Sundown Salon #11: KNITKNIT

DATE: February 22, 2004

ORGANIZED WITH: Sabrina Gschwandtner & Sara Grady

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a celebration of extreme knitting, art, craft & the handmade that was sundown salon #11. guests were invited to wear things they made and bring projects to work on. throughout the day the sundown house was taken over by a diversity of happenings, objects & people including:

01 > handmade creations installations, clothing & objects thoughout the sundown house with the artists and designers that made them.

02 > food for sale in the kitchen by amy hoffecker's 'moist'.

03 > yarn sale in the garage.

04 > people making stuff all over.

05 > film screenings after sundown in the cave.

06 > unraveling gathering and yarn reclaimation of vintage sweaters in the garage.

07 > 'church of craft' regular monthly meeting in the dome.

08 > 'music to knit to' selected songs from the coming cd will be played during event.

09 > 'feral childe' performance in the cave.

10 > kniknit issue #3 release & sales.

+ escritorio publico jen hofer will set up shop & type letters for you!

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01 > handmade creations installations, clothing & objects thoughout the sundown house with the artists and designers that made them.

lisa anne auerbach / knitted geodesic hat! / artist / los angeles / link

liz collins / masks and clothing! / fashion designer / new york / link

clare crespo / knitted ham! / artist , writer, crafts / los angeles

dearraindrop / surprise?!? / artists / valencia / link

jim drain / eye of god! / artist / providence

sarah dunbar / drawings! / artist / new york / link

emily haeg / knitted stuff worn by the human & doggie hosts! / designer & knitter / saint paul

brooke hodge / wearing something she made! / design curator & knitter / los angeles

daniel marlos / knitted placemats with pies on top! / artist / los angeles / link

bridget marrin / knitted regulator (scientific device that regulates gas flow out of a cylinder) & dioramas! / model maker & film maker / los angeles

tina marrin / her famous knitted boots + lots more! / artist & knitter / los angeles

althea merback / miniatures! / artisan / bloomington, indiana / link

eugene ong / knitted wedding dress & more! / fashion designer / los angeles / link

julian seidl / artist / new york

adam sidell / installation & knitted cocoon performance! / designer - maker - dilettante / los angeles

melissa thorne / paintings! / artist - painter / los angeles

tiny industries / embroidered scenes! / los angeles

andrea zittel / wearing something she made! / artist / joshua tree & brooklyn / link

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> designer & artist bios:

lisa anne auerbach / taught herself to knit from a library book after completing grad school. Her publications include American Homebody, Saddlesore, and The Casual Observer (with Daniel Marlos). She teaches photography at USC and LACC and knitting to anyone who sounds even vaguely interested.

liz collins / The Liz Collins ready-to-wear & couture collections and currently emerging projects in the fine arts realm embody an evolution in textile and garment innovations using machine knitting technology. Liz Collins knits fabrics and fashion inventions by hand, with her primary raw material being yarn instead of yardage. She creates garments and accessories in which the form and structure are derived from the technical process more integrally than ever before. Liz Collins clothes are created using special techniques which allow the fabric of the garment to be realized simultaneously with the garment itself.The designerís trademark and signature looks in knitwear have developed a niche due to their sublimely sensual qualities,unique and clever constructions and,ironically, their classic, timeless and nostalgic silouhettes. The extraordinary sensuality of her combination of high-tech materials and soft sculptural constructions continues to defy the easy categorization of a passing trend. She is a favorite among celebrities and stylists, and has a loyal customer following worldwide. Since Collins highly acclaimed runway debut in February 2000,her work has appeared in numerous international fashion and mainstream publications and on television.She has shown for 3 1/2 years during New York Fashion Week, and is a proud member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The Liz Collins label is available in stores in Europe and Asia, as well as Barneys and a number of other top fashion boutiques in the United States. link

clare crespo / turns yarn and other unedible stuff into food. she also turns food into yarn and bugs and aquariums and all sorts of stuff that's not food. she wrote a weird cookbook/picture book called "the secret life of food" (hyperion books/melcher media 2002). she had an art show of her crocheted food (george's gallery) as well as a show of her fantasy cupcake land(the annex-a project space of alleged gallery). she writes a column in tokion magazine called mad flavas. right this second she's working on a new flipped out book all about cupcakes. she's excited and overwhelmed most of the time.

