Art Center College of Design
Spotlight Gallery
Fine Art Department
870 S. Raymond Ave.
Pasadena, CA
Jan 15 – May 15
2019
Laura Cooper
Joshua Holzmann
Mitchell Kane
Tom Knechtel
Olga Koumoundouros
Allison Miller
Ryan Perez
Jean Rasenberger
Jessica Rath
David Schafer
Tony Zepeda
Audio CD edition of 100.
37:48
2018
Pink and Blue is composed of a recorded interview that was conducted with Angela Davis in 1971. The voice of the person conducting the interview was removed, leaving only the responses by Angela Davis. These responses were processed with an echo and delay. This act of removing created gaps that were each replaced with five seconds of pink noise, a random noise having equal energy per octave. The word pink also references the color Baker-Miller Pink that was used in prison cells in the 70′s, to control and oppress inmates. Interweaving within these tracks are processed samples from the song, “Grinnin’ in Your Face”, a blues song by Son House.
“Pink and Blue”
2018
Richard Telles Gallery
Pink and Blue is based on a small collage from a recent series of collages. The series is comprised of small black and white portraits that are sliced into narrow vertical or horizontal strips and then slightly rearranged so that the image is out of order but still recognizable. This reference to, or activation of facial recognition has to do with a number of considerations. William Burroughs talked about his “cut-up” technique as a way to open up language from the present and its controlling structure, and release it into the future where new associations would be present. I am interested in opening up images of these individuals, evoking the past with some familiarity, but also the present. Somewhere between recognition and an image out of order, a glitch, or an arbitrary gesture allowing noise to enter into the image. These rearranged images are collaged on a field of color that both frames and isolates them in space. Here the face functions as a site, a relay, not only to the work, writing, voice, compositions, the labor of the subject, but also to the cultural context of their contributions.
This particular installation Pink and Blue, is based on a small collage I had previously made using a 1970’s image of Angela Davis. Her pose and gesture is contemplative with her head resting on her folded arm. She looks away from the camera. This image evokes the past predominantly because of Davis’s natural Afro, which at the time was a powerful political expression of black solidarity in the face of intense racism and oppression. This was also a time when Angela Davis was in the media for her involvement with the Soledad prison controversy, the Black Panthers, and her image had become an icon of black power and resistance. Davis was a student of Herbert Marcuse at Brandeis, and was her mentor at the University of California at San Diego.
I am interested in how the ghosting of the past is present and how this Hauntological position suggests that the past is very present today. This reordered image of Angela Davis is floating in a large field of pink color on the wall. The original collage that this is based on is also pink, and was chosen more or less arbitrarily at the time. But the pink evokes a special shade and brand of pink color known as Baker-Miller Pink, developed in the 1970’s. Baker-Miller Pink is claimed to reduce hostile, violent or aggressive behavior. The color is also known as Schauss pink. Alexander Schauss did extensive research into the effects of the color on emotions at the Naval Correctional Facility in Seattle, and named it after the institute directors, Baker and Miller. The use of this color reflects the subliminal mechanisms of control and oppression that were prevalent in the 1970’s, and to the present. In this window installation, the original collage has been recreated at a visibly public scale that is visible from the space of the street and passersby. Functioning as a remixed sign, Pink and Blue, an homage to Angela Davis, is a Hauntological site that is revisiting a moment of cultural history while activating our collective amnesia.
Dermis, audio CD edition, curated by Richard Garet, Contour Editions.
2018
Dermis project focuses on the sonic studio practice of artists making works that
are currently in process; consequently obscure, unheard of and not accessible by
the public.
Artists include:
Sabisha Friedberg, France Jobin, Brendan Murray, Maria Chavez, Andy
Graydon, Alfredo Marin, David Velez, Jim Haynes, Doron Sadja, Melissa F.
Clarke, Gill Arno, Carver Audain, Katherine Liberovskaya, Jesse Kudler, David
Schafer, Tristan Shepherd, Christopher Delaurenti, Bonnie Jones, Wolfgang Gil,
Gil Sanson, Byron Westbrook, Victoria Keddie, MV Carbon, Lesley Flanigan, Ben
Owen, Seth Cluett, Richard Garet, Stephanie Loveless, Martin Craciun, Daniel
Neumann, Tristan Perich.
http://www.contoureditions.com/pages/about.html
http://synradio.fr/dermis-un-projet-de-richard-garet-pratiques-datelier-et-work-in-progress/
Five Works
2017
ed. 100
This album has five tracks, four are from related sculpture projects, and one is a live recording of a performance at La Cita as part of Misfit Toys organized by Michael T. Ruiz. Liner notes briefly describe the other tracks. Available on Bandcamp as download or CD.
