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Sep 01

Fable

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Filmmaker Derrick Belcham (La Blogotheque, A Story Told Well) and choreographer Emily Terndrup (Sleep No More) present FABLE, a new evening-length production set in Knockdown’s sprawling 50,000-square-foot space.

Featuring original music performed live by Blonde Redhead, Julianna Barwick, Porcelain Raft, David Moore (Bing & Ruth), Skyler Skjelset (Fleet Foxes, Beach House), Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire), White Hinterland, Prince Rama and Hannah Epperson.

Following the success of “Debut” (2014) and “The Wilder Papers” (2013) at Knockdown Center, Derrick Belcham and Emily Terndrup have developed their most ambitious project to date, merging independent music, immersive dance theater and large-scale art installation.

The production features a giant, sound-reactive enclosure that showcases a different, acclaimed musician for each of the six performances, a 360-degree sound environment and an expansive array of transforming light systems from floor to ceiling. In a shifting proscenium, an unpredictable choreographic and theatrical narrative  immerses the audience on a depicting a revelatory encounter between a man and a mysterious voice who, over the course of a surreal and increasingly volatile evening, explore the variable boundary between delusion and actuality through the incomparable expanse of a century-old structure.

Choreographed by Emily Terndrup in collaboration with the dancers, the performance features Rebecca Margolick, Ashley Robicheaux, Kenna Tuski and Dan Walczak.

Following months of writing, rehearsal, residency and strategy, the devoted and determined team “Fable” needs support to bring this ambitious project to life: fable.belchamterndrup.com 

Thursday, October 8th: Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire)

Friday, October 9th: Julianna Barwick

Saturday, October 10th: Porcelain Raft / White Hinterland

Thursday, October 15th: David Moore (Bing & Ruth)

Friday, October 16th: Blonde Redhead / Prince Rama

Saturday, October 17th: Skyler Skjelset (Fleet Foxes) / Julianna Barwick

Aug 06

Temporary Allegiance

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A 40-foot flagpole erected at Knockdown Center was the site of Temporary Allegiance, a collaborative artwork by Philip von Zweck. The project originated in Chicago as a platform for the freedom of expression on a public college campus. Although typically a stable institutional fixture, this flagpole offers anyone the opportunity for monumental visibility for a limited time only.

A flag can bear national or military emblems, mascots, warning signals, or propaganda, among others. In many countries desecration of the national flag is a punishable crime. Patriotic love or rage, fandom, competition, festivity, spirituality, mourning—these are some of the array of reactions a flag can engender. The term “temporary allegiance” legally refers to the duty of a non-citizen to obey all laws so long as he remains in that country. Implied is the notion of flux, that loyalty and identity can be reconsidered as the flag is hoisted and lowered.

Philip von Zweck would like to thank Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois Chicago for previously hosting this project.

Submission information:

– Each flag will fly for ~2 weeks

– Unconventional shapes, sizes, and materials are acceptable so long as safety considerations are met (weight, fastening, and wind durability)

– Maximum flag size is 8 by 12 feet

– Flags should be attachable at a minimum of 2 points, 3 feet apart

– Individuals will have their name posted on a signboard next to the pole, and their contact info will be made available to inquiring visitors

9/24 – 10/5 “Flag from the Perfect Nothing Catalog” by Frank Traynor

10/5 – 10/19 “Rest in Pizza NYC” by Mariana Ruiz

10/19 – 11/2  “Space Dribble” by Kevin Evons

11/2 – 11/16 “Flag for a Failed Space Ship” by Alex Neuscheler

11/17 – 12/1 “Freak Flag” by Orlando Estrada

12/1 – 12/15 flag by Andrea Arrubla

12/16 – 12/30 flag by Blind Arch (Claire Mirocha and Alex Lombard)

12/30 – 1/13 Nick Normal’s flag for The Autonomous Nation of THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU

