Autumn Almanac The Voice and the Lens
Saturday 10 November
In Conversation: Opera on and in film, video and TV Second Floor Galleries, 11am-4pm, free entry Supported by the Institute for Musical Research, we bring together opera and film directors, producers and composers to explore the relationships between moving image and opera.
Part I: Opera on film – 11am-12.45pm, free entry Producer and Director Don Boyd talks about Aria (Palm D‟Or, Cannes 1987), his film of operatic arias set by leading directors, and his film Lucia (after Donizetti‟s opera).
Birmingham Opera‟s Graham Vick discusses working with film-makers on documenting his opera productions. (To be confirmed.)
Facilitated and led by Dr Barbara Engh (Leeds University) and Adrian Rifkin (Goldsmiths College).
Screenings We screen pieces from Aria by Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Altman, and show scenes from the Birmingham Opera production of Othello. Other pieces include commissions by Sky Arts with English National Opera by Werner Herzog (from Puccini‟s La boheme) and Dougal Wilson (from The Barber of Seville).
Part II: Film in Opera – 1.30am-2.45pm, free entry Film-maker Oliver Clark talks about incorporating film with live performance in opera, alongside composer and artist Jennifer Walshe. We show examples including Walshe‟s recent piece for Stuttgart Opera, Die Taktik, which incorporated live video games alongside performance.
Screenings We show scenes from Luna Park, the latest multimedia stage work by Georges Aperghis with IRCAM. „Everyone looks at themselves in the camera as in a deep well, establishing an almost erotic relationship with the lens, and their own reflection in it…. Is the body not becoming only the “eye” and the “ear”? In this way, performers themselves become cameras and microphones.‟
Part III: Opera and television – 2.45-4pm, free entry Visionary composer Robert Ashley talks with Alex Waterman about his operas for television in a specially-made video lecture. He pioneered the form with his acknowledged masterpiece, Perfect Lives (1978-80), from which we screen The Bank. “What about the Bible? And the Koran? It doesn‟t matter. We have Perfect Lives.” John Cage
Our featured vocalist Loré Lixenberg talks with her collaborator Richard Thomas about Jerry Springer The Opera and other work with Kombat Opera that brought the small screen to the big stage.
The Voice and the Lens: Part II 7-9.30pm (doors from 6.45pm) Tickets £6 / £4 students & unemployed Weekend pass £10.50 / £6.50 students & unemployed To book visit www.bookwhen.com/ikongallery
Anna Palmer performs Yoko Ono‟s iconic Voice Piece for Soprano (1961) as the doors open – arrive early!
Performances Second Floor Galleries except where indicated Loré Lixenberg performs Bird, her post-shamanic exploration of the nature of transformation combining birdsong patterns with hyper-extensions of the voice (see Exhibition for details of her film with Jayne Parker). Performances from her work with Imogen Stidworthy are given one-to-one in spaces around Ikon, also featuring countertenor Nicholas Clapton and treble Oscar Richardson.
Loré also presents her solo opera, The End of Civilisation As We Know It, her unique take on the surveillance society, paranoia, the end of opera, and the obsolescence of the operatic voice.
Elaine Mitchener presents her new work with Sam Belinfante. She also performs the second part from Of Leonard da Vinci, a collaborative work with composer and writer David Toop and film-maker Barry Lewis; and Christian Marclay‟s epic Manga Scroll.
Of Leonardo da Vinci (2011) – absorbed in the visions, memories, prophesies and observations recorded in Leonardo da Vinci‟s notebooks, a woman dwells on the writing of a life. As oracle, scholar, acolyte, medium and innocent, she voices the spirit of Leonardo, reflecting the nature of life as it moves closer to its end, its teeming presence, the meaning we divine from marks and signs, the flight of the voice, living and dying.
Manga Scroll (2010) – since the late 1990s, Marclay has created numerous “graphic” scores, inviting musical action from performers. For Manga Scroll, he cut and collaged onomatopoeias (words that imitate the sounds they describe) pulled from Manga comics originally published in Japan and translated for U.S. audiences.
Mikhail Karikis presents his performance piece based on Empty Words by John Cage.
Jennifer Walshe performs Historical Documents of the Irish Avant-Garde: Dada and screens her own work I STILL LOVE YOU NEW YORK alongside Grúpat member Freya Birren‟s Olia Lialina's M.B.C.B.F.T.W. (Redux, At Rest) and The Faerie Queene.
Performances and Screenings Events Room Aura Satz – Universal Language: A Lost Manifesto (2012) This short 16mm film draws on two mysteriously missing utopian endeavours: the lost film by Moholy-Nagy, Sound ABC (1932), and his attempt to create a grapho- phonetic writing, as well as the lost manifesto of Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling, Universal Language (1920). Satz‟s performance will involve a live voice-over which converts sound to light signals, as well as a filmic kinetic sculpture.
