Global Studios: Brazil
BFA students Kirsten Brady and Jason Traeger are part of the Global Studios: Brazil program this winter break. They're just part of a large PNCA contingent of students and faculty that are studying, showing their artwork and immersing themselves in the sights and culture of Rio de Janeiro. For the the two weeks, they'll be blogging their experiences and highlights.
Jan 19, 2007 : Kirsten Brady
Full Speed to Laura’s
Taxi rides are the e-ticket around here, either going what seems full speed or coming to a screeching halt. Most taxis have some form of religious saint icon attached to a surface that on some occasions must give divine driving intervention, but as all things I think we have grown used to the speed. This also applies to buses and I do not look forward to the snails pace of Portland TriMet when we return.
This evening our group of about twelve stepped out of our taxis’ to the studio of Brazilian artist, and overall incredible lady, Laura Lima. Many of you will remember her piece with chickens that were adorned with colorful feathers at PNCA last year. She gave us an informal talk of her recent work that addresses the nature of ornamentation. Her artistic passion definitely oozes from and spending the evening with her will be a memorable part of my trip.
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Jan 17, 2007 : Jason Traeger
Through the Looking Glass
Okay. We’ve had some amazing experiences here in Rio to be sure but tonight the roof came off the trip when we visited two samba schools across town (truthfully I had little concept of where I was after our invigorating cab ride). Our contingent was granted (an exceedingly rare) tour of the production facilities for two very different samba schools. First I should explain that a samba school is not explicitly an educational entity per se but rather it’s like a cross between an extended family, an athletic team and a production company or corporation. The first school we visited was a samba school for kids called Pimpolhos (“cute kids”). This school is for run by some awesome people so that kids from the favelas might have a chance to be exposed to a bigger slice of the world than their own neighborhoods. They build their floats and outfits with recycled materials and their work is incredible. The second stop was at the Grande Rio samba school in the nearby Cidade de Samba, a HUGE new complex run by the city of Rio to house the massive production outfits of the cities biggest samba schools. We were extremely lucky to get an opportunity to visit as the big samba schools are very cautious about letting people preview their upcoming Carnaval displays. The competition between schools is intense and Grande Rio having placed second last year is a particularly determined outfit. We’d like to thank the woman who made it possible for us to peak our heads through the looking glass into such a mind-bending visual matrix. Camila Soares (www.pimpolhos.org.br) we salute you! Check out the pix, they tell the story.
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Jan 15, 2007 : Kirsten Brady
Oi tudo bem!
Oi tudo bem! Beleza is how one says what’s up in this neck of the woods- translates literally to “beautiful” seems appropriate. Going to the fierra (Sunday fresh food market) this morning was a nice way to unwind from the opening and late night parties in the streets. Each stand takes pride in displaying their goods-whether it is colorful spices, beans, jackfruit or chicken hearts- you always are received with a warm smile. I was surprised to see a young boy sleeping on a table of oranges- I asked his father – quanto e para ele? (How much for him) he seemed to take the joke pretty well- and allowed me to snap a picture of him. Sometimes it gets a little tricky this whole picture taking of people- sometimes I shoot from the hip- or pretend to be photographing something else and then swing my camera over at the last moment to catch that sleeping drunk or whatever it is that stirs you or catches your eye. Well I just wanted to write a blog entry- now I can do it more often-
Anna Rockwell
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Jan 15, 2007 : Kirsten Brady
Morning Fun
Hey all,
Had some fun at breakfast this morning thought you might enjoy.
This morning is tinged with a bit of sadness because part of our group is leaving for Portland.
Ciao,Ciao, Denise and Don Olsen, and the Ringler Family, Tamsie, Mauris, and Little Lawris! We will dance the Samba for you tonight!
Warning this video is a ride…..
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Jan 14, 2007 : Kirsten Brady
Dance Dance Rio Revolution
The opening of Troca: USA was fantastic. It was extremely satisfying to work so hard all week on great projects, get everything squeaky clean and invite our new found Brazilian friends to show them what we’ve been doing. Many compliments from the Brazilian artists, saying the show was cohesive, precise, but with lots of movement. Definetly take a look at our picture gallery to get a taste of the eve.
Most of the party took place down in the streets, typical for Rio. Music, beer, fantastic conversations in a mix of Portuguese and English, all taking place on a street corner surrounded by fast-paced life buzzing around. It started raining midway into the evening squeezing the party under umbrellas and nearby awnings. Unlike Portland, Rio rain is warm and refreshing and was welcomed after many sweaty days in the gallery.
