At SPACE Gallery, October 3
By IAN PAIGE | October 11, 2006
So much of rock performance seems to consist of worn-out posturing, clinging to established assumptions, faking it and not so much making it. Not so with Portland’s baron of noise and nonsense, Crank Sturgeon. This world-renowned performance artist is prone to donning otherworldly costumes, utilizing bizarre handmade contraptions, and generally putting himself on the line in ways that might make Iggy Pop think twice before trying.His secret is an unpretentious ritualized performance that breaks open your preconceptions. At SPACE Gallery last week he threw all the house lights on and began a musical excursion with a borrowed guitar, a couple pedals, and an entertaining candor with the audience. The show closed up with some audience participation as Crank unraveled plastic wrap throughout the audience, connecting each person into a veritable orchestra. Who knew you could get so much tone out of Saran Wrap when you blow on it? Finally, he led the Tuesday night crowd into the bathroom for a rousing chorus and ceremonial final flush. There is nothing like being packed like sardines screaming at the top of your lungs to make you realize that you’re part of something, not just watching it!
Related:
Metal coating, Cursillistas + White Light, Meta-Networkers, More 
- Metal coating
Also on display are the candy-coated sheet-metal manipulations of sculptor and word artist Cliff Baldwin.
- Cursillistas + White Light
Cursillistas played perhaps their most fun set at SPACE.
- Meta-Networkers
Braving the risks of a technology fetish, the artists manage to ride a line of questions, not proselytizing.
- Balancing act
The spotty collection of work at the Front Room Gallery in South Portland is easily forgiven due to the nature of a holiday sale.
- Letters to the Portland editor: October 31, 2008
We have several great colleges and universities in this area graduating hundreds of highly educated professionals each year. However, we continuously fail to retain these talented young people because we don’t have jobs to keep them here.
- Review: ''Backstage Pass'' at the PMA
The half-century chronology covered by the Portland Museum of Art's latest exhibition, "Backstage Pass," reveals in photographic portraiture a story of music that is a euphemism for the ultimate creative act. Like sex, rock-and-roll is about surrender to the present moment.
- Contemplating relationships
A decidedly Yankee sincerity surfaces in the absence of any flippant, art-world insider plays on culture.
- Growth ideas
Friday found me strolling with a gaggle of sharp-dressed idea factories, pairing off as we walked to discuss future plans for us, Portland, and beyond.
- Just borrowing it
There was a time, in the middle of the last century, when the art industry and its critical minions held the padlock keys to artistic straitjackets, fitting artists’ oeuvres into one-size-too-small versions of pre-formulated art history . . . wasn’t there?
- On on!
2007 will see the beginnings of the climb to prominence of a new form of cultural producer in Greater Portland: the artist/developer.
- Anti-interview
The following is a transcription of the proceedings before my interview with artist John Bisbee over libations in an undisclosed location in Brunswick, Maine.
- Less
Topics:
New England Music News
, Iggy Pop
