BYRON WESTBROOK – FIELD OF VIEW, PLAYED BY EAR (May, 2019) – Coaxial Arts

May 17, 18, 23, 31
Coaxial Arts Foundation

Byron Westbrook will present audio/video installation Field of View, Played by Ear on May 17 and 18. Westbrook will also curate two screenings of other artists’ audio/visual work in conversation with the theme of listening as performance on May 23 and 31.

Field of View, Played by Ear investigates performative aspects of the recording process, approaching the microphone as an instrument with the ability to transport sound through time. The piece considers possible parallels between camera lens and microphone, both of which utilize a limited field of view to shape the information that they collect. Field of View.. is an ongoing work, a collection of videos and audio of performance scenarios wherein the artist/performer “plays” droning objects against the sound of an environment using the movement of the body and microphone. It is intended to generate conversation around how recording mediated by active listening can manipulate representation of time, place, object, body, portrait, landscape, with potential to create dynamics between all of these elements.

Byron Westbrook has been performing and showing experimental sound work internationally since 2008. His work focuses on dynamics of perception using sound, lighting and video to interact with architecture and landscape, often pursuing routes that involve social engagement. Westbrook’s work has been presented at the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), ICA London, Cafe OTO (London), MoMA PS1, Fridman Gallery, Abrons Arts Center, Pioneer Works, Experimental Intermedia Foundation (NY), Human Resources (Los Angeles), MaerzMusik Festival (Berlin), Disjecta (Portland, OR), Instants Chavires Art Space (Paris), Fylkingen (Stockholm), the LAB (San Francisco), O’ (Milan), Akousma Festival (Montreal) among many others. He has recordings with Root Strata, Umor Rex, Hands in the Dark and Psychic Troubles and has been in residence at Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Banff Centre for the Arts, ISSUE Project Room, Clocktower Gallery, Diapason Gallery, Wassaic Project and EMS Stockholm. He is currently based in Los Angeles.

MAY 17 Opening – Byron Westbrook – Field of View, Played By Ear

https://www.facebook.com/events/2377653842506116/

Thursday May 23

Geneva Skeen: NonSequence

This work-in-progress explores the transmutation of listening patterns into the visual field. In an effort to complicate sound’s demarcation of ‘otherness’ against ocular primacy, NonSequence takes the artist’s personal strategies of auditory attention placement and remaps them onto durational, single-frame video documentation of two field recording sites––specifically, two opposing banks of the Hudson River. These locations are further complicated by their own socioeconomic binary constructs as evidenced in particular privileged views of the landscape. This “binaural” silent installation furthers Skeen’s research into permeability of the self through listening, deconstruction of the senses as isolated processes, and the flattening of linear time through repetition.

Geneva Skeen is an artist and composer working in Los Angeles. Influenced by écriture féminine, alchemical metaphors, and a range of musical traditions ranging from holy mysticism to industrial, Skeen works with recordings, digital presets, voice, and mixed instrumentation. Her performances, publications, and installations focus on the contrast between facing the finite resources of our physical landscapes and their infinite digital representations. Her solo and collaborative works have been presented at REDCAT, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Zebulon, Coaxial, Human Resources LA, on the rooftop of The Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, and on the façade of the Armory building in Long Beach, California, amongst others. Her recent solo releases include works on Room40, Dragon’s Eye Recordings, and Crystalline Morphologies (2019). She is an MFA candidate in the Music/Sound program at Bard, a recipient of the Touch Mentorship program, and a member of VOLUME, a curatorial collective focused on sound-based practices.

presented by Byron Westbrook as part of his May residency with Coaxial

Friday May 31

7pm

Yann Novak: A Breaking Through

A Breaking Through is a new audiovisual installation by Yann Novak that takes inspiration from the moments leading up to a breakthrough. The work’s sound and color are in constant states of flux, always climbing and pushing out, but never arriving at a final form. The ever-changing conditions of A Breaking Through are intended to create an uncertain and introspective experience.

Yann Novak is a queer interdisciplinary artist, composer, and curator based in Los Angeles. His work is guided by his interests in perception, context, movement, and the felt presence of direct experience. Through the use of sound and light, Novak explores how these intangible materials can act as catalysts to focus our awareness on our present location in space and time. Novak’s diverse body of works—audiovisual installations, performances, architectural interventions, sound diffusions, recording, and prints—ask participants to reclaim the present moment as a political act.

Novak is a recipient of a 2019 California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists. His work has been experienced through exhibitions and performance at AB Salon, Brussels; Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California; The Broad, Los Angeles; Commonwealth & Council, Los Angeles; Danspace, New York; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Fylkingen, Stockholm; The Getty Villa, Pacific Palisades, California; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; The Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Human Resources, Los Angeles; Iklectik, London; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; LACMA, Los Angeles; Mutek Festival, Montreal; Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California; SFMoMA, San Francisco; Soundfjord, London; Spektrum, Berlin; and The Stone, New York, among others. His recorded sound works have been released by 901 Editions, Dragon’s Eye Recordings, LINE, ROOM40, and Touch, among others.

presented by Byron Westbrook as part of his May residency with Coaxial

This residency is funded by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and Los Angeles County Arts Commission