The party moved to a samba celebration on the streets in our hood, close to our casa. Really starting the get used to dancing in the streets with our neighbors. Smiles and sweat everywhere. At one point the samba band that consisted of about 25 musicians started marching down the street and everyone started mixing in with the musicians dancing down the street. Wow, I can only imagine what Carnival is like –beautiful chaos.
And in true Rio style the rest of the evening (and morning) was filled with dancing and heartfelt English/Portuguese. It is crazy how much you can communicate through gestures, smiles and minimal Portuguese.
Have meet so many great artists in the last week whom are passionate about their work and want to share what they are doing. Have meet so many people in Brazil, artist or not, passionately living. Viva Brazil!
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Jan 14, 2007 : Jason Traeger
Good times/God-Mind
We work hard and we play hard here in the marvelous city (Rio’s nickname). The past 48 hours were a frenzy of activity as our team and the wonderful gallery staff swarmed the gallery and the streets in a mad rush to finish installing the show in time for last night’s opening. I am happy to report that the show was/is a hit and the opening was a blast. The opening was well attended due in part to a write up in Rio’s biggest paper (with a nice color photo of the Portland peeps!) on the front of the arts/entertainment section. The opening was a lively affair with dancing, music, performances, mountains of Skol (What is Skol you ask? Q: How do you say “PBR” in Portuguese? A: Skol), and many amazing conversations of course.
I know I say this in nearly every blog but I can’t say it enough: I love the Cariocas! (Rio people). Last night we danced and sang and played music armed with nothing but a cardboard box, a paint bucket, our hands and our voices and the music was incredible! After hours of this my Brasilian friends insisted that I was not American and that I had to be Brasilian (“Your passport is a mistake! It is not true!”). Later in the night a woman I was talking with told me that it’s actually not about being Brasilian or American and that it’s really about having a “God-Mind” and a “God-Heart” that allows you to love people and play music. As she said this she looked so intently into my eyes it would’ve been scary if it hadn’t been so beautiful. The crazy thing is I had several conversations like this last night! This is why I love Brasil.
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Jan 12, 2007 : Kirsten Brady
Snowing in Portland, Sweating in Brazil
Have spent three days working hard in the gallery. Jhordan has been my partner in crime in creating Tamsie Ringler’s sculpture for TROCA:USA that will open tomorrow. We have been learning the fine art of plastering at warp speed and with minimal materials. Oh la la it has been fun, In addition we got to take part in cutting a hole in the top of a car and creating what we call our circular sunroof, also part of Tamsie’s sculpture. It has been an incredible learning experience, so many new skills in such a short time.
In addition to working with such as fine group of hard—working ladies we have also started working outside the gallery and on the streets amidst crazy Rio life. So many people and children stop curious as to what we are doing. Why are “touristas” sitting on the cobblestone street sculpting with plaster? Although our Portuguese is bare bones it has been fantastic trying to communicate our artistic pursuit. People are very interested.
We are especially fond of a few gentlemen with whom we share the street corner, Alejandra, the sixteen year-old valet whom chaotically parks cars on the block and hangs around our sculpture asking us questions in Portuguese. He usually has to repeat the question three or four times for us to semi-understand but everyone involved wears a huge grin. Today we talked about snow and mountains both of which he has never experienced.
And then there is the Brazilela whom I have not figured his name but he sells freshly lopped coconuts in the morning and when the shade moves across the street he shines shoes. Both of these guys although we have a hard time understanding each other have become beloved comrades and watch our back and possessions in the street. Thank you Cariocas!
I would also like to mention that the temperature reached about 97 degrees today with enough humidly to feel like we were in a sauna, I have never sweated so much and for such a long time in my life.
Our presence has definitely been felt by the community and I cannot wait for the opening tomorrow night.
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Jan 11, 2007 : Jason Traeger
Some observations
Rather than list today’s events, (worked at gallery, massive fun BBQ about to unfold at the Casa) I’m just going to list some things I’ve observed.
Observations:
- There are lots and lots of dogs and they bark a lot.
- Monkeys are the Brasilian Squirrels.
- The mannequins in Rio are all built like J. Lo.
- The “thumbs up” sign is THE essential thing to master if one hopes to get by in the city.
- Brasilians LOVE it if you attempt to speak Portuguese.
- Brasilians despise the U.S. government but they seem to really dig American people.
- Rhythm is everywhere!
- Fresh squeezed juice is to Brasil what soda pop is to America.
- Brasilians love to snack.
- Brasilians work their asses off and really enjoy their free time.
- Community is everything.
- No one wears sunglasses.
- No one wears an iPOD.
- Violent crime is an ever-present threat yet no one gives into paranoia.
- Everyone can dance.
P.S. We’ve had trouble putting up galleries of photos but we’ve figured it out so there will be mega photos from here on out. Enjoy!
