Art of Improvisers - London 15th to 22nd June 2017
Schedule
SHARON GAL
Sharon Gal is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, experimental vocalist & composer, with experience of free improvisation and collaborative compositions. Her work relates to sound, architecture, live performance and participatory art, exploring the psychology of sound and its relationship with space. Sharon performs solo and in collaborations with David Toop, Steve Beresford, Phil Minton, Lina Lapelyte, Andie Brown and Anat Ben David. She also directs a series of participatory compositions exploring the inter-relations between people and place. These pieces offer a democratic space and collective ownership, examining artistic engagement, play, and creative exchange, as a means to learning and bringing together. Sharon is a co-founder of Resonance104.4 FM. Her music was released by various labels and she performed in the UK & internationally including; The V&A, Whitechapel Gallery Science Museum, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Supernormal and Borealis Festivals. http://www.sharon-gal.com/
STEVE BERESFORD
ANDIE BROWN
DAVID TOOP
TANIA CHEN
MAGGIE NICOLS
GINA SOUTHGATE
Gina Southgate is best known for painting/performing on the British jazz and free improv music scene where for 3 decades she has captured the frisson of live music during the real time of performance. She works in an international arena, at gigs and festivals, the resulting imagery is used in music graphics and for press purposes; site and stage decoration. As well as live observational painting, she performs audio visually using her materials and tools in duo or group situations with improvising musicians.
She has collaborated with, exhibited at, and been resident artist for; Somethin’else, Jazz on 3, Vortex Jazz, Jazz in the Round, Jazz north East, Gateshead International Jazz festival, In Harmony, Kings Place, Rich Mix, Alterations, Match and Fuse, Lume UK. In Europe at Jazzahead!, Germany and Konfrontationen Festival.
JULIE KJæR
HELEN PETTS
BLANCA REGINA
Blanca Regina is an artist, teacher and curator based in London who is currently involved in creating audiovisual performances, sound works, instalations and film. Her research and practice encompass sound art, free-improvisation, moving image, live events, electronic music and performance. In London, she co-funded with Steve Beresford and later Jack Goldstein ‘Strange Umbrellas’, a platform for free improvised music and visual art.She has performed with various artists, including Terry Day, Leafcutter John, Beresford and Matthias Kispert and curated a number of events and installations in London and internationally. Her last exhibition: ‘Expanded and Ephemera Audiovisual’ was presented at MUPO, Oaxaca, México in November 2015. Current works in development include the direction of Unpredictable a film about Terry Day and ‘Unpredictable series’ a series of exhibitions, talks and performances.
JULIE PICKARD
Julie pickard is an artist & writer based in london, UK. Her visual work includes paintings, sculptures, drawings and text pieces. Trained in sculpture and painting, my current projects involve drawing, painting and writing. my work follows a meandering line, recording events, explorations, perceptions. when painting i work in oil, when writing, i work on small text pieces, paragraphs, short stories, articles.
POULOMI DESAI
Poulomi Desai’s unique, modified sitar embraces elements of chance, challenge and subversion – industrial, noise influenced improvised, art performances. Her prepared / bowed sitar is extended with modified cassette decks playing her field recordings, circuit bent toys, optikinetic instruments, kitchen knives, axes and massage tools. It is a conscious response and reaction to the idea of ‘authenticity’ seeking to break the rules and expectations of how a ‘sacred’ instrument should be played, the strictures upon the player, the guru-shishya approach, and the assumptions made upon the identity of the player herself. Her sitar is the primary basis for sonic improvisation and exploration; an allegorical antidote to the objectification of the ‘South Asian woman’s body’ in ‘Bollywood’ cinema / ‘popular culture’ and, in a broader sense, affirming her idea of ‘Noise’ as protest. She runs the Usurp Art space in Harrow, London.
RIE NAKAJIMA
MANDHIRA DE SARAM
TERRY DAY
Terry is an improviser, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist, song writer, visual artist and poet. He is a ‘first generation’ pioneer improviser from the 1960s. A self-taught musician in a family of musicians, he began improvising on the drums with his brother in 1955. In the early 1960s he formed the Hardy Holman Day trio focusing on free improvisation. Later he became part of Kilburn & the Highroads, a band led by Ian Dury. Sharing their interest in visual art and painting, Terry and Ian both studied at Walthamstow School of Art and later at the Royal College of Art, London. As an art student in the 1960s he was a pioneer of improvisation, free jazz & experimental music. Day also formed a duo with Derek Bailey in the late 1960s and was a regular member of The Continuous Music Ensemble, later known as The People Band. Since then he has collaborated with many musical luminaries, groups, dancers, painters, poets and performed in theatre, events, and rock & roll.
HELEN FROSI
