What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1480634
OCTOBER 2-8, 2022 WHAT'S UP! 39 make. To get to Smokey's, a venue in a hidden forest enclave, you have to step through James Tapscott's work, a circular, eclipse-like installation called Arc Zero. From far away, you see the light element smudging visually. It's only when you walk under it that you realize the site-responsive work is misting the people that walk below it. Once inside the forest behind it, music lovers are thrown into a venue designed by assume astro vivid focus, an artist duo, one from Brazil, the other from France. The result is something they describe as an adult playground. The stage is neon colored and resembles a creature's face; artists on stage can be seen inside its big mouth. During performances, lights sometimes form a jagged line like teeth or shoot laser-like beams from its eyes. And you can't miss the shimmering disco ball glimmering at its center. Tracing your steps back through Arc Zero and past the hot air balloon you come to a small black box of a place. If you dare to pull back a black curtain and step inside a room as black-as-night, you'll see a spatial artwork by John Gerrard and Richie Hawtin. The digital simulation produces a video loop of an ouroboros, a snake eating its tail, historically symbolic of infinity or the cycle of life, death and rebirth. It's shown in combination with techno music to immerse audiences with the music and visual aspects. As you start to walk past the barn which once stood at The Momentary, you might get pulled in by local drag queen Maddy Morphosis, who hosted the venue renamed "Drag Me to the Disco" for FORMAT Festival. Inside the disco madhouse—aside from the neon green spotlights, disco balls lining the rafters and glitter curtains dividing small seating areas—was live salsa, funk and African disco performances, not to mention lots and lots of dancing. If you manage to break free, your next chance to dance is one stop down at Solana House, marked by a small forest of metallic cylinders (that stand taller than most people), where live DJ sets happen with digital video backgrounds. Come back during daylight hours and they offer you free snacks, like popsicles and tamales. Across the way is a three story building called The Cube. Long before you get inside, you can see people enjoying the 4-D sound and augmented sonic realities. The lights reveal the thin, translucent material of the structure's exterior, making the silhouettes from within a part of its look. After all the dancing and walking, DomeRx is a welcome stop for legs and minds that need a break. In Darren Romanelli's 360 Immersive Dome, festivalgoers choose a bean bag to lay back and watch projections not unlike a laser light show while listening to techno and other music. Once you've rested, you might have just enough time to poke your head into one of the holes in Pia Camil's large fiber artwork, which looks like a ton of T-shirts stitched together. Then it's back to the live music. The Flaming Lips — with Nick Cave's 10 feet tall raffia and hair Soundsuits interacting and dancing at the edge of the stage — Beach House and Rufus du Sol all played to packed audiences on the North of Oz and South of Oz stages late Saturday night into early Sunday morning. Day Three Local musicians Amos Cochran and Serrano-Torres of Northwest Arkansas treated a laid-back crowd to a sonic, atmospheric set in The Cube as the sun set during the final day of the FORMAT Festival. Cochran joked with attendees that he didn't mind if people left the show to see Legendary pianist Herbie Hancock a short distance away from the enclosed stage. Hancock moved the crowd and closed by reminding everyone that they were all part of one big human family. DomeRx was a welcome stop for legs and minds that needed a break. In Darren Romanelli's 360 Immersive Dome, festivalgoers chose a bean bag to lay back on and watch projections not unlike a laser light show while listening to techno and other music. (NWA Democrat- Gazette/April Wallace) Pia Camil's large fiber artwork, which looked like a ton of T-shirts stitched together, was displayed in the center of festival grounds. Musicgoers could stick their heads into the holes to look at the other side of the creation. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/ April Wallace) You might recognize this barn, nicknamed the Tulip Barn, which sat on the Momentary's grounds for months. It was moved to Sugar Creek Airstrip and transformed into a disco madhouse by artist Maurizio Cattelan's Toiletpaper Magazine. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/April Wallace)