Over 400 people attended the third Unusual Animals Party on Friday night in Indianapolis. Hosted by the Harrison Center and the Asthmatic Kitty sub-label Unusual Animals, Future Rapper, aka Michael Kaufmann, curated the show with local risk-taking art and music. Indianapolis-based Taste Cafe provided refreshing lemonade. It went quickly.
Artists included Greg Ajamie, Elizabeth Sparrow Boring, Scott Grow, Cindy Hinant, Kyle Ragsdale, Casey Roberts, and SPPR. Future Rapper chose to feature pieces by these artists that emphasize bulbous abstraction and bold color, ones that draw out certain aspects of the visuals in such a way that unifies seemingly disparate forms of art. Hinant featured a mind-blowing multi-wall sticker collage, and Ragsdale expanded his work with eclectic materials by employing plastic wrap and house paint.
Music included Actuel / Paren (hip-hop/free jazz infused electronica), Bronze Float (nylon-stringed folk ballads), and More Animals of the Arctic. Pope Whiter's colloborative fist-pumping three-way drumming boomed the gallery every 30 minutes. Local art gallery Big Car presented “I am another you,” featuring live surrealist theater and music.
Donning future-retro-past business-casual, Future Rapper offered a PowerPoint lecture on temporal collapse for consideration, and took questions afterward. This wrought a contentious discussion of (un)domesticated pets.
