SLUG Contributor Limelight
September 6, 2018
Contributor Limelight: Parker Scott Mortensen
Parker Scott Mortensen joined the SLUG copy editing team in 2016 and became a contributing writer in 2017. Of copy editing, they say, “I love getting to read copy while listening to music and weighing in on odd grammar questions.” In addition to meticulous copy editing talent, Mortensen radiates warm, friendly company among the team. They frequently scribe SLUG’s monthly art feature, leading readers into an experience that they sentimentally articulate with whimsy. Mortensen cites as a favorite their December 2017 art feature about installation piece Swen of the Wirble, an article that led to a sense of self-affirmation as a writer. This month, Mortensen’s skill is on display in the Andrew Rice art feature (pg. 14), where they weave us through Rice’s story in a way that is inspiring and relatable. Read on to see why we continually await the magic that Mortensen has in store for us next.
Articles by contributor
Storytelling in Esports with Tyler Van
What makes esports so compelling is the human element, something at which traditional sports could stand to be better. … read more
Localized: Olivia Bigelow
Zex Tape, like a lot of Bigelow’s work, is a cacophonous EDM bomb that can’t be defused. … read more
Localized: AUXO
It’s an experimental and danceable concoction that cooks with ingredients to create a work reminiscent of Machine Girl and microwave-nuked vaporwave. … read more
Local Music Singles Roundup: June 2024
Another month, another six phenomenal singles from Salt Lake’s best local bands, from Elowyn’s debut ballad “The Fool” to Zodiac Killer’s “Torn In Two.” … read more
Hankerings for the Hangover: Top 8 Local Cure-Alls
Your head is ten sizes too big, as you projectile-vomit multicolored regret. How will this ever go away? With the help of SLUG Magazine, of course! … read more
Local Review: Snailhorse – Snailhorse II
Listening to Snailhorse II is like putting on your most-loved, most-comfortable sweater—the one that may be unflattering but that you know looks cute from just the right angle. … read more
Local Review: Reverend Morley – The Kirby Project
The Kirby Project executes an unsettling vision with defiant rock. Reverend Morley’s aggressive instrumentation and vocals blend a raucous brio with experimental flair. … read more
Paper Apps DUNGEON: Game Design Minimalism
Paper Apps DUNGEON is a notebook-based dungeon crawler that you can play anywhere at any time—it only requires a pencil and a die. … read more
Local Review: Lysergic Ashes – Crocodile Sweets
Crocodile Sweets gives us a place to lie next to our disquiet, look it in the eye and fall asleep together. … read more
Local Music Singles Roundup: June 2023
Kick back and relax poolside with this month’s singles from incredibly talented local artists—you’ve earned it. … read more
Review: Fever Ray – Radical Romantics
Fever Ray = HEALTH + Kate Bush x Poppy … read more
Review: Hollie Kenniff – We All Have Places That We...
Hollie Kenniff = Julianna Barwick – Amos Roddy + awe for the miracle of life … read more
4th Annual Holiday Market @ Ogden Union Station 12.02–03
Craft Lake City’s Fourth Annual Holiday Market 2022 Presented by Google Fiber enjoyed a new location this year at Ogden Union Station with over 120 vendors. … read more
Local Music Singles Roundup: December 2022
SLUG Magazine has your December tunes covered with six new songs by turns shocking and seasonal to give all your winter activities a perfect snowy soundtrack. … read more
Highway to the Hydrozone: Eco-conscious Landscaping with Stephanie Duer of...
Stephanie Duer, Water Conservation Manager for SLC’s Department of Public Utilities, explains how eco-conscious design is more than rocky, grassless lawns. … read more
Review: OHMA – Between All Things
OHMA = The Cinematic Orchestra + Autechre x Blockhead … read more
Local Music Singles Roundup: September 2022
These six new tracks accompany all of the moods heading into the new season: a blanket burrito and a cup of tea OR a brisk walk outside with a friend. … read more
The 14th Annual CLC DIY Festival Presented By Harmons @...
