San Francisco
Taraneh Hemami, Resistance, Luggage Store Gallery
Through our Thursday-night experimental music series at the Luggage Store Gallery, I have seen quite a few art exhibits on the walls (and the floor, and the ceiling). The current exhibition, Resistance!, is notable for both its theme and its presentation, and worth an article of its own separate from our musical exploits.
Resistance, a solo exhibition of work by artist Taraneh Hemami, is about “the visual culture of protest.” More specifically, it presents a history of dissent in Iran and among the Iranian diaspora through reinterpretations of elements from the archive of the Iranian Students Association of Northern California (ISANC). Art shows about resistance and protest are a dime a dozen in these days after the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street. This one is notable for being visually strong, with a very stylized and minimalist presentation that in some cases belies the violence of its subject.
This can be seen most clearly in Blood Curtain, in which a curtain of red beads hangs quietly in an empty corner of the gallery against monochromatic walls and curtains. It is at once beautiful and also uncomfortable with its obvious depiction of blood.
[Taraneh Hemami, Blood Curtain, 2013]
The curtain is made from 8mm glass beads and suggests a hand-crafted artifact, a theme that reappears throughout the exhibition. In Theory of Survival, portraits of martyrs from book covers are reproduced in glass frit on large panels, again in black and red. From a distance, the texture looks like carpeting, but when one looks closely the glass becomes apparent.
[Taraneh Hemami, Theory of Survival, 2010-2013]
More traditional craft can be seen a series of rugs that at first appear to be an elegant wall decoration but take on additional meaning when one realizes that these designs were from images of rugs created by prisoners. Other pieces were less subtle in their message, such as Notes from Evin Prison, named for the notorious Iranian prison that still appears in headlines today. Here, laser-cut metal is used to render both a harmless looking sign with the piece’s title as well a large and explicit figure in black and red being tortured. There were, however, more hopeful images as well. In People Power Revolution, the laser-cut metal forms depict throngs of revolutionaries. The main image of violence in this piece, a security guard being skewered, is almost cartoonish.
[Taraneh Hemami, People Power Revolution, 2013]
The prevalence of red among the pieces suggested an association with 20th century Communism in addition to blood and violence. The Communist motif was reinforced by the frequent appearance of five-pointed stars. I thought this was odd at first, because I was using the 1979 Iranian revolution and the recent protests against the Islamic regime as my reference. ISANC was actually active from 1960 to 1982, and thus its archives mostly predate the 1979 revolution and document earlier periods of resistance and protest when Leftists symbols would have been in wide use. Nonetheless, the images seemed like they could have been from the protests since 2009.
Resistance will be on display at the Luggage Store Gallery through February 28, with a closing reception that evening.
World of Wonder with DJ CatSynth
My latest podcast for the World of Wonder is up!
You can click here if the embedded player doesn’t work.
This episode’s playlist:
10:00AM-10:08AM (7:22) Mary Halvorson and Weasel Walter “The Art Deco Hairbrush” from Opulence (2008) on ugEXPLODE Records
10:08AM-10:13AM (5:21) Jon Raskin And Carla Harryman “LA Reactive Meme” from Open Box (CD, 2012)
10:13AM-10:21AM (7:38) Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble “Darkness Caught By Embers” from Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble I (Classical, 2008) on De Stijl Music
10:21AM-10:57AM (35:27) Instagon “Thee Perlexity ov a Shrinking Steering Wheel” from Thee Perlexity ov a Shrinking Steering Wheel (2012)
10:59AM-11:29AM (30:24) Instagon “Thee Sickness ov Losing Friends Over Stupid Stuff On Facebook” from Thee Perlexity ov a Shrinking Steering Wheel (2012)
11:29AM-11:37AM (8:02) Vinny Golia Sextet “Abstroblue (Greetings Fellow Stargazers!)” from Abstractions And Retrocausalities (CD, Album, Jazz, 2011) on Nine Winds (USA)
11:37AM-11:45AM (8:00) Myrmyr “Thunder Stars” from Fire Star (CD, 2012)
11:45AM-11:48AM (3:00) Music For Hard Times (Tom Nunn & Paul Winstanley) “Plabas” from 8:30:11
11:57AM-11:59AM (2:06) Chris Cutler & Thomas DiMuzio “When Cracks Appear: Reappearance Of BirdsWhen Cracks Appear: Things Roll Backwards Then” from Quake (CD, 1999)
Matt Davignon/Hugh Behm-Steinberg duo and Bill Walker, Luggage Store Gallery
Today we review the February 8 concert at the Luggage Store Gallery, featuring poetry, music and virtuosic guitar. The evening opened with the music-and-poetry duo of Matt Davignon and Hugh Behm-Steinberg.
I had seen them perform together before, and it was interesting to see how the collaboration has evolved since then. The structure has become more abstract, moving from a poetry reading accompanied by live electronics to an electronic-music duo using Behm-Steinberg’s words and voice as the sound source. Snippets of poetry were transformed through the many pedals, wires and other bits of electronics into percussive loops, slowly undulating sustained sounds, and other elements.
The reading of poetry becomes a source for synthesizer and drum machine sounds. #outsound
— catsynth (@catsynth) February 8, 2013
There still were places where the words and phrases remained intelligible amidst the electronic sounds, particularly at the beginnings of pieces. I thought it was good to have this in order to stay connected to the idea that there was poetry involved and that it wasn’t just an electronic improvisation duo. Having just performed there the week before in a poetry-and-music duo, it is quite tempting to compare our respective performances. Pitta of the Mind took a more traditional approach to the use of words, preserving the structure of the poetry and practice of reading alongside a variety of electronic sounds and stage performance, while the Davignon/Behm-Steinberg duo took a more abstract approach blending words and music into a single soundscape.
