Taketo Shimada, Calder Martin
Keith Connolly & Yuji Agematsu
can we expand MUSIC? (CWEM)

At Hanne Tierney’s FiveMyles
558 St. Johns Place in Brooklyn
Curator: Yuzo Sakuramoto



Yuji Agematsu, Found Objects at FiveMyles



by Alison Knowles


Making the trip out to FiveMyles last week gave me the chance to support this brave and exciting endeavor created some years ago by Hanne Tierney. FiveMyles, derived from Five ‘Myles’ (names of the deceased male members of her family) is located in a profoundly underprivileged section of Brooklyn serving the ethnic youth of that community. She has brought in significant culture to these deserving people by buying a large ground warehouse space without any windows and making it very attractive.



Yuji Agematsu, Found Objects at FiveMyles

‘The four artists in this exhibition are both musicians and visual artists. This exhibition is presented as an attempt to explore different aspects of encounters between sound and image. With an emphasis on creative process, the exhibition, consisting of four installations, is itself an experiment into a possible unfolding of such encounters. It is also meant to be a documentation of, or status report on these artists, the first in an on-going series.’


Taketo Shimada, Work Environment Installation at FiveMyles

The place was packed, free beer flowed as the performers arrived for the “closing” of the event “can we expand music?” or CWEM. These musicians: Taketo Shimada, Keith Connolly, Calder Martin and Yuji Agematsu had a variety of instruments and installations available to look at and talk about. Calder Martin’s plastic bag sculpture initiated the space as it quietly moved in the open air(the warehouse doors were open) and franks and hamburgers were cooking on the barbecue next door. Taketo’s floor instruments were spread out on various rugs and colorful cloths. The longest sitar-like stringed instrument (hand made by Taketo from a length of wood with strings attached and pegged for tuning) show his interest in string resonance theory particularly of the Kirana school of Indian music. His music is heard without electric enhancement. This remarkable instrument is supported by boxes decorated by the candy wrappers he uses to make his art. Very beautiful drawings of Pandit Pran Nath completed Taketo’s homage to the master. I wanted one of these drawings but learned that they were not for sale.


Taketo Shimada, at work tuning an instrument at FiveMyles

The work of Yuji Agematsu attracted me since collecting street objects is a pass time of mine in artmaking. Yuji packaged tiny portions of what he had picked up in tiny plastic bags, hundreds of them to be picked up and looked at. The street cullings were from one year of walking the same city blocks.


Keith Connolly, design process wall pieces at FiveMyles

This combination of visual art and music was a safe haven for this community and the opening and closing reminded me of the vigor of the lower East side of the 1970’s. Bravo to Hanne Tierney.



Taketo Shimada (meend tanpura) Tres Warren (Guitar)
video by Kristin Mullane Shimada at Can We Expand Music
curated by Yuzo Sakuramoto





Caitlin Cook and Calder Martin
video by Kristin Mullane Shimada at Can We Expand Music
curated by Yuzo Sakuramoto




Taketo Shimada has made music with Tres Warren of Psychic Ills as Messages since 2006. Doug Mosurak of Dusted commented that the Messages 7” record released by The Social Registry “is some heavy, humid drone, pregnant with 4am electricity. Best record in the Social Registry’s singles series to date.” His work has been shown at Postmasters Gallery, Wall Space Gallery and Emily Harvey Foundation.

Calder Martin is a guitarist and visual artist and the founder of the band Vizusa. Arthur Magazine said that Vizusa’s debut LP “VizUSA is the new psychedelic simple, hard: the rock and roll of Buddy Holly bare bones with the doors of perception jimmyin‘ and repetitious riff milkin‘ of Les Rallizes Dénudés.” Calder has produced video projections at the Kitchen for Caitlin Cook and company, and live music and installations at Deitch Projects with Exceptor. His work has been shown at Emily Harvey Foundation and Participant.

Keith Connolly is an artist and musician, and is a founding member of the No Neck Blues Band. His most recent work was exhibited at Parade Space in London. In New York he has exhibited his installations and performed live events at Greene Naftali Gallery, PS 1, Roulette and the Sculpture Center.

Yuji Agematsu is an artist/photographer. For the past thirty years he has been picking up discarded things from the street and meticulously archiving them. He has worked with Tokio Hasegawa, former member of Taj Mahal Travellers, and studied yara with Milford Graves. He is also a fervent fan of Cecil Taylor and Miles Davis.

can we expand Music? curator Yuzo Sakuramoto is a New York-based researcher, translator and the publisher of the legendary, now defunct fanzine Music. He recently translated the liner notes for the Taj Mahal Travellers album, Live in Stockholm 1971 and DVD, on “Tour,” as well as Takehisa Kosugi’s Catch Wave ’97.

#permalink posted by Alison Knowles: 6/23/09 02:23:00 PM

  





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