The 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented By Harmons was Craft Lake’s biggest offering yet, and what you saw partly depended on what day you came. … read more
BANKS is In the Pocket of Life
Serpentina seems to have put BANKS in the best mood of her life. As she describes her fourth album, it’s easy to see a theme of reintegration and reclamation. … read more
SoyMurga: Craft lake City Artisan
For Marcelino Murga, the opportunity to pursue what he loves full time with SoyMurga was pivotal to connecting with himself and his community. … read more
Honovi Design: Craft Lake City Artisan
Jessica Wiarda’s Honovi Design incorporates Hopi artwork into the silk scarves, chiffons, kimonos, bomber jackets and more that make up her growing catalog. … read more
Inevitable Change: Andrea Hardeman’s Abstract Impressionism
Andrea Hardeman’s visual art sits at the intersection of creativity and mental wellness, channeling what she cannot express with words into abstract paintings. … read more
Under the Umbrella: Salt Lake’s Queer Little Bookstore
Under the Umbrella opened November 15, 2021, 11 months after Kaitlyn Mahoney made it her New Year’s resolution to open a queer bookstore. … read more
The Babes Are Back In Town: SLC Skate Babes
SLC Skate Babes meets most Mondays in Salt Lake, inviting anyone and everyone who wants to skate, organize or just hang out. … read more
Review: HEALTH – DISCO 4 :: PART II
DISCO 4 is incredibly welcome after 2019’s Vol. 4: Slaves of Fear, which was excellent, but felt no more transcendent than 2015’s masterful Death Magic. … read more
Review: Norco
Norco, the point-and-click game from Geography of Robots, depicts a southern-gothic reality that tugs at how industry has irrevocably fucked us—and how we find ourselves picking up the pieces. … read more
Offset and Out of Step: Offset Bier
The pair at Offset Bier make a good team, using Bourque’s brewing expertise and Brown’s knack for branding to create a space that rewards the curious drinker. … read more
Images of Trust: Maru Quevedo
Maru Quevedo is a self-taught portrait and street photographer in Salt Lake’s bustling art and queer scene whose work shows a desire for emotional connection. … read more
Jason Rabb: Librarian and Local Music Rabble Rouser
Jason Rabb, a librarian at the 400 S. branch, is leading Local Music Archives into the ears of anyone who wants to listen. … read more
The Calm Before Adorn: ENSO Piercing & Adornment
ENSO Piercing radiates a calm, professional and safe environment perfect for anyone looking to add some sparkle to their aesthetic. … read more
Material Conditions: The Sculpture of Bea Hurd
Through reappropriation of an assortment of materials, Bea Hurd creates fascinating sculptures that are loaded with instinctual meaning. … read more
The Body Abstract: Jill Whit
The work of Jill Whit, a tattoo and visual artist (and musician) from downtown SLC, embraces our fleshy vessels as abstract and messy things. … read more
Tell Me Something Good: Performance with Alexandra Barbier
Alexandra Barbier’s emphasis on playful improvisation is extremely welcome after months of identical days and isolation from each other. … read more
Just Be Lovely: Jacobo Funes
Jacobo Funes’ work embraces his human subjects as simultaneously familiar and unknowable entities while highlighting Utah’s people of color. … read more
The Angle of Light: Black Refractions
Black Refractions speaks to the wide range of experiences that constitute how Blackness exists in our country. … read more
Reciprocal Care: Skinworks School of Advanced Skincare
Doubling as a school, a reciprocal exchange of needs and care defines Skinworks and sets it apart from other spa experiences. … read more
Tailored Design: Himalayan Arts
Nestled in historic Trolley Square, Himalayan Arts is a reflection of Yeshi Shekhang and both her Tibetan and Indian heritage. … read more
What We Talk About When We Talk About Hog: FULL...
