Whitney Museum of American Art: Watch and Listen: Performance

February 1, 2013Performance: Eleanor Antin: Conversations with Stalin

Whitney Museum of American Art — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:04:51 -0400

Spanning a variety of mediums including photography, video, film, performance, installation, drawing, and writing, Eleanor Antin’s work has explored entrenched assumptions about gender and power. As one of the first artists to re-introduce autobiography, narrative, and performance back into the art world in the 1960s and ’70s, Antin created an imaginary theater of personae and mythological characters, dramatizing contemporary personal and political narratives through a kind of historical time travel. In this performance, she reads four chapters from her coming-of-age memoir Conversations with Stalin, a no-holds-barred black comedy of growing up in New York City. This event is part of a four-part series of readings across the city.

2012 Biennial: Joanna Malinowska: Fieldwork

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:23:47 -0400

In this video, Margie Weinstein, manager of education initiatives, describes 2012 Whitney Biennial artist Joanna Malinowska's public program, Fieldwork.

2012 Biennial: Curating Performance

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:18:00 -0400

In this video, Whitney Biennial 2012 curators Elisabeth Sussman and Jay Sanders discuss the live performance work featured in the Biennial.

Xavier Cha: Body Drama

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:08:11 -0400

In this video, senior curatorial assistant Diana Kamin discusses the video and performance installation Xavier Cha: Body Drama.

March 23, 2011 On The Death of Tom, with Glenn Ligon, Jason Moran, and Terrance McKnight

Whitney Museum of American Art — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:46:31 -0400

Glenn Ligon‘s latest video piece, The Death of Tom (2008), offers an abstractionist recreation of the final scene in Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 silent movie Uncle Tom’s Cabin, based on the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Ligon asked experimental jazz musician, pianist, and composer Jason Moran to create a soundtrack for this piece, playing to changes in light on the screen. The film and live, improvised performance are followed by a conversation between Ligon and Moran, moderated by Terrance McKnight.

Elizabeth Streb Discusses her Performance of Trisha Brown’s Man Walking Down the Side of a Building (1970)

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:25:43 -0400

Elizabeth Streb describes what it felt like to walk down the facade of the Museum for her performance of Trisha Brown’s Man Walking Down the Side of a Building (1970) during Off the Wall: Part 2—Seven Works by Trisha Brown. Streb also explains how Brown’s choreography often works to explore simple actions—such as walking—when taken out of their everyday context.

Trisha Brown Dance Company Performs a Compilation of Brown’s Early Works

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:39:58 -0400

In this video, the Trisha Brown Dance Company performs some of the choreographer’s most iconic works from the 1970s during Off the Wall: Part 2—Seven Works by Trisha Brown, an exhibition organized on the occasion of the company’s fortieth anniversary

Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins perform Christian Marclay’s Sixty-Four Bells and a Bow (2009)

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:53:33 -0400

In this video, Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins perform Christian Marclay’s Sixty-Four Bells and a Bow (2009), in which sixty-four small hand bells are used as sound sources.

Anthony Coleman and special guest Odeya Nini perform Christian Marclay’s Covers (2007–2010)

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:48:39 -0400

In this video, Anthony Coleman and special guest Odeya Nini perform Christian Marclay’s Covers (2007–10) in which musicians draw inspiration from thirty record covers and attempt to play any musical notation as literally as possible.

Sylvie Courvoisier and Mark Feldman perform Christian Marclay’s Ephemera (2009) and Shuffle (2007)

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:55:42 -0400

In this video, Sylvie Courvoisier and Mark Feldman perform Christian Marclay’s Ephemera (2009), a collection of printed materials decorated with musical notation, and Shuffle (2007), a set of photographs documenting musical notation found in mundane settings.

Mary Halvorson and Ikue Mori perform Christian Marclay’s Graffiti Composition (1996–2002)

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:54:51 -0400

In this video, Mary Halvorson and Ikue Mori Perform Christian Marclay’s Graffiti Composition (1996–2002), a score consisting of 150 unbound images documenting the public’s response to blank sheet music posted around Berlin.

Anthony Coleman, Mary Halvorson, and special guests Alberto Denis and Esther m Palmer perform Christian Marclay’s Pret-à-Porter (2010)

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:47:39 -0400

In this video, musicians Anthony Coleman and Mary Halvorson interpret Christian Marclay’s Pret-à-Porter (2010) with the help of Alberto Denis and Esther m. Palmer who model clothing decorated with musical notations.

Alan Licht Performs Christian Marclay’s Wind Up Guitar (1994)

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:51:28 -0400

In this video, Alan Licht performs Christian Marclay’s Wind Up Guitar (1994), a guitar that Marclay fitted with twelve music boxes.

Nicolas Collins Performs Christian Marclay’s Sixty-Four Bells and a Bow (2009)

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:52:31 -0400

In this video, Nicolas Collins interprets Christian Marclay’s Sixty-Four Bells and a Bow (2009) according to Marclay’s stipulation that all sounds must originate from the sixty-four glass, porcelain, and metal hand-bells.