Anna Palmer presents her new performance and film piece with composer Rob Jones, using a video camera as an instrument in an ensemble of lens, voice and movement to reflect on what we put our voices through each day, and our dependence on both technology and voice.
Richard Whitby – Beating of Vast Wings (2012) This takes Richard Strauss‟s 1905 opera Salome – an old testament allegory of decadence and impending doom – and juxtaposes it with a narrative of urban renewal in London, as well as a version of Strauss‟s own fate in post-war Austria.
Helen Petts – The Cutty Wren (2009) and Ute on the Marshes (2010) Singer Phil Minton performs his version of The Cutty Wren, a traditional song from the Peasants' Revolt (1381), caused by many grievances. In Ute on the Marshes, Helen Petts captures German voice artist Ute Wassermann exploring the acoustic under Walthamstowe Marshes railway bridge.
Shirin Neshat – Turbulent (1998) In Turbulent, two singers (Shoja Azari and Sussan Deyhim) create a powerful musical metaphor for the complexity of gender roles and cultural power within the framework of ancient Persian music and poetry.
Katarzyna Kozyra – Il Castrato (2006) Il Castrato continues Kozyra‟s experimentations with personal transformation. Taught the arts of the drag queen by Gloria Viagra, and of opera singing by The Maestro, the artist „recovers‟ her androgynous appearance and is taught the art of the feminine by taking on the role of a castrato.
Biographies
Robert Altman (1925-2006) was an American film director and screenwriter, famous for MASH, The Long Goodbye, The Player, Gosford Park and many other multi-award winning works.
Georges Aperghis is one of Europe‟s most admired composers, whose works – often involving actors alongside musicians – are performed at leading festivals and venues worldwide. www.aperghis.com
Robert Ashley is a distinguished figure in American contemporary music. He holds an international reputation for his work in new forms of opera and other multidisciplinary projects, including his groundbreaking “operas for television”. http://www.robertashley.org/
Sam Belinfante has presented shows in Stoltzestrasse 11 (Frankfurt); REMAP (Athens); BALTIC; Milton Keynes Gallery; Wysing Arts Centre, ICA and Tate Britain. His curatorial projects have included: Notations and The Voice and Nothing More (Slade, London – with Neil Luck); LOOPs (Chelsea Space, London); and The Scuttler,(ICA – with boyleANDshaw). www.sambelinfante.com
Don Boyd is a Scottish film director, producer, screenwriter and novelist. He has directed and/or produced 30 feature films, including Alan Clarke's Scum, Derek Jarman's The Tempest, and the multi- directorial film Aria, working with many of world cinema‟s greatest directors and actors. www.hibrow.tv/about/index.html
Counter-tenor Nicholas Clapton won the English Song Award in 1987. He was one of the first modern counter-tenors to go beyond “accepted” repertoire, including Romantic song, heroic castrato repertoire, and C21st opera. www.nicholasclapton.com
Oliver Clark directed and worked on hit series such as Coast, Around the World in 80 Gardens and Hairy Bikers. His awards/nominations include BAFTA, RTS (Regional and National), TV Quick and TV Choice. He also makes films for the international collective „New Guide To Opera‟.
Laura Cooper's art practice embraces performance, video, sound, drawing and installation. www.lauracooper.org/PDF/CV_07.pdf
Barbara Engh works on critical theories of music, the voice, and noise; critical theories of technology, recording and the archive; music and philosophy. Engh is Senior Lecture in Cultural Studies, University of Leeds.
Film director, screenwriter and critic, Jean-Luc Godard is often identified with the 1960s French film movement La Nouvelle Vague. In a 2002 Sight & Sound poll, Godard ranked third in the critics‟ top ten directors of all time.
