The PopCulteer
October 16, 2009,

What A Night!

Last night’s Art Walk may have been the most surreal yet, in more ways than one. First, there was the shock that, on the night of Art Walk, with every participating business being asked to stay open until 10 PM, the city closed off Capitol Street, thus eliminating more than twenty metered parking places as well as access to a parking lot used by many patrons of the Art Walk. And they did this to hold an outdoor event, in October…at night…in the rain. I say we give the city credit for committing an act of ironic municipal performance art, instead of chalking it up to a lapse of common sense on par with “For The Love Of God, I thought Turkeys could Fly!”

However, they could not kill the spirit of Art Walk. This week’s PopCulteer is all photos, from the cool galleries to the daring evening of surreal theater at the Kanawha Players Workshop. You see Kirill Gura, as “You” above at right, from “A Dialogue With On Coming Traffic,” part of the night’s mega-dose of art and performance.  Follow me on a photo journey of the beauty that lay hidden in town on an ugly night, weather-wise.

Now….we walk.

Art Emporium

Lots of cool work on display at The Art Emporium, with a full wall from The Charleston Camera Club.

The Purple Moon

Ace Photographer Rick Lee stops by.

Warhol poster from Tel Aviv

Coolness from Felix Kraysyk

New work by Sharon Lyn Stackpole

Tofujitsu provides the music

Good News Mountaineer Garage Gallery

“The Jewelry Box Show” amazing work by Ricky Woodrum

Visions Day Spa

Great work on display by a variety of artists, but this month we’re focusing on the incredible glass art by Ron Hinkle

Taylor Books Annex Gallery

New arrivals Kourtesy Of Kreeture Komforts

Cool stuff by David Berry

Experimental Theater At KP

Drawing a surprisingly large crowd, some of the areas more daring creative souls came together at The Kanawha Players Workshop in the East End of Charleston for an evening of experimental theater and cutting edge art. Before the show, art works were on display from some of Charleston’s rising stars.

Here’s the artist, Orion, with his work.

Adrian DeQuiros, in front of some of his sketches.

Sign Of The Fig brought the crowd into a side room for a multimedia presentation that showed us what it would be like if Hans Richter, Jean Cocteau, David Lynch and The Residents teamed up with a killer rhythm section. This was some industrial-strength DADA.

Then we were summoned to the main hall for “A Dialogue With On Coming Traffic.” This work by Adrian DeQuiros and W.B. Harrison was was pure existential angst, sort of like Samuel Beckett, with accordions. I hope they get the chance to expand this. As an indicator just how cool and cutting edge this play was….three cast members have appeared on Radio Free Charleston! (I keep forgetting if I’m pretending to be arrogant to cover up my insecurities, or feigning humility to hide my egotism)

That’s it for this week. Next week’s PopCult offerings may be a little on the light side, as we dive headfirst into production of the RFC Halloween epic.