Events Archive

Yoga For Two

artonair — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:35:43 +0000

Yoga for two. Courtesy: Sarina Dailey www.cashonly.biz

Yoga For Two

By Alaina Stamatis, Sarina Dailey, Justin Frye, Sean Berman, Cammisa Forrest Buerhaus

On view on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 6:00pm

On Tuesday May 31st at 6pm, the Clocktower Gallery was proud to present Yoga for two, a prenatal yoga class developed to help its participants cope with the pain of life change. The practice was accompanied by Justin Frye (of PC Worship, Gary War, and Dan Deacon ensemble) performing his piece, "Aborted Scraps," and video projections by Sean Berman. Positioning was exhibited by Sarina Dailey and Cammisa Forrest Buerhaus, and was narrated by Alaina Stamatis.

"Eating for two, drinking for two, keeping your hands shoulder-width apart for two, missing the bus for two, allowing the belly to sink toward the floor for two, flossing for two, dropping the head slightly for two, dancing for two, moping for two, reading about the misery of the world with two sets of eyes; one pair is pale and not yet able to distinguish the horrors from the trees." - Alaina Stamatis

This program is part of the Clocktower Gallery's Emerging Artist Residency Program, made possible with the generous support of the Jerome Foundation.

Steina Vasulka Video Demonstration

eve — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:58:50 +0000

Steina Vasulka, Allvision setup, 1976

Steina Vasulka Video Demonstration

By Steina Vasulka

Curated by David Weinstein

On view on Monday, October 17, 2011 - 6:00pm

The legendary video pioneer Steina Vasulka demonstrated the digital tools she developed, as well as some of her real-time, audio-visual environments.

Steina also performed as part of the OptoSonic Tea series on Saturday, October 15 9 p.m. at Experimental Intermedia, 224 Centre Street at Grand, Third Floor.

Steina was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1940. She studied violin and music theory, and in 1959 received a scholarship from the Czechoslovak Ministry of Culture to attend the State Music Conservatory in Prague.

Woody and Steina Vasulka were married in Prague in 1964, and shortly thereafter she joined the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. After moving to the United States. In 1965 she worked in New York City as a freelance musician. She began working with video in 1969, and since then her various tapes and installations have been exhibited in USA, Europe and Asia. Although her main thrust is in creating Video Tapes and Installations she has recently become involved in interactive performance in public places, playing a digitally adapted violin to move video images displayed on large video projectors.

In 1971 she co-founded The Kitchen, the Electronic Media Theater in New York, which is now celebrating 40 years. Steina has been an artist-in-residence at at KQED in San Francisco, WNET/Thirteen in New York. She has received numerous grants and awards including from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Film Institute and the New Mexico Arts Division. She received the Maya Deren Award in 1992 and the Siemens Media Art Prize in 1995.

In 1993 she co-curated with Woody the exhibition and catalogue, Eigenwelt der Apparatewelt (Pioneers of Electronic Art) for Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria. In 1996 she served as the artistic co-director and software collaborator at STEIM (Studio for Electronic Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam. In 1996 Steina and Woody showed eight new media installations at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, an exhibition repeated in Santa Fe a few months later. Her installation, titled Orka was featured in the Icelandic Pavilion at the 1997 Venice Bienale. In 1999 she showed three installations in three countries: "Nuna" in Albuquerque, New Mexico, "Textures" in Reykjavik, Iceland and "Machine Vision" in Milano, Italy. She created two installations for the Art Festival 2000 in Reykjavik, Iceland. In 2001 she was invited to festivals in Norway, Russia, Estonia, Portugal, Montreal, England and Italy. Between July and October of 2002 she realized four installations in four locations in her hometown of 22 years, Santa Fe, NM.

Shrine, A Performance by Marja Samsom

eve — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:14:00 +0000

Photo courtesy: Marja Samsom

Shrine, A Performance by Marja Samsom

By Marja Samsom

Curated by Alanna Heiss

On view on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 6:00pm

Marja Samsom cooked up a storm on Wednesday October 19, 2011 in the Shrine, a performance art piece that combines Samsom's two favorite things: delicious food and storytelling.

This project is part of the Clocktower Emerging Artist Residency Program, made possible by the Jerome Foundation, which seeks to foster a dynamic and evolving culture by supporting the creation, development, and production of new works by emerging artists.

