West Hill Concept Union Grand Opening Show Saturday, December 6th, 1997

After much cleaning, the East Wing of the old Scottish Rite Hospital in the Oakhurst neighborhood of South Decatur was ready to become our first home. We proudly opened our doors to the public for the first time at this show. It was freezing. We had no heat. We had been running electric space heaters in all the rooms, and fifteen minutes before we were set to open the power draw blew a main fuse in the basement. Picture a mad trio of us running around the basement with flashlights trying to figure out how to get the lights back on. We succeeded, and the rest of the evening was eventful, but not in quite so drastic a sense. A crowd of close to a hundred people braved the cold and came to see what we were all about that night. We opened the entire building as gallery space, with art on every wall and nooks and crannies set aside for installations. In addition to the wonderful visual art, we had the following events: Tri-Morphic Phosphorescence - A triptych video installation by Josh Harrell, which was ensconced in a disused lavatory on the far side of the building. The piece was a wonderful mindbender of surreal color and sound.

Our Lemon is Almost Giggly - A quadrophonic sound and noise installation by The Mover and Casper Fandango featuring psychedelic video accompaniment by members of the Sonic Hose Orchestra.

Poetry Reading by David Dault

"Hose Bonkin" - A piece conceived and performed by the Sonic Hose Orchestra

"A Christmas Garland" - A festive holiday jubilee composed and performed by the inimitable Theodor Adorno Jazz Quartet

"Molthos: Planet of the Bird Women" - an encore viewing of this award- winning silent film

The show was a grand success, and kicked off many months of happy existence at the West Hill location. It also gave us a great excuse, the next December, to have an anniversary show.