The Kitchen this Fall
Beginning August 27
THE KITCHEN ANNOUNCES FALL 2013 PROGRAMMING
Poster by Virginia Overton.
The Kitchen is pleased to announce programming for its fall 2013 season, which begins August 27 with the opening of the Gretchen Bender (1951-2004) exhibition Tracking the Thrill.
Tracking the Thrill (August 27-September 21) marks a homecoming for the influential video work of Gretchen Bender, bringing her “Total Recall” back to the place where it was first exhibited in 1987. The show, which also includes the earlier performance “Wild Dead” and a selection of the artist’s work in music video and television, continues The Kitchen’s continuing initiative to provide a catalyst for cross-disciplinary engagements by placing the venue’s upstairs “gallery” and downstairs “theater” in active dialogue. Tracking the Thrill, which was curated by Philip Vanderhyden for The Poor Farm and is being organized by Griffin and Lumi Tan at The Kitchen, will span all of this space.
Simon Leung organizes the performance ACTIONS! September 27-28, exploring the role of the “art worker” by drawing on various conventions of workers’ theater, vaudeville, and postmodern dance, focusing on historical moments when “actions” were directed at the Museum of Modern Art.
On October 3, flutist Claire Chase will perform the entirety of her new solo album, DENSITY, featuring tour de force flute works by Steve Reich, Alvin Lucier, Philip Glass, Marcos Balter and Mario Diaz de Leon, as well as the virtuosic 1936 flute solo Density 21.5 by Edgard Varèse.
The Kitchen’s new intergenerational electronic music series, Synth Nights, continues on October 9 with three duos: Khaela Maricich + Melissa Dyne, Big Legs, and Sexual Energies School: London.
On October 10, A.K. Burns and A.L. Steiner will present WHAT “COMMUNITY ACTION CENTER” DID LAST SUMMER: X-CUNTRY TOUR RECAP & LIVE SCORED SCREENING!, a showing of their acclaimed feature-length video Community Action Center, which explores the erotics of queer sexuality. Artists including Justin Vivian Bond, Nick Hallett with Sam Miller, K8 Hardy, and others from the soundtrack will perform a live score, and Burns and Steiner will discuss their experiences touring the work.
The X-Patsys is a musical trio consisting of three close friends: the actress Barbara Sukowa and the artists Robert Longo and Jon Kessler. They formed in 1998 after Kessler had a dream in which Sukowa was a country singer singing Patsy Cline songs, and shared his dream with Sukowa and Longo. The band, which began by reimagining Cline songs, now performs a stunning variety of material. In a concert on October 12 at The Kitchen—co-presented with Issue Project Room on the occasion of the organization’s 10th anniversary—a cast of extraordinary musicians will join them, forming one half of a double bill that also features Rhys Chatham performing his legendary Guitar Trio.
Neal Medlyn returns to The Kitchen in the world premiere of King (October 23-26), the seventh and final work in his series of performance pieces built around pop stars. His most recent, Wicked Clown Love (The Kitchen, 2012), took up the Insane Clown Posse and their fans, the Juggalos. With King, he turns his attention to the pop star par excellence: Michael Jackson.
The Olivier Mosset exhibition Exposition de groupe (October 31–December 21) is what the artist calls a “group” show, making the point that the legibility of any artwork is possible only in the context of a larger, living collectivity. The exhibition features paintings, a projection of Serge Bard's 1968 film Fun and Games for Everyone—a passage of which captures the audience at a Mosset exhibition opening in the wake of the May ‘68 protests in Paris—and performances by New York art bands and Country Western groups from Mosset's adopted home of Tucson, Arizona.
The fall season concludes November 6-9 with the return of Maria Hassabi in PREMIERE, her first work at The Kitchen since the premiere of her SHOW in 2011. PREMIERE, co-presented with Performa 13, is about the moment when a performance first encounters its public—viewers and critics.
More information on The Kitchen’s fall 2013 programming is below. Tickets are available online at www.thekitchen.org; by phone at 212.255.5793 x11; and in person at The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street), Tuesdays – Saturdays, 2:00 - 6:00 P.M.
THE KITCHEN FALL 2013 PROGRAMMING
VISUAL ART
Gretchen Bender
Tracking the Thrill
August 27-September 21 (floor one); through October 5 (floor two)
Panel discussion of Bender’s work: September 11, 7pm
Among the most prescient yet overlooked figures of her generation, Gretchen Bender (1951-2004) anticipated our current state of image saturation, using scaffolds of screens, hypnotic repetitions of appropriated television footage and aggressive sound as a critical match for an emerging cultural field of special effects and immersive viewing experiences. In this focused selection of Bender’s video work, “Total Recall”—the artist’s seminal video performance, originally exhibited at The Kitchen in 1987—and the earlier performance “Wild Dead” are situated within a reexamination of Bender’s parallel efforts in music video and broadcast television, including her legendary title sequence for America’s Most Wanted.
Curated by Philip Vanderhyden for The Poor Farm, and organized at The Kitchen by Lumi Tan and Tim Griffin.
PERFORMANCE, VISUAL ART
Simon Leung
ACTIONS!
