Second Sundays: May 2014

SECOND SUNDAYS is a monthly series of Open Studios, Live Music, and Site-specific Interventions presented by Pioneer Works every second Sunday of every month. Opens art & science studios start at 5PM, live music curated by Olivier Conan starts at 7PM.

SCHEDULE

THE EXISTENTIAL MATHEMATICS OF VERTIGO – 4PM
On Sunday, May 11, Laurent will lead a discussion on the algebra of vertigo. Whether the void seems frightening or attractive to us, something situated at the edge of nothingness or infinite possibility, Laurent will examine our relationship to it with his formulas.
Laurent Derobert has been using algebra as a lens to consider great existential questions, such as love, hope and happiness. Starting with philosophical investigations he then uses mathematical formulas to describe the complex elements at play in human experiences/ interactions.

OPEN STUDIOS – 5PM
Artists in residence: Andres Carranza / Clocktower Productions / Robyn Hasty / Jasa / James Mercer / Bradley Pitts / Science Lab (Bruno Levy + Jonathan Harris), Radio Broadcast & Interviews on the 3rd Floor, streamed live on Clocktower Radio at clocktower.org and archived in the Pioneer Works Radio channel. To listen go to: http://clocktower.org/listen

ALSARAH & THE NUBATONES – 7PM
Fronted by Sudanese singer Alsarah, the group plays what they call “East African Retro Pop” – music that harkens back to the hazy sounds of 1960s and 70s Nubian music, with Eastern instrumentation, soaring vocal melodies, and pentatonic scales. The music has its musical roots in the Nubian “Songs of Return” that began to spring up after mass displacement and resettlement of hundreds of thousands in a region of lower Nubia that went under water after Egypt built Aswan High Dam to control the flooding of the Nile in 1970. The focus of Alsarah’s new album, “Silt”, both thematically and lyrically is about a return to home. It embodies a certain kind of saudade – a nostalgic longing for a place that no longer exists. Alsarah and the Nubatones’ music is their take on a certain musical fusion that happened in 1970s Khartoum, along with Arabic and North African influences.
“The New Star Of Nubian Pop” The Guardian, UK.

SPECIAL INTERVENTION – 8PM

DEANTONI PARKS AND BRUNO LEVY PRESENT WORLD’S END (Audio Visual show)
In their latest project as World’s End, drummer, producer Deantoni Parks and visual artist Bruno Levy collaborate to create an unforgettable audio visual performance. Deantoni Parks best known for his drumming with The Mars Volta, John Cale and Meshell Ndegeocello uses his ambidexterity to play drums with his left hand and the synthesizer with his right. His instruments are set to trigger video clips as well audio samples while audio frequencies from the drums alter realtime visual effects. This association between audio and video turns rhythmic patterns into a visual spectacle.

MELAZA – 9PM
Inspired by the golden age of New York Salsa, Melaza plays the kind of music Larry Harlow or Hector Lavoe could be proud of. This fourteen piece band is what Fania should sound like in the 21st century – a latin big band with enough of an urban edge to please the toughest New Yorker and enough nostalgia to woo the sappiest ones. Band leader and très player Jacob Plasse is a veteran of the NY Latin scene and Peruvian singer Renzo Padilla can navigate Son and Boleros with charisma and dazzling musicality. Fittingly, their first album was released by Daptone records, whose concept of Neo-Soul seems to now extend to Neo-Salsa.

ON VIEW

Organic Arches II, a site-specific installation by Chico MacMurtrie
Organic Arches II by Chico MacMurtrie is a site-specific installation consisting of a progression of inflatable arches in different sizes that undergo an organic metamorphosis several times a day. Suspended from the ceiling and barely touching the floor, these hand formed arches are levitating and inhabiting the space with their weightlessness. Their diaphanous skin, a specifically designed high tensile fabric with a built in memory, absorbs the daylight and offers a view into their inner workings.

PoliFauna
Recent Pictorial Works by Artist-in-residence Andres Carranza
Costa Rican artist Andres Carranza recent pictorial works by Artist-in-residence Andres Carranzauses primordial elements of spatial conception to propose different ways to perceive cognitive functions in a specific environment. Recently he has been focusing on painting as a way to depict the surrounding environment by means of a symbolic and raw gestural representation. Andres Carranza has represented Costa Rica in the 25th Sao Paulo Biennale, received the second Grand Prize in the 2nd edition of the Central American Biennale and has exhibited work in the United States, Spain, Dominican Republic, China, Panama, Brazil, London and Costa Rica.