Saturday, August 8, 2009

Last night at Lincoln Cathedral

... the special service commemorating the mystical poem "The Dark Night of the Soul" by Saint John of the Cross was cancelled.

Should the event have occurred, the price per participant would have been £30, including a cooked breakfast, and up to 80 attendees might have experienced candlelit areas of the Cathedral not ordinarily open to the public as authentic Gregorian chant marked the passing of the hours.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

CLOSING RECEPTION



Please come for a final viewing of APPROX L in its most comprehensive form!

Friday, May 29th
7 PM
@ Worksound Gallery, 820 SE Alder, PDX
Please join us afterward at the Morrison Hotel.

APPROX L incorporates tactics of sculpture, curation, documentation, indexing, sound, video and performance into one tripartite installation work.



Drawing as its subject a name (Lindsay) that has been mired in multiplicity and obscurity since its first recorded attestation in 731 CE, APPROX asks its audience to dig deeper into its seemingly bottomless well of referentiality and tangentiality. At once playful and unsettling, the project mimics properties inherent to any proper name: that which its owner both possesses and is possessed by; specific enough to warrant a capital letter; pointed enough to startle a sleeping body; unruly enough to have to be spelled out; general enough to be repeated in several different places at any one time; intimate enough to enter; fickle enough to be forgotten; and yet final enough to persist long past our times.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

WORKSOUND GALLERY HOURS

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
2 - 5 PM



Monday, May 11, 2009

thru month's end


I invite everyone to make an appointment to come see APPROX L -- a large-scale installation project using video, sound, curation, sculpture and text as means of configuring investigation into the functions & disfunctionalities of proper names -- from now until the end of the month.

Groups especially encouraged.

You may choose to tour alone or with a guide.

Contact me to arrange a meeting time:
ph. 845.417.3845
e. bethany(dot)ides(at)gmail(dot)com

Closing: Friday, May 29.

(Pics by Sam Lohmann -- thanks, Sam!)

Saturday, May 9, 2009

NOW OPEN

APPROX L
Worksound Gallery
820 SE Alder, PDX

Open by appointment.

Please call so that we can figure out a time that works for you:
845.417.3845

Contact Bethany (me) for more info -- email at top, left corner of blog.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

what is it

In this, the first solo endeavor to grace the space of Portland's Worksound Gallery, Bethany Ides investigates both the fixed and transient properties of a proper name, in this case: Lindsay. Entering into written form in 731 as an amalgamation of syllables culled from across the spectrum of Germanic languages, Lindisi initially referred to a geographic province. As the name transformed over time, so did its function. The name that first indicated the boundaries of a particularly soggy portion of Britain, later summarized a patrilineal chain of ancestry stemming from the region, and eventually rose to prominence as the 42nd most popular female name in the US during the 1980's.

Approx L draws an index of this development. The gallery is divided into 3 stages of Lindsay-ness: L Exactitude; Adaptations of L; and, L Beside Itself (adrift, at sea). Surprisingly evasive, the proper name slips away from specificity at every turn. It means this person or this place, comes from this tree and is symbolized by this fabric; appears in toys, in photo albums, phone books. But the more the traveler wanders, the clearer the realization becomes that the destination is, itself, the inability to arrive.

Spearheaded by multimedia artist Bethany Ides, Approx L is cumulative project involving performance, curation, installation, sound and video. Aiding in the process are approximately 15 participants from across the US and Canada all born with (some variant spelling of) the name, plus a coterie of non-natural L[indsay]s who have adopted transitional monikers for the project. One piece on display, entitled "L, Spelled," is, in effect, a show-within-the-show of works on paper by artists Lindsay Benedict, Lindsey Brown and Lindsay Page.

Bethany Ides is the author of several poetry chapbooks, including Approximate L [Cosa Nostra Editions, 2009] and Indeed, Insist (a mystery) [Ugly Duckling Presse, 2005]. Her solo performance work has been presented at venues such as The Brooklyn Museum, PS122 and the Bowery Poetry Club in New York, and at Gallery Homeland, Nocturnal, SoundVision and Disjecta in Portland, OR. With an MFA from Bard College, Ides teaches art theory, time-based art and writing at Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Approx L is sponsored in part by a generous grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) as well as in-kind support from Lansing Linoleums.