Sound Positions creates immersive and intimate situations for listening to work by an international selection of emerging and established sound artists. The exhibition will feature 4 listening stations, each dedicated to the work of each artist.
Contributing Artists:
Seth Cluett, Luza Quiceno, Mileece, David Schafer
2017
for Michael Smith’s Not Quite Under_Ground Tattoo Studio
Skulptur Projekte Münster
This ear drawing references two sound artists. One is Max Neuhaus who did a project in New York City in the 1970’s called LISTEN where he would offer guided tours of NY based on the sounds of the city. The other is the composer Pauline Oliveros who developed a theory of Deep Listening. Both of these ideas extend John Cage’s idea of Silence and listening. This simple sign of an ear as a tattoo, offers one an opportunity to add a symbolic sensory device to your body and to demonstrate that you are a deep listener and appreciate the sounds of the world.
Not Quite Under_Ground aspires to bring together communities young and old, and by targeting a clientele 65 years and up (who can get inked for free, or at least at a drastically reduced rate).
The title of this work, Gate, refers to a movable barrier, a closing or an opening in a fence, wall, or other enclosure, an opening permitting passage through. William Burroughs refers to language as a mechanism of control, an enclosure, and he used the cut-up technique to open it, to break through it. It allowed him to enter into the text, and access language beyond to an alternate world. Gate physically and sonically references a William Burroughs cut-up text collage. He further cut up this particular text with a line drawing, fragmenting the text even further. Gate is based on this drawing, using it as a plan for the sculpture, which is connected to the wall of the gallery at a right angle. The transcribed text was processed using a digital voice program. The computerized reading pronounces the words, but also sometimes pronounces single letters or just punctuation, depending on the way this cut-up was originally created.
Listen to the sound component on Soundcloud.
MORE LIGHT
September 9 – October 29, 2017
Curated by Gladys-Katherina Hernando
JOAN is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit space for exhibitions, performances, and screenings. http://joanlosangeles.org/about/
Loren Abbate
C.P. Badger
Michael Carter
Manny Castro
Michael Genovese
Marcos Lutyens
Adam D. Miller
Christina Ondrus
Ali Prosch
David Schafer
Katie Shapiro
Astri Swendsrud
Mungo Thompson
Landon Wiggs
DSE Noise Action at Island of Misfit Toys #27
La Cita Bar, Los Angeles, CA
With X EYES, DSE, BURNT DOT, SOUNDSHOPPE, VJ Astralviolet, dj DYSKITTEN, and dj Maneesh Raj Madahar.
Organized by Kara Feely and Travis Just (Object Collection)
January 20th is Inauguration Day. To mark this new, challenging, political inflection-point we, the artists involved in this compilation, are releasing Notes from Sub-Underground a collection of material: music, sound, and assorted aural ephemera. It is a project put forth by over 50 artists from across multiple disciplines and practices.
Artists included:
Brian Adler, Casey Anderson, Ranjit Bhatnagar, G. Douglas Barrett, Bob Bellerue, Lea Bertucci, Christopher Botta+String Noise (Conrad Harris+Pauline Kim Harris), Jason Cady, Mallory Catlett/Black-Eyed Susan, Scott Cazan, Carolyn Chen, Tom Chiu, Steve Dalachinsky, Bill Dietz, Dither Guitar Quartet, Brendan Dougherty, Shayna Dunkelman, English (Bonnie Jones +Joe Foster), Kevin Farrell, Jim Findlay, Richard Foreman, iT Boy, Nick Hallett, Brian Harnetty, John Hastings, Ryan Holsopple/31 Down James Ilgenfritz, Jantar, Dan Joseph, David Kant, Catherine Lamb, Zach Layton, Catrin Lloyd-Bollard, Jonathan Marmor, Christopher McIntyre, Brian McCorkle, Paula Matthusen, Devin Maxwell, Aaron Meicht, MIL KDU DES, Phill Niblock, Object Collection (Kara Feely+Travis Just),Ensemble Pamplemousse, Fulya Peker, Michael Pisaro, Dean Rosenthal, Matana Roberts, Ric Royer, David Schafer, Aaron Siegel, Andrew C. Smith, Matthew Evan Taylor, Suzanne Thorpe, Quentin Tolimieri, Michael Vincent Waller, Philip White+Melissa Hughes, Owen Weaver+Tristan Perich, Jeremy Woodruff, and more.
David Schafer 