Shedding light on the dark side
By SCOTT D. LEWIS
Oregonian, OR
Sept 10 2004
On paper, Diamanda Galas is impressive: A 31/2-octave vocal range,
fluent in multiple languages, pianist, composer, published poet. On
her 15 records, Galas is stunning as she channels the souls of the
suffering and transforms forgotten songs with a voice that’s as
precise and dangerous as a knife. Live, she’s unbelievable. Tall,
gaunt and embodying anyone’s coolest vampire fetish, Galas delivers
her music and her missives with unflinching intent and purpose, never
failing to leave her audience transfixed and transformed.
She is a visionary, a true artist and a performer with no equal.
Galas recently released two live double albums. “DEFIXIONES: Will &
Testament” is a harrowing and staggering work dedicated “to the
forgotten and erased of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides
that occurred in Asia Minor, Pontos and Thrace between 1914 and
1923.” “La Serpenta Canta” is notably lighter, yet equally as
engaging with Galas interpreting many American classics in her
singular gothic-jazz, devil-blues manner.
Galas will perform two separate shows based on these recent releases
Friday (“DEFIXIONES”) and Sunday (“Serpenta”) at the Newmark Theatre
as part of PICA’s Time-Based Art Festival.
Speaking from New York, Galas, who is as personable as can be
offstage, took some time to ponder art, commerce, the dark side and
just how tough Kristy Edmunds really is.
Q: What is your definition of art?
A: Something that should be able to predict the future rather than
simply regurgitate the newspapers. A lot of people who would like to
be artists think that the best way to do that is to be modern and to
be timely, so they read lots of newspapers in the attempt to do that.
But the only way you can be “modern” is to do your work so, so much
that it naturally evolves of its own accord.
Q: What’s your job as an artist? Does it come with responsibilities?
A: The only responsibility I have is to do a good job. To be
professional in my work. If I want to do a certain piece and I have
ideas for it, then I need to work those ideas out to completion —
that’s my job.
Q: Certainly there is commerce involved.
A: Certainly, but a lot of that has to do with making sure that
people know that you are performing. Fortunately, at the moment with
online, we are able to do that without depending on hard copy,
magazines and venues that are only interested in commercial music.
Q: Do you consider your work dark?
A: You and I would have to say, that by the standards of most “art,”
out there, yes, what I do is “dark.”
Q: Why is it important to have such dark art?
A: If I am trying to continue to exist in the word, then it’s
important for me to see art that has something to do with my
existence. If everything lay outside of my existence, then I’m going
to feel so isolated that I may not want to live much longer. A person
who has no communication with the world which is also not interested
in communication with him or her is in a very bad position.
Q: What happens to art in politically repressive times?
A: Can you imagine how many women in those countries where they are
forced to wear the shador are even able to think about doing art?
That’s quite an impossible concept. I will say that it’s also a
pretty impossible thing for most people to create art in complete
poverty. I think that there is a naive idealism concerning artists’
suffering that needs to go. That needs to leave. Artists need money.
Q: How does art benefit the society at large?
A: If you create something that makes you feel alive, you may not
have to do something that’s going to make you feel dead. If you have
no hope and you have nothing that makes you believe that you can
leave an impression upon the world, well then why should you want to
do anything but sleep in a trash bin or something. People need to
feel that they are making a contribution.
Q: Where should your albums be filed at a record store?
A: (laughs) At one store in Berkeley they were filed under “Operatic,
Vampiric, Lysergic, Hippie, Sicko . . .” they had about seven
different category names and there were a few of us in there. That
was fine with me.
Q: Will you get to see much of the TBA festival?
A: I don’t know. Fortunately, I will be able to see Kristy (Edmunds,
PICA’s artistic director). She is one of . . . she is the bravest
presenter in America. She is. She is the bravest and most ferocious
presenter in America. I love her; she’s a dear friend.
Diamanda Galas performs “DEFIXIONES: Will & Testament” at 9 p.m.
Friday, and “La Serpenta Canta” at 9 p.m. Sunday, Newmark Theatre,
1111 S.W. Broadway; $15 PICA members, $20 general. TBA pass holders
must reserve in advance at 503-242-1419. Mature audiences.
From: Baghdasarian