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The Celeste Lab 2011

david — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:29:24 +0000

Oliver Wilson, Fuerza Bruta II, 2007

The Celeste Lab 2011

Curated by David Weinstein

On view on Friday, November 11, 2011 - 7:00pm

Friday November 11th was a special day of performances, streamcasts, exhibitions, interviews, and network events as part of the Celeste Prize days in NYC that took take place at The Invisible Dog Art Center. Visit The Celeste Prize website to learn more about The Celeste Prize. The Celeste Lab project, hosted by Roberto Paci Dalò and David Weinstein, can be found in the Radio Archive on ARTonAIR.org.

Along with the Celeste Lab streamcasts visitors of The Invisible Dog Art Center were treated with exhibits of painting, photographs, video, installations, and performances. Each global participant had its own content using streams displayed on-site for the local public. The Celeste Lab streamcast from The Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn, as well as direct feeds from worldwide partners – a form of classical radio broadcasting plus internet streaming – is a mix of live interactions as well as recordings in a free-style production of different media (sound, video, performance, net, radio, and conversations). ARTonAIR.org hosted live programs and was a radio studio made visible - and tangible - to the public attending The Invisible Dog.

A component of the exhibition event was Producing Censorship, an exhibition and panel which explored new forms of censorship. Curated by Aria Spinelli and Jason Waite, the work reflected and intervened on the conditions of information production, the apparatus of power and its relationship to new forms of censorship.

The Invisible Dog is located at 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, New York.

Scarlet(t)

david — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 23:05:48 +0000

Frame from Matthew Ostrowski's Scarlet(t)

Scarlet(t)

By Matthew Ostrowski

Curated by David Weinstein

On view on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - 6:00pm

On Tues., Nov. 15, 2011 at 6pm the Clocktower screened Matthew Ostrowski's Scarlet(t), a single-channel 90-minute video work, a re-synthesis of the middlebrow Hollywood romance Girl with a Pearl Earring, and a systems-based attempt to isolate the 'latent' content of this popular film.

This project uses processes of reduction and filtering, emptying the movie of the superflous adornment of its story, and reducing it to one such signifier. Using a tracking algorithm, Girl with a Pearl Earring is reduced to its most crucial token – Scarlett Johanssen's scarlet lips. The remainder of the image is obscured, leaving only occasional flashes when she is offscreen – the wandering eye searching for its object of desire. The audio of the film is processed likewise, based on the same data used by the tracker, stretching, squeezing and positioning the sonic content of the movie based on the size and location of Scarlett's lips on the screen at any given moment.

Extracting this one signifier, Scarlett's famous mouth, wrenches the true subject of the movie – her lips, and their erotic juxtapositions – out of the extravagant context of the costume drama in which it is cushioned. The entire film, both sonically and visually, is thus in some way squeezed through it's primary feature, the point to which our eyes are drawn: the inaccessible eroticism of the star.

Concept, programming, editing: Matthew Ostrowski
Programming consultant: R. Luke DuBois
Video postproduction: Hisao Ihara

Scarlet(t) was made possible by the Experimental Television Center's Finishing Funds program.

A New York City native, Matthew Ostrowski is a pioneer in live electronic a, having worked as a composer, performer and installation artist for over 20 years, exploring work with alternative controllers, multimedia, and theater. An unreconstructed formalist, he has had a continuing interest in density of microevents, rapid change, and using technology to stretch the bounds of perception and experience. He has worked with a broad range of artists, from a boatload of international improvisors, to choreographer Elizabeth Streb, to the Flying Karamazov Brothers juggling troupe. He has been a recipient of a NYFA Fellowship in Digital Arts, and has developed audio and video software for dozens of artists in interactive video, extended musical instruments, sound installations, show control systems, and interactive juggling pins.

