Forum Lounge is a series of free, performance-based events that reflect CAF’s mission to sustain and encourage the artistic process by presenting art in the form of exceptional music, dance, video, and other multi-media to our community. The series encourages experiences with unique performance pieces ranging from the theatrical to the avant-garde that are normally found only in large metropolitan venues.
For the 2009-10 season, Forum Lounge has a new look backed by an extraordinary schedule that celebrates the richness of contemporary performance art. Forum Lounge will present multidisciplinary events that incorporate dance, music, theatre, video, and other multi-media elements. Over the next year, the program will continue to expand upon its focus on new and emerging performance artists at the forefront of contemporary art. Mark your calendars for some of this year’s featured artists, many who have begun to garner international attention and acclaim for their works.
Funding and support for the ‘09-‘10 Forum Lounge season generously provided by: Endevermusic Productions, the Franciscan Inn, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Official media sponsors: KCSB and the Santa Barbara Independent.
Forum Lounge is presented in association with the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization’s 1st Thursday.
THUR. OCT. 1, 2009 Forum Lounge: Jessica Findley Aeolian Ride 52 bikes in wind inflated suits stormed upon Santa Barbara in a mass participatory event with a sense of humor.
THUR. DEC. 3, 7 PM Forum Lounge: Julie Lequin Quebec-born artist Julie Lequin explores the construction of identity through role-playing and props, oftentimes with humorous results. Her work has a quirky Canadian/SoCal sensibility that transforms the illusory film staples of the prop, costume, voiceover, and fake hair, into unconvincing parodies. A participant in CAF’s exhibition Unusual Behavior, Lequin will present a performance related to her newest video work in progress Top 30 (en 30 temps), which traces each year of the artist’s life in narrative form – a project resulting from thoughts of turning 30 while traversing the art world with a suitcase in hand. Though her characters are often inspired by a pastiche of sources including family, friends, NPR personas, lip-synching performers, and video diary confessions, Top 30 (en 30 temps) shifts the focus onto the artist. During the performance, Lequin will read stories from several years of her life (28-30) while images of her drawings are projected. Videos of 4-5 amateurs, who sing a song from her Top 30 playlist, will run in between the storytelling segments. The song choices and vocalists’ ages match the year of Lequin’s life that is being chronicled. Join us for this rare experience with the artist! FREE
THUR. JAN. 7, Showings at 7PM & 8:15PM Forum Lounge:The Amazing Animated Jukebox Vol. 2 Remember The Amazing Animated Jukebox Vol. 1? Tune in for Vol. 2 packed chock full of wicked awesome animated tracks compiled by Ted Mills! Starts at 7 PM sharp and rewinds for a second time at 8:15 PM! Kick the New Year off right with the second installment of the Amazing Animated Jukebox. Curated by local filmmaker and writer Ted Mills, the Amazing Animated Jukebox Vol. 2 screens videos from Menomena, N.A.S.A. featuring Kool Keith and Tom Waits, Death Cab for Cutie, Birdy Nam Nam, Lemon Jelly, Royksopp, Azeem, The New Pornographers, and many more. Don’t miss your fix of the latest wave in animated eye candy ranging from old-school 2-D line drawing to computer graphics and those that negotiate the subtle levels in between!FREE
THUR. FEB. 4, 7 PM Forum Lounge: Susan Simpson Experimental theatre artist Susan Simpson uses intricate marionettes and unusual film projections to create captivating performances of puppet theatre. Simpson is co-founder of The Manual Archives, a micro theater and exhibition space devoted to the presentation of newly discovered and invented folklore of Los Angeles.FREE
THUR. MAR. 4, 7 PM Forum Lounge: Cartune Xprez, CASTL CRNRS Portland-based artists Peter Burr and Christopher Doulgeris are Cartune Xprez, a multimedia dance duo that use videos, music, and installations that capitalize on the abundance of digital information. CASTL CRNRS features a combination of animated videos and performance to unfold a three-part, mythical tale of a violent forest tamed and replaced with geometric systems. FREE
THUR. APR. 1, 7 PM Forum Lounge: Sanford Biggers, with special guests Gamelan Sinar Surya and DJ Jahi Sundance
Although largely known as a visual artist, Sanford Biggers uses sound and music as a central element in his work. Biggers will present a unique mash-up of his own music performance, featuring Los Angeles based DJ Jahi Sundance, live video mixing, and a local gamelan choir ensemble from Gamelan Sinar Surya. Drawing from ancient African and Buddhist musical traditions, stream of consciousness, hip hop culture, and projected images, he will offer a collective audience interaction relating back to the Buddhist concept of interconnectedness (in that many people have touched the work and with every new touch, each person becomes connected to one another in a real, but subtle way). Copresented by Gamelan Sinar Surya and The Brotherhood of Santa Barbara. FREE
THUR. MAY. 6, 7 PM Forum Lounge: Luz y Sombra (An Electro-Bilingual-Opera) by Y&S
Yahaira Ivonne Cardoza & Oscar Miguel Santos Using video projections, original music, and live performance, artists Oscar Santos and Yahaira Cardoza present Luz y Sombra(Light and Shadow) an Electro-Bilingual-Opera, that explores love, loss and gender identity. Luz y Sombrawill be performed in English and Spanish. Y&S is a collaborative multimedia project consisting of Yahaira Ivonne Cardoza and Oscar Miguel Santos. These Los Angeles-based artists share roots in Central America and a love of cookies!
