This weekend, shake up your soundtrack with some off-the-beaten path music — whether it's weirdly soothing marimba, fun and literary nonsensical monster-themed compositions, or some pared-down punk.
You'll find plenty of opportunities to open your creative mind a little bit this weekend in all types of art. There's a new photography and mixed media exhibition at The Hill Street Country Club, an iconic John Luther Adams work for an experimental percussion group, abstract art mixed with chamber music and Alice in Wonderland in a virtual SDMA+ concert and a film that lets you travel the world via gorgeous choreography. Plus soak in a little record store aesthetic… virtually.
Tijera Williams: 'Exodus from Iniquity'
Visual Art, Photography
You can always count on The Hill Street Country Club to introduce you to new artists and powerfully evocative works. Tijera Williams has a solo show there opening this weekend. Williams’ work layers photography and collage, bringing historical components into her pieces, and her work is hyper personal — she places Black bodies into scenes and histories we’ve seen before. You can check out these works by appointment in the Oceanside art space, or you can tune in for the virtual opening reception and artist talk on Saturday at 5 p.m. The discussion will feature Williams in conversation with Hill Street's Dinah Poellnitz and Robyne Robinson.
Details: On view Saturday through April 10, 2021 (virtual opening reception Saturday at 5 p.m. via Zoom). 530 S. Coast Hwy, Oceanside. Free.
More visual art: I spoke with visual artist Kristi Lin recently about her new outdoor installation at the Japanese Friendship Garden, and about her work with the AjA Project’s Civil Liberties fellowship. She has created a stunning installation of food-dyed textiles and wire that is arranged in the garden’s upper tier. Its placement is inspired by the “borrowed scenery" approach to landscape design that Lin herself borrowed from both her Japanese and Chinese ancestry. You can tune in to learn more directly from Lin in an artist discussion through the Japanese Friendship Garden Facebook page, Saturday at 4 p.m.
Anna Zinova (Pinkeye) Solo Set
Music, Indie/Folk/Punk
There's something special about a record shop in-store performance, to be intimate enough to overpower the fact that it's well-lit, relatively uncomfortable standing around and there's no bar. And I didn't realize how much I'd been missing the in-store artform until I saw this Red Brontosaurus Records in-store livestream listing. Anna Zinova, of the daring/darling band Pinkeye, will perform a solo set from inside the shop, Saturday at 8 p.m. and it will broadcast on the Red Brontosaurus Twitch channel. Pinkeye is a little bit folk, a little bit alt-country, a little bit punk, and Zinova's voice is a crystalline powerhouse behind it all.
Her older solo stuff is more stripped down, with the raw, thoughtful and kind of weird songwriting I love in Pinkeye. I'm curious to see what the years have changed in her solo style. (And you can read more about Zinova in this profile in Bottom Feeders Quarterly, which is a local long-form music magazine.)
Details: Saturday at 8 p.m. Online via Twitch. Free.
‘Abstraction and Allegory’: SDMA+ Art of Elan
Music, Visual Art, Film, Literature
You can read my preview of this whimsical and experimental mini-concert here. It features two contemporary works, including one written just for this project, a video installation, a bass clarinet and is all inspired by the San Diego Museum of Art’s Garner Collection of photography and Lewis Carroll.
Mexico-based composer Andrea Isabel González wrote a bass clarinet piece inspired by Carroll’s “Jabberwocky" poem, and they’re pairing that with a work by South Korean composer Unsuk Chin which centers on the part in the "Alice in Wonderland" opera and the Carroll's sequel book, "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There," about the caterpillar. It’s all a really great exploration of abstraction in art, and how we have the capacity and vocabulary to fill in the blanks and understand nonsense and seemingly unreal things in art, literature and music. Joshua Rubin, the bass clarinetist, is a dynamic musical storyteller. He told me that he approaches playing the clarinet in a sort of character acting way, and I loved the idea of him "playing" the caterpillar.
Details: Premieres Friday at 7 p.m. Online via YouTube. Free.
Red Fish Blue Fish: 'Strange And Sacred Noise'
Music, Instrumental
The experimental percussion chamber music group red fish blue fish is based out of UC San Diego's music department, and features the great Steven Schick alongside current members Rebecca Lloyd-Jones, Michael Jones and Mitchell Carlstrom. They're presenting an online performance of John Luther Adams' "Strange and Sacred Noises." It's an epic, nine-movement work for percussion, and the arrangement of instruments varies — the musicians will be switching around. Some movements are for snares, some for tom toms, some are for four marimbas with mallets rolling a steady, rising rumble. It's an eclectic work but makes me think of the weather, and the earth, and maybe a little bit of space. Red fish blue fish are fun and engaging in performance, so if you've wondered what experimental percussion music might entail, this virtual streaming concert is a great way to dip your toes in.
Details: Premieres Friday at 5 p.m. Online via YouTube. Free.
Films.Dance: 'Match'
Dance, Film
The fourth installment in this global Films.Dance series is pretty fascinating. Forty dancers from 20 different countries participated in a seamlessly stitched together sequencing of choreography, with lush backdrops that are like a little who’s who for world travelers. And it’s unbelievable that there wasn’t one sole director and cinematographer calling the shots on one set with measured tape marks. It’s free to watch online, just go to films.dance and select “Match.”
Details: Viewable online, on demand through Feb. 21. Free.
For more arts events, visit the KPBS/Arts calendar, or sign up for the weekly KPBS/Arts newsletter, delivered each Thursday with more event picks, special features, regional arts headlines and all of KPBS' arts-related coverage.