Friday–Saturday, September 27–28, 8pm
Friday, pay what you wish (between the hours of 4:30 and 8:15pm); Saturday, 0
In this age of precarious work, what is the role of the “art worker?" While using conventions of workers’ theater, academic conference, vaudeville, and postmodern dance, Actions! seeks to give thought to this question by looking again at different moments when “actions” were directed at the Museum of Modern Art: 1960/70s actions by the Art Workers’ Coalition, Guerilla Art Action Group, and Women Students and Artists for Black Artists’ Liberation; a four month-long workers' strike in 2000; as well as more recent protests by art-activist groups such as Occupy Museums and Occupy Wall Street Arts & Labor. Among collaborators and performers in this piece reconsidering the intersection of art, labor, community, and politics today are union members, museum workers, activists, and artists, including Yvonne Rainer, Arlen Austin, Marina Urbach, Marcus Civin, Valerie Tevere & Angel Nevarez, Filip Noterdaeme, Warren Niesluchowski, W.A.G.E., Kabir Carter, David Kelley, Beth Whitney and Andrea Fraser. Saturday’s performance concludes with a live discussion among participants. Admission is based on MoMA policies in the year 2000.
MUSIC
Claire Chase
October 3, 8pm
5
Flutist Claire Chase, “the young star of the modern flute” (The New Yorker) and a 2012 MacArthur Fellow, celebrates the release of her third solo album, DENSITY, featuring tour de force flute works by Steve Reich, Alvin Lucier, Philip Glass, Marcos Balter and Mario Diaz de Leon, along with the seminal 1936 flute solo Density 21.5 by Edgard Varèse. Taking the concept of “density” as a springboard for sonic explorations of texture, layering, and performative virtuosity, the record commences with 11 multi-tracked flutes and gradually whittles down to just one. Chase offers the entire disc as a 75-minute continuous solo performance on this special concert at The Kitchen in collaboration with the sound designer Levy Lorenzo.
MUSIC
Synth Nights: Khaela Maricich + Melissa Dyne, Big Legs and Sexual Energies School: London
Wednesday, October 9, 8pm
5
Three electronic duos look at pop music from the vantage of the art world. Khaela Maricich and Melissa Dyne take apart and reconfigure the songs they perform as The Blow using modular synths and samplers. Big Legs is the authentic English synthpop project of Mark Beasley and Dan Fox. And Nick Hallett enlists Zach Layton and others to reimagine material of his notorious faux British group of the early 2000s, the Plantains.
FILM, MUSIC
A.K. Burns and A.L. Steiner
WHAT “COMMUNITY ACTION CENTER” DID LAST SUMMER: X-CUNTRY TOUR RECAP & LIVE SCORED SCREENING!
October 10, 8pm
0
Community Action Center (2010) is a feature-length, socio-sexual video incorporating the erotics of a community in which the personal is not only political, but also sexual. Following a screening tour this summer of fourteen cities in ten states, Burns and Steiner will report back on their experiences of sharing their explicit, trans-feminist artwork, screened here in full with a special live score by artists and musicians including Justin Vivian Bond, Nick Hallett with Sam Miller, K8 Hardy, and other artists from the Community Action Center soundtrack.
MUSIC
Rhys Chatham and The X-Patsys
October 12, 8pm
5
The X-Patsys is a musical project started in 1998 by three close friends: actress Barbara Sukowa and artists Robert Longo and Jon Kessler. Kessler had a dream in which he saw Sukowa dressed as a country-western singer belting out Patsy Cline songs. He told his vision to Sukowa and Longo, and together they used it as inspiration to form a band. The X-Patsys initially performed Patsy Cline songs, transforming them into a new sound that was dark, moody and dramatic. In this performance at the Kitchen, the founding members will be by joined by the musicians Anthony Coleman, Knox Chandler, Jonathan Kane and Ernie Brooks. Rhys Chatham opens with his legendary Guitar Trio. The concert is co-presented with ISSUE Project Room on the occasion of the organization’s Tenth Anniversary.
PERFORMANCE
Neal Medlyn
King
October 23-26, 8pm
5
Since 2006, Neal Medlyn has been creating a seven-show performance series in which each piece is built around a pop star or iconic group, from Lionel Richie and Miley Cyrus to the Insane Clown Posse. The finale of this series, King, is built around Michael Jackson — containing radically rethought versions of his music, intuitively-related source material in sculpture and costume, as well as considerations of Medlyn's personal and artistic trajectory of the past several years. King is about epic attempts.
VISUAL ART
Olivier Mosset
Exposition de groupe
October 31–December 21
Olivier Mosset presents what he terms a “group” show, underscoring how the legibility of any artwork is possible only in the context of a larger, living collectivity. Featuring paintings, a projection of Serge Bard's 1968 film Fun and Games for Everyone—a passage of which captures the audience for a Mosset exhibition opening in the wake of the May ‘68 protests in Paris—and performances by both New York art bands and Country Western groups from Mosset's adopted home of Tucson, Arizona, Exposition de groupe brings together the artist's different social spheres by implication. The exhibition also includes an installation of motorcycles and paintings, as well as a video collaboration with Amy Granat and Drew Heitzler, on view at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, 972 Fifth Avenue, New York (October 31–November 21). Curated by Tim Griffin, and co-presented with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.
DANCE
Maria Hassabi
PREMIERE
November 6-9, 8pm
5
PREMIERE brings together performers Paige Martin, Hristoula Harakas, Robert Steijn, Andros Zins-Browne and Hassabi, sound designer Alex Waterman, and visual artist/dramaturg Scott Lyall. A premiere, a highly anticipated event, represents the first meeting with the public: the audience, as viewer and critic. Essentially this moment is what validates the existence of any creation as a ‘work of art.’ Hassabi’s PREMIERE takes its time and explores this first public encounter.
