Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This week on "arts insight." >> Ancient art comes to modern
houston. These were first artists, crow magnum during this
time period >> a celebration of citrus. >> It's all about the
fruitsy orange and orange juice >> born on the bayou. >> You'd
never know we're america's fourth largest city >> we go for
a "drive" in the park. >> This is a great arts card made by
rebecca bass >> and the arts are providing some local parks with
a "spark." >> For every spark park the community and the
school design the park. >> We've got all that and more... Coming
up! >> I'm ernie manouse... And it is time to get arts... insite!
>> Welcome to "arts insight." Coming to you today
from the houston museum of african-american culture. We'll
let you know what's going on here in a moment, but first,
since 2012 we've spoken with houston's arts community about
everything from art in the park to modern art. But our first
segment features work that's anything but modern. >> We're
back at the houston museum of natural science where they have
a wonderful exhibit called "scenes from the stone age." And
amanda norris is here to tell us more about it. >> Hi, ernie. >>
This is impressive. >> Almost too much for words. >> To help
people place exactly what we're looking at, these are pretty
much the oldest artwork of man? >> They are what we consider
right now the oldest artwork. As you know, we're finding things
every day but right now these guys are about 20,000 years old,
they were found in FRANCE IN THE 1940s, THESE ARE The replicas of
those caves. >> They tell us a lot about what was going on in
their world, plus their idea of how to present art. [00:02:01]
>> Exactly. And these were really the first artists, the
crow magnum during this time period, which these guys were
not migrators so they stayed in place and they got to see
seasons change and migratory patterns of animals. >> These
caves were discovered by an animal. >> They were, by a
little dog. He found a opening and his four companions, four
young boys, teenagers, were interested in what he was
digging up and they moved rocks and things around and they walk
in and find all of this so it was quite a discovery for these
four teenage boys and would make them pretty famous around the
world. >> Help me understand a little bit about how they
actually did the artwork. >> From what we gather based on the
things found in the cave, it would probably be a team of
people coming, crow magnum people, these are us, these are
our people, with someone holding a lamp of some sort that would
be your light source, so imagine flickering lights, nothing like
the bright lights when you're going to color now in the
studio. They would have had natural pig meant from the area,
some kind of okra which would give you your reds, browns and
yellows, black for your magnesium, and coarse horse air
brushes, people ask how do you know it's horse hair, people
have gone in to look at the caves and say that's horse hair.
They've used animal hide to make the bigger areas. All sorts of
different techniques, really cool ones. They found out
hollowed out bones with pigment in it so we think the first kind
of spray-painting, so to speak. >> Air brush. >> Early air
brush. >> To find out more where do you go. >> Hms.Org and find
out everything you need about scenes from the stone age. >>
Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Welcome back to the
houston museum of african-american culture. The
museum has made it their mission to engage visitors of every
background with discovery-driven learning. And here to tell us
what that means is ceo john guess. Hello, john. [00:04:04]
>> Hi, ernie, how you doing. >> Fabulous museum here, some
people don't know about it but a lot of people do. >> A lot of
people do, that's right. >> Growing the museum over the last
few years. Tell us about some of the projects you've gone to
encourage people to come out and see it. >> We've had multiple
pulitzer prize winners, poet laureate, we've had a fabulous
symposium on the presidents of mexico which was organized by
the johns hopkins center for afterrery canna studies. We did
a great symposium on the orapoitans, africans that exist
cultural and in the united states. >> If you think a museum
is a gallery where you hang paintings we're way off. >> This
is essentially an experience. It's so much -- we've got film,
we've got exhibits, we've got programs. One of the highlights,
our first exhibition, in fact, was done by odabinga jones. That
was ground-breaking, brought in a tremendous amount of
attendance. Our first original exhibition "rue," ended up
traveling to arkansas and then ended up in new york. >> As
important as martin luther king is you won't see that in this
museum and why. >> We'll celebrate black history month in
february, but we're a contemporary museum and the way
that we approach it, if you think langston hughes is
important and we do, we say langston hughes is a poet, just
for my generation smokey robinson is a poet and this
generation kanye west ask a poet. If you want to get people
to know who langston hughes is today with current people you
need to relate langston hughes to kanye west. We take a
contemporary point of view but we'll weed back into history
like that. We opened in february of 2012 on a daily basis and
we're online to hit 30,000 visitors this year. [00:06:16]
>> That's wonderful for any museum, that's great. >> I tell
you something, they come from all over the world. >> Why do we
need this museum? >> Why us? Because on any given day if you
go to any other museum, you aren't going to see african
americans. You always will here. And, of course, you know, this
is houston. So on any given day at every museum you should see
or here or there you're going to see we add to the mix of when
they're not there latinos. We add to the mix of africans. So
that in the soup and the pot and the stew we sort of fill out the
cultural milieu for the museum district. >> To learn more about
the museum where can they find the information? >> At
www.Hmaac.Org or go to our facebook page which is really,
really happening. >> And "like" you. >> "Like" us a lot. >> Ok,
thank you very much. >> Ok. >> Up next, what do you get when
you combine a postal worker, a possible hoarding habit, and a
love of oranges? Well, you get a houston landmark >> welcome
back. Joining us to tell more about this monumental work of
handmade architecture is orange board board member sharon
kopriva. >> What is this. >> The historians call it environmental
folk art. >> Where did this come from, what was it initially? >>
It was an empty lot, the GENTLEMAN jeff McKissick who
built this single-handedly over 20 something year lived across
the street and he was a mail carrier and I think he gathered
many things on his route after he delivered mail. And he
actually opened the orange show. 1979, I believe. And he died the
next year. It's all about the fruit, the orange. And orange
juice. And it's a shrine to that fruit. BECAUSE jeff McKissick
believed if he ate enough oranges you'd live to be 100.
