FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ISSUE Project Room January Programming: a special presentation of the Dinner Theater Performance Blue Hammer, two new series: Roratoria and Theoretical; two nights with Australian improv trio The Necks and much, much more.
January 2010 at ISSUE Project Room
December 18, 2009 - Brooklyn, NY - Ushering in a new year, ISSUE Project Room presents new Artists-In-Residence; a newly commissioned series: "New Roratoria"; a new ongoing discussion schedule, "Theoretical"; and a bevvy of Brooklyn premieres during the month of January. We're pleased to host BLUE HAMMER, a Trans-Historical-Post-Colonial-Dinner-Theatre-Burlesque, presented by Leon Johnson and Creative Material Group. Pushing the boundaries of multichannel sound, ISSUE has commissioned composer David Sutton for the first of four events entitled the "New Roratoria", a program providing emerging composers with technical training in the creation of new and site-specific work on our signature 15-channel speaker system. Further exploring the art, music, and concepts that ISSUE cultivates, we've created "Theoretical", a series that will begin with Liam Gillick in coversation with Seth Kim-Cohen. An evening with the viBe Songmakers, a troupe of high-school girls who write, produce, and market their own music, will also feature two of their mentors, psychedelic indie folk singers Christy + Emily. Finally, ISSUE Project Room is extremely proud to present Australian trio Necks, who are playing in Brooklyn for the first time since 2001.
Continuing our support for innovative performance, ISSUE Project Room this year will be home to a collective of Artists-In-Residence for the first time: Shannon Fields, Laura Ortmann, Shelley Burgon, Ryan Sawyer, Matt Lavelle, and Jon Natchez.
Unless otherwise noted, doors are at 8pm and shows begin and 8:30.
Sunday, January 3rd:
Bring your gear to join the jam, this week with sound artist Carver Audain.
Wednesday, January 6th: $15
Electro-acoustic composer Jason Lescalleet premieres two new compositions as he and dancer Pauline Monin explore the interplay between sound and space.
Thursday, January 7th: TWO EVENTS
Artist Liam Gillick was chosen to represent Germany at the 2009 Venice Biennale. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago is currently presenting his mid-career retrospective, "Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario." Gillick's writings have been published in Proxemics: Selected Writings, 1988 - 2006 (JRP Ringier/Les Presses Du Réel, 2006) and sixteen critics and theorists have weighed in on Gillick's work in Meaning Liam Gillick (MIT, 2009).
A nontraditional take on traditional chamber music featuring the sounds of the human body and brain, from Biomuse Trio (Gascia Ouzounian, Ben Knapp, and Eric Lyon).
Friday, January 8th: $15
Enjoy guitarist and singer-songwriter Peg Simone's "deceptively vitriolic blues" and hear her perform songs off of her upcoming album, The Deeper You Get (Maverick).
Saturday, January 9th: $10
Avant-kraut-psych-improv + urgent, spontaneous, expansive rhythms + kosmische synth workouts, unholy space echoes, and brain-tingling video projections.
(Rare New York Performance)
Sunday, January 10th:
Bring your gear to join the jam!
Tuesday, January 12th: $10
Freak/free jazz, folk, drone, psychedelia, noise, and more from three young Dutch musicians.
(Rare New York Performance)
Wednesday, January 13th: $10
As part of MATA Interval's bi-monthly Architecture of Sound series, six artists will present new work that interacts with the materiality and geometric form of ISSUE's space at the Old American Can Factory.
Thursday, January 14th: $15
Minimalist drone textures, intonations, space odysseys, and projections from five emerging composers and filmmakers.
Friday, January 15th: SPECIAL EVENT - $50
Trans-Historical-Post-Colonial-Dinner-Theatre-Burlesque
South African convergent media artist and educator Leon Johnson and Creative Material Group, a group comprised of artists of all disciplines that promotes passionate, engaged, cultural labor, team together to present a premier performance: A Trans-Historical-Post-Colonial-Dinner-Theatre-Burlesque. Creative Material Group intends this premier to seed the beginning of a long-term dinner theater event, incubating and presenting new convergent-media performance works in collaboration with designers, chefs, bakers, and farmers. Expect African politics, propaganda, a graphic arts production workshop, 8-track video mixing, and, of course, dinner.
(New York Premier - Seating Limited!)
Sunday, January 17th: TWO EVENTS
First-ever AIR Collective will also perform February 19th and March 19th
To launch its fourth year of providing multi-month artist residencies, ISSUE will host its first AIR Collective Residency this year, featuring six Brooklyn-based musicians: Shannon Fields, Laura Ortmann, Shelley Burgon, Ryan Sawyer, Matt Lavelle, and Jon Natchez.
These composer/musicians have, for the greater part of the past decade, recorded and performed consistently beguiling and volatile and genre-defying music as members of the critically acclaimed group Stars Like Fleas. In this new collective (to be named by the group during their residency), these composers will be provided with rehearsal space, curatorial guidance, and opportunities to meet with members of ISSUE's Artistic Advisory Board, technical/production support, and marketing/pr support. They will also be able to create new and site-specific work.
