Visual Resistance

Radical Artists Eric Ruin and Morgan Andrews come to NYC to perform their latest shadow puppet creations on January 9th, at Bluestockings Bookstore 172 Allen St and 10th at ABC No Rio 156 Rivington St where they will perform with Alixa & Naima of Climbing Poetree and Beth Nixon of Ramshackle Enterprises.

GOING NOWHERE, the debut shadow puppet collaboration between Erik Ruin and Morgan F.P. Andrews, journeys through a dozen short scenes framed within a question: “If you had to give up all of your senses, except one, which would you keep?” Things are not as they seem to be, with dissolving architecture, elusive mushrooms and spray-paint landscapes that refuse to stay still. A song from Three Penny Opera and stories by John Cage offer glimpses at the lives of undercover pirates, daydreaming butterflies, flag-burning patriots, and the linguistically tortured wife of a former New England mayor. Lovely soundtrack by Minneapolis duo Dreamland Faces, plus live music by local improvisers.

Erik and Morgan have been politically and creatively active in the various communities they have lived in over the years. I met erik when I stayed at his house in New Orleans during Mardi Gras years ago. I was inspired by his work and was glad to submit my own stencils to his zine Trouble in Mind. He has been active in every city he has lived in, as a member of the TrumbellPlex in Detroit, an organizer and contributor to so many projects like the Street Art Workers (SAW) poster project, and the upcoming Prison Poster Project. He’s been the director of shadow puppetry for Barebones Productions’ annual Halloween Extravaganza in St. Paul for the past two years, and is infamous for his papercut projections in Liberty Cabbage Theater’s “An Olive on the Seder Plate.” Erik has performed at the Puppetropolis, Black Sheep Puppet Festival, and Philadelphia Fringe Festivals, and last year he pulled his show “How Can You Own?” around Europe in a bicycle cart. He recently co-edited the forthcoming book Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority (AK Press, 2007).

Morgan F.P. Andrews is a Philadelphia-based, Massachusetts-raised printmaker, puppeteer and electronic folk musician. He recently collaborated on a shadow puppet project with world-class juggler Sara Felder, and has toured dozens of puppet shows around North America and Brazil with his own Shoddy Puppet Company. Morgan curates an ongoing series of events called “Puppet Uprisings” in Philadelphia, and in 2006 co-organized the RadiCakaLacky Puppetry Convergence in North Carolina, and the Black Sheep Puppet Festival in Pittsburgh. Much of Morgan’s current dream-like puppet work dissolves the boundaries between performer and spectator, and employs random elements in its execution. Every year he takes a few weeks off to work with the Bread & Puppet Theater.

If you aren’t in NYC you can catch these two “travelling via chinatown bus & regional transit lines- to a city near you?”

JANUARY PUPPET TOUR DATES
6th & 7th- Philadelphia - Puppet Uprising with the Missoula Oblongata at the Rotunda,
4012 Walnut St. 8pm
11th- Troy, NY - Teddy Bear Picnic, 51 3rd St. 7pm
13th- Montpelier,VT - Langdon Street Café, 4 Langdon St. 7pm
14th- Amherst, MA - Food For Thought Books, 105 N. Pleasant St. 5pm
15th- Providence, RI - with B. Shur at Building 16, 39 Manton Ave, 8pm
18th- Boston, MA- Infrasound, 7 Sherman St. #2X (at Sullivan Sq.)
19th & 20th- Portland, ME- Casco Bay Cabaret at Space, 538 Congress St. 7:30pm on the
19th. 1pm-on the 20th
23- 28 BALTIMORE/DC/RICHMOND/CHAPEL HILL- T.B.A.

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