When Brandon Greer decided he wanted to host and produce his own show, friend after friend told him the old saying, “Start from square one.”
That piece of advice didn’t just guide Greer — it became the name of his Square 1 series, a collection of multimedia shows focusing on different art forms. The first of these events, “Daydreaming at Night,” was held at MonOrchid on Thursday night.
“Daydreaming at Night” hones in on visual art. The next two events in the series will be centered around poetry and fashion. The final showcase in the series will combine all of the different themes.
After writing about art events and featuring artists as part of his website My Boy B, Greer wanted to get into producing shows and not just covering them.
“I really wanted to get into the production aspect of shows. I’ve gone to and covered so many as part of the media for My Boy B, so I wanted to make my niche in it,” said Greer.
In addition to hosting and producing “Daydreaming at Night,” Greer also was one of the featured artists in the show. The majority of the other included artists were local. Greer was familiar with most of the artists or their work because of his work through My Boy B.
Greer said that “Daydreaming at Night” is representative of the whole Square 1 series.
“The whole idea was to branch onto something visual. At night when things are lit, I feel like things are more visual, so I wanted to highlight that, so that led to daydreaming,” Greer said. “I branched them all together. I like things that are together even if they’re not meant to be, like things that are at night that should be during the day.”
Originally, Square 1 was only going to be one show with all the artistic mediums used in the event as a whole, but it was decided to space them out into a series to give each art form individual attention.
“Everyone has their moment to shine; everyone has a different focal point,” said Tatiana Young, one of the Square 1 hosts. She will be heavily involved with the fashion event.
MonOrchid’s Shade Projects sponsored the series. Shade Projects curator Nicole Royse said the show was a perfect fit for their venue.
“We like to support local — support our people. I really wanted to bring the fashion and the poetry and even more artwork into MonOrchid,” she said.
Because of the combination of open space, minimal structure and live music, the event’s atmosphere was very social. DJ Godzilla spun music while attendees socialized and took photographs at one of several photo stations.
One of the artists in attendance included Valerie Hunt. Her featured pieces were done as part of her series on aging, which she felt connected to the idea of daydreaming. Hunt said she was excited about the series as a whole and being included in it.
“I think it’s great. Brandon is young and hip, and he had a great idea,” Hunt said.
In addition to the visual art, the event featured four poets and one fashion artist as teases of what’s to come, Young said. The next show will be in July, and the following in the fall, most likely October or November.
Young said she hoped that attendees were impressed and inspired by “Daydreaming at Night.”
“I hope they’re really amazed that we were able to combine three art forms into one series. I hope it will really inspire people to push their artwork or whatever they are doing to the next level,” she said.
Greer said that while Square 1 is currently only one series, he hopes it evolves into something more.
“It’s a creative platform for creative people. We want it to evolve. We want it to be different,” Greer said.
Contact the reporter at Kara.Carlson@asu.edu.