1/13 – 1/28  “God Isn’t Fixing This” by David Opdyke

1/29 – 2/12 Camilla Ha

2/12 – 3/24  Camilla Ha

3/25 – 4/13 John Roemer

4/14 – 4/26 Kate Leopold

4/28 – 5/13 Zefrey Throwell “Eurazor Union”

5/13 – 6/1 Tom Haviv “A flag of No Nation”

6/1 – 7/9 Sid and Jim

7/9 – 8/6 “Well Dressed Villains”

8/6 – 9/4 MALAXA

Jul 21

Anxious Spaces closing

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Clocktower’s 2015 group exhibition ends its month-long run at Knockdown Center with a final evening event.

Eyebodega’s 3D mapped projections on Will Ryman’s sculpture with performance by Via App // DJ set by Ital with Aurora Halal // Lucas Abela’s IV Drum Machine procession

Works on view by Lucas Abela (with support from Death By Audio pedals), Audra Wolowiec, Prince Rama, Aurora Halal, Will Ryman, Molly Lowe, Tim Bruniges (in collaboration with SIGNAL, and Benjamin Mortimer.

Jul 03

This Takes Place Close By: an opera by thingNY

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“This Takes Place Close By” is a new opera, written collaboratively by the music ensemble thingNY, exploring the fractured world that follows in the wake of a devastating storm. The audience enters the large, dark Knockdown Center, minimally set with rubbish and flickers of light. A soundscape of voices, instruments and electronics from twenty different sound sources imbues the space with a desolate mood. Listeners travel around the space experiencing different perspectives on the songs and stories of six characters as they cope with the sporadic destructiveness of nature.
Jun 26

Anxious Spaces Opening

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Anxious Spaces: Installation as Catalyst is Clocktower’s annual performance and installation festival. The 2015 exhibition brought a dynamic selection of artists to Knockdown Center’s dramatic compound for a month of on-site development, kicking off the exhibition with a celebration of the work and its fluid transformation from environment to stage.

The opening event on July 5 featured a special set by Aurora Halal in the backyard ruin, Lucas Abela playing glass with his face, and Prince Rama activating their zen waterpark in the outdoor patio. The evening culminated in a 24-person improvisation with Abela’s IV drip drum machines.

Installations by Will Ryman, Molly Lowe, Tim Bruniges, Aurora Halal, Lucas Abela, Ben Mortimer, Prince Rama, and Audra Wolowiec. On view through July 26, Saturdays and Sundays, from 2 to 6pm and by appointment.

 

 

Jun 26

Sous Observation/Spaces Under Scrutiny

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In participation with Quebec Digital Arts, NYC, this exhibition brings together six recent installations by eight Quebec artists. Movement, space and sound are central to their works, which explore the perception of time, observation/surveillance, the connections between seeing and hearing, and the coexistence of analogue and digital.

Underpinning these installations is a machine or the idea of a machine. At times, it lies at the heart of the artwork and reveals its inner workings; at other times, it is more discreet, opting for a subtle form of camouflage.

Featuring: Catherine Béchard & Sabin Hudon, Martine Crispo, Manon Labrecque, Lorraine Oades, François Quévillon, and Thomas McIntosh & Emmanuel Madan 

Curated by Nicole Gingras

For more information about Quebec Digital Arts, NYC, click here.

May 29

Anxious Spaces: Installation as Catalyst

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Clocktower’s second annual group exhibition Anxious Spaces: Installation as Catalyst featured a collection of artists whose work incorporates dynamic and time-based elements, ranging from robotic interactivity to performance events to social intervention. Knockdown Center’s expansive architecture and mysterious sub-chambers create a dream environment for site-specific and installation art.