The next set featured a solo performance by Bill Walker on guitars and electronics. He brought a variety of electric and lap-steel guitars and array of electronics for looping and other effects.
His guitar-playing was itself virtuosic, easily moving between different styles and playing and textures ranging from long drones to fast-moving percussive sounds. His use of looping allowed him to build up more complex layers with different textures. The lap-steel guitar sections, which included a visually interesting custom-built instrument, were haunting without resorting to some of the instrument’s cliches. It was an impressive display of both instrument technique and coordination of electronics, and was quite a beautiful performance overall.
Bill Walker is making his guitar into a whole band, including percussion. #outsound
— catsynth (@catsynth) February 8, 2013
During his performance, Walker played compositions in tribute to his father, as well as to Kim Flint, who was very active in the looping and electronic-music communities, and the founder of Loopers Delight. There were also moments of humor in his set, such as a piece based on samples of Mr. T.
Overall, this was another strong performance in the Thursday-night series at the Luggage Store Gallery, and I was glad I braved a downpour to go see it.
Pitta of the Mind and Mezzacappa-Phillips Duo, Luggage Store Gallery
Today we look back at my latest performance with Pitta of the Mind at the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, a show that also featured a set by the Mezzacappa-Phillips duo.
Pitta of the Mind is my music-and-poetry duo with poet Maw Shein Win. It was our fourth performance as a duo, and probably our most polished to date. As with our previous performance at last year’s Skronkathon, we selected a color as the overarching theme for the set. That time it was silver, this time it was blue, which was reflected in our costumes, props (including a little blue tree), and the content of some of the poems. The selections were a bit darker and melancholy than at the Skronkathon, and overall the set had a more serious feel. There were, however, humorous moments in both words and interpretive dance moves from Maw. For the music behind the poems, I used a variety of iPad apps including Sunrizer, Animoog and Bebot. The challenge was to provide sound that fit with the poems without overpowering them.
[Maw Shein Win. Photo: PeterBKaars.com.]
After the main course of our poetry-and-music set, I played a solo improvisation on the analog modular system as dessert.
A subpatch with the E350 Morphing Terrarium from Synthesis Technology, the Make Noise Maths, and the KOMA Eletronik SVF-201 filter formed the foundation, with other modules patched in and out during the course of the performance. I was aiming for noisy rhythmic patterns, and sometimes succeed, while at other times allowed the sound to move in the direction of longer drones or unstable chaos.
[Click to enlarge.]
The set was well received by the small but appreciated audience, and we got quite a few positive comments for both words, music and our coordinated blue outfits.
Lisa Mezzacappa and Noah Phillips opened with with a set of improvised music for upright base and guitar, respectively. Both are virtuosic improvisers, and I expected good things from their set. They explored a wide variety of extended techniques, some percussive and some more drone-like, and moving freely between more structured and free-form rhythms. Overall, the timbres, harmonies and textures were quite beautiful and visually evocative.
[Noah Phillips and Lisa Mezzacappa. Photo: PeterBKaars.com.]
Interestingly, this was not the first time we shared the bill with the Mezzacappa-Phillips duo. We were all together at a show in Oakland in 2011. I’m glad we had the change to perform together again.
Wordless Wednesday: Mirage
Abode (Paul Stapleton, Caroline Pugh) and RepoRoom, Luggage Store Gallery
Tonight we review last Thursday’s concert at the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, part of Outsound Presents’ weekly series. I arrived to a darkened gallery with abstract bands and shapes of light being projected onto the wall, with Jan Pusina sitting in front controlling electronic musical sounds. The video was being controlled Bob Pacelli using analog video synthesizers.
The stripe patterns remained for a while with different combinations of colors and widths, before eventually changing to geometric shapes and even some curved forms. The music was primary long drones with complex timbres, but towards the last third of the set there were additional textures with shorter-length sounds. Overall it was a short performance, but I thought the duration worked well given the minimal nature of the visual and aural material and kept it interesting.
The second set featured Adobe, a duo of Caroline Pugh on voice and electronics with Paul Stapleton performing on his “Bonsai Sound Sculpture.” We have reviewed Stapleton performing with his creation before (see this article from last year). However, this was a more formal duo that has been performing together for a long time.
Stapleton’s electronic sounds blended well with Pugh’s vocals, which combined tradition Scottish folk singing with extended vocal techniques, feedback and cassette-player effects. I was impressed with her performance, both the range of sounds and techniques and the overall strength of her voice. Her sound ranged from long brilliant tones to rapid-fire sequences of phonemes that may or may not have been actual words. There was also an element of humor in her presentation and some of the text. Stapleton’s sounds ranged from DJ-like recordings played at variable speed to metallic noises and other scratchy bits of sound, and fill in the spaces in between the vocals. After the performance, I went to take a closer look at the Bonsai Sound Sculpture itself:
Overall, a strong performance with very contrasting sets, ranging from the more meditative opening to the more dynamic and virtuosic conclusion. I was quite happy I made the effort to come out on an exceptionally cold night in San Francisco to hear these sets.
Weekend Cat Blogging: Mission Cat
Late last year, I was heading to an opening at Southern Exposure in the Mission when I passed by this cat on the street:
The cat seemed familiar, and indeed it turns out we had encountered one another on the same street back in 2009! You can see some photos in this Weekend Cat Blogging article. It was great to see a cat here in the city with a long-term stable living situation, and the confidence to greet passers by on the street (albeit with laser eyes fully armed).
This neighborhood is mixture of residential buildings and converted factories and warehouses, not much greenery. Similar to the area around CatSynth HQ, actually. But there are lots of little cracks and places for a savvy cat to explore.
Oh, and the art opening was a mixed bag. There were some very interesting pieces, some others less so.
The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Mind of Mog.
And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.
