(Originally published in March 2011 issue.) Bet Charles and Emma Frye never saw this coming: Sixty years after donating their collection of late nineteenth-century German paintings to Seattle, wildly surreal multimedia now shares a wall with bucolic landscapes. And around the corner from the gilt-framed oil paintings stands a ceiling-high sculpture—a coy giantess who lifts the hem of her skirt and beckons you to browse a video collage beneath the folds.

The latest avant-garde explosion at the Frye is courtesy of Degenerate Art Ensemble, a Seattle-based performance art group that defies definition… They embrace all disciplines—with influences ranging from punk rock to Butoh to fairy tales—to create theater that’s been called “whimsically disturbing” and eminently memorable.

For its museum debut, DAE will showcase costumes, props and video clips from past performances— including 2006’s Cuckoo Crow and 2009’s Sonic Tales—plus new work (such as the aforementioned giantess). Frye deputy director Robin Held and DAE coartistic directors Haruko Nishimura and Joshua Kohl will hold an informal conversation about the exhibit on its opening day, Friday, March 19, at 2pm, but you can also get the rundown on DAE in Suzanne Beal’s article ‘Fantasy Frye-land’ in our March issue.

Degenerate Art Ensemble will showcase its work from March 19-June 19 at Frye Art Museum. Admission is free.