FULL HOG ACCESS premiered a pair of oil paintings Tucker White and Jason Dickerson had each made depicting one another nude together. … read more
Review: TOBACCO – Ripe & Majestic
TOBACCO = Jasper Byrne + APO ザ·犬 。 … read more
Review: Shamir – Revelations
Shamir = NAO + Michael Jackson + Janis Joplin + Les Sins … read more
Review: Mogwai – KIN (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Mogwai = Aphex Twin + Tycho – Ariel Pink … read more
Juried Design: Rio Gallery’s Annual Design Arts Exhibit
Each year Rio Gallery’s Design Arts Exhibit highlights the art of good design from disciplines such as fashion, architecture, graphics and furniture. … read more
Gnome Two Ways About It: Lawn Gnomes 2020
UMOCA’s Lawn Gnomes 2020 is a growing exhibition of art installations that lives on the front lawns of artists across the state. … read more
Local Review: yungkong – Phases
yungkong = Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland + APO ザ·犬 。 … read more
Local Review: Sally Yoo – Tender
Sally Yoo = Twin Sister + Disasterpiece … read more
Local Review: Emily Brown – Bee Eater
Emily Brown = Angus & Julia Stone x Gillian Welch – Amanda Palmer … read more
Local Review: City at World’s End – Megatropolis
City at World’s End = Ben Prunty x Perturbator … read more
Local Review: ASTÉRISME – TERROIR
ASTÉRISME = HOME + Pictureplane + Crystal Castles … read more
Daud Mumin on Allyship and Activism
Activist Daud Mumin shares his thoughts regarding how non-Black people can be the best ally, as well as what makes a successful protest. … read more
Progress Knot: Daniel Everett’s Cityscapes
Daniel Everett focuses on the way urban landscapes layer on top of each other, unraveling the sense of order and progress that city structures wield. … read more
Seven Masters: From Ukiyo-e to Shin-hanga
Utah Museum of Fine Art’s Seven Masters exhibit puts the new prints in context of the seven artists who defined the resurgence of Japanese woodblock art. … read more
Made of Masks: Alli Arocho’s Aislá
For Alli Arocho, vejigante masks have become a lifeline to her island home, and her show, Aislá, will debut through Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts. … read more
Parallel Lines: Comforting Discomfort
Comforting Discomfort allows us space to reconsider the boundaries of self-care, the importance of empathy and the value of the familiar. … read more
SPONSORED
Slamdance Film Festival 2020: Thunderbolt in Mine Eye
Zachary and Sarah Sherman’s Thunderbolt In Mine Eye captures a 2019 vision of young romance, following two teens entering an awkward but solid relationship. … read more
Pattern Perception: Knew/New
Rachel Henriksen’s exhibit knew/new is composed of a multitude of abstract untitled pieces, many of which disrupt the idea of patterns in art. … read more
Playing Right: Plan-B Theatre’s Community Writing Workshops
Plan-B Theatre’s Artist of Color Writing Workshops provide a space for emergent playwrights of color to discuss their works in progress. … read more
A Cover by its Book: Ummah and Understanding Islam
Ummah, an exhibition put on by the Emerald Project, is a fight against the unique group bias that has grown around the Muslim community in the U.S. … read more
Local Film Review: A Name Without a Place
A Name Without a Place is forgettable to me in this way, capped in my memory by its worst moments and never breaking through to stay with me. … read more
Two for All – Power Couples: The Pendant Format in...
Power Couples shows the historical roots of pendants, then deconstructs them through contemporary and historically uncharacteristic examples of the form. … read more
Localized: Doctor Barber
Doctor Barber describe themselves as “story-telling rock n roll.” The lyrics and instrumentation are integral and technical. … read more
Artist Céline Downen: For the Love of the Litter
This idea of authenticity, of collecting everyday materials and looking around her community have all been strong themes in Céline Downen’s work for years. … read more
Kathak and Grace: Kaladharaa Dance School
The message was clear: Kaldharaa Dance School wants more people to know they exist and wants to teach them about the rich history of Kathak. … read more
SLC Staycation: Bike Edition
Luckily, there are many bikeable local amenities to enhance your tour of downtown SLC. … read more
Art as Wellness: UMOCA’s See Me Exhibit
See Me is the latest exhibit residing in UMOCA’s “Ed Space” that challenges our perception of the role of art in daily life. … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | Fashion | LGBTQ+
Rich Soil: SLC Artist Siri Elaine
Siri Elaine’s working toward her latest exhibition, called Rooted, in April at Commonwealth Studios, which will be an ambitious series of installations designed to immerse the viewer. … read more
The First Cut Never Feels Like a Cut: Mark Macey’s...