[00:08:25] >> How old was he when he died. 78. >> Not enough
oranges. You can visit it on orangeshow.Org. >> And those who
loved it and watched him work for years bought it from his
nephew. And at that time it was just to preserve this monument.
But since then it just has become such a vital part of the
houston art community, and the active part of the art
community. So we've gone from preserving one monument of one
deceased man to an active environment where people come to
be creative, to see creativity, to hear creativity, and to be
part of the creativity in houston. >> In that interview
they mentioned hearing creativity at the orange show
which is why we caught up with charan po- rantan. A japanese
show. ‚ô™‚ô™ ‚ô™‚ô™ ‚ô™‚ô™ ‚ô™‚ô™ >> so we are a pair of
sisters from tokyo, and my name is koharu. I'm 25, and I play
the accordion. And this is my sister, momo, who's the
vocalist. We have been playing for about three years but I've
been playing accordion since I was younger and doing my own
accordion singing on the side until years ago I invited my
sister to join me, we formed a band. it is a rare
instrument in japan, especially the type that I play. Both sides
are buttoned. How I started is when I was 7 i went to a circles
performance with my mom, there was anchoreddian player at the
show. And I just kind of fell in love and asked my mom to get me
an accordion on the spot. The meaning might mean crazy girls.
Maybe. [Laughter] >> the meaning, there's not an exact
translation for the meaning of our band names. Charan po-
rantan, that's how we chose it, that's sort of you how we define
ourselves as well. It's hard to place our music in a specific
genre, and when we do, we sort of say "alternative",
"chancson," or "world music," but it's hard to sort of put
everything into one genre and we sort of just play whatever we
feel like. ‚♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪ [00:10:58] >> one of the big
influences we think is probably movies, old american movies are
very popular in japan as well, and we get a lot of
interferences from there. We don't know any other duos like
us, especially wearing this costume and playing this type of
music is pretty rare. In japan it's actually moon river and the
monkees kind of sound are really popular, and especially in the
genre in that we play is sort of, you know, a sound that
everyone kind of knows how to do and sort of something that you
don't have to practice, you just kind of pick it up. >> Playing
this music, it's kind of rare. Basically what we do is our
costume -- I draw some designs and I give them to my mom and
grandma and they make them. That's how we come up with our
costumes. We first started out, actually, momo, her stage
presence was not very good. So to sort of distract, you know,
the viewers' attention from that, you know, we just decided
to have her hold this pig and then -- so it just stuck from
there. It's kind of like our lucky charm right now. And it's
also made by my mom. We love to build like a circus tent and
like travel the world like that with our band and especially
like a place like this would be perfect. We just love to travel
our band, play music and travel with our band just like this.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪
[00:13:16] >> welcome
back. When houston was settled in 1836, the allen brothers had
a vision -- to transform a mosquito-infested swamp into a
bustling metropolis. And years later, the best views of modern
houston come from the body of water that started it all.
Buffalo bayou partnership's ann olson took us aboard the "spirit
of the bayou" for a boat ride through the city. >> Hello, ann.