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Jan 10, 2007 : Jason Traeger
Molly's Here! Yea!
Today Barbara, Emily, Nick and I set out into the city to see some sights before getting to the gallery. We visited the National Gallery, St. Anthony’s Church and the National Cathedral. The gallery had some cool Brazilian art from the seventies, some beautiful prints and a lot of kinda boring euro-art and euro-derivative art from earlier periods. Walking around the halls I just couldn’t help but think about the amazing art you see spray painted all over the city and how it’d take one hell of a gallery to compete with the streets around here. The church was beautiful. The National Cathedral was terrifying. All four of us agreed it was (one of the most strangely disturbing pieces of architecture we’d ever encountered. It is an enormous poured concrete cone that looks like it was designed by a fascist with poor self-esteem: yikes!
Barbara and I split off from Nick and Emily and braved the insane hustle-bustle that is Rio on a busy weekday afternoon to get to a store called Cacula, a store that I’d venture to say is the most over the top fabric, craft, costume (etc. etc.) store on the planet. Endless ceiling to floor rooms of buttons, rooms of thread, entire floors of beads, art supplies, countless reams of fabrics, fasteners, everything in every conceivable color and style imaginable…and Carnaval outfitted mannequins! Unreal. I wish photos could capture this spectacle. I really do..
When we got to the gallery to work who was there? Molly! Welcome to Brazil girl!
(Oh yeah, and Lennie, Anna and M.K. cooked up a fantastic dinner at the Casa. Yum! )
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Jan 09, 2007 : Jason Traeger
Portland in the Heart of Rio
The gallery was a hive of activity this afternoon as our teams of artists began in earnest to transform the space into a little bit of Portland here in the heart of Rio. A group of visitors from the interior of Brasil wandered into the gallery from off the streets and were very surprised to find the place full of Americans. The show’s curator/facilitator/and all around “make it happen”ambassador Elana Mann explained the project and invited them to the opening that is now less than a week away.
Our crew is starting to feel a little like locals around our corner of Centro. The staff at the plaza bar/snack shop kitty corner to the gallery now ask us if we want to “put it on the tab” when we head over for food, beer, water etc. which is nice.
Speaking of snacks, Rio is a snackers paradise! It seems like every other corner of the city has a sucos (juice) joint planted on it where you can stand at a counter and for a couple Rais drink a fresh squeezed or blended smoothie/juice and have a delicious something with it. A few of us are addicted to these sambuiches that are hotdogs, split down the middle, served on a sweet/tangy bun, with melted cheese, onions, corn salsa, and a green olive on top (.50 U.S.!). I am one of the afflicted.
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Jan 09, 2007 : Kirsten Brady
Strange Noises
Woke-up this morning and wandered out to breakfast and heard groups of people outside our residence counting in unison. It has been rumored that these chanting are the “La Prefertiteria” or the orange-clad trash man presumably congregating in the morning to do Japanese-style calisthenics. Not so, but neighborhood people gathering to do exercises in the soccer field. Mostly people walking and talking around the small concrete soccer field.
Community is spelled with a capitol “C” here. Neighbors dance and drink together, exercise together, let their children run the streets together. All this despite the elevated violence in Rio.
It was interesting, a couple of days after we arrived a couple of us were discussing how we felt that Rio seemed pretty secure despite the terrible stories that we heard prior to leaving the U.S. We decided to log into a computer and see if there were recent sensational Rio stories floating on the web. They were. This led us to the opinion that these stories are sensationalized just like our Portland area news. Yes, we know that we need to be careful around and be smart about your surroundings but please do not avoid the amazing city of Rio.
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Jan 09, 2007 : Kirsten Brady
What Were Are Doing Down Here
This morning our artist posse of students and instructors gathered over our typical Casa Aurea /Rio breakfast (bread, cheese, green jelly, fresh juice, papaya and thick dark coffee-that makes P-town coffee seem weak). Elana Mann, our curator explained the history of the exhibition in which we are participating, thought I would pass this info along to you as might not know what we are doing here in paradise besides rethinking our citizenship.
Here is the short version:
In 2004 Elana Mann received a grant to study Brazilian art. She contacted artists in Rio that she studied and admired such as Laura Lima, Marscio Botner and Ernesto Neto. They warmly opened their studio doors and shared their artwork. Great relationships were formed and Elana sought to bring these artists to the United States. Elana Mann then met Nan Curtis at PNCA and coordinated the TROCA Brazil exhibition that many of you remember that happened in 2005. The Brazilian artists then invited Portland artists to exhibit in their Rio gallery, A Gentile Carioca….thus we are all here for the show that will open on Saturday, TROCA: America.