Macey’s brother, David Macey, starts opening paint cans, which soon walks up a ladder to pour over a simple, wooden structure draped in gray cloth. I walk upstairs as the space begins to warm with energy. … read more
Changing Space: Modern West’s New Gallery
Diane Stewart’s and Shalee Cooper’s new vision with Modern West is to expand and shift from being a fine arts gallery to a contemporary one. … read more
Cities and The Sky – Yang Yongliang’s salt 14
Utah Museum of Fine Arts exhibition, fully titled salt 14: Yang Yongliang, is a series of six internally lit landscape photographs and one huge 4K video. … read more
Come Together: The International Tolerance Project
This January, The Utah Museum of Fine Arts will host The International Tolerance Project: Promoting Through Design in its “ACME Lab” wing of the museum. … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | Fashion | LGBTQ+
The Dayroom
Elaine Sayer walks me through the foundational tenets of The Dayroom. She handles beverages and curation while Milo Carrier does food, and Emily Gassmann owns and operates the building. … read more
Alternate Sensations: Stephanie Leaks
Earlier this year, Stephanie Leaks identified as an alt-sensory poet, which they describe as an exploration of abstract feelings that’s grounded in physical sensation. … read more
Pulitzers and You: Imagining a Better Future
As opposed to being a chronological presentation or history of the prize, Pulitzer Prize Photographs is a quilt of our best, worst and most mundane moments. Walking through it imparts a sense of human mythology that simply seeing the awarded photographs each year just can’t. … read more
Review: Zombie Thoughts
Zombie Thoughts is. Put on by Plan-B Production Company, Jennifer A. Kokai co-authored Zombie Thoughts with her then, nine (now 11) year-old son, Oliver Kokai-Means. It’s an interactive play for children about helping characters in a video game. … read more
Film Review: Assassination Nation
Assassination Nation empowers young women while condemning the forces that have taught them how to act. If you can’t act like a young lady, we’re going to murder you, figuratively or literally, so take your pick. … read more
The Other I: Marisa Morán Jahn
MIRROR | MASK is an exhibition by Marisa Morán Jahn running at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts that asks us to consider questions of identity, the self and the other through various media. … read more
Review: Mopey Wrecks
Mopey Wrecks (A Performative Analysis of Sibling Interdependency and the Increasing Unlikelihood of Returning to Moscow) is an intricate weaving of feelings between characters who can’t help but both bring each other up and tear another down. … read more
No Man’s an Island: Andrew Rice
Andrew Rice’s showing at God Hates Robots is far from his first. With a decade on the scene, he’s shown at the UMFA, UMOCA and many others, and the style of artwork he’ll be showing at Robots doesn’t even showcase his printmaking, which is accomplished in its own right. … read more
NOW-ID’s A Tonal Caress Review
“The desire to understand and be understood is at the core of human experience,” writes Charlotte Boye-Christensen, NOW-ID’s artistic director. “Every gesture opens a fleeting vulnerability with opportunities and dangers of self expression.” … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | Fashion | SLUGmag
Damn These Heels 2018: Sisterhood
Sisterhood is co-parenting without romance. Sei (played by Gigi Leung as her older self and Fish Liew as her teenage self) and Ling (Jennifer Yu) are two Chinese women without any romantic attraction to each other. … read more
Damn These Heels 2018: 1985
1985 is Adrian’s story of moving through his hometown one last time. Having contracted HIV from his now-deceased boyfriend while living in New York, Adrian struggles to reconcile his relationship to his god-fearing family with his knowledge that he is sick, that he will almost certainly die. … read more
Damn These Heels 2018: The Misandrists
The Misandrists is the most frustrating movie I’ve seen in a while. I got whiplash trying to understand whether the film was celebrating women or only pretending to—satirizing with camp or offering an actual worldview. … read more
Review: The Aliens
The Aliens is a performance that’d be subtle enough for TV but is still connective enough for theatre. “Half of this play … is silence,” writes playwright Annie Baker, and it’s true. It works in this production because the audience is so close. … read more
Chiura Obata: An American Modern
An American Modern has a lot of firsts. It’s the first touring exhibition of Chiura Obata’s work that includes work from all decades of his working life. It’s also the first time his works have been presented as a collective retrospective in Japan, since they’ve only shown in fragments before and not always translated. … read more
Selective Nature: Nancy Rivera
Nancy Rivera has wrestled with this boundary of the real since her days completing her MFA at the University of Utah. Her work centered around the cyanotype processes, a cameraless form of photography that exposes a photosensitive iron solution onto a surface and then dries it in a dark room. … read more
Six Artists: BDAC’s Summer Gallery