dearraindrop / biography
1980 joe grillo born in meteorcity arizona
1981 laura grant born detroit rock city
1984 billy grant born norfolk va.
1995 laura and joe meet
1997 earlly early stages of dearraindrop
1998 dearraindrop born va. beach va.
1998-2004 fuck school , drop out, do drugs , draw till yer hands hurts.

sarah dunbar / an artist and designer living in New York, she is the lead singer in the band Cat Pants and the assistant manger at Printed Matter, Inc. Selected group exhibitions include: The Platinum Tapes (August 2003), curated by Lauren Cornell, Chicago
Underground Film Festival; Resistance (April 2003), Anti-War art exhibit at Theater for the New City, New York, NY; August Art (August 2002), Raw Space Studios, New York, NY; The Second Annual Portrait Show (1999), The Jorgensen Gallery, New York, NY.

jim drain / I learned to knit actually I cheat and use a knitting machine which is still manual but not as portable as two needles or two fingers; anyway, that was in 2000 and I am still knitting like there is no tomorrow, I guess. It is a technology I suppose and it has taken me weird places (seeing clothing differently, seeing production and craft and work/time differently). Knitting is like painting, looking at the shelf, you never know how the colors are going to work together- in pattern, in texture, after beng washed or fluffed or felted.

emily haeg / emily is currently studying graphic design at minneapolis college of art and design. between school projects she enjoys knitting swimsuits and other beach attire to keep her thoughts off the long winter. her motto is "knit yourself warm"!

daniel marlos / has worked in photography and film for more than 25 years. He is known internationally as the Bugman for his online column What's That Bug?. Three years ago, he taught himself to quilt and has completed 9 queen, California king and full size quilts as well as two baby quilts in that time. In collaboration with Lisa Anne Auerbach, Sharon Lockhart, Susan Lutz and others, he contributed to a series of 12 friendship quilts, most still works in progress. Daniel is in the process of completing a Community Quilt for the city of Glendale. He is also currently designing a MTA Orange Line station based on the classic quilt pattern Snail's Trail, and will be exhibiting a quilt/photo/film installation at Bliss in Pasadena this spring. He is the old maid at Blum & Poe. link

bridget marrin / model maker and film maker, living in Los Angeles, discovered knitting through her sister Tina. A model maker by trade, she is expanding the boundries of model making by using yarn instead of traditional model making materials - she uses her models, including knitted dioramas and people for scenes in stop motion animated films.

tina marrin / artist & knitter - Weilding the needles was introduced to me in 1995 by a fellow artist. Addiction was immediate and today I am most often found sedentary and hunched over some piece of growing fabric. My art consists of drawings, cuttings and hand hooked rugs which are totally pre-planned and then executed. My knitting, however, I approach more expressionistically...just casting on without an agenda and letting the piece evolve...adding on, unraveling, layering...I also enjoy making a more designed piece like my knit boots or braille sweaters. Knitting is nourishment.

althea merback / I have been a knitter for seventeen years and I find great joy and comfort in the creative process that knitting provides. The texture of the yarn, the marriage of color, the smooth rhythm of the needles and the evolution of a pattern in my hands~all of this is quite magical to me. But, to create an object for a physical world that is so small as to be beyond our grasp adds a new challenge and thrill to a beloved art form. In 1999 my fascination with this tiny scale merged with my love of knitting, and ever since then I have been pushing toward ever new technical and design challenges. Tough as it is to knit small, the "bug-knit" scale has allowed me the freedom to create and experiment with designs which, on a larger scale, would be cumbersome and expensive. In The Summer of 2003 I was awarded Artisan Status by the International Guild of Miniature Artisans and am looking forward to my first ever show in Rye Brook New York in April 2004. My workshop is at my home in Bloomington, Indiana where I am held to very high standards of quality control by my five year old triplets, 9 year old son and Art Historian husband. Through rigorous testing and keen aesthetic judgments, this crack team of professionals keeps me on my toes. So far I've only had one small glove not pass the strict endurance testing and, alas, it was fed to the dog. link

eugene ong / All garments under the ujein label are expressions of unique exploration in technique and craft, each imbued with the delicate qualities that come with the artisan-designer’s own hand. This process results in a body-conscious envelope of fluid and distinctive construction. Eugene Ong studied architecture and design at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. While continuing his studies in Copenhagen, Ong learned the fundamental techniques of knitting under the guidance of an accomplished Danish knitter. In an effort to merge architecture and fashion, Ong’s knits are the result of the study of volume, movement, and shape in relation to the human figure. Based in Los Angeles, Ujein has been featured publications such as Flaunt and L.A. Weekly. Ujein garments have been showcased in local boutiques including Aero & Co., Xin, and Siren’s and Sailors. Ujein is currently working on a full collection for fall 2004. link

