vernissages | NYC October 1

Canal Street & Varick, October 1, 7:48pm

 

Robert Wilson "Black & White" at The National Arts Club

 

 

Rashid Johnson “Anxious Men” and  "Richard Pousette-Dart: 1930s", at The Drawing Center

performances | "Drawing Sound" at the Drawing Center

Last night’s Drawing Sound performance at Soho’s Drawing Center on Wooster Street brought together new works in drawing and music by Billy Martin and String Nose, as well as incorporated odors in a “scentstallation” created by Phaedra Martin.

While the images by Martin were projected on the walls, the performers reacted to, improvised on, or played pre-written music  on their music stands .  It wasn’t clear if there were direct intersections between the visual and audio, but the music was masterfully played, including Ned Rothenberg on shakuhachi and Martin himself on percussion. Fung  Chern  Hwei played a very warm, romantic violin, and John Zorn dropped in with his saxophone.

The concert ended with a three-minute, seemingly tightly-organized composition with strong ensemble playing.   The concert seemed a fusion of loft music and the always-energetic, improvisatory downtown scene.

Elizabeth Davis

Vernissages | January 16

 Brian Clarke at Pace Gallery

 Alexandre Singh at The Drawing Center

 Ignacio Uriarte at The Drawing Center

Events | NYC, Marrying Space with Time: Iannis Xenakis

New York will host several initiatives presenting the work of Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001), celebrating the unique projects integrating space and time with images and sounds. The first event was the exhibition at the Drawing Center: "Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary will explore the fundamental role of drawing in the work of Greek avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis . A leading figure in twentieth century music, Xenakis was trained as a civil engineer, then became an architect and developed revolutionary designs while working with Le Corbusier. Comprised of over 60 documents created between 1953 and 1984, this will be the first North American exhibition dedicated to Xenakis’s original works on paper. Included will be rarely-seen hand-rendered scores, architectural drawings, conceptual renderings, pre-compositional sketches, and graphic scores."