Arts scene: (5/2/08): Arts

In "Remote Sense," eight life-sized caribou sculptures are suspended from the ceiling, each animal's belly slit open. Inside those bellies, tiny infrared video cameras record you, the viewer, projecting your image in real time onto a series of flat-screen TVs.

A back wall hosts a 30-foot video projection titled "Circannual Rhythm," a film the New York artist shot in Alaska that includes images of the caribou sculptures "interacting" with local wildlife.

A self-described science geek, Joo said the exhibit addresses the complex relationship among people, nature and technology.

The free opening reception for Joo's exhibit and the All Alaska Juried Exhibition runs from 6:30 to 9 p.m. today at the Anchorage Museum (121 W. Seventh Ave.). Joo's exhibit hangs through Sept. 21. (343-6173, www.anchoragemuseum.org)

-- Sarah Henning

Broad strokes of jazz

coming to the Oasis

Step up for some jazz tonight with international dynamos Bobby Watson and Lisa Henry, who will do standards, classics, contemporary pieces and original compositions at Organic Oasis.

Watson has been named the top alto jazz player and musician of the year in Down Beat Magazine's critics poll and has composed more than a hundred pieces. He grew up in Kansas City, Mo., and has played in every major venue and festival in the world.

Also from Kansas City, Henry started Billie Holiday and Miles Davis songs by age 12 and won the 1994 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition. She also tours around the world.

The two performers are in Anchorage schools this week as educators with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Peer-to-Peer Jazz Education Program.

They'll play with a band of younger musicians at 7 and 9 tonight at Organic Oasis (2610 Spenard Road). Tickets are $10 or $5 for students (277-7882, www.organicoasis.com). The second show might go long if the band gets into a good jam.

Watson and Henry will return Saturday night to jam with Anchorage students from the Alaska Jazz Workshop. Tickets cost $5 f or that show, which starts at 7 p.m.

Proceeds from both concerts go to jazz education programs.

-- Dawnell Smith

Juried First Friday show includes shoes, woodcuts

The Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center enters the First Friday feast with an evening opening for the All Alaska Juried Exhibition XXXII starting at 6:30 tonight (121 W. Seventh Ave. www.anchoragemuseum.org.

The biennial show features photography, sculpture, prints, paintings and other pieces by 37 Alaska artists, seven of them recipients of cash awards. Juror Jari-Pekka Vanhala, the curator of Kiasma Museum of Contemporary art in Helsinki, Finland, selected 67 pieces from 573 entries.

Look for a variety of media, including beaded shoes by Paula Rasmus-Dede of Chugiak, colored woodcuts by Sara Tabbert of Fairbanks, assemblages by Sheila Wyne of Anchorage and oil and egg tempera paintings by Dick Benedict of Juneau.

The show continues until Sept. 14.

-- Dawnell Smith

Northwest fest salutes 10 shorts

The annual Best of the Northwest Film Festival returns next week with 10 short films, including "Sari's Mother" from the creator of Oscar-nominated documentary "Iraq in Fragments."

The Village Voice called "Sari's Mother" the "masterpiece of the Human Rights Watch festival. ... (James) Longley's compact portrait of an Iraqi woman and her AIDS-inflicted son speaks volumes at a whisper."

The flicks, by filmmakers from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, show Wednesday through May 10 at Out North, 3800 DeBarr Road.

If you're not a documentary buff, there are plenty of fictional offerings, including "Potl: The Penguin on the Left," an off-color, animated film about a penguin who is packin', and "Patterns 3," which the Toronto Sun called "an off-the-wall, fractured love story."

The film program runs at 7 p.m. Wednesday through May 10, with 9:30 p.m. show-ings Friday and May 10 and a 4 p.m. matinee May 10. Tickets are $8 online, $9 at the door, with a $1 discount on Wednesday and Thursday. (279-3800, www.outnorth.org)

-- Sarah Henning

Concert steps up to contemporary 'Intersections'

Alaska Dance Theatre partners with the Eugene Ballet Company tonight for a contemporary dance showcase. The "Intersections" concert includes three works choreographed by the Eugene company's co-founder, Toni Pimble. Both companies will dance in her "Silk & Steel," which employs multimedia effects and music from the Middle Ages.

The Alaska Dance Theatre will also reprise "Sueno" by resident choreographer Gabriel Otevrel, which premiered at ADT's February concert.

The concert will begin at 7:30 tonight in Discovery Theatre at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. Pre-concert festivities include an exhibit of dance photography by Marc Lester.

Tickets are $27-$31, with $4 discount for seniors and $6 discount for youth/military. (263-2787, www.centertix.net)

-- Sarah Henning