julian seidl / lives and works in New York. She studied art & photography at Hampshire College(2000)in Amherst, MA. Selected group exhibitions include: Club in the Shadow(2003), curated by Jutta Koether and Kim Gordon, Kenny Schachter Contemporary, New York, NY.; The First Annual Rainforest Photographic Exhibit (2002), curated by Michael Tammaro, C & M Arts New York, NY.; Gen Art Summer Art Fair(2002), curated by Jay Sanders, New York, NY.; Law Office(2001), curated by the Law Office Curatorial Collective, Chicago, IL.

adam sidell / designer / maker / dilettante - a los angeles native with diverse focus and interest, the former music industry executive retired from show business to create polydesignlab. polydesignlab functions as a multi faceted design studio producing jewelry and accessories, textile and t-shirt design, knitwear development, and fine art. sidell draws his inspiration from the reevaluation of history, pop culture, and the world in which we live. adam lives and works in an attic with his dog eggy and cat owemee...he knits a lot.

melissa thorne / makes paintings and drawings that celebrate the idiosyncratic, sometimes psychedelic nature of handmade objects. Working from a large collection of afghans, pillows, potholders, doilies and other unmentionables, she strives to make artworks that are both beautiful abstractions and unsentimental homage to the original crafter. She is currently working on a large group of drawings to be shown in Houston, Texas, this spring.

tiny industries / makes all sorts of bags, wallets, cases and accessories. Each piece is fashioned from the highest quality, most brightly colored vinyl available to Americans. What makes these designs unique are the hand-embroidered birds, horses, panthers, flowers, etc. that adorn each piece. The tiny industries universe was imagined in a tin shed in New Orleans, took shape in a cramped apartment in Brooklyn, and is currently at home in a garage in Highland Park, Los Angeles. in addition to the above mentioned products tiny industries book and film divisions offer several critically acclaimed diversions. Snowmonkeys comics delight readers around the globe while "The Life of a Yeti" stop action movie crisscrosses the USA in film festivals. Megan Whitmarsh developed the tiny industries line from a rich and vibrant creative practice she works at day and night to sustain (look for gallery shows from Megan on each coast in 2004).

andrea zittel / her sculptures and installations transform everything necessary for life—such as eating, sleeping, bathing, and socializing—into artful experiments in living. Blurring the lines between life and art, Zittel’s projects extend to her own home and wardrobe. Wearing a single outfit every day for an entire season, and constantly remodeling her home to suit changing demands and interests, Zittel continually reinvents her relationship to her domestic and social environment. Altering and examining aspects of life that are for the most part taken for granted, Zittel’s hand-crafted solutions respond to the day-to-day rhythms of the body and the creative need of people to match their surroundings to the changing appearance of life. She lives in California and New York. link

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02 > food for sale in the kitchen by amy hoffecker's 'moist'.

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03 > yarn sale in the garage.

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04 > people making stuff all over.

all knitknit salon guests are invited to to find a comfortable spot in the sundown residence to spend the afternoon working on any knitting / craft projects they might want to bring.

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05 > film screenings in the cave.

charles and ray eames: “textiles and ornamental arts of india" 1955 / 11 min / video:
The husband and wife design team of Charles and Ray Eames are famous for low-cost furniture designs. The most celebrated of their forms is the "DAX" armchair (1948), one of a group of shell chairs that could be attached to a variety of bases; the chair won second place in MoMA’s 1948 "Low-Cost Furniture Design" competition. Their evolution from furniture designers to filmmakers to cultural ambassadors demonstrates boundless talents. Their film "Textiles and Ornamental Arts of India" uses displays from an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1955 to explore the brilliance and texture of hand-woven Indian garments. link

stephen beck: “video weavings” 1976 / 9 min / video:
A pioneer in video technology and image processing, artist and engineer Stephen Beck developed one of the first video synthesizers - the Beck Direct Video Synthesizer. Designed in 1969, this device electronically fused moving color imagery with recorded visual material in real time.  "Video Weavings" is made from Beck's "video weaver," and has a straightforward resemblance to a traditional textile, resulting from the scanning nature of CRT video, which moves first horizontally, then vertically- just like the warp and weft of the traditional loom. The October 11, 1973 edition of Variety magazine reported that “Beck’s video weavings, video images that look like originally designed rugs, have caught the attention of an Italian rug company, which is hoping to link Beck’s synthesizer to a loom for actual rug production.” link

