DANIEL BARROW

City Arts Fest

Seattle, Wa

0ct. 22, 2011

Possibly one of the most unique additions to Seattle’s City Arts Festival, visual artist Daniel Barrow performed his Sobey award-winning “Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry” at FRED Wildlife Lounge on Oct. 22.  Having seen Barrow’s performance for the first time a couple of years ago in Milwaukee, I jumped at the chance to witness it again.  Without experiencing his work for yourself, it might sound odd to hear that it possesses a cinematic quality, but I definitely think that’s an apt way to describe it.  The performer manipulates lush, darkly comic illustrations manually via a simple overhead projector, sliding the transparencies back and forth, while narrating a tale of alienation and violence in the life of a failed art student.  The visuals are set to an original score of chiming, Pet Sounds –like instrumentals composed by Amy Linton (The Aisler Set), which provides a stunning backdrop to Barrow’s sad, matter-of-fact intonation, and serves as a cheery counterpoint to the often-grisly scenarios that his characters encounter.  The result is a multi-sensory psychedelic experience; cinematic, but unlike anything that conventional cinema could conjure. (more…)