Will Ryman presented Cadillac, a life-sized, 1958 Eldorado Biarritz convertible fabricated entirely out of resin and Bounty paper towels. In Molly Lowe‘s Growth, a sound/video piece and “garden” environment, the miraculous minutiae of plant life become alien and sinister. Lucas Abela‘s installation was made from medical intravenous drip equipment forested together and wired to audio gear to generate overlapping complex surround polyrhythms, turning into an instrument/drum machine orchestra to be performed en mass by attendees. Tim Bruniges‘ Normalize (the pull of the earth), created in collaboration with SIGNAL, was a site-responsive sound installation engaging material tension and acoustic resonance of the architecture. Aurora Halal took over a subterranean annex where a floating video was projected onto transparent screens, cloaking the mysterious cave in holographic effects.  Prince Rama presented Fountain of Youth 11:11, a water installation in the backyard’s roofless ruin. Audra Wolowiec exhibited Concrete Sound, a modular series of cast concrete forms based on the geometric shapes of sound foam used in recording studios and anechoic chambers, installed as a wall relief.

May 12

II Machines Live: Lydia Chrisman and Lilja Birgisdóttir

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As part of the ongoing exhibition II Machines: Clive Murphy & Trevor Tweeten, the Knockdown Center and Rawson Projects presented a special evening of live performance by dancer Lydia Chrisman and Icelandic artist Lilja Birgisdóttir.

Lydia Chrisman debuted an original dance piece inspired by the sculptural installations exhibited in II Machines. She collaborated with Trevor Tweeten in the creation of the film for his sculpture Running in Eight Directions. For the evening’s performance she continues to extend the vocabulary of movements and rhythm highlighted in Tweeten’s ambitious film installation.

Lilja Birgisdóttir performed an original musical work that began with her solo voice, which was then looped repeatedly, slowly building up to form a choir of vocals filling the immense Knockdown Center space. Rawson Projects exhibited Lilja Birgisdóttir and Clive Murphy at NADA NY art fair on view May 14-17.  Jessamyn Fiore also organized Birgisdóttir’s solo show at Rawson Projects gallery titled If your colors were like my dream, on view through June 21. More information available at www.rawsonprojects.com

May 06

Non-representational Spatial Sound Composition Workshop

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A workshop by Daniel Neumann

This 2 day workshop catered to sound artists, noise producers, composers of electronic and electro-acoustic music, as well as experimental musicians and sound designers, interested in deepening their practice and exploring spatialization as a creative element.

The workshop gave a historical overview on the subject with some technical background and explored aesthetics and techniques for spatialization. One objective is to practice listening as a phenomenological activity: the listener immersed in inner spaces / distance and continuity / sound as intersubjective space.

For more information and schedule click here.

Apr 21

Internet Yami-Ichi

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Knockdown Center is pleased to present the U.S. debut of Internet Yami-Ichi (Internet black market), where artists, creators, and makers will come together to sell and trade Internet-related items in a flea market style bazaar. The Internet Yami-Ichi invites vendors and visitors to browse face-to-face, to “log in” to an intercultural exchange of the Internet and real world. Artist duo Exonemo and online collective IDPW.org organized the first Yami-Ichi festival in Japan, which has since spread to Berlin, Brussels, and now New York, for its largest iteration to date. The Internet Yami-Ichi in New York coincides with the first ever World Wide Yami-Ichi Weeks (WWyW), simultaneous events taking place in Taichung, Taiwan; São Paulo, Brazil; Linz, Austria, and Seoul, Korea.

The event is a manifestation of the enthusiasm, desires, and freedoms of the early days of the Internet. A time when users – not corporations – controlled data. As IDPW.org puts forth, “Once upon a time, the Internet was supposed to be a place for liberty.” Since then the Internet has evolved and impacted life in many ways. We are ever-more dependent on smart phones and digital communication to interact with the physical world. The desire for quick communication has spawned countless memes and emojis, now used like a second language. Social media and data sharing sites are hubs for friendships and knowledge. Privacy, anonymity, and freedom of speech have become critical points of debate as companies enforce copyright laws, activities such as “liking” are tracked and monetized, and forum trolls wreak havoc on message boards. The Internet Yami-Ichi brings these experiences in virtual space to the real world – creating a humorous and timely discussion of Internet culture.