Above the Law: Diamond Terrifier

artonair — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:45:47 +0000

Above the Law: Diamond Terrifier

By Diamond Terrifier

On view on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 6:00pm

On November 29th, 2011 at 6pm, the Clocktower presented Diamond Terrifier, a project of Sam Hillmer involved extended saxophone improvisations, affected through a complex series of pedals, that flows from soothingly soft and textured to shockingly sharp and back again. Sam is the founder of Zs, a youth Hip Hop presenting organization in Bed Stuy called Representing NYC, and a conceptual art installation duo called Trouble, as well as acting as facilitator and organizer for Carnegie Hall's Weil Music Institute and The Beacon Center for Arts and Leadership. For this performance he showcased works he was developing for an album called "KILL THE SELF THAT WANTS TO KILL YOURSELF," due out of Northern Spy in 2012, produced by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear. Videos and music of some of these works can be found here.

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Organized by the Clocktower's Curator of Performance and Installation Joe Ahearn, Above The Law is a performance and installation series highlighting young and emerging artists and musicians. Titled in reference to the various legal offices and agencies that occupy the floors in the Clocktower’s City-owned building, Above The Law challenges preconceived notions about pop and avant garde art and music by featuring artists, bands, and performers that draw from both traditions.

Canyon Candy Installation Crew

artonair — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:46:24 +0000

Canyon Candy Installation Crew

By Javelin, Mike Anderson

Curated by Alanna Heiss

On view on Thursday, December 1, 2011 - 4:00pm

We'd like to thank all the people who made this exhibition possible :

Ahmed Gallab
Amy-Clare McCarthy
Anand Wilder
Andrei Bowden-Schwartz
Arias Abbruzzi
Ben Bindra
Berenice Barbillat
Bossi Baker
Brett Jutkiewicz
Carlo Romero
Casey Brander
Charlotte Hornsby
Chris Messina
Christine Adkins
Colin Gray
Connie Kang
Corey Angelus
Daphné Praud
Dillon Porter
Dylan Steinberg
Eric Spang
Erica Gorochow
Erin Schultz
Esther Spencer
Evan Wood
George Langford
Ginny Benson
Gretchen Faust
Heather Kramer
Ira Wolf Tuton
Izabela Gola
Janelle Jones
Jason Bartell
Jason Shrier
Jenna Baucke
Jeremy Wimmer
Joe Heffernan
Johanna Hickey
Kim Jefferson
Kim Schnaubert
Laura Stiassni
Meghan Kane
Mickey Heffernan
Nikkia Moulterie
Noah Rabinowitz
Pat Noecker
Rachel Stuckey
Rasheeda Johnson
Rhoni Blankenhorn
Ryan Levine
Sam Lisenco
Sarah Scheld
Shay Platz
Stephanie Norberg
Talia Favele
Tiffany Kirkland
Tom Van Buskirk
Wojtek Ziniewicz
Zachary Treitz

Where is the Black Beast?

david — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:35:55 +0000

Snapshot; Where is the Black Beast?

Where is the Black Beast?

By Siimon Lee, Algis Kizys

Curated by David Weinstein

On view on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - 6:00pm

On Tuesday, December 6th at 6pm, the Clocktower Gallery screened Where is the Black Beast? by Simon Lee and Algis Kizys.

Where is the Black Beast? is director Lee’s film interpretation of Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow by poet Ted Hughes. The 35-minute piece, made by editing hundreds of found amateur snapshots into a cinematic stream, is set to an original score by composer Kizys (bassist from Swans!) along with new readings of Hughes’ monumental cycle of poems.

Where is the Black Beast? is a film interpretation of Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow by Ted Hughes. The 35 minute piece, made by editing hundreds of found amateur snapshots into a cinematic stream, is set to an original score with new readings of Hughes’ monumental cycle of poems by Nesbitt Blaisdell, Carla Bozulich, Julie Spodeck, Flaminia Genari, Eve Sussman, Simon Lee and Algis Kizys.

The film begins with Lineage, a poem that abridges The Book of Genesis into 21 lines and from which the protagonist Crow emerges. A journey begins that takes us from Oedipus’ familial catastrophe to Crow’s mad battle with the sun. Deaf to all but his own cries of importance the film finally returns Crow to his roots: ‘trembling, featherless, elbows in the nests filth’.

Where is the Black Beast? has been screened at the IFC center NYC, the Rotterdam Film Festival Holland, the LOOP video festival Barcelona, the Zebra Poetry Film Festival Berlin, Decalogue: Films You Can Count On Two Hands at Winkleman Gallery NYC, and in 2012 will be featured at the Mediations Biennial Poland.