Ulrich Krieger Performs Christian Marclay’s Box Set (2008–2010)

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:50:44 -0400

In this video, Ulrich Krieger performs Christian Marclay’s Box Set (2008–2010). Like Russian nesting dolls, boxes adorned with musical notation are placed one inside the other, to be opened, played, and then closed by the musician.

Curator Chrissie Iles on John Baldessari’s I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art (1971)

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:19:54 -0400

Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz Curator Chrissie Iles discusses John Baldessari’s I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, and the restaging of the 1971 work that she organized in conjunction with Off the Wall—Part 1: Thirty Performative Actions. Iles also reads Baldessari’s original instructions for the work.

July 16, 2010 Open Studio: Joan La Barbara on Manga Scroll

Whitney Museum of American Art — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:59:15 -0500

Composer and performer Joan La Barbara discusses her performance of Manga Scroll and her approach to Marclay’s work. La Barbara performed this piece several times during Christian Marclay: Festival.

June 25, 2010 Backyard Birds: An Evening of Prose and Music Celebrating Charles Burchfield

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:05:02 -0400

Charles Burchfield reveled in the sounds, sights, and sensations of nature. He often wrote about his experiences in his journals, and his close study of nature is apparent in his paintings. Listen to a reading of excerpts from Burchfield’s journals by Jonathan Rosen, author of The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature, paired with a performance of songs by Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater who will be joined by Andy Stack of Wye Oak. Rosen and Meiburg both share Burchfield’s enthusiasm for nature, particularly birds. Discover the wonders in paying attention to the backyard bird.

2010 Biennial: Ari Marcopoulos: My Turn

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:45:11 -0400

In this video, 2010 artist Ari Marcopoulos brings together musicians from the electroacoustic improvisation scene, including Orphan and Yellow Tears, for a night of performance and noise.

My Turn: Kerry Tribe

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:06:39 -0400

May 7, 2010 My Turn: Kerry Tribe

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:24:49 -0400

Filmmaker Kerry Tribe takes the elusive nature of memory as her subject matter in work that investigates subjectivity and representation. Through carefully crafted footage and interviews she reveals the power and influence of film and video in shaping beliefs and perception. This evening, Tribe stages a performative reading of Hollis Frampton’s classic film, Critical Mass (1971).

The first part of the performance was a verbatim reenactment of an argument originally improvised for Frampton's Critical Mass. The second part was a reenacted reading of the finished film, complete with Frampton's highly stylized editing. For this performance, the role of Frankie was played by Reed Windle and the role of Barb was played by Jasmine Woods.

This performance contains language that may not be suitable for children.

My Turn invites artists to create programs for the Whitney’s public that are an extension of and informed by their own artistic processes and methods. Taking their contributions to 2010 as a point of departure, six Biennial artists explore key aspects of their practice to create distinctive evenings of performance, discussion, demonstration, and engagement.

April 30, 2010 My Turn: Emily Roysdon

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:25:08 -0400

An artist and a writer, Emily Roysdon uses language and text to explore questions of civic engagement, public speech, politics, and history. Her work spans mediums—from performance and video to photography and printed matter—as she bridges visual art and writing. For this program, Roysdon brings together performing artist MPA and the post-punk duo Light Asylum for a mix of movement and sound.

2010 Biennial: Melinda Ring: Mouse Auditions

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:03:12 -0400

In this video, experimental choreographer Melinda Ring holds auditions for a fully imagined but never to be performed work specifically designed for Martin Kersels's sculpture, 5 Songs .

April 23, 2010 Monastic Residency:The Black Monks of Mississippi

Whitney Museum of American Art — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:21:08 -0500

The Black Monks of Mississippi are an order of musicians and singers who temporarily submit themselves to ideals of musical restraint and semi-strict adherence to the blues form, which Theaster Gates believes to be the most important root in the American musical tradition. The Black Monks strive to be holy, restrained, orderly, and disciplined, but they fall short. What they achieve instead is a very human response to displaced spiritual ecstasy, particularly in the flavor of the Black Church.

This event is one in a series of “monastic residencies” organized by 2010 artist Theaster Gates, who will collaborate with academics, artists, and street musicians in the Museum’s Sculpture Court throughout the duration of the Biennial.

April 16, 2010 My Turn: Aki Sasamoto and Culture Push

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:25:24 -0400

From the act of peeling fruit to the theatrical staging of movement, Aki Sasamoto’s work explores the peculiarities of everyday life and gestures. She functions as storyteller and performer, drawing the viewer into her created narratives. Tonight she is joined by Culture Push, the arts organization she co-directs, to premiere a new series of experiential workshops, Storm Your Brain.

Culture Push is about hands-on learning, group problem solving, serious play, and interdisciplinary connections. Aki directs one of the company’s signature programs, DOING Symposium, in which invited specialists share their expertise with each other through hands-on experiences. Each participant brings activities that are specific to his/her field and shares in all the activies—there are no spectators!

My Turn invites artists to create programs for the Whitney’s public that are an extension of and informed by their own artistic processes and methods. Taking their contributions to 2010 as a point of departure, six Biennial artists explore key aspects of their practice to create distinctive evenings of performance, discussion, demonstration, and engagement.