Gulliblurr Travels in Ann Arbor
Gulliblurr (Pat Oleszko) visits the PeePee Distillery in the A-cad-dummy of Sciences.
Regular Chronicle readers know we’re big fans of the odd and inexplicable. That served us well on Saturday night, when we attended a performance by Pat Oleszko, visiting artist at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design.
In fact, “Gulliblurr Travels: A Space Oddity” drew a lot of other Ann Arbor absurderati to the Duderstadt Center’s Video Studio, including Dave Devarti, Elaine Sims (of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission), and Shoshana Hurand (one of the lead FestiFoolers, taking a break before Sunday’s main event). We’d been alerted to this one-weekend-only show by Kath Weider-Roos, director of UM’s PLAY Gallery – she and her husband John Roos (of Roos Roast) were also in Saturday’s packed audience.
So what did we all see?
This floating city was one of many in the Video Studio's galaxy. Others included a giant yarn ball planet, the sun (with shades) and a Comet can.
In broad strokes, the performance riffed on Jonathan Swift’s classic satire, using that framework to poke fun at current political, social and technological foibles. At least, we think that’s what was happening – it seemed fitting that the show was held on the same day as Hash Bash.
Oleszko began the performance by reading from a book she said she’d found at the library doing research on Swift, a book she said we might have overlooked “in your search for…pornography.” The saga she read outlined what we were about to see illustrated during the evening: An interplanetary journey in which Gulliblurr encounters (among other things) an army of finger puppets led by the Dog King, Dorian Gray; Operation Enduring Fleadom; a giant bird that swallows Gulliblurr then proctile-vomits him back into outer space; several breathless inventions at the A-cad-dummy of Sciences; and Yahoos of a modern ilk.
What follows is an impressionistic and extremely limited sampling from the evening’s spectacle:
Gulliblurr begins his journey in the spaceship RumpleForeskin. The intergalactic trip is narrated in newscast format by artist and UM faculty member Holly Hughes, who comments as the spaceship lifts off: "Oh my god, the technology that's available to us at the University of Michigan – it's astounding."
Cameraman Michael Flynn (identified in the show's program as a "gizmatic") filmed the entire performance and constructed several of the set pieces. Behind him, an ocean (as represented by blue plastic bags) moves past in waves, with ships, fish and the occasional iceberg atop performers' heads.
Using an oversized fork, Gulliblurr prepares to pitch a pea at the Brobs (some particularly well-endowed), seen in the background.
Gulliblurr, just before being projectile-vomited out of the Quantum Leaper.
Gulliblurr is attracted to a Knight of the Living Dead.
In comments to the audience after the performance, Oleszko praised the more than 30 students and volunteers who collaborated on the show. ”I rode them like a … horse – they’ve worked harder than they’ve ever worked,” she said. “But look at the fantastic things they made!” She’s working with students this semester as the Witt Artist in Residence for UM’s School of Art & Design.
Oleszko said it pained her that the two performances (the other one was Friday night) were free – she’d rather have charged students a couple of bucks and adults $150 – then joked that it would cost the crowd $20 to get out. She also asked for volunteers to help “take down the house” – they needed to dismantle and remove the set that night, taking some of the objects to the Slusser Gallery and others, she said, to the dumpster.
“Thank you all,” Oleszko said in closing, “from the bottom, bottom, bottom of my art.”
Pat Oleszko, speaking to the audience after Saturday's performance.
So sad I missed this. I remember Patty from the old old days of Ozone Parades and zany Film Festival shorts. She was, and is, a genius.