Opening reception: May 8, 7 - 10:30 pm
GOLDEN RETRIEVER (Jonathan Sielaff + Matt Carlson) plays at 9.

Opening weekend events co-hosted with visiting artist, Lindsay Benedict:
SATURDAY + SUNDAY, 12:30 - 5:30 pm
Sign-up sheets will be posted at the opening & on the blog site.

Tours held throughout.

Closes: May 29.

Monday, April 27, 2009

I see an OPENING ahead

APPROX L

MAY 8

Opening Reception:
7 - 10:30

Worksound Gallery
820 SE Alder, PDX

GOLDEN RETRIEVER (Matt Carlson + Jonathan Siellaf) plays at 9

*all weekend events co-hosted by Lindsay Benedict*
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, 12:30 - 5:30

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

157 more Bethanys than Lindsays in the 1970s

Rank Name # %

217 Bethany 12,169 0.0740
218 Trina 12,133 0.0737
219 Joyce 12,012 0.0730
220 Lindsay 12,012 0.0730
221 Joanne 11,979 0.0728
222 Tabitha 11,943 0.0726

Info taken from the U.S, Census extracted from records concluded in February of 1980 cataloging the most popular 1000 names "from a universe that includes 17,089,045 male births and 16,452,700 female births."

Saturday, April 4, 2009

(sketch detail)


The Lost Linden Choristers:
Morgan "Llinsy" Alexandra Ritter (choreography)
Chase " Lynzay" Evans (understudied by Leah)
Patsy "Lindenna" Gelb
Brianna "Lynn Zi" Farina
David "Lindsay" Weinberg

Jeffrey "Lindersei" Baker (camera)
Brandon "Lindeseia" Spradling (camera)

Vocals & arrangement of O-Zone's "Dragostea Din Tei (Numa Numa)" in translation by Lyndsey MacKenzie & the Transitional L's

"My Reverie" by the Larks used with the permission of the spirits

Performed at Gallery Homeland

Full-scale exhibition at Worksound Gallery, Portland, OR
May 8 - 29, 2009

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

something's happening here...


recently spotted at PS1 >>>>>

piece by Jonathan Horowitz;

spotted & sent by Lindsay Benedict

Thursday, March 19, 2009

LINDISEASE @ Gallery Homeland, 3/28

Saturday
March 28
8 PM

@galleryHOMELAND
The Ford Building
SE 11th & Division

Bethany Ides
w/ The Lost Linden Choristers

present the next installment of the ac/cumulative concatenation of
APPROX L


< moving pictures < > moving bodies < > moving mouths < > making motions >


sliding scale: $5 - $10


In this one-night-only performance, natural & transitional [Lindsay]s together comprise a single, obsessive gesture of spelling into being matter that evades specificity by means of continually modifying itself; of becoming becoming.


featuring:

* Chase "Lynzay" Evans
* Patsy "Lindenna" Gelb
* Brianna "Lynn Zi" Farina
* Jason "Lindseit" Powell
* Morgan "Llinsy" Alexandra Ritter (choreography)
* David "Lindsay" Weinberg

Sunday, March 1, 2009

looking through a pool, darkly (in a few instances)

The old Roman city of Lindun is generally supposed to have given the district of Lindsey its name, but the Romans probably latinized the more ancient British name of Lindeseie.

The earliest reference to the place-name is from a dedicatory inscription to Fortuna found at Mainz in Germany and dated to the end of Domitian's reign. This inscription records the name as LINDO, which is the dative form of Lindum. It is very likely that the name Lindum is a Romanised version of the original Celtic, the exact meaning of which is uncertain.

The fore-part of the name lin undoubtedly refers to the pool in the river Witham below the modern castle, which word is recognizable in both modern Welsh (llyn; 'lake'), and Gaelic (linne; 'pool'). The Romanised ending -dum, leaves us with some difficulties, however, as the Romans were in the habit of making the local place-names more easily pronounceable to their civilized tongues by giving them this 'catch-all' ending. The Celtic name for the area could have been Lindo, Lindon, Lindun or even Lindunon, all of which would have different meanings in the Celtic tongue.

