Dispatch from PICA's TBA: The Human Candelabra

Several weeks, ago we recommended you get in your car (or book a train ticket) and head south to the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's Time Based Arts Festival, or TBA, an exposition of contemporary and visual arts. As in years prior, we took our own suggestion, and by midafternoon we were glad we did.

After a rousing discussion with Taylor Mac, hailed as one of the most exciting theater artists of our time, by Time Out NY (more on that in a later post), and a quick run through of the visual art at Pacific Northwest College of Art, which looks super-interesting, we headed over the Morrison Bridge to catch Michael Groisman in action.

Groisman, who studied in Brazil and has performed internationally, was making his maiden voyage at PICA's Washington High School with an intimate, untitled piece that best we can tell was about the human body, relationships, resourcefulness and ritual.

The performance involved the artist, who was nearly nude, strapping himself in to a series of self-designed candle holding and lighting implements, coupled with exstinguishing equipment. He then set about to lighting and extinguishing the 6 candles on his body with the aid of his limbs (but not his hands), while perched on a low slung smallish wooden platform in a classroom still stocked with blackboards and chalk.

The crowd, which was made up of 4 to 74-year-olds who, like us seemed to want to figure out what it was all about, took seats anywhere they could--on roughly-hewn wooden benches, cross-legged on the floor, and peeking in the doorway. After an hour and a half, which included a brief intermission during which chocolate chip mint ice cream was served, we still weren't entirely certain what was going on. What we do know is that the performance was a visual beauty, immensely engaging and inspirational from the perspective of how much can be done with how little.

We didn't have a chance to talk with the artist but after seeing his calm and meditative - yet highly physical performance we look forward to catching up with him to talk about his work. But Groisman did put up this video of the performance, to give those who didn't attend a better idea of what it looked like. It's not nearly as cool as being there, but it's still worth a watch.

Next up, Groisman will work with the young and the young at heart as he leads a participatory game where individuals cooperate to pour water for each other using cups attached to their bodies. Truck south to check it out at this weekend's free Tiny TBA, September 17, from 11 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. at PICA.