“Viva la Revolution” exhibit at Kettle Art Gallery in Deep Ellum. Photo by Danny Hurley.
It’s not too late to see Kettle Art Gallery’s “Viva la Revolution” exhibit in Deep Ellum, which will include a Dancing Tongue reunion this weekend.
In case you’re out of the loop, Dancing Tongue is a group that includes Tim Cloward, Paul Koniecki, Chad Evans and Brett Ardoin, and they have specialized in poetry performance around Dallas since 1988. The group has performed in Deep Ellum at Club DaDa’s famed Poetry Circus and the Dancing Tongue Literary Cabaret at the Undermain Theatre, according to a press release.
In fact, Kettle Art Gallery founder Frank Campagna said Cloward previously opened for John Cale of The Velvet Underground in the mid-1980s. Cloward has a doctorate degree and published his book The City That Killed the President: A Cultural History of Dallas and the Assassination in 2023.
At 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, Dancing Tongue will put on “a contemporary reconcraptualization of (French writer) Alfred Jarry’s Ubu roi” for free, according to a press release.
Ubu roi is an 1896 farce about a ruthless person who violently takes power, according to Britannica. The play was at first met with riots from the audience, but it was reclaimed in the 1920s as “the first Absurdist drama.”
Promotional artwork for Dancing Tongue’s “The Trial of King Ubu (A Political Debacle/Dramatic Read-Through/in Seven Acts)” at Kettle Art Gallery. Submitted by Frank Campagna.
This performance makes sense for the “Viva la Revolution” show, which explores artistic reflection and rebellion amidst a backdrop of hate, uncertainty and disillusionment, among other challenges of the past and present.
The exhibit will close with another event — a discussion “regarding the importance and history that visual arts/artists have played in instigating and stimulating cultural and political ‘revolution’ through the participation of their work,” according to a write-up about the event. This will take place from 3-4:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 24 and feature Greg Metz, the longtime UT-Dallas Visual Arts Department head who recently retired, and Danny Hurley, documentary photographer of protest rallies.
“This is not a lecture but rather a shared discussion of how such creative expressions perform with purpose as change makers in various contexts, from personal expressions, perspectives, collective actions, illustrative propaganda, documentary directives, shock and awe, or perhaps as change influencers,” according to the write-up. “What works and what doesn’t in today’s competitive medium environment? What are the motivating forces that urge us to create for change? The artists showing in this exhibition are invited to respond to these premises as well as those other creatives and art observers with their own questions, opinions and experiences in this pursuit.”
You can see “Viva la Revolution” through Aug. 24 from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Kettle Art Gallery is located at 2650 Main St. in Deep Ellum.
