then I just brush it on. series of casts that uh, looking something like that. with this really unusual that I can't really identify. The reason I like this type of material is because it um, it has these visual connections to other things, honey, skin, you know, it has this really unusual amber color that uh, a little bit confusing too, because it may become perhaps a little repulsive to someone, but at the same time it becomes sort of attractive and familiar. will work, but I'm hoping 4 limbs in an interesting way. The intrigue is, is very much part of the, the game, I guess. to utilize natural materials in my work, but I prefer to juxtapose the natural elements of these things synthetic, man-made if you will. I have the basis for the material itself, which is a root ball. and I trimmed it a little bit. add a more synthetic-looking, plastic-looking paint, blue or something, or something like that. for this thing, it will look sort of synthetic, that it's a natural element. that's being created by positioning these two things side-by-side, or integrated in different ways. I'm trying to make these materials, these elements, have a conversation. The use of these natural elements, it's already strange enough, a little bit unconventional. When you think of sculpture, you think of metal and stone, you know, public sculpture, of delicacy that's lost, you know, the finesse that is somewhat underappreciated, I guess, in 3-dimensional work, and I try to utilize that in my work as well. I like delicate things, things that are kind of fragile that could perhaps break. I am originally from Valparaiso, Chile. where you came from, so for me, that I really treasured with my grandfather, because he was the one that sort of took me under his wing. He, he was a civil engineer, and so he had lots of tools, how to use many of them. to weld when I was 10. thing, you know, C'mon kid, you need to learn how to do this, so, you know, a bunch of stuff. The majority of my work the idea of emigration. that I continue refer to emigration. This is why I choose to use seeds, roots, branches, mud-- to this idea of transplantation an object, a living object to another really, I think, started the whole thing for me. There is a piece at the, the American Craft Council and it's entitled Bastones Para Rob. like a walking cane for Rob. And Rob works at a quarry, out of the ground, lot of movement, lots of twists and turns. I made these structures that are two pieces of wood, another one on the top so the root itself is somewhere in the middle. where the new wood joins the root, there's a band of copper. The copper is a material that resonates with me a lot because my country of origin, Chile, is the number one producer of copper in the world. there is a piece of my land in this particular piece of copper is, you know, to utilize my own-- a piece of my land, if you will. (man) The American Craft Council that champions craft in America. At the American Craft Council we deal with a lot of artists of traditional media. exciting to me about Alonso's work is the way that he pretty easily moves in between a variety of different materials in the creation of his sculptures. His work kind of transcends a media-specific approach. Alonso's a very thoughtful artist. Every piece that he has tells a story, and so our challenge to him was to take these materials from a gym which was relocating, they were just going to discard materials, and sort of upcycle that material into a new piece. represents a woman's figure, of fitness, can see represents movement, also resembles the bottom of a shoe. And so he really internalized this whole process and what those materials meant to make them into something new. (Alonso) With age comes wisdom, as you know, and so all the mistakes that I've made in the studio you learn from those mistakes and you, you make 'em work. There's also a sense of patience that develops with, with age. evolved in a positive way. lucky man, because I've always ever since I can remember, been making something. tuba plays deep bass tones snare drum plays in syncopated rhythm The main event the main attraction Destination satisfaction Purist kind of interaction Reaching Grabbing Hit the ground running with a supersonic game plan Love is like a circus in the middle of a play land Hit the ground We are Rhythmic Circus and we're basically a group musicians, and dancers different and new and exciting and we ran away to the circus, of each other. do you feel about that? I feel good. It's a tightrope act and your bound to fall in Again and again when the circus calls Hit the ground running There's 4 tap dancers and a 7-piece horn band. lot of us that have spent. you know, perfecting our craft. touring dance and music act all kinds of crazy stuff. really get what it is. all laugh a group of uh, 4 tap dancers and a 7-piece funk band that goes around and performs they put together for people with a smile. all laugh band plays lazily Attention! Turn left! Lights! The group started when me, Nick and Kaleena were rehearsing spending our Wednesdays watching The Root City band. a rhythmic, funky tune Root City is a band that I that's been tap dancers of Rhythmic Circus. we had the greatest band in the history of time with us? So we asked them, and they said yes. Henceforth, history. like to try to put together a show with us, they said yeah, and we started working towards create Feet Don't Fail Me Now, which premiered at the Ritz Theater in 2008, and we've just been taking it around as many people as will see it. (Rhythmic Circus) Feet don't fail me now! Feet Don't Fail Me Now, is... rapid-fire tap. Sensational music and dance. Costume changes. dance-music-comedy show. Yeah. in Feet Don't Fail Me Now is that there's a lot