When we look at the possible endings of the name among the Celtic languages, we see that there are two general possibilities;

1. Referring to a settlement or fortification on the hill overlooking the pool;
* Gaelic; dun 'fort', 'castle'.
* Welsh; din 'hillfort'; dinas 'citadel'; dyn 'enclosure'.
* Celtic; dunum 'fortified settlement'.
2. In reference to the colour or opacity of the pool itself;
* Gaelic; dubh 'black'; donn 'brown'.
* Welsh; du, ddu 'black', 'dark'.

Try these...

linden linden' lindenan lindenbaum lindenberg lindeneau lindenfeld lindenna lindenstein lindenstrs lindenthal linder linderback linderbeck linderbm linderbusch linderdel lindered lindereling' linderer linderg lindergreen linderinggs linderman lindermann lindern linderot linderott linders lindersay lindersbusch linderson lindes' lindesai lindesay lindese lindesei lindeseia lindeseie lindesey


Often has the writer been asked the question, if the Linzees knew
when they changed from the Scottish form Lindsay or the English
spelling Lindsey, to our system of ending the name with an " ie " or
" ee ", and the use of " z " instead of " s "? Our answer has been
that we could show the precise spelling
Linzee for over three hundred
years, while the form
Linsee was even older and derived from the
spelling of the name in the more ancient documents and seals
. A
few instances will now prove this statement.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Monday, February 9, 2009

You Can't Take Me



the image of your face...

and the love of the linden trees...


you can't... you can't... you can't take me...

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Lindesay/Lyndesays broke from my people 500 years ago, or: I may also be a L______

DSL - DOST Lindesay, Lyndesay. [The family name of the Earls of Crawford.] The title of a herald attached to the household of the Earl of Crawford. — Et per solucionem factam Lyndesay herraldo, ex gracia domini regis … x li.; 1464 Exch. R. VII. 295. Et Endure signifero, nunc Lindesay heraldo nuncupato; Ib. 305. Patricio Leslie, Lindesay Herrold; 1493 Antiq. Aberd. & B. III. 464.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

NOW AVAILABLE


My chapbook, Approximate L, is now available from Cosa Nostra Editions via their website
$10
17 pp
hand-stitched binding
beautiful fine arts printed cover by poet & book artist Mary Hickman
limited edition (75 copies)

Thursday, January 15, 2009

hungry for more... (a push)

I know of several L(i/y)n(d)s(a/e)ys out there who I should be in contact with, but who have not contacted me or whom I have not yet contacted.

I think you/they/we should though. Very soon.

There are more & more increasing ways that people whose first or last name bears a phonetic close resemblance to Lindsay can be involved with Approx L. It could be as simple as recorded phone calls or sending recordings via email. Or it could involve your hands & skills, such as basic construction, lighting design, graphic design, website design, pr consultancy, etc. Or maybe you live in Portland & have a car & would be willing to help cart around people & materials in preparation for the gallery show in May. Or whathaveyou.

Approx L is a team effort that depends on the unruly materiality & improbability of Lindsay-ness. All participants will be credited as collaborators in every increment of the project (performances, videos & installation). Additionally, Approx L serves as a means by which L(i/y)n(d)s(a/e)ys can meet, interact & begin to speculate on their own Lindsay-nature for themselves; amateur sociology.

Please (continue to) point potential participators to this blog &/or my email address listed in rainbows to the right.

I await...

~ Bethany

Saturday, January 10, 2009

meta-phone

moot or mute
- is this your name?

Sunday, January 4, 2009

HEPTAGRAMMATON

with ref. to the tree's pliant bast, >> the lime tree, line-bark, line-bast
from a place name or surname, not a meaning but a saying, near to water or surrounded by


Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma nu ma iei,
nu ma nu ma iei,
nu ma nu ma nu ma iei.
Chipul tau si Dragostea din tei
mi-amintesc de ochii tai.




You want to leave, but you can't take me,
you can't take me,
you can't take me, you can't take me.
The image of your face and the love from linden trees
remind me of your eyes.

Re: THINGS AGENTS WOULD NEVER SAY

Break Jaw/ I allways take small bites
Saw Fist/ I'm the reason for Spy Clops' legs
Trace/ I've allways wondered what the inside of a shark looks like

-- Legoland message board

Friday, January 2, 2009