Funding for ISSUE's AIR Program is provided, in part, by the Jerome Foundation.
Share will take place in the first-floor Munch Room on the 17th.
Bring your gear to join the jam!
Wednesday, January 20th: $10
New Program Highlighting ISSUE Project Room's Signature 15-Channel Speaker System Designed by Stephan Moore
ISSUE Project Room is proud to announce a new program which provides emerging composers with technical training in the creation of new and site-specific work on our signature 15-channel speaker system designed by Stephan Moore. The system generates immersive sonic environments, enabling electronic sounds to take on the characteristic intimacy of acoustic instruments, and liberating location as a musical dimension. In 2010, this new series will feature: David Sutton (1/20), Greg Kelley (2/26), Grouper (3/26), and Carlos Giffoni (4/10).
Support for ISSUE's New Roratoria provided, in part, by the Greenwall Foundation.
Thursday, January 21st: $10
ISSUE's Littoral Series began in 2006, and is a monthly event curated by Tony Antoniadis, pairing writers with musicians, sound artists, and video artists. Named after IPR's former location on the edge of the Gowanus Canal, Littoral is an attempt to cross-pollinate poetry and fiction with image and sound, and to bring New York City's innovative (but often separated) creative communities together.
Laird Hunt, author of short stories, mock parables and histories, and four novels (most recently Ray of the Star) will be reading from his work. Musical performance TBA.
ISSUE's Littoral Series is supported, in part, by The Casement Fund and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Friday, January 22nd: $15
New minimalist rock/heavy rural psych from shambolic, shamanistic Apothecary Hymns + Old Time appalachia and psychedelic beveled edges from Sacred Harp.
Saturday, January 23rd: $15
A Musical Education in Brooklyn
Dreamy folk duo Christy + Emily (guitarist Christy Edwards and pianist Emily Manzo) bring their signature guazy sound to ISSUE along with several companions: the Brooklyn-based viBe Soundmakers (whom Chirsty + Emily mentor), DJ Marcelle/Another Nice Mess turntable duet with Kid Millions of Oneida, and Brooklyn indie noise rockers Pterodactyl.
The viBeGirls SongMakers is an advanced music/song creation program that accepts 4-6 underserved Brooklyn teenagers every year and gives them the tools they need to be tomorrow's artistic and cultural leaders and revolutionaries.
Writing, recording, and performing orginal songs with professional musicians helps empower these girls to communicate through music. Instruction in piano, songwriting, drum machine, music theory, and digital production helps the girls make the music; an introduction to business and entrepreneurial skills helps the girls market and distribute their CDs; then, the girls learn basic video and editing skills and create their own music videos.
Sunday, January 24th:
Bring your gear to join the jam!
Wednesday, January 27th and Thursday, January 28th: $20
Epic Australian Necks revisit New York for the first time in eight years
Australian based Necks have been going at it for over 20 years now, but haven't played in Brooklyn since 2001. ISSUE is thrilled to welcome back to New York the prolific, indescribable not quite jazz/minimalist/ambient/avant-garde trio. Necks are Chris Abrams, Tony Buck, and Lloyd Swanton. Together and separately, the three have over 200 album credits to their names, and they still give live performances as much gusto as they did in the 80s.
Friday, January 29th: $10
Five psych underground legends.
Saturday, January 30th: $15
Beautiful homespun folk from Meg of the Baird Sisters and Espers + "post-everything" guitarwork from Chris Forsyth, founding member of Peeeseye and caretaker of the Evolving Ear record label.
ISSUE PROJECT ROOM
@The (OA) Can Factory
232 Third Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
# # #
Media Contact:
Sarah Garvey
sarahgarvey@issueprojectroom.org
315.521.7018
ABOUT ISSUE PROJECT ROOM
Founded in 2003 by visionary artist Suzanne Fiol in response to the critical deficit of art centres in our culture, ISSUE Project Room, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts presenter, has emerged as a vital meeting place for the most disparate forms of creativity whose sole criteria embodies the integrity and spirit of artistic _expression_ and exploration. Through an evolving collaboration with curators, artists and educators, ISSUE Project Room seeks to foster a wide-range of artistic projects that challenge and expand conventional practices in art. Since its inception, ISSUE Project Room has produced more than 750 critically acclaimed visual arts, sound/video installation, new and improvised music, and literary programs to an audience of 50,000 youth and adults. For more information on ISSUE and its programs, please visit www.issueprojectroom.org.
ISSUE gratefully acknowledges current and past support from the following organizations:
Annenberg Foundation
Aaron Copland Fund for Music
Brooklyn Arts Council
The Casement Fund
The Edwards Foundation Arts Fund
Experimental Television Center
Foundation for Contemporary Arts
The Golden Rule Foundation
Greenwall Foundation
Independence Community Foundation
Jerome Foundation
Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust
Meet the Composer
mediaThe foundation
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
NY Department of Cultural Affairs
The Puffin Foundation
Two Trees Management Co., LLC