of faith and a lot of love that goes behind anything that you do in your life that's positive or comes from the heart, you rely on yourself your friends, to, you know, when they need help and just stay on your feet you know. I've said it a million times, I've heard it in songs or whatever, you know what it means-- go for it, go for the top. And that's kind of the point of the show, underlying message throughout is reach for your dreams, for your circus sort of thing. work to get prepared for the thing that you want to do in your life. putting the show together. All of the work that goes into writing the songs, making the choreography, preparing it, rehearsing it, for an audience, but it comes down to that moment when you step on stage Feet Don't Fail Me Now, has been such a motto my whole life, like here I go, I put everything into it to get here, let me hit the steps the best of this moment. The first time we'd taken what we've made to people who didn't know us and didn't really care about us. We generated this crazy buzz for strangers, it just went off 100% better than we would have even imagined. too because that was the first time we realized maybe we had lightening in a bottle. So then progressively as we've gone every new group of people that have never seen us, don't know what to expect, we give 'em the show, and they just go crazy. We cover all styles, blues, rock, funk, R&B, salsa, reggae, and get some juggling in there, dancing in a number or two. it kind of covers all bases. and your grandma, which I don't think is that easy to do. We don't curse, and we're very nice. all laugh Damn straight. Feet Don't Fail Me Now is a show of all my best friends playing music with, and these amazing dancers that we have watched for a long time and who also have watched us play music, and so with not only your best friends, looked up to and worked with, we're doing it together and it's just the greatest show because the energy is natural, it's organic and, I had to throw that in there. Amen. all laugh Organic! dancing in the back of my head would he go to bed So I worked every day just to keep him fed into my feet in bright, syncopated rhythm Hmm mmm mmm mmm I hear him running yea he's coming sing la la la yea he's coming I think he's hungry sing la la la The play on words maybe the boogie monster that spirit of just letting it out, gotta boogie and let that kind of spirit free may just be a little bit more adventurous that you make, and you know, feel free to feel free. La la la la I can see all the monsters around me I know it gets hard when you're by yourself I can feel all the music inside me that my friends can help And then at the same time, it's about how we feel free together when we are jamming. So we let the boogie monster out, and here we all are who are performing around the country. And it's about the friendship that we feel and how we feel the most at home playing music and making music together. Together we work to find the groove Together we work to fill the pocket better than all alone and about life and the choice and a lot of days you wake up and it's not the easiest job, the easiest life choice. There's not security, there's not the regular things you get, you know, moving into your adult years. But when you get to perform, your monster out, it all makes sense why you do what you do. (Nick) When you have each other, a community of monsters, when you can get that together, people understand that. You look at your life, it's easy to find a lot of monsters trying to pull you under, like your floating on, just trying to pull you up. um ba-ba ba-ba um Now groove your feet tonight Satisfy that rhythmic appetite your feet tonight that rhythmic appetite When people hear tap dancing, they immediately think of their 5th birthday and when they had those patent leather little slip-on shoes, you know, on them, who had those shoes, and um, due to that, I have been like on a mission personally shoes, you know what I mean? You can use the instrument of a piece of metal on the floor and do something musical with it. emotional with it, with that instrument. People are always saying oh what a dying art form. are you kidding me? This isn't dying, it didn't go anywhere. who know about tap dancing and people who feel connected I think Rhythmic Circus works so well with it so well, is that they feel that they are a part of it. What this project gets to do is bring that to more people. It get to say tap dance isn't necessarily Fred Astaire. Yeah, yeah, exactly, it's not you know this and hands. It's a very raw and in-your-face art form, and it conveys a lot of emotion, a broad spectrum of emotion. I think of the dance community, I don't want to say there's necessarily like a stigma about tap dancing, certainly a different understanding about it, where some people kind of see that tap dancing of entertainment, really not true, if you understand that tap dancing that if you're watching two tap dancers trade off, speaking with one another and having a conversation, a lot of value to it. Plus dancers that say tap dance isn't art, can't tap dance. all laugh la-la la-la La-la la-la La-la la-la la-la la-la La-la la-la la-la la-la La-la la-la la-la la dancing in the back of my head Only when I gave him music would he go to bed just to keep him fed into my feet a supersonic game plan. in the middle of a play land. Hit the ground Hit the ground The main attraction. Destination satisfaction. Purist kind of interaction. Marching Running Reaching Grabbing they come in courses It's hard to put a saddle on some wild horses of a horse Come one come all been waiting for is made possible by The State Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the citizens of Minnesota. orchestral fanfare