The Japanese word “Yami-Ichi” translates directly into the English “black market”, though due to an emphasis created by mixing different Japanese writing systems the word “yami” takes on double meaning of “sick for” / “addicted to” etc., so a more accurate translation might be “Internet Obsessive Market.”

Organized by Exonemo, IDPW.org, Chris Romero, Eri Takane, PARTY Inc., and many others, the New York edition of the Internet Yami-Ichi will host over 100 vendors who will communicate and share their love for the Internet and reveal the depth it contains. Coinciding with the event will be an exhibition featuring the works of IDPW.org artists and performances.
Vendors:
Adam Okrasinski, Addie Wagenknecht, Albert Negredo, Allison Parrish, Andrew Badr, Angie Shen, Anime Research Group, Annie Malamet, Ansh, Aram Bartholl, Arcangel Surfware, ART404, Ayyoko Confidential, Babycastles, to.be, Tokyo Twilight, Chris Romero, Carla Gannis, Caroline Sinders, eteam, Social Clinic, Claire, Clement Valla, Corinna Kirsch and Dylan Schenker, Daniel Johnson, Daniel Johnston, Darren Kong, David Huerta, David Kraftsow, Dries Depoorter, Louise Drulhe, Dorita, Ed Bear, Elena Garnelo, Emily Sheehan, Emma Stamm, exonemo, Fabien Mousse, Hannah Epstein, IDPW, The Institute for the Study of Invisible Walls, Jon Burgerman, Katy Dresner, Kristin Lucas & 
Joe McKay, Faith Holland, Fantasista Utamaro, G. A. Carafelli & Jen Ahearn, Goichi HOSAKA, Guilherme Pena Costa, Imani Razat, Nina KUO, Internet dude (?), Invisible Light Network, Jeff Donaldson, Jeff Ong, Johann Diedrick, John Farrell & Fletcher Bach, John Provencher, Julian Sheep, Karen Y. Chan, Create In Situ, Laura Juo Hsin Chen, Lauren McCarthy, Ryan Hale, Leah Schrager, Linn Livijn Wexell, Lizzie Davis, Maddy Varner, luxloop, Marianna de Nadal, Art F City, Powrplnt, Mattia Casalegno, Jason Sigal, Masanori Mizuno, Michael Mandiberg, Mike Cho, Miles Joyner, Meguru Yamaguchi- NIGHT TRAIN, Mike Richison, Nate Graham, NIKO, Nicolas Probst, Nukeme, Nullsleep, ØLIVIA_FØX, OR Books, OTO, Library of the Printed Web, Qanta Shimizu, Philip David Stearns, Rafaël Rozendaal, Lorenzo Sanjuan, The Rack NYC, RAFiA, Rei Nakanishi, HELLO VELOCITY, Ohm and Sport, MR BOTS, Roberta Bennett, Robert Martin, Ross Goodwin, Rollin Leonard, Ryoji Tanaka, Surya Mattu & Tega Brain, Sarah Grant,
Sarah Rothberg, Sessa Englund, Sekai Kouzuma, Several.Works, Sharang Biswas,Shingo Ohno, ShunyaHAGIWARA, Song Hia, Tabita Rezaire, tadahi, Takuya Hosogane, Eri Takane, Taisan Tanaka, Taeyoon Choi, Gifpop, Alvin Yeung, Takashi Horisaki, Tess Adams, Transfer Gallery,
Trish MacKenzie, Twinhead 
and 
Cat Holtz, Uttam Grandhi, Uni & Yefeng, VSOON, Wade Jeffree, WEATHER MAN, Yuchen Zhang, Zach Krall, Zach Lieberman, ZZYW!!

Contact yamiichiny@gmail.com or visit yami-ichi.biz/nyc for more info.

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