Nora Robertson sets out to demonstrate the simplest of dishes, the hard-boiled egg, but the lesson soon goes awry as surreal interludes of virgin sacrifices to a Ghanaian snake god, a 60’s Hollywood dinner party and a deviled egg recipe intrude.
Based on Robertson’s 2007 Pushcart Prize-nominated poem, “How to Boil an Egg”, this experimental short video punctures the notion of the housewife who can keep her family safe through wholesome food and hygiene. Collaborators include poet and performer Nora Robertson, video artist Jason Bahling, musician Tim John O’Brien and writer Mark Russell.
PDX Art interview with writer • performer • producer Nora Robertson
photo credit
Dan Kvitka
Nora Robertson writes fiction, poetry, reviews, and essays, which have appeared in such publications as Plazm, Redactions, Alimentum, Monkeybicycle, Citadel of the Spirit: Oregon’s Sesquicentennial Anthology, 2GQ, and Portland Monthly. Her recipe poem, “How to Boil an Egg,” was nominated by Redactions for the 2007 Pushcart Prize. Her performance work has been showcased in Portland in the Enteractive Language Festival, the Public Works series curated by 2 Gyrlz Performative Arts, Phase One: Words + Music, and Performance Works Northwest’s Alembic Series in Housebound; most recently, she produced and hosted the New Oregon Interview Series, which explores Portland’s evolving creative culture through interviewing the artists and culture makers themselves both live and for print. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Hi Nora thanks for doing this
What part of your life’s back round story would you like to share with us and which parts would you like to be invented?
The parts I'd like to share are that we were a very literate and artsy family.
The parts I'd like to invent is where I inherit some money and go off to live in a village in Spain and write pieces for the New Yorker.
Tell me about your art & writing practice?
I try to write everyday and be unsentimental about editing it. I also joined Tom Spanbauer's Dangerous Writer's workshop this year, and that has been enormously helpful.
How did you land in Portland and what other city or place would you compare Portland too?
Portland was the big city to someone growing up in Eugene. When I moved back here from Romania, it seemed natural. Some of what Portland does with fashion and small-batch production reminds me of the ateliers in Barcelona. I've heard some people say Portland is a little European in some of its emphasis on working to live and quality of life. Also, urban planning.
What does Art mean to you and for the future of human development?
Art is the thinking woman's religion.
How close have you come to become your own mother?
I think once you're out, you're out. I do believe in killing your father though.
Who are your hero’s and who are society’s enemies?
I'm a fan of conceptual artists like Yoko Ono and Mark Rothko, and postmodern writers like Haruki Murakami. I also really like Jonathan Ames, Aimee Bender and Wonder Woman.
Apathy is an enemy of the people.
What does going out on a limb mean to you?
One time I went out on a limb was when I moved to Romania with a one-way ticket and about $1000 in my pocket. I didn't know if I would be able to stay, especially when the economy privatized and there was a 250% inflation. But the fact that I was there without support actually helped me because I ended up making much deeper connections with the community than if I'd been getting dollars from a program somewhere.
Once my entire paycheck was docked for a month due to an accounting error, and the Jewish choir where I was singing ended up giving me permission to go to the free lunch cantina, but only after I faced the board, which was all elderly Holocaust survivors. That lunch ended up being the only thing I ate for a month. I'm still writing about that year.
What are your idiosyncrasies?
I'm very attentive to detail. But I'm also kind of spacey. Which usually cancels each other out.
Anais Nin once said “we are like sculptors constantly carving out of others what we long for”What are you carving out?
A life worth living.
You wrote a poem titled “My Husband as a Sensitive Instrument” if you had to assign a dish for women or men that describe the differences which would it be?
Food is not really about gender, even if sometimes we try to make it be. I think a nice grilled steak can swing both ways.
You seem obsessed with food and words alike what triggered such a mélange of delights?
The thing about food is that it is almost never just about feeding ourselves physically. It has all these other associations, like family history, politics, mythology, personal history, body image, desire. I think all those things go into the act of eating and become part of us. That's why people get insulted when you don't like their family's food.
You are working on a project with Jason Bahling and Tim John O’Brien. How do you like to collaborate and what can we expect to experience and when and where is going to happen?
Jason is the video artist I collaborated with for the upcoming film, The Body Show: The Humble Egg, and he just made an exciting move to New York.
Jason and I will continue to collaborate on new films in the Body Show series via the interwebs and visits for shoots. The New Oregon Interview Series will be continuing online as a print series on the new Plazm blog coming soon as a presentation by New Oregon Arts & Letters.
You have a web site and blog that features interviews and events. How do you see this endeavour to progress and where do you see your future self down the creative road?
The blog gives me a space to explore things I come across which are either just funny or seem telling about Portland arts and culture, and sometimes other places too.
I also present original work by myself and other people, and occasionally help get the word out for events.
I'd like the blog to develop into guerrilla journalism.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I once was invited to be a kickboxing instructor.
Thanks Nora for doing this
find out more about Nora at
her blog
www.norarobertson.org
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