FREE
THUR. JUN. 3, 7 PM Forum Lounge:John Williams, a multimedia iteractive installation
Multimedia artist John Williams uses vinyl records, record players, speakers, effect pedals, slide and 8 mm projectors to create an ultra-sensory environment of small assemblage sculptures with projections and sounds created in real time. As Williams converts the gallery space into one giant kinetic sculpture, the viewer becomes an active participant in his improvised visual choreography. Support for Forum Lounge is generously provided by: Endevermusic Productions, the Franciscan Inn, NEA, KCSB, and the Santa Barbara Independent. Forum Lounge is presented in association with the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization's 1st Thursday. FREE
THUR. JUL. 1, 7 PM Forum Lounge:Annie Wharton
Curated by Annie Wharton, FAST-FORWARD is a compilation of short length videos by artists working in the medium. Artists were selected for their diversity of form and strength of execution, and the videos encompass a wide range of subject matter ranging from corporeal, action-based performances, to stop-motion graphics, and from computer-generated iconography, to humorous slices of life. All of the videos are recent, and run the gamut for video works being made today. FAST-FORWARD artists include: Susan Lee Chun, Jen DeNike, Spencer Douglass, Adriana Farmiga, Dan Finsel, Jesse Reding Fleming, Christy Gast, Alexa Gerrity, aaron GM, Micol Hebron, Jiae Hwang, David Jones, Julie Lequin, Justin H. Long, Shana Moulton, Davida Nemeroff, Ali Prosch, and Mark Verabioff. In addition to the FAST-FORWARD screening of artist videos, CAF will show works on monitors and projections by Jen DeNike, Jesse Reding Fleming, Alexa Gerrity, Ali Prosch, and Margo Victor. FREE
THUR. AUG. 5, 7 PM Forum Lounge: The Best of the Ottawa International Animation Film Festival Forum Lounge continues its popular screenings of award-winning animated short films with selections from the 2009 Ottawa International Animation Film Festival. The Best of Ottawa program showcases many of the outstanding films presented in our Official Competition. The 2009 program includes such exceptional films as: David OReilly’s award-winning sci-fi drama “Please Say Something”; the innovative and mesmerizing “The Bellow’s March”, directed by Eric Dyer; Diego Maclean’s haunting student film entitled “The Art of Drowning”; and the crowd-favourite travelogue “Madagascar, A Journey Diary”, by Bastien Dubois. FREE
THURS. SEPT. 2, 4 - 8 PM Forum Lounge:James Gilbert: Privacy is Dead Because We Said So
Artist James Gilbert will set up a temporary sewing shop in the CAF gallery and sew several hundred real size pairs of unique clear industrial plastic see-through underpants, which will accumulate in huge sculptural piles around him. The accumulative sculptures (representing media information) become more present throughout the performance. This accumulative performance project addresses ideas of privacy, anonymity, and identity in relationship to the huge amounts of intimate personal information posted daily on Facebook, youtube, Google and other mass media.
Gilbert is a Los Angeles based artist who works across mediums creating drawings, installations with video, and performative art. These works comment on social themes, including identity and anonymity in a media saturated culture where privacy has been eroded by reality television, social networking sites and 24 hour news cycles. Gilbert has exhibited in galleries and museums nationally and internationally in the United States and Asia. Recent 2010 exhibitions include a large scale site specific solo installation including fifteen videos at the Dallas Contemporary Museum and Platform4 in Aalborg, Denmark with upcoming projects in Los Angeles and Bogota, Colombia. FREE