yayoi kusama / jud yalkut: “kusama’s self obliteration” 1967 / 24min / 16 mm film:
Jud Yalkut participated in seminal moments of underground film and video art. In 1965 he became a resident filmmaker for USCO, a countercultural collective. In the 1960's and 70's, he collaborated with Nam June Paik on a series of video-film pieces in which he used the medium of film to document performances, and, through editing and juxtaposition, to create conversations between film and video. “Kusama’s Self-Obliteration,” is a film exploration of the work and aesthetic concepts of Yayoi Kusama, painter, sculptor, and environmentalist.  According to Jud Yalkut, “Kusama’s Self-Obliteration” was conceived and edited as “a portrait of the artist and her work of two decades, and a progressively involving and engrossing experience that would possibly project the viewer into the screen.” link

michele smith / "like all bad men he looks attractive" 2003 / 23 min / video:
Michele Smith is a filmmaker from Illinois who creates intense, hand-made collage films from a diverse assortment of film materials, mixing formats and contents with spontaneous regularity. Using a heavily re-edited 16 or 35mm film as a base, she manually weaves in other film footage, plastic shopping bags, translucent products, slides and other materials to create a master reel that is impossible to duplicate. link

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06 > unraveling gathering

the knitknit salon will begin in the late morning with the unraveling of vintage sweaters in the garden. the reclaimed yarn will be used thoughout the day and reknit into new incarnations.

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07 > 'church of craft'

regular monthly meeting in the dome. The Church of Craft aims to create an environment where any and all acts of making have value to our humanness. When we find moments of creation in our everyday activities, we also find simple satisfaction. The power of creating gives us the confidence to live our lives with all the love we can. By promoting creativity, we offer access to a non-denominational spiritual practice that is self-determined and proactive. The Church of Craft maintains no dogma or doctrine beyond what every member believes for themselves. link

allison dalton is the ordained reverend of the two-and-a-half year-old Los Angeles branch of the Church of Craft, and a professor of writing and literature at Otis College of Art and Design in Westchester (where she also hosts a lunchtime crafting club). She is interested in and has tried all kinds of making, but has been a knitting fiend for about two years now, ever since a friend took her to a yarn shop in an obviously successful effort to get her hooked.

'vice-reverend' Jenne Patrick is a knit-iste and musician who lives and works in Echo Park. Self-taught, she makes hand-felted and knit pieces from unspun roving and teaches knitting classes at Edna Hart in Silverlake.

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08 > 'music to knit to'

Sara Grady and Sabrina Gschwandtner are producing a CD compilation called "Music To Knit To". Selected songs from the coming CD will be played during the Salon event. The complete CD will be sold with issue #4 of Sabrina Gschwandtner's KnitKnit. Musicians are being invited to submit one song or composition that makes good knitting listening, a new piece, or an old one. For information, contact Sara Grady: ladygrady@earthlink.net

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09 > 'feral childe' performance

Feral Childe is brought to you by New York City-based artists Moriah Carlson and Alice Wu. As Feral Childe, we work in cahoots with our City and its dwellers to cobble together another, better, world. Feral Childe stands for the independent, the adaptive and ever-changing. Feral Childe is raised by wolves. Rooting around the urban wasteland, often using discarded or unwanted raw materials, Feral Childe takes a distinctly irreverent approach to what you wear and how. We do this in the celebratory spirit of who and what we see, reinventing into effigies all that we love.

Feral Childe creations range from wearable and non-wearable clothing often fantastical in nature, to accessories, and props and sculptures. We take a renegade approach to the craft of sewing, adapting machine-stitching and hand-stitching from traditional, basic sewing techniques. We use synthetic and natural fibers, plastics, and leather. We rip, slash and punch with scissor and blades, making freehand cutout shapes. We make creative use of the iron, burning our surfaces, applying iron-on transfers, and drawing with Sharpie markers to create fantastic assemblages. By using materials at hand and such physical, immediate techniques, Feral Childe athletically captures the energy of a fleeting impression.

Feral Childe strives for inclusivity. As we collaborate, we also showcase other artistic mavericks in our performances, such as musicians, actors, and athletes. Participants are solicited from subways and sidewalks alike. "Kung Fu Shek (Shek-in-the-Box)" will feature original music by Jenahk. Expect to see jumping polish, flash and zip. We are quoting teevee, J-pop, and anime anything, balloons and whirliegigs. link

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10 > kniknit issue #3 release & sales.

