Sprawl: Sougwen, David Last and Margaret Schedel

Opening: Friday, September 23rd 2011 7-10pm. On view until October 2nd, 2011.

Sprawl is an open edition of live drawing installations hosted at Devotion Gallery which aims to create a momentary graphical map of an intersection between creative improvisation and substructure. Edition one features Sougwen, David Last and Margaret Schedel. Using chalk for its approachable immediacy, Sougwen and David Last improvise an expanding thicket of abstract organic forms, reminiscent of bits of plants, animals, smoke, nerve clusters or rivers seen from the air. Noting the paradox that a limiting structure can provide the most open sense of creative freedom, a faint structure based upon projections of computer-randomized forms is applied to the wall before the performance. The artist's role within this system is to react to the moment, through both visual creative urge and sound inspiration; while using the landscape of pre-defined random activation as a method of sparking inner dialogue. The human mind, being a pattern recognition machine, pulls relationships and structures out of chaos, and the line-sprawl expands like ivy across the walls and ceiling of the space.

 

The performance takes place within an audio environment composed of two elements; an abstract electronic re-interpretation of the sounds of the chalk line strokes themselves, and a 'carrier environment' in the form of abstract and ambient musical sounds. Live abstract/ambient music performances and artist-curated mixes are mixed with the processed feeds from contact-microphones. The sounds not only create the environment the performance is contained in, but another point of inspiration for the artists' crystalization of form.

ARTIST BIOS:

David Last

David Last is a visual and audio artist whose works have encompassed a diverse array of media including IMAX film, animation for television, immersive installation, hand-made books, large-scale drawings, and CDs/vinyl. His book art work resides in a number of institutional and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA. In 2004, David co-curated (with Benton-C Bainbridge) the first experimental and abstract video program to be included in Lincoln Center's New York Video Festival. He has created audio visual installation works in Amsterdam (Test Portal NowArt) and Kochi Japan (Ryugado Cavern). In 2009 and 2010 he performed as part of MUTEK Montreal, and has recently created a chalk installation with La Elastica Gallery, Montreal. In 2009 he began creating a series of hand-painted artworks on shoes made of 99% recycled-materials His work as an audio artist and musician is available through international labels like Staubgold (Berlin), The Agriculture (NYC) and Geometric Deck (Osaka).

His chalkboard installations and large drawings are primarily focused on the emergence of the elusively sublime and whimsical from within chaotic improvisation. Within his organic linework there are echoes of “wild style” graffiti, underground comix, as well as the wry humor and mystery of 20th century abstract art. His work blurs the boundaries between living and non-living things, the conscious and sub-conscious. A character recurs, absorbed or disgorged by churning shapes reminiscent of cartoon clouds or the lines of the human body. This character, an amorphous lifeform with a face composed of a simple symbol, is a constant reminder that we are made of the same “atomic stuff” as our surroundings; that we are borrowing our time and our consciousness within our physical shell. We are not only our bio-mechanical bodies. These drawings mean to remind us that our complexity is a strength; love, fear, peace, confusion, ecstasy and sadness can all coexist harmoniously to make something beautiful.

Margaret Anne Schedel

Margaret Anne Schedel is a composer and cellist specializing in the creation and performance of ferociously interactive media whose works have been performed throughout the United States and abroad. While working towards a DMA in music composition at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, her interactive multimedia opera, A King Listens, premiered at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center and was profiled by apple.com. She holds a certificate in Deep Listening with Pauline Oliveros and has studied composition with Mara Helmuth, Cort Lippe and McGregor Boyle. She sits on the boards of 60x60 Dance, the BEAM Foundation, the Electronic Music Foundation Institute, the International Computer Music Association, and Organised Sound. She contributed a chapter to the Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music, and her article on generative multimedia was recently published in Contemporary Music Review. In the space of two years she edited an issue of the Journal of Visual Culture on Sound Art, and edited an issue of Organised Sound on Visual Music. Her work has been supported by the Presser Foundation, Centro Mexicano para la Música y les Artes Sonoras, and Meet the Composer. In 2009 she won the first Ruth Anderson Prize for her interactive installation Twenty Love Songs and a Song of Despair. Her research focuses on gesture in music, and the sustainability of technology in art. As an Assistant Professor of Music at Stony Brook University, she serves as Co-Director of Computer Music and is a core faculty member of cDACT, the consortium for digital art, culture and technology. In 2010 she co-chaired the International Computer Music Conference, and in 2011 she co-chaired the Electro-Acoustic Music Studies Network Conference.

Sougwen

Sougwen is a Brooklyn-based artist / art director.
She has produced work for a range of commercial and music-related clients including Chanel, Nike, Diesel, Amex, Ikea, Shiseido, Ghostly, Hotflush, Shigeto, and Tom Waits. She has enjoyed collaborations with Joshua Davis, Joey Roth, Eyebeam, Shigeto and Sepalcure. She is a Hyper Island alumni and part of the KDU, Depthcore, Percussion Lab and Hi-ReS!.