If you guys are in the neighborhood, you should swing by, opening starts at 4 p.m. and it will be a party.
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Jan 08, 2007 : Jason Traeger
Vamos a Centro
Today found the team in the Centro district of the city working on the upcoming show at the gallery, A Gentil Carioca. Teams of artists and students (who I might point out happen to be artists themselves) got to work both in the gallery planning, fabricating and installing work and in the streets acquiring materials. The gallery is located in an area of the Centro district that is the most dense (and colorful) shopping environment I have ever seen in my life. I honestly have nothing to equate it to, except maybe for a few really far out dreams I’ve had. The streets are a maze of shops selling everything one can imagine and more. Picture a shop with 100.000 pairs of sunglasses next to one selling Carnaval costume making supplies, next to one selling every hardware fixture known to man, next to…well, you KIND of get the picture. In short, if you want a psychedelic experience without the drugs: book a flight to Rio and tell the driver, “Vamos a Centro, por favor!”
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Jan 07, 2007 : Jason Traeger
Eckard Stuns Brazil Beachgoers
Day Five and the rest of our contingent has arrived (except for Molly, but we’ll see her soon!) Today David Eckard stunned the beachgoers of Rio when he donned his Carioca uniform (a brand of swim trunks that leave little to the imagination) and swam in waves of Ipanema. We ate wonderful food at a stand that served specialties from the northeastern region of the country (shrimp, tapioca, okra and a lot of things I couldn’t hope to identify).
We’ve learned at this point that any day trip around the city seems to include a dozen or so encounters with people who are ridiculously friendly and today was no exception. One couple saw us taking pics of an altar near a tunnel and stopped to make sure we weren’t going to walk into the tunnel (“not safe!”). I’ve been to a lot of huge mega cities and I’ve never encountered one with such a generally outgoing, kind population. We’ve heard the horror stories about crime in Rio (and we’ve heard the occasional blast of machine-gun fire from across the valley) but at this point I think it’s safe to say if you’re reasonably streetwise and polite this city treats you like a friend.
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Jan 07, 2007 : Kirsten Brady
Music in the streets
Spent some time in the gallery today with Portland artist Tamsie Ringler preparing funnel forms and covering them in plaster(see video). Tamsie is creating these funnel forms for part of an installation that includes an automobile (that was bought down here in Rio), sound, gold leafing etc. I can’t wait to see it. Also I’m stoked that I learned how create large forms out of plaster. Thank You!
Music in the streets again tonight, down from where we are staying. Outside a neighborhood bar a hundred or so folks gathered with about twelve drums and other percussion and a singer. Everyone, all ages, is moving and swaying, some clapping. I wish we had more pictures of this but it doesn’t feel right to bring out a camera. Especially when we too are moving and swaying. During a break we snapped some pictures of Tamie and Mauris Ringler’s son ,Lauris, who at age two looks like a natural drummer.
Another great day, working and playing hard.
Oh, we keep hearing that there are monkeys around here, but I haven’t seen one…. I hear someone in our group has a picture, keep ya posted.
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Jan 06, 2007 : Kirsten Brady
First Impressions
When I was thinking about our trip to Brazil I was not fearful about becoming robbed or becoming ill from the food, I was mostly afraid that the culture would not be that much different from the United States. Boy, was I wrong.
These are some things that I saw just on the cab-ride to our home: Cows chewing grass on a three lane highway, Brazilian slums catacombed up hillsides, colonial era buildings and factories, modern skyscrapers, horses copulating on the highway, and many many soccer fields.
But my strongest first impression was the graffiti that covers the city. It is beautiful, and everywhere. Now I use the “tags” as landmarks to navigate my way back to guesthouse.
I’ve just included one graffiti photo here but check out our photos if you want to see more.
The Brazilian people still have magic in their culture. It bubbles and oozes from them and their city. Viva Brazil!
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Jan 06, 2007 : Jason Traeger
It’s day four here in Rio. It hasn’t been easy to find an opportunity to blog so far it seems we’re either on the move, the server is down, or a computer is hard to come by but it’s not really a problem because I feel like we actually only truly arrived last night when we partied, danced, and played music in the street with our friends from the gallery (and friends of our friends who are now our friends as well) all night long. All I can say is: these people know how to live. I’ve never been hugged (and kissed) by so many people in one night in my life. One of my new friends who speaks English about as well as I speak Portuguese said to me “Happy, happy, happy! You are Friend! Portland love! Jason love!” It was just one of many beautiful moments that evening. I love the way the Brazilians look you straight in the eye when they talk to you and the way they smile is so completely open and fearless it’s really moving.
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