Original Performances Interpreting Exhibits
At The Contemporary Museum In Honolulu

Workshops and Interpretative Events

 Responding to his teenage children's lack of ability to gleen meaning and pleasure from an exhibit at The Contemporary Museum (TCM in Makiki Heights, Honolulu), Jeff Gere created the "Art Off the Wall" Series. For five exhibits in each of three seasons, Jeff and a few invited artists created performances interpreting the TCM exhibits. Each collaborative show was performed twice for each exhibit (see listings of artists and brief descriptions). Many survive through video documentation (aired on Olelo Access TV, Best Creative Arts Series 2000). Funding was provided by a 3 year grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation (Karen Masaki, '96-01) in cooperation with The Contemporary Museum (Louise Lanzilotti, Education Director, now director of Honolulu Theater for Youth).

Jeff continues to create solo interpretive tours for students (actively in 2009 & 2010 at TCM) and docent trainings (Academy of Arts and Hawaii State Art Museum in 5/09) and occasionally in downtown Honolulu.

"The fun thing about Art Off the Wall", said Jeff, " was using the visual art as a score for a show. What would that painting say if it were to speak, sing, dance, make music? Each show was the sum total of all the artists involved. Each came to the project with a mature sense of their aesthetic, mastery in their own discipline, and the willingness to play with others. Each privately viewed the exhibit, letting his/her own ideas percolate. Then, usually over dinner and wine, these amorphous embryonic ideas were shared, discussed, co- and re-conceived, and then a healthy flurry of phone conversations & Emails moved things along. The only rule was that everything in the show MUST refer to the exhibited art.

PROCESS: In one (occasionally two) rehearsals, bringing together everything whatsoever anyone had that might "work" (props, lights, masks, written pieces, puppets, musical ideas) we'd throw them out/up for all to see, respond to, amend, add into, and argue over (which was occasionally re-enacted). The Emails and phone calls continued, and though the show was well considered by performance time, it was created quickly, never over- rehearsed, and the shows evolved with the new added element: an audience. Responses varied from moved to puzzled to impressed to ecstatic. Usually, everyone wanted to do it again.

It was a tremendously exciting, intense, really creative process.. and people really did see the art in new ways. If I didn't trust the power of the process, if it didn't do for me what it did for audiences; if it wasn't scary and challenging and hard and fun, if the other artists weren't so deep and giving, so insightful and flawed and awesome, I could never have remained dedicated to creating the series. It was an exhilarating exploration every time".

1996 - 1997 SEASON Performances including an audience participation piece for Picasso prints, a shadow puppet interpretation of Ravel's operetta, The Bewitched Child and more. Read More »
1999 - 2000 SEASON Performances for Satoru Abe, Persis Collection, The Contemporary Museum Collection and more. Read More »
2000 - 2001 SEASON Performances including magic tricks mingled with visual puns and songs, master printers instruct the audience through the rooms simulating composition and printing and more. Read More »
WORKSHOPS Growing out of the Art Off the Wall performances, these workshops stammer to encode a repeatable series of exercises meant to bridge disciplines and provoke self-expression in response to "art". These workshop tours continue on at TCM (very active in '09 & '10), at Academy of Arts (docent tour March 09), MCC (teacher workshop Jan 09), and Hawaii classrooms. Read More »