>> Hello, ernie, thanks for having me. >> This is wonderful,
I didn't know this little treasure was here. >> Here we
are, right on the bayou, you'd never know we're in america's
fourth largest city. >> Right by downtown. >> Right by downtown,
two minutes, beautiful skyline in the background. >> There's
been a lot of construction going on along here. >> Yes, it's a 58
million-dollar project that buffalo bayou partnership is
doing in cooperation with the city, hiking trails, brand-new
dog park which will future two ponds for dogs. We'll be
extending the blue lighting that is already along the bayou.
We'll also be having some areas where you can go out and rent a
canoe, canoe or bike. It's an amazing project. It's set to be
completed by june and 2015. >> Tell me about the blue lights.
Everyone sees them. What's the plan behind that? >> They're
really very interesting. I don't think people realize the concept
but over a 29-day period, along with the phases of the moon,
they turn from white to be and back to white again. Just a
really beautiful sight. >> And we started off down by allen's
landing. >> We sure did and there's a reviolatization effort
there as well to restore the historic building of the sunset
coffee building and that also will have a canoe-kayak-bike
rental facility there. >> We can't miss the fact that we're
on a boat traveling down the bayou. These boats are out here
for everyone. >> They truly are. We have incredible tours, a
history tour and we have bat tours as well. >> That's great.
To find out everything you folks are up to to you can visit your
website at... [00:15:26] >> Buffalobayou.Org. >> Welcome
back. Just up the block from the bayou sits market square park,
home of houston's first city hall. And blaffer art museum's
claudia schmuckli joined us to explain how art has helped
combine the area's history with present "times." >> To provide
context about the project, the downtown district approached us
about a year and a half ago to develop a program around market
square. And thought it was a great opportunity to look at the
square and look at the sights that were available and
identify, you know, this particular as a site we wanted
to work in. And this with the help of the houston arts
alliance to approach jo ann with this proposition to transfer the
clock tower into something else, a piece of sculpture that this
year that can be redefined how we see and experience the tower.
>> My work takes architectural structures and transform them
into something different. And when I came down here I was very
fascinated by the clock tower. So I thought it would be a
really sort of wonderful thing to address in terms of what the
relevancy of a clock tower is, of a bell tower, of a bell in
terms of our digital age. We're not using a clock tower to bring
us to church. We're not using it to tell us of an emergency or
really to tell time at this point. And so I wanted to deal
with that whole idea of what the relevancy of the clock tower
was. So both architecture really and conceptually. So initially
what I wanted to do is I wanted to make the architecture
disappear. The way I did that was I applied mirrored surfaces
on the inside columns of all of the clock tower and that way it
virtually makes the brick disappear as it reflects on its.
Another aspect is that instead of it being a functional thing,
I wanted to transform it into a performative type of piece,
that's when I approached the shepherd's school of music to
collaborate on a musical piece. The idea of the bell tolling is
no longer tolling for the hour. So the whole idea was kind of
messing with people's perception of time. So the tolling is now
-- consists of street noise that they have recorded, and filtered
the street noise till it becomes pure tones and pure chords on
the scale and they have manipulated the chords and put
them into a computer. So one minute before the hour and one
minute after the hour, it has a sort of mini musical
composition. Then as night falls the clock tower transforms
itself. And as you look on the clock tower faces, there are
images that all have to do with different concepts of time that
sort of starts to appear as darkness falls and they are
illuminated from the back. [00:18:28] >> We hope everyone
will come out here and experience what you've done with
the clock tower and enjoy the new birth of an old landmark. >>
Thank you. >> To find out more about what's going on with the
bachelorrer. >> Blaffartmusic.Org. >> In just
five years, discovery green has managed to become a major part
of houston's social heartbeat. And free concerts and events
aren't the only things you'll find there. As susanne theiss
showed us, discovery green also has lots of green art! -- Great
art! >> There's art everywhere in this park. >> There sure is
and we're sitting in something. This is a great art cart made by
rebecca bass, this fabulous art teacher who has made so many
incredible art cards with her students at the high school and
other schools. She made a dragon cart. On the weekends you can
come and borrow hula hoops or croquet balls or anything you
want to play with in the park on the weekend. >> Art is a part of
this park and there's a whole lot more. >> Want to see it?
I'll show you. >> Whoa! What is this? >> This is the monument.
It's by a french artist. And we're really proud to have it
here at discovery green. It harmonizes with the colors of
the georgia o'brown. It's really lovely to be able to see this
with the city scape behind it. >> So this always catches my eye
when I'm in the park. >> This is margot sauer's synchroniesity of
the color blue. We have another set over here called "red."
