INSTALLATION | MUSIC
performance installation of a visual & musical nature
THE BUNDY MUSEUM of ART & HISTORY 129 Main St. Binghamton, NY
Engaging the public in uninhibited conversation
on life, death, transformation, happiness, and our human future
“The truth is of course that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing at the same time.” - David Bowie
Recorded live-stream from
Day 1 of INSTALLATION | music
click view more of INSTALLATION | music on AmarA*jk youtube channel
Artist Statement
"Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul." -Wassily Kandinsky
INSTALLATION | Music was a series of 14 sessions of music & performance
in the intimate and unique Main Gallery of the Bundy Museum of History & Art
which will bring the topic of the session into focus through the music and performance,
through the visuals being created on the murals,
and through the inclusion of the educated, experienced, & thoughtful.
AmarA painted in performance over the whole 10 day period, creating a mural of layers and complexity and statement – guided and influenced by the music and in collaboration with each of the musicians.
INSTALLATION | Music was a series of 14 sessions of music & performance
in the intimate and unique Main Gallery of the Bundy Museum of History & Art
which will bring the topic of the session into focus through the music and performance,
through the visuals being created on the murals,
and through the inclusion of the educated, experienced, & thoughtful.
AmarA painted in performance over the whole 10 day period, creating a mural of layers and complexity and statement – guided and influenced by the music and in collaboration with each of the musicians.
TRIBUTE Bowie: centerpoint of the installation
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TOPICS of DEATH & LIVING LIFE
We live in a world that values life in strange ways. Television line-ups are filled with murder mystery shows which place utmost importance on the life of each and every individual. News channels report 14 deaths in a natural disaster as a "tragedy." We send soldiers off to war and declare the kills they made "necessary" and their own deaths "heroic". We are a generation living in the ideological backwash of the Nazi holocaust. At the same time we have become too many and not advanced enough in our proliferation to be supported by our planet. Each day we put the needs of the abstract systems we have created - economics, society, culture - ahead of the needs of the very vehicle which supports our continued existence. Brexit, Trump, Terrorists: We are the first generation to live in a world where news & personal connections instantaneously span the world. Now is a time of tensions. Soon the tensions will break and we will decide the future, each of us through our actions. Music has a way of getting around the walls we put up. Watching a person play or paint is hypnotic and meditative. Each session will look at the topic from a different point of view, both in the focus of the music & reflected in the painting & performance |
Go to the INSTALLATION | music website
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COLLABORATORS
jk director of videography & live -stream Celestial Blue Music musician, singer, songwriter John Wolfson magician & performer g.nome and the soulless minions of orthodoxy composer & performer Tri-Cities Opera classical musicians Flying Old Crows suspension & perception |
SPONSORS
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Supplemental Visual Aids
Rendering of the Installation
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Installation Groundplan
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Rendering of the Altar of Music with The Bowie Painting and live musicians
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INSTALLATION | MUSIC: Description
“An empty canvas is a living wonder…” - Kandinsky
The installation will begin as two blank walls, one on each side of the gallery. Dozens of stretched canvases of various sizes attached together to make a giant, bare mural.
The first thing the audience will see coming up to the Third Floor Gallery is the Altar of Music before which the musicians will play. AmarA will bounce between the two murals to either side of the space. The audience will be in the center, free to move about or go into the adjoining Whisper Room. (See renderings & GP below)
The performance will begin on Thursday, August 3, 2017 with the first brushstroke.
Throughout the 14 sessions of painting, there will be live musicians of all genre & recorded masterpieces in the gallery. All afternoon sessions will be free & open to the public. Portions of every session will be free for all to participate in Live-Stream.
The murals will be unveiled Sunday, August 13, at a special MASKED reveal Ball for all our patrons, sponsors, filmmakers, supporters, & musicians.
The murals will remain on exhibit through August.
A Statement by AmarA
David Bowie died. I never sent him a picture of the painting he inspired while he was alive. I am not sure I myself realized how very much he has inspired me in each phase of my growth as a person and as an artist until he was gone. Perhaps I could not have. Unlike so many other artists whose lives are cut short or seem to simply fade away, his life was complete and aware with even a final, reflective album released just before he passed. The day Bowie died, I sketched an idea on a paper. Over the months since, I have worked on it only to his body of work, including my first hearing of Blackstar. It is not done, it still needs Labyrinth - it was the first time I ever saw David Bowie and should rightly be the last piece to inspire this painting. The Bowie Painting is the centerpiece for INSTALLATION/MUSIC and the impetus for it.
David Bowie died. I never sent him a picture of the painting he inspired while he was alive. I am not sure I myself realized how very much he has inspired me in each phase of my growth as a person and as an artist until he was gone. Perhaps I could not have. Unlike so many other artists whose lives are cut short or seem to simply fade away, his life was complete and aware with even a final, reflective album released just before he passed. The day Bowie died, I sketched an idea on a paper. Over the months since, I have worked on it only to his body of work, including my first hearing of Blackstar. It is not done, it still needs Labyrinth - it was the first time I ever saw David Bowie and should rightly be the last piece to inspire this painting. The Bowie Painting is the centerpiece for INSTALLATION/MUSIC and the impetus for it.
Inspiration/Music: Dresden Dolls
