visual arts

Welcome summer

This week saw the arrival of summer solstice, an event that provides subject matter for Michael Conti's installation titled "Solstice" at the University of Alaska Student Union Gallery. Conti uses video and life images to "celebrate and lament both the longest and shortest days of the year." Conti won the No Big Heads Self-Portrait competition last year and has work featured in the "True North" show now on display at the Anchorage Museum. The UAA gallery is open from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Thursday. "Solstice" will remain on exhibition through July 12.

theater

Chicken in the wings

Playwright Charles Mee wondered what would have happened had pop-art giant Robert Rauschenberg been "a theater maker instead of a visual artist." Mee's "bobrauschenbergamerica" is described by Los Angeles blogger Lyle Zimskind as a series of 43 somewhat-related scenes collectively inspired by Rauschenberg's art creating "a giddily disorienting juxtaposition of visual cues and gestures." The show opens tonight at Cyrano's, 413 D St. and runs through July 15. The disorientation starts at 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available at centertix.net.

music

Sensational sounds

For the past two weeks, a group of eight international musicians, led by Alaska-born composer Matthew Burtner, has been trekking around Alaska and picking up sounds of whales, seal, glaciers and other noises of the north. It's part of the EcoSono Institute, a melding of arts, environmentalism and science. Previous sessions have taken place in the Caribbean and Tibet. At 7:30 Saturday they'll present their new pieces at a concert at Grant Hall, Alaska Pacific University. Tickets are $10 at the door. In addition to Burtner, featured performers will include Jane Rigler (flute) and Glen Whitehead (trumpet) and Yi Wang (electronics). We can't say what you'll hear, but if previous Burtner concerts are anything to go by, it will be like nothing else you've ever heard before.

Welcome summer