Bird Cages

Improv Track/Timelapse from “The Caged Bird Sings” 24 Hour Music Performance

“The Caged Bird Sings”

6 Musicians. 24 Hours. ONE Vibration.

“The Caged Bird Sings” is a multimedia performance, 24-hour musical improvisation, and 3-week exhibition beginning on Friday January 29th at 7:30pm. It will take place at Alfa-Art Gallery in New Brunswick, New Jersey in celebration of the gallery’s 2nd year Anniversary.

The project was conjured up by Michael Durek, an experimental musician from Colonia. He conceived of The Caged Bird Sings in the spirit of Einstein’s realization that “Everything in life is vibration”. A six-celled cage will be constructed inside the gallery. Six musicians, each in their own cell, will remain inside the cage with their instruments and improvise continuously for 24 hours. The music performance will run continuously from 7:30pm on January 29th, to 7:30pm on January 30th. Throughout the performance, live video feeds from within each of the six cells will be broadcast online. The musicians involved will be Robert L. Pepper and Amber Brien of Brooklyn-based experimental music group PAS, Dave Tamura of The Jazz Fakers, Tsubasa Berg, and Durek himself. According to Durek, the 24 hour musical improvisation mirrors the continuous and possibly choice-less vibrational communication that exists between different forms in the universe.

The gallery will also be transformed by six artists. Contributors include Rutgers MFA graduates Anne Percoco, Sarah Granett, Eric Clausen, and Michelle Provenzano, Rutgers BFA student Daniel Pillis, and artist Ian Trask. Each artist will collaborate with a musician and a choreographer to create an interdisciplinary show that will kick off the improvisation on January 29th. Choreographers and dancers will include Laura McComb and Jilliana Richcrick of And Dancers, Nicole Mahncke and Michelle Puskas of The Nikki Manx Dance Project, Carla Menchinella, Emily Pope-Blackman of HoverBound, and Ann Peters. The cage design was influenced strongly by the ideas of artist James Tuite. The cage construction was led by Mercedes Bradley, and aided by Anne Percoco. The exhibition, facilitated by the gallery’s curator Michiko Mull, will run until February 17th. The gallery is located at 108 Church Street, in New Brunswick NJ. Visit http://www.alfaart.org for more details.

About the Exhibition:

In her Slips series, Michelle Provenzano explores the fleeting and unguarded moments of gestural expression through watercolor, drawing, and sculpture. Her work often memorializes casted shadows, in which the physical manifestation of memory is both interactive and thought-provoking.
Similarly, artist Sarah Granett constructs a nebulous spandex form in which a series of time based interactions offer the contemplation of surface, form and infinity.
In his series entitled, ‘It Came From Beneath the Sea, artist Eric Clausen considers the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis, an alternative evolutionary theory which proposes that our ancestors first adapted to life within a partially aquatic atmosphere. These works illustrate our natural environment (the sea), the human ascent to land, and perhaps why humans have never returned.
Artist Ian Trasks primary medium is trash. After noticing the abundance of industrial waste from his work place, Trask set out to liberate and transform his found medium into mesmerizing pieces of sculpture. His installation on view entitled Variable is made out of found and recycled cardboard.
Anne Percocos “Complements of the Hotel Eden” is an interactive sculpture that was inspired by Aldous Huxleys Island, Joseph Cornells bird-themed vitrines, and the artists personal matchbox collection. In addition, the artist will create a delayed video feed of a space projected onto itself, allowing performers and viewers to interact with their past traces and movements.
Daniel Pillis is a verbal and visual artist, whose artistic motivations are fueled by a deeply seated desire to decompress the inner workings of social systems by re-interpreting symbolic devices through the mechanisms of subjective identity. His current work on view exemplifies the relationships between the constraints of time and the creative process.

Duration : 0:7:53

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