I’ve been to the Bountiful Davis Art Center (BDAC) many times, but this particular gallery opening felt special. It was a warm Friday night, one of those soft Utah nights that hint at true summer. As those nights of heat near, BDAC offers six new exhibitions that explore abstraction, mediation, color and more. … read more
Downtown Play: Quarters
Shaken but not deterred, Quarters’ initial growing pains seem healthy, indicative of the people who have worked to bring this experience to Salt Lake City. Whether you love skeeball or Street Fighter, cocktails or Pabst, Quarters wants to include you. … read more
Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate
This is political, personal and requires you to confront yourself. It’s hard, and it’s a space we should all try to live in more earnestly. Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate runs until June 2 at the Springville Museum of Art. … read more
Film Review: Lean on Pete
Lean on Pete’s initial imagery, that of a boy and his horse trekking across the desert, plays into the romanticized conception of an America that doesn’t exist now and probably never did. … read more
Review: Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami
Bloodlight and Bami pulls back the curtain and gives us the fly-on-the-wall cinema verité approach—this is a portrait of the artist, not just of Jones but of the artist as identity. … read more
Review: Celeste
For a game about a young girl climbing a mountain, Celeste is surprisingly less a coming-of-age story and more a story about how hard it is to take the tremendous first steps towards better health. … read more
Review: The Red Strings Club
Red Strings Club is a game that tugs at your philosophical leanings, asking grand and granular questions that it demands you answer. But most importantly, Red Strings weaves a familiar paranoia using the root of cyberpunk: that corporations increasingly own our well-being, and, to a large extent, we’ve come to like it. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Bernard and Huey
Bernard and Huey is about what happens when two middle-aged men meet 25 years after their young friendship ran its course. It’s a film about men navigating their relationship to sex in the shadow of their own egos, of the confident and put-together women they fuck and, of course, each other … read more
Goodnight 2017: UMOCA’s 2018 Galleries
the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) put on a fabulous all-museum exhibition opening for five new shows from dozens of artists, including a collection curated by Earl Gravy. Artist in residence Justin Watson also unveiled a curated project of 30 artists, and UMOCA’s smaller galleries are now home to some excellent works by Eric Overton and Merrit Johnson, all exploring physical and political landscapes through nontraditional inquiry. … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | LGBTQ+
Hyperreal: Adam Watkins’ Echoes of a Morning Star
As you head down the stairs at Bountiful Davis Art Center, you see the first piece of Echoes of a Morning Star, Adam Watkins’ collection of photographic tableaus. From his BeneathME series, the piece is titled The Mirror. … read more
Your Demon or Your Angel: Noah Jackson and Jacob Haupt
Nox’s upcoming show between Jacob Haupt and Noah Jackson could not exist without the friendship the two share. Angels Don’t Cry, Demons Don’t Cry is a collaboration between them, which feels de facto for the pair. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Songs in the Sun
What Songs in the Sun ultimately wrings from its premise is three women whose varying abilities to function rub up against myth and legend in a way that ultimately heals them, though not always in ways that seem just. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Birds Without Feathers
Birds Without Feathers is the tale of six strangers whose lives intersect and collide in delusional episodes where people manage to interact despite existing in completely different paradigms. … read more
Another Valley: Granary Art Center
The exhibits in Granary each explore the idea of travel and presence: the anxiety and compulsion to travel, to document and to frame—to have been somewhere and, years later, still be unraveling what it all means. … read more
Inhale, Exhale: Swen of the Wirble
Swen of the Wirble is designed to invoke awareness not only of the reality of natural disasters but also of personal disasters. … read more
Pale Blue Dot: Ali Mitchell’s Oil Fields
Of the pieces exhibited, the Oil Fields Tryptic 1, 2 and 3 are the most enthralling, and they’re the pieces Ali Mitchell is asked about most often. … read more
Amy Jorgensen and Justin Watson: Artists in Dialogue
The Nox Contemporary Art Center is home to two wildly different installations: Amy Jorgensen’s A Labor of Love and Justin Watson’s |human|. … read more
Review: Tacoma
Tacoma works like a Sleep No More–style theatre show where you can freely explore scenes but also have the ability to pause, rewind and fast-forward, giving you complete control. … read more
Review: Tumbleseed
TumbleSeed is more like roguelike yoga. It requires concentration on slight movement and deliberate maneuvers. It is so easy to roll carelessly into the void. … read more
Rest 30 Records Video Game Division: CLC DIY Engineers
As one of the members of Joshua Payne Orchestra, David wanted to recreate the experience of playing with the band through Salt Lake’s forgotten places. … read more