Conceived, curated and produced by artist Sabrina Gschwandtner, KnitKnit reflects a growing cultural interest in traditional crafts informed by a contemporary, critical perspective. Traditional crafts offer a mode of working in which form and function are constantly engaged, situating them squarely in the center of contemporary art polemics. Perhaps as a reaction against both the homogeneity of mass market culture and the contemporary art that responds to it by mimicking its slick and seamless forms, young artists are discovering and creating craft and craft-like practices that have both utility and accessibility. Heirs to the do-it-yourself legacy of hippy, punk rock, and zine cultures, this new generation of craft artists are not necessarily against technology but rather employ existent materials, techniques, and sensibilities in a more immediate, hands on approach to art making. Knitknit acts not only as a forum for these ideas and practices with interviews, reviews, profiles and articles but also as an instructive tool (Issue #2 consisted entirely of arts and crafts making directions and recipes). In addition to the publication, Knitknit also produces, often in collaboration with other organizations, a wide range of other activities, including exhibitions, film and video screenings, and musical performances.

KnitKnit issue #3 contents include:
-Writings of 19th century architect Gottfried Semper (introduced by Brian Sholis of Ten Verses)
-Everyday Knitting -- Treasures from a Ragpile, book review by Emily K. Larned of Booklyn
-"Clotheslines in Winter" article by Emily Drury
-Beadwork by Joe Beuckman of Beige interview by Cory Arcangel
-"Althea Merback Knits Miniatures" article by Emily Spivack
-"Message Delivery Notice: Failure" Kathy Grayson of Deitch Projects on Sarah Shapiro's embroidered emails
- "Home Sewn: Three Centuries of Stitching History" at the New York Historical Society review by Elana Berkowitz
-Foldable House concept by Sarah Dunbar
-Review of specialty yarn shop Habu Textiles by Rose White

knitknit t-shirts by new york artist jesse alexander will also be available at the salon / link

The first 300 issues come with a special cover silkscreened by designer Andrew Kuo, and hand-dyed and sewn by Sabrina Gschwandtner. KnitKnit Issue #3 is available for $16 on Printed Matter's website, www.printedmatter.org, along with 15,000 additional titles. For additional information please contact Sabrina Gschwandtner: Sabrinagsch@aol.com.

New York Book Launch for KnitKnit Issue #3 at Printed Matter, Inc. Saturday, January 31, 2004 5 - 7 pm
Printed Matter, Inc. is very pleased to announce a book launch for KnitKnit Issue #3, an artists' periodical dedicated to the intersection of traditional, utilitarian craft and contemporary art in all media. The book launch will take place at Printed Matter, located at 535 West 22nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, on Saturday, January 31, from 5 - 7 PM.
Printed Matter's reception for KnitKnit Issue #3 will feature a vitrine installation of textile projects, a screening of handcraft-inspired film and video, and a live button-making presentation by the New York chapter of the Church of Craft. Artists whose work will be shown at the reception include: Jim Drain, Ara Peterson, Liz Collins, Peter Coffin, Sarah Shapiro, Beige Records, Sarah Dunbar, Jesse Alexander, Rebecca Vaughan, Stephen Beck, Michele Smith, Althea Merback, Emily Drury, and Habu Textiles.

issue #2 DIY highlights included: how to make your own dyes from leaves and flowers, silkscreening that sucks, process your own motion picture film, make a T shirt from a turtleneck, knit an iPod cosy, and create ASCII textiles. Issue #2 of KnitKnit will be sold at La Superette on Sunday, December 14th, 2003 at Deitch Projects and on Saturday, December 20th, 2003 at Participant Inc. Issue #2 was recently chosen by artist Tom Sachs for inclusion in Printed Matter's catalogue. Printed Matter is the world's largest non-profit facility dedicated to the promotion of publications made by artists in a book-like format.Issue #1 contributors included Jim Drain (of Forcefield and Happy Banana), Emily Drury (spins yarn from her angora rabbit’s fur), the Church of Craft (a nondenominational, spiritual craftmaking community that meets monthly), Jaime Peterson (crochets handbags using plastic bags as yarn), and Rebecca Vaughan (makes conceptual cosies for the glandular system).

