Opening Reception for Tin Drum: Medusa
& Aura Rosenberg: What Is Psychedelic

Join Pioneer Works in a public opening celebration of Tin Drum: Medusa and Aura Rosenberg: What Is Psychedelic.

Please note, reserved time slots for Tin Drum: Medusa are no longer available, but guests may sign up for an in-person waitlist at the event. Event RSVPs do not guarantee access to a device. The headsets will not fit over worn prescription eyewear; guests requiring vision correction should wear contact lenses if able to do so.

Medusa, directed by scientist and artist Yoyo Munk, is an ambitious project developed by media collective Tin Drum in collaboration with architect Sou Fujimoto. Bridging art, science, music, and technology, it comprises a unique and evolving mixed reality experience that envelops visitors within a new realm of physicality, visuality, and sound. Viewed through optically transparent glasses, Medusa intersperses thousands of hanging vertical columns onto the Main Hall of Pioneer Works, responding to the collective behavior of the space’s visitors.

Sound is an equally key component of Medusa, with a changing soundscape accompanying the experience. For this presentation of Medusa at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn-based composer Kelly Moran has written new music on a Yamaha Disklavier inspired by legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Her work expands upon the score that Sakamoto originally composed for Medusa's first iteration, which spatialized and combined recordings of undersea drones. Moran will also activate the exhibition through a live, durational performance series, taking place over the course of five hours on Saturdays, March 25, and April 1, 8, and 15.

What Is Psychedelic, co-presented by Mishkin Gallery and Pioneer Works, marks the first institutional survey of New York-born artist Aura Rosenberg. This two-venue exhibition traces the artist’s trajectory from early paintings of the 1970s to her more recent endeavors in photography, film, sculpture, and installation. Throughout her five decades long career in New York and Berlin, Rosenberg has moved through diverse styles, preferring to work thematically and serially while often returning to ideas from past projects. The exhibition also includes several previously unseen works, and Rosenberg’s collaborations with artists like Mike Kelley, Mary Heilmann, Louise Lawler and Ei Arakawa, all of which chronicle the breadth of her multifaceted career.

Tin Drum: Medusa is supported in part by Yamaha Artist Services New York, as well as public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Aura Rosenberg: What Is Psychedelic is curated by Alaina Claire Feldman. The exhibition at Mishkin Gallery is supported by the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College (CUNY) and Friends of the Mishkin Gallery. The exhibition at Pioneer Works is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.