Author: Michael Witthaus

Mosaic Arts hosts ‘Exquisite Corpse’ group exhibition

The Surrealist movement believed that art happens at the point of juxtaposition. “Exquisite Corpse,” an exhibition that opens Monday, Oct. 6, at Mosaic Arts Collective, will explore that idea. The show’s name comes from a game beloved by artists that begins with a folded piece of paper that each participant draws on, leaving a small trace on the next segment for another creator.

“Hidden hands shape unexpected creations,” the Mosaic call for submission said of the show, which runs through Nov. 2 and has an official reception Saturday, Oct. 11, at 4 p.m. The exhibition, it continues, “celebrates the strange, the uncanny, and the beauty that emerges when fragments of imagination collide.”

One of the early submissions came from the husband-and-wife team of Karl and K.D. Schmitz, who rent studio space at Mosaic; it combines painting and poetry. Gallery owner Liz Pieroni is also part of a group effort, but not all submissions are collaborative. More than a few have a touch of the eerie and spooky — fitting, considering how October concludes.

“We do like Halloween, I think the artists like it too, and in general I think our community gets very much into the spirit,” Pieroni said during an interview at Mosaic, located on a second floor to the left of the Palace Theatre. “It seems to be one of our higher-selling shows, which is always kind of surprising…. A lot of people come in collecting creepy, weird art.”

In a nod to the macabre, the Oct. 11 opening has been dubbed Calling Hours.

“We’ll have a tarot card reader, who we’ve had the past couple years as well, she’s phenomenal,” Pieroni said, adding that Roots and Rhythm, a dance studio located at street level, plans an appearance. “An ‘Exquisite Corpse’ performance perhaps.”

Additionally, See Saw Art, a micro gallery situated inside the Mosaic space and run by Rochester Museum of Fine Arts co-founder Amy Regan, is part of the event.

“She’ll also have an opening, of kind of creepier, interesting themes as well,” Pieroni said of that show.

On Oct. 12 there will be a family-friendly event at Roots & Rhythm that includes a workshop for parents and children that Pieroni described as “a create-an-Exquisite Corpse activity.” The drawing game has always been a favorite of youngsters, who particularly delight in discovering what a group will make together sharing only the tiniest of prompts.

Along with the month-long exhibition, Mosaic will host an Artist Talk event with Karen Jerzyk on Oct. 22, from 5:45 to 7 p.m. Jerzyk is described as “a surrealistic photographer who combines elements of sci-fi and fantasy with elaborate environments to create visual narratives.” Her work includes an album cover for Manchester pop punk band Donaher.

Beyond that, Pieroni is a driving force behind a recently launched Second Saturday art walk, happening next on Oct. 11. Participating are Creative Framing Solutions, Art House Studios, Dew Collective, Studio 550, Bookery, Woodstacker Brewery, The Terracotta Room, Arts Build Community, the Palace and newest addition Gallery At The Block.

As the gallery celebrates its third anniversary, Pieroni feels optimistic despite the many challenges faced by organizations like Mosaic. Strong community support, volunteer engagement and notably the acquisition of their first grant, have set up a sustainable future and reinforced her original mission.

“Three years has been forever and no time at all,” she said. “It’s been a wonderful ride and it’s also been challenging at times. I’m glad we’re still here and I think we’re here for the long haul. I’m beyond happy for sure. There’s just been an amazing amount of support for what we’re doing.”

Exquisite Corpse
When: Monday, Oct. 6, through Sunday, Nov. 2; opening reception Saturday, Oct. 11, 4-8 p.m.
Where: Mosaic Art Collective, 66 Hanover St., Suite 201, Manchester
More: mosaicartcollective.com

Homegrown indie film Granite Orpheus premieres

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

Watching Granite Orpheus is akin to stepping on board a time machine, but that wasn’t the plan when a group of upstart filmmakers and actors set to work over Concord’s long Market Days weekend in 2015. The movie, which has its official premiere Sept. 26, retells the star-crossed lovers’ tragedy amidst the milieu of the Capital City.

