image: chukwuma agubokwu and Wilmer Wilson IV>> Sondra N. Arkin has spent years perfecting her encaustic techniques through countless art experiments. Her process-driven work requires bursts of concentration, hours of labor and an unmatched focus on repetitive tasks. The failures and successes of her experiments provide invaluable data that have influenced the direction her work has taken in Pattern Transformation. See the outcome at Long View Gallery, Thursday at an opening reception from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
>> If you plan to visit the Corcoran this week, you may need to bring an umbrella as computer printers that are placed around the edge of the Performance Bridge will print leaflets and documents at choreographed intervals, showering museum-goers with a barrage of text and images. As part of the Take it to the Bridge series, the Washington Project for the Arts and the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design present The Airborne Leaflet Campaign by COLON:Y (chukwuma agubokwu and Wilmer Wilson IV). The objectives of the The Airborne Leaflet Campaign are to: REDUCE misinformation; REUSE power structures manifested in the leaflet form; and RECYCLE the processes employed in the service of legitimation of individuals and institutions. The installation runs during museum hours Wednesday through Sunday.
>> If you’re at the Corcoran on Thursday to view The Airborne Leaflet Campaign, stick around that evening for a community meeting to discuss the Corcoran’s future and issues surrounding the College specifically. This is the second of two community meetings. 7 p.m. The meeting is free and open to the public but advance registration strongly encouraged.
>> On Friday, the ninth annual Dance DC Festival kicks off at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. The festival highlights the folk traditions of the world through live music and dance. Opening night features The Drum, a performance that salutes the staple that connects every culture around the world – the drum. Enjoy an evening of rhythmic percussive foot performances from countries across the globe. The partake in an interactive workshop series highlighting several dance forms, including Tango Bharatanatyam and Capoeira, followed by Dance Asia: Asia in Maskquerade at the Kennedy Center. This performance will present Asian masks and their roles in folk dance, traditional ceremonies, rituals and traditions. Consult the schedule of events for a full listing of performance times and locations.
>> At the Stamp Gallery, attend the closing reception for Tara Rodgers Patterns of Movement: Data and Sound Works, 2005-12 on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. Rodgers uses digital sounds metaphorically and poetically to blur distinctions between what is heard as natural or artificial, and to reference the dynamism and ephemerality of environments and forms of life.
>> This week the National Gallery of Art continues celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Italian master filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. with the film Le Amiche, preceded by Superstitions. Le Amiche was Antonioni’s first critical triumph, and won the Silver Lion at the 1955 Venice Film Festival. The 1949 short Superstitions is a catalogue of unusual rural customs. Then on Sunday at 4:30 p.m., the series continues with L’Avventura, preceded by Nettezza Urbana. In L’Avventura, a woman (Lea Massari) disappears along a rocky stretch of beach and her friend (Monica Vitti) and lover (Gabriele Ferzetti) try to find her. Antonioni’s 1948 film Nettezza Urbana chronicles the working-class street cleaners of Rome. All films are screened in the Gallery’s East Building Auditorium and seating is on first-come, first-seated basis.