Printed Matter, Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1976 by artists and art workers with the mission to foster the appreciation, dissemination, and understanding of artists' books and other artists' publications.
Printed Matter has received support, in part, through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Arts Recovery Fund, The Altria Group, Inc., Art for Art's Sake, Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The Cowles Charitable Trust, Fifth Floor Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Heyday Foundation, The New York Community Trust, LEF Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Women's Studio Workshop, and private foundations and individuals worldwide. Printed Matter, Inc. is not affiliated with, nor a division of, any other non-profit organization.

sabrina gschwandtner lives in New York City and is the publisher/editor of KnitKnit. She graduated with honors from Brown University with a degree in art/semiotics, and also studied with Harvard Film Archive founder Vlada Petric at Harvard University, and with artist VALIE EXPORT at the Sommerakademie fur Bildende Kunst in Salzburg, Austria. Her work combines film, video and textiles in sculptural installations, and has been shown at the 1999 Venice Biennale, Deitch Projects, Art Basel Miami Beach, the Providence Convergence Arts Festival, the Pennsylvania School of Art and Design, and the Vienna Filmmuseum, among other venues. She has curated film and video screenings for Ocularis, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), and the Guild and Greyshkul Gallery.

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memories:

'FRITZ, YOU WILL BE GETTING A LARGE BOX IN THE MAIL. IT IS "SHEK-IN-THE-BOX" AND CONTAINS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO PUT ON A FERAL CHILDE "KUNG FU SHEK" PERFORMANCE. KISSES, FERAL CHILDE'

In the end I decided to follow our box to L.A., because I just couldn't bear to miss out on the fun. So I booked my flight, NYC- LAX. Somehow I made it up Sundown Drive and stepped inside the Dome. There were around two dozen people milling about, some sitting on the floor, some people knitting, some just laying about. I asked around and met gracious hosts Fritz, Sabrina Gschwandtner, and Sara Grady up in the lookout/kitchen. What a fantastic view! I didn't know anybody, so I went back down to the cave to set up. I pulled the CD and dancepads out of the Shek-Box. I had some technical difficulties hooking up the dancepads to Fritz's laptop, but Ben Liao, architect, showed up and lent a hand. We projected the video onto the bumpy cave wall. Ben and Chris Wong, a software engineer, danced a coupla rounds. Another tall skinny Asian dude friend, Miljohn Ruperto, joined in. I was worried about how the performance would turn out, but Miljohn was a really calming presence (none of the performers had arrived yet and I was still working out the thing in my mind anyway). Then Jessica Meyer and the three dancers she'd promised arrived in a heap. From there it was blur. I read them the script, then they put on some of the outfits I had in the Shek-Box, put on some music and started working out their moves. There they were dancing in the cave, tossing around the fake Chinese vases Moriah and I had made, in some kind of weird bucket brigade! I left Jessica and the dancers to rehearse on their own, and went upstairs to hang out. I tried on some crazy fuzzy green crochet boots by Tina Marrin, and met her sister Bridget. They were so inspiring! Some other people I met were Krystal and Jade Chang, also sisters, and Giles Miller and Anna Sew Hoy, fabulous in a crocheted wedding dress by Ujein.I helped Sara, very regal in a flowing, crafty number, unravel a sweater for yarn-reclamation. . . before I knew it, the crowd had gathered in the pit, Sabrina was up there on the stage/cave with a mike, introducing Feral Childe's performance. The lights dimmed and we turned on the projector and the CD player. It was cool having watched the performance take shape just within the last two hours. Everyone could have seen the dancers rehearsing earlier, but this was the real thing! Jessica, playing the Warrior Girl, emerged slowly out of the Shek-Box to sneak up on Dahlia the Evil Peddler, to steal back Magic Mooncakes. The whole thing culminated in an all-out wooden swordfight involving The Wise Sage and The Lover. At one point, the four of them did this cool caterpillar move, four as one snaking across the floor, then broke apart into somersaults. I hope the crowd liked it as much as I did! More friends in the audience: artists and bandmates Megan Sullivan (who lives in Berlin) and Jena Kim (from New York - she made the music for the Kung Fu Shek performance) came with with Jee Young Sim (artist, and Pillow Lavas provocateur). The three of them make up the very awesome Butterknife Krush. . . and would perform at a later Salon -- Showdown! with Feral Childe. As the evening grew darker we watched some films, also projected onto the cave wall. I had been really looking forward to seeing Yayoi Kusama/Jud Yalkut's Self Obliteration. Dots everywhere! Eventually it was closing time, and Miljohn helped me re-pack the unwieldy Shek-Box. He drove me down the hill and we caught up on good times as I waved goodbye Fritz, goodbye Dome, goodbye Salon, 'til next time! - Alice Wu