Ongoing construction along Main Street juxtaposed with the annual three-day street fair and music festival gave Rick Broussard the idea for the project. He and John Hession run Resurrection Films, a company focused on energizing New Hampshire’s film community. The two began building a script and recruiting actors.

“Downtown was in this kind of weird upheaval; half the street was in construction, the other half was basically complete,” Broussard recalled. “It seemed like a transitional moment, and it reminded me of a movie I’d seen in my college days — when I was pretending to go to college — called Black Orpheus. It’s this classic Greek myth set in Rio during Carnival.”

With Bryan Halperin and Gina Carballo cast as Orpheus and Eurydice, and a motorcycle-riding Yarrow Farnsworth as Hades, they filmed what Halperin called “a love letter to Concord,” with shots of Bicentennial Square, the Train Yard, Pitchfork Records and other landmarks.

In a scene that opens Granite Orpheus, the beloved but now defunct Pat & the Hats play in Penuche’s basement.

“One of those little local miracle bands,” Broussard said. “You just knew that they could do anything and go anywhere, but the limitations of fame and time and space don’t let everybody great become great; but they were a great band.” Their involvement was the spark for bringing Brian Coombes of Rocking Horse Studio on as the film’s Music Director.

The team wanted to use the downtown bar for a scene reminiscent of the Yardbirds’ appearance in the ’60s art film Blow Up. “It’s a very underworld kind of feeling,” he said. “Our Orpheus has to ascend the stairs out into Bicentennial Square, a beautiful plaza full of stonework, sculptures and such, and a fountain. And there’s a band playing out there.”

David Shore’s Trunk O’ Funk, one of a few annual event bands routinely at Market Days, was performing its set during the scene.

“We tried to get as many [festival performers] into the movie as we could because … this was Concord’s portal into Hades. Every place has a different one.”

An initial three-day filming schedule grew.

“We originally said we’ll just cut it off and work with what we got,” Broussard said. “But what we got was all these great additional talents like Bryan and everything that he brought to bear. Friends of John Hession’s who were talented musicians, had a motorcycle gang, and also had great attitudes … it was too big.”

The effort continued for another week.

“Nobody said no, so we just kept working on it,” Broussard said. A year later, they set about cleaning up the footage, hoping to feature it at the next Market Days. Around that time, life got in the way. He and Hession both “went through at least four personal familial crises, and a global pandemic.”

A decade later, they finally got back to work on Granite Orpheus. Early last May, a final scene was filmed at Red River Theatres. Halperin arrived with two pieces of good news: “I had saved the unique black shirt they’d given me years ago, and luckily, I haven’t changed too much in 10 years.”

The crew was further buoyed by the response to a casting call for extras.

“We got about 40 people from our little mailing list,” Broussard said. “Some of them were very talented, and wind up getting featured to a degree [in the Red River scene]. It was a connection of what we had done, and what we needed to get to pretty much the end of the movie.”

For Broussard, the delay was a blip.

“Ten years later was not really that long, particularly when you’re talking in classical Greek terms,” he said. The upcoming premiere will include a post-film discussion with the crew and actors. There will be more screenings of Granite Orpheus, including at Pembroke City Limits, date to be determined, and the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester.

He likens the project to Rocky, and not because he believes it’s Oscar-bound.

“It’s going to win by not getting knocked down, it’s not going to knock out everybody else,” he said, adding, “I am perfectly happy to show it to any audience and take their feedback and feel content that we did a great job.”

This faith guides Broussard and Hession’s film company, giving it a higher purpose.

“We need to seek art as desperately as Orpheus sought Eurydice, despite being doomed to crushing disappointments and failures almost every time,” Broussard said. “It’s for those brief glories, and I guess for the permanent illusion that we can all be artists in our lives and in our afterlives, that we carry on. Because it’s one of those myths that won’t die.”

Granite Orpheus

When: Friday, Sept. 26, 7 p.m.
Where: Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St., Laconia
Tickets: $20 at etix.com