devynn emory and Aretha Aoki, photo by Mark Simpson
Curatorial Fellow Marissa Perel has programmed an evening of performance by devynn emory, Jules Gimbrone, and Geo Wyeth as part of the Counter/Acts series. Counter/Acts is a dynamic exchange between artists from multiple disciplines and cities. The series facilitates a dynamic exchange for artistic communities, emergent ideas, and forms of performance.
Jules Gimbrone will present Outer Edges for the surrounding environment of Vox Populi and the AUX performance Space. This durational piece will begin at sunset (5 PM), as performers map the outdoor spaces of the gallery with a score that dictates location as well as sonic material. The outdoor performance will coincide with a video installation inside AUX, “This body is not that solid.” Outer Edges investigates the intersections of the perceived solidity of formal structure with the dynamic and transitional nature of sound. Utilizing dirt, large steel sheets, magnets, electronics, and metal scraps, Jules and performers create a series of feedback/reverb loops. As these sounds circle in cacophonic precision, they problematize the ‘being-ness’ of the sheets and with their slippery, bombastic, sonic fluidity. The visibility of this transitional state is located through the perceivable physical change created from sound on and through the body. The performance is an extension of the sonic, spatial, and bodily considerations explored in a previous sculptural performance piece A Thin Wall Sympathetically Maintained, which premiered outdoors in Moon Canyon in Los Angeles in August 2013.
Influenced by the history of set design for dance, the grid, queer mapping, the wall and floor drawings of Sol Lewitt and John Diviola, devynn emory‘s This room this braid revisits essences of formal dance training with dance artist Aretha Aoki. Painter RJ Messineo will create a large scale painting for the AUX performance space in conversation with the performance. emory is thrilled to return to their hometown of Philadelphia to explore this developing project. It will premiere as an evening length program in NY with Issue Project Room this coming January.
Geo Wyeth’s practices expand on narrative and popular music performance through experimentation with the formal ideas of repetition, interruption, amateurism and representation, often with handmade props and sets. Wyeth will present an excerpt from his ongoing Kitchen Steve project. Kitchen Steve is a commercial musician and an exhibitionist. He will be performing at the AUX performance space with his daughter.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
devynn emory, born and raised Philadelphian, has been living in NYC for almost 5 years. There, they run their company devynnemory/beastproductions which has shown at DTW, NYLA, BAX, Dixon Place, Danspace Project, AUNTS, The Poetry Project, and Roulette. They have been in residence at NYLA, BAX and are currently in residence at Issue Project Room. As a dancer emory is working with Tere O’Connor Dance on a three-year project called BLEED, which premieres at BAM this December.
Jules Gimbrone is a composer, performer and artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Jules approaches sound and composition through the lens of architecture, sculpture and choreographic interplay. Jules attempts to erect systems and structures, which are conceptually sound but simultaneously house their inevitable demise and fallibility, specifically within the multiple failures and queerings of the performative body. Jules’ work has been shown at a variety of spaces including: Human Resources LA, ISSUE Project Room, Spectrum, 3LD Art & Technology Center, Bodega Gallery, MOMA PS 1, Socrates Sculpture Park, Galapagos Art Space, The Performance Project, and Cameo Gallery. Jules is the recipient of grants from the Princess Grace Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council, the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, and an Emerging Artists Commission from ISSUE Project Room with choreographer, Jen Rosenblit. Among Jules’ many projects and recordings is Pack Projects, an art-music collective based in New York City and Los Angeles, which recently released a compilation LP, book and digital download titled FAULT LINES. Jules’ 7-piece electro-acoustic ensemble recording, WREST, was also released through Pack Projects. Jules is currently pursuing an M.F.A. at CalARTS in Composition.
Geo Wyeth is an artist and musician living and working out of New York City. He has shared his work at PS1 MoMA, The New Museum, Kate Werble Gallery, Human Resources (LA), Marianne Boesky Gallery, Joe’s Pub, La MaMa, and the Pyramid Club and many other venues internationally. Yaddo Fellow, recipient of funding from Art Matters and the Jerome Foundation. He was born in New York City in 1984, raised in Hell’s Kitchen and Montclair, NJ. geo.wyeth@gmail.com.
Aimee Goguen performing BLUBBER HUMM by Jules Gimbrone, image courtesy of the artist
ABOUT THE CURATOR:
Marissa Perel is an artist, writer, and independent curator who hails from Brooklyn, NY. Her work spans performance, video and text-based installation and poetry. Her installations and performances have been presented internationally, including at DTW, Danspace Project, and The Chocolate Factory Theater (NYC), The D.I.V.O Institute (Prague, C.R.), Medium Gallery (Bratislava, Slovakia), MCA, and commissioned for the Chicago Cultural Center. She currently organizes Lobby TALKS, a forum for discussion on dance and performance at New York Live Arts. Perel writes, “Gimme Shelter: Performance Now” for the Art21 blog. As co-editor of Critical Correspondence, an on-line journal of Movement Research, she co-curated live interviews and events at Judson Memorial Church and New Museum, NY. She co-curated the Movement Research Festival Spring 2012: Push it. Real. Good. Perel received her B.A. in Writing and Literature from Naropa University, and her M.F.A in Studio and Performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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The AUX Curatorial Fellowships have been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
