Art Hounds: The Residents, William Kentridge, and Minnesota originality

Posted at 7:00 AM on March 24, 2011 by Chris Roberts (0 Comments)
Filed under: Art Hounds, Events, Music, Television, Theater

(Image courtesy of the Walker Art Center. Photo Credit: John Hodgkiss)

The hounds lead us to a veteran experimental music group that was multimedia before it was mainstream, a transformative piece from a pioneering South African puppeteer, and an original public television series that makes you proud to be a Minnesotan.

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Freelance arts journalist Christopher Jensen anxiously awaits a rare visit from the avant garde music/theater group The Residents, which is performing at the Cedar Cultural Center on Friday, March 25th. Christopher says to expect weird masks and costumes (after touring and recording for well over 40 years, band members have yet to reveal their identities) bizarre stage antics and undefinable music.

Talk about patience. Minneapolis sculptor and theater artist Irve Dell has been waiting a decade and a half to see his hero, South African puppeteer William Kentridge and the Handspring Puppet Company perform "Woyzeck on the Highveld." "Woyzeck" is an interpretation set in South Africa of a famous 19th-century German play about jealousy and murder in an indifferent society. Irve's wife, noted playwright Kira Obolenski, saw it 15 years ago and her perception of theater was forever changed.

After eight years in the state, New York transplant, musician and composer Christopher Cunningham (aka Neverwas) is starting to identify as a Minnesotan. Christopher credits the weekly Twin Cities Public Television artist profile series MN Original with moving that process along. He says he's been introduced to dozens of artists and feels closer to the local art scene thanks to the series' portrayal of the state's most creative people in startlingly vivid video and audio. By the way, Christopher will be glued to his couch this Sunday night at 10:00 for TPT 2's "Dessa: A Minnesota Original Special," a concert featuring Doomtree rapper Dessa.

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