Simon Lee works in photography, video and installation. His public arts project, Bus Obscura, was part of Miami Basel in 2004 and has since toured extensively in the US and abroad. He has shown work at the Tinguely Museum in Basel, The Passenger’s Festival in Warsaw, Roebling Hall New York, Pierogi Brooklyn, Univeristy of Hertforshire London and Colgate University Hamilton. His photo series Shadow over the Land (made in conjunction with Eve Sussman’s whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir) has been shown at Haunch of Venison in London, Gallerie Senda in Barcelona, Galleri Bo Bjerggaard in Copenhagen and Cristin Tierney gallery in New York. He is represented in New York by Cristin Tierney.

Algis Antanas Kizys is a Brooklyn based musical performer/writer/sound composer/ director who has previously and/or presently worked/played bass/toured/recorded with Swans, Foetus(J.G. Thirlwell), Of Cabbages And Kings, Lydia Lunch, The Glenn Branca Ensemble, Pigface, Carla Bozulich, Alex Hacke, Danielle de Picciotto, Nels Cline,The Hallicrafters, Mathew Barney, Jonathan Bepler, Simon Lee, Eve Sussman, Doug Henderson, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, amongst others. His film credits include "Finding Forrester" by Gus Van Sant, "Meine Zahne in Paris" by Angela Christlieb, "The Rape of the Sabine Women" and "whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir" by Eve Sussman/Rufus Corporation. His video and sound composition “Reepeeled” was part of “The Dream Machine Project” by Experimental Skeleton, Inc.

David Linton's Cortical Degausser Opening Party with David First

david — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:42:02 +0000

Bicameral Research Sound & Projection System, 2011. Courtesy: Joe Perez (www.eyebodega.com)

David Linton's Cortical Degausser Opening Party with David First

By David Linton, David First

Curated by David Weinstein

On view on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - 6:00pm

David Linton's Bicameral Research Sound & Projection System sound and video installation entitled Cortical Degausser opened for public viewing on December 7, 2011 in Studio 4 at the Clocktower Gallery in downtown Manhattan. There was an opening party on December 7 at 6pm featuring special guest musical performance within the exhibition space by David First on acoustic guitar accompanying the installation sound with excerpts from the 60 Hrz Raga.

Open House Open Studios 13 December 2011

david — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:21:50 +0000

David Linton, Camera Obscura

Open House Open Studios 13 December 2011

By Tony Martin, Margot Farrington, David Linton, Julie Covello aka DJ Shakey, Hisao Ihara

Curated by David Weinstein, Alanna Heiss

On view on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - 6:00pm

On Tuesday, December 13th at 6pm, the Clocktower Gallery hosted an Open House and Exhibition of projects by artists who were working in the production studios.

Artists Tony Martin and Margot Farrington (interactive video projections, words, and sound), Julie Covello aka DJ Shakey (of the Warper Party audio experiments), David Linton (immersive audio driven optics), and Hisao Ihara (multi-screen video animations for an opera by Mary Griffin and Leroy Jenkins) showed their installations, performances, and development efforts at the Clocktower. It was a great way to meet the artists, experience the work, and tour the spaces.

The Martin/Farrington, Linton, and Ihara/Griffin/Jenkins projects were made possible by support from the mediaThe Foundation and DJ Shakey's activities were supported by The Jerome Foundation. Our thanks to these extraordinary organizations for making this work possible.

Search our site for details on each artists' individual projects, here's a quick thumbnail of each:

Tony Martin and Margot Farrington have created an interactive room filled with video projections, reflections, and illusions (if it isn't magic it's just merchandise) and collaborated on a short performance with Farrington's texts and sounds on Dec. 13.

DJ Shakey equipped her room with all the devices of her dreams and inviting specialists, experts, engineers, artists, and inventors to visit and share. Her project is called Dj Shakey's Audio Controller Adventure.

David Linton's Bicameral Research Sound & Projection System has manifest at the Clocktower Gallery as a sound and video installation entitled Cortical Degausser Optics and illusion, body piercing sound (or is it audio massage?), and deep sensory penetration.

Hisao Ihara made a remarkable multi-screen projection animation for an opera, Coincidents, written by Mary Griffin with the great violinist Leroy Jenkins who passed away during their collaboration.