Also. Her art is how we synchronize, how we find harmony
in our differences. In these brilliantly colored boxes cover
the stairwell to the underground garage. >> Now, when people come
to the park it often gets warm here but your art also cools
people off. >> That's right. We have a mist tree. And it's a
wonderful work of art created by a san francisco-based artist
whose name is doug hollis and all of doug's work is about the
way the environment and nature integrate integrate with the
human experience. This is a listening vessel. And when one
person sits here and whispers, the person sitting over there
can hear it. [00:20:48] >> Oh, you know we've got to try it
out. Susan, how do I find out more information? >>
Www.Discoverygreen.Com. >> I can hear you. >> I can hear you,
too. It's magic! >> Now let's go from one park to another! >> At
first glance, the playground at wilson elementary school in
montrose might look. Like any other schoolyard. But it's
actually an artful "spark park." What's that, you ask? He
kathleen ownby has the answer. >> Explain the content of these
spark parks. >> The program started in 1993 and it was all
from a green ribbon study done on how to increase park space in
the city of houston and harris county. One idea in the report
was to make use of public school grounds. And from that one
sentence in that report eleanor tinsley was on the city council
at that point and she took that idea and ran with it. >> Not
only are they used in the repurposed areas but you've
turned them into artoaces, too. They're multiuse just like the
parks themselves. Tell me about this piece. >> This piece is
called "birds of peace." It was designed and installed by a
local artist, omina k branham who had two granddaughters who
attended the school. >> They can come to the park when school
isn't in session. After school and weekends. >> That's our one
rule with spark parks is there must be a pedestrian gate open
after school and the weekends for the community to use the
park. >> Since we're talking about parks what else is there
to do? >> Oh, gosh, lots of stuff. This is one of our newest
parks and one of our biggest parks and one of our most
expensive parks, and certainly very loved by the community.
We're right in the heart of montrose area right now. And so
for every spark park the community and the school design
the park. So all of our parks are going to be different. One
of the priorities was a soccer field because the community
really wanted a place to play soccer. And then we have a track
that goes around it and if you come in the afternoon or on the
weekends you will see people walking, you will see people
running, and so it's very well used. And then you have
playground equipment which you see in back of us, for our kids
to certainly play on during the school day but then also after
school school and on the weekends. [00:23:27] >> And the
children in the school do get involved in the design of the
park, too. >> Definitely, definitely. >> It's a wonderful
way of bringing the community and arts together. To find out
more information where can they look online. >> Sparkpark.Org.
>> Thank you. >> Uh-huh, thank you. >> If you've driven around
town lately, you're sure to have seen the new metro rail stations
going up. It might not be a pretty picture at the moment,
but metro's margaret o'brien molina recently took some time
to explain how that's going to change once the trains start
rolling down the tracks. >> Hello, margaret, good to see
you. >> Great to see you. >> You folks are doing something that's
just wonderful and it's taking, in a sense, away the graffiti
and advertising and replacing it with art. Explain how that
works. >> We love it. It's a chance to bring great transit to
houston via these railways and everything but also with the
placement within the communities creating art spaces it allows us
tell the story of these communities, when you put the
art there a lot of times we found that graffiti artists tend
to stay away from it because it's already a decorated space
so it's a great thing. >> So it works on multiple layers in a
way. >> Multiple layers. It empowers community, too. It
tells their stories. Architecturally people are
talking about houston, we're always tearing things down,
here's a place where we're building things up and
incorporating houston's history and its different cultures, we
have such a diverse city and here you see it represented in
all of its different, different magnifications. >> Everything
usually thinks, oh, they're building train station stops,
it's going to be bleak, it's going to be these concrete mats.
You guys put art in them that not only made them a beautiful
community but a beautiful place to be. >> It's gone on since
2006, sara kellner has worked with these piece. 14 artists, 12
are from houston. They're all nationally recognized figures.
There's been art experts. And what it's doing also is bringing
a lot of national recognition and even international
recognition to our city because of our great artists. So it's
going to be wonderful to be able to see them and see houston,
frankly, in a whole new light in 2014, the other two lines will
come on so we'll have 22 miles of new rail line in houston. So
we're very, very excited about it. [00:25:55] >> Thank you. >>
Thank you. >> You can find out more at gometrorail.Org. >> We
hope you enjoyed our look back on this week's edition of "arts
insight." Make sure you join us every thursday night for the
best arts coverage from houston and beyond. For "arts insight,"
I'm ernie manouse. Thanks for watching. And have a great week.