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THE HORROR: If you happen to be a white rap duo who dress in clown make-up, the windows of opportunity for the promotion of your new album are slim — unless Eminem pulls a gun on one of your homies, you’re pretty much limited to Halloween. So this year, Insane Clown Posse are making the most of the holiday season: to promote their latest self-released album, The Joker’s Sixth Card (Psychopathic Records), the soda-spewing horrorcore ringleaders are launching a national tour of haunted houses. They’ll kick it off with an appearance next Friday, October 4, at Massachusetts’s famed Spookyworld, which is now ensconced in the parking lot of the new Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. ICP’s Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope will be there beginning at 6 p.m.; later that night they’ll retire to a listening party for the new disc at Who’s on First, the jock bar out back of Fenway Park. Spookyworld is at 60 Washington Street (Route 1) in Foxboro; call (978) 838-0200 or visit www.spookyworld.com. Who’s on First is at 19 Yawkey Way; call (617) 247-3353.

TERRASTOCK MOVES: The massive annual three-day psych-rock festival known as Terrastock — which debuted in 1998 in Providence and this year returns to New England after stops in London, Seattle, and San Francisco — has changed course, just slightly. Scheduled for the Middle East in Central Square, it’s now been transplanted across the river to Axis, 13 Lansdowne Street. The dates — October 11 through 13, beginning each day at noon — and the line-up remain the same, with performances from an array of international not-quite-superstars ranging from Sonic Youth and the Bevis Frond to Damon and Naomi, the Alchemysts, Motorpsycho, the Sunshine Fix, Ghost, and Acid Mother’s Temple. Three-day festival passes are going fast; they’re $70 and available by calling (877) 687-4277, or by visiting www.terrastock.musictoday.com. Or visit www.terrascope.org for more festival info. Meanwhile, the Middle East has filled its October 11 vacancy by booking a rare appearance by Steve Albini’s scathing post-punk group Shellac. Tickets are $10; call (617) 864-EAST.

NEXT WEEKEND:

Fay Chandler

"Have you seen my Web site?" asks Fay Chandler as we sit down in her Cambridge apartment. Despite having just turned 80, she conveys a contagious vitality. Her artistic career spans more than 40 years, and at age 72 she founded a non-profit organization called the Art Connection. You won’t hear her begin sentences with "When I was your age" or "When I was younger." She looks forward. And right now, she’s looking forward to the opening of a show of her objects at the Sacramento Street Gallery next Friday.

Chandler grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, attended Sweet Briar College and the Maryland Institute College of Art, married a famous Harvard economics professor (Alfred Chandler), and had four children. She started painting, at age 38, right after the birth of her fourth child, and since then she’s been featured in more 30 solo exhibitions. Her work is in the MFA, the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, the Danforth Museum in Framingham, and the Chrysler Museum in her home town. Her paintings are intoxicating, buttery blends of colors and figures. "I’m a figurative painter," she says, "but the figures in my paintings aren’t necessarily people; they’re decisions and ideas. I see ideas figuratively." Cartoon-like human shapes fill her canvases in bands of color — imagine Mark Rothko’s moody color meltings combined with Keith Haring’s joyful, celebratory forms.

Whereas her paintings reflect her inner thoughts, Chandler’s sculptural objects reflect "how I would act in certain situations." She talks about her objects in organic terms. "I was picking up junk, toss-off things, and putting it down on the canvas to spray over for shapes. That was the birth of the objects. I realized that they took on lives of their own — they became family friends." There’s something delightfully accidental about these objects, which are equal parts chance and personality. They’ve been described as whimsical, but perhaps serendipitous would be more accurate.

Serendipity also played a part in the inception of the Art Connection. At 72, she faced the problem of what to do with the art she’d been making and accumulating. "It’s the rare artist who sells all of his or her output. And it’s the cycle of the artist to keep doing new things, so many pieces of art have to be stored away to make room for new work. I was trying to figure out what would happen to my art after I died, and I wanted to donate it to non-profits, but after some research, it proved quite difficult to do so. I looked for an organization that would facilitate the donation of artwork to non-profits, and none existed." So she started an organization to do just that. The Art Connection, which celebrated its eighth anniversary with her 80th, has placed more 1200 works of art by 90 artists in more than 100 non-profit and social service organizations.

And Chandler looks forward to spreading the Art Connection to other cities. She is one of those rare individuals who puts what’s in her head into the world. ("My mind is in my innards. I’ve tried to get that across in some of my work.") In her art and her organization, her attitude is the same: "Things don’t always work the way you imagine them to work, but if you’re truly willing to work at something and you’re not hurting anyone, you’d be surprised what you can do."

Fay Chandler’s "A Show of Objects" runs October 4 through November 8 at Sacramento Street Gallery, 20 Sacramento Street in Cambridge, with an opening reception on October 4 from 5 to 7 p.m. Call (617) 349-6287. For more information on the Art Connection, call (617) 338-7668, or visit www.art2life.org.

BY NINA MACLAUGHLIN

 

Issue Date: September 26 - October 3, 2002
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