Werner Herzog has produced, written, and directed more than 60 feature- and documentary films, such as Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo, Lessons Of Darkness, My Best Fiend, Grizzly Man, and Cave Of Forgotten Dreams. He has published more than a dozen books of prose, and directed as many operas. www.wernerherzog.com
Mikhail Karikis‟ work includes video installation, performance art, photography, drawing and music, showing at Venice Biennale to Royal Opera House. Since Bjork‟s release of his music by in 2005, his recordings include Orphica, and Morphica – nominated for a Qwartz Electronic Music Award. www.mikhailkarikis.com
Katarzyna Kozyra is a Polish artist and film-maker. Recent shows include: Family Business (New York), Musee Rodin (Paris), CCA (Tel-Aviv), and Museum Voor Moderne Kunst (Netherlands). http://katarzynakozyra.pl/main/
Barry Lewis is a photojournalist, film-maker and co-founder of Network, a leading forum for all aspects of photography. http://barrylewisphotography.com
Loré Lixenberg has worked with Theatre de Complicite, comedians (Richard Thomas, Stewart Lee), and experimental artists (Stelarc, Bruce McLean, David Toop), as well as performing works by leading composers – from Aperghis to Gerald Barry, Earle Brown to Birtwistle – at festivals worldwide. She is director-residence for the physical music theatre group SCENATET (Copenhagen). www.lorelixenberg.com
Christian Marclay has received solo exhibitions worldwide, from LACMA (Los Angeles) to Samsung Museum of Art (Seoul), Whitney (NYC) to Barbican and Tate. He was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2011 Biennale di Venezia for his video work The Clock. http://whitecube.com/artists/christian_marclay/
A classically trained vocalist fusing gospel, jazz and extended vocal techniques, Elaine Mitchener has worked with leading musicians, composers and artists from Henry Grimes and Christian Marclay, to Heiner Goebbels, Evan Parker, David Toop, and Attila Csihar. Stage productions include Century Songs, Star-Shaped Biscuit and I Burn For You, and Of Leonardo da Vinci. http://elainemitchener.posterous.com/
Shirin Neshat is an Iranian visual artist who lives in New York and whose work is shown worldwide. She is known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. www.gladstonegallery.com/neshat.asp
Yoko Ono is a Japanese artist, author, and peace activist, known for her marriage to John Lennon and her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking.
Anna Palmer is a singer/songwriter and composer, focusing on voice, collaborative practice and interdisciplinarity.
Jayne Parker is an artist and filmmaker whose work has been widely shown in major art institutions, on TV and in film and music festivals. In 2003 she received the 1871 Fellowship, researching the relationship between music and film. In 2008 she completed Trilogy: Kettle's Yard, premiered at London Film Festival, and in 2011 presented a retrospective of her films at BFI Southbank. www.lux.org.uk/collection/artists/jayne-parker
Helen Petts’ films and videos have been seen in festivals at home and abroad. She often collaborates with musicians, runs a Youtube channel of free improvised music, and co-promotes Mopomoso. www.helenpetts.com
Oscar Richardson is a chorister of Dean Close Schola Cantorum at Tewkesbury Abbey and a member of Ex Cathedra Junior Academy.
Adrian Rifkin is Professor of art writing at Goldsmiths (London). He works with film and cinema, classical and popular music, canonical art and mass imagery, literature and pornography.
Aura Satz‟s practice encompasses film, sound, performance and sculpture. She has shown her work from FACT to AV Fest, Barbican and Tate Oil Tanks, and from Zentrum Paul Klee (Switzerland) to Färgfabriken (Stockholm). In 2012 she was shortlisted for the Samsung Art+ and the Jarman awards. www.iamanagram.com
Imogen Stidworthy makes videos, sound works and installations that examine aspects of spoken language such as the sound of the voice, losing, gaining and regaining language, and acts or processes of translation. She has shown widely in major exhibitions including Documenta 12. Recent solo exhibitions have included: Matts Gallery (London); Kunstpavillon (Innsbruck); Arnolfini (Bristol); and Galerie Akinci (Amsterdam).
Richard Thomas is a musician, writer and comedy actor, best known for composing the award-winning Jerry Springer: The Opera with Stewart Lee. In 2007, BBC 2 aired his Kombat Opera, standalone musical parodies of well-known TV programmes. Thomas was librettist for Turnage‟s opera Anna Nicole.
David Toop is a composer/musician, author and curator who has worked in many fields of sound art and music, from improvisation and field recordings to pop music production and music for TV. He has published five books, released eight solo albums, curated several exhibitions, and writes for many publications. His opera – Star-shaped Biscuit – was performed at Aldeburgh in September 2012. http://davidtoopblog.com/
Ashley Turnell is a freelance singer, specialising in choral and consort work with Ex Cathedra, Ensemble Plus Ultra, Tallis Scholars, BBC Daily Service Singers and many others.
Graham Vick is one of the world's leading opera directors, and Artistic Director of Birmingham Opera Company. At least 10 of his productions have been filmed for television and video release. Vick has received many prizes and awards including the prestigious Premi Abbiati (three times) and the South Bank Show Award for Opera (twice). He was awarded a CBE in 2009. www.ingpen.co.uk/artist_detail.php?aid=15
Jennifer Walshe‟s work ranges from sound works to visual works, text, sculpture, fashion and films. Her solo exhibitions range from Project Arts Centre (Dublin) to the Fondazione Claudio Buziol (Venice); Chelsea Art Museum (New York) to ICA (London). www.milker.org
Alex Waterman is a composer, musician and musicologist. He has worked closely with Robert Ashley in creating a new Spanish-language version of Perfect Lives, Vidas Perfectas, and is co-authoring a book on Ashley with designer and writer Will Holder. www.alexwaterman.com
Richard Whitby is an artist and writer. Currently a PhD candidate at the London Consortium, his recent exhibitions include a solo show in 2012 at The Royal Standard, Liverpool. www.richardwhitby.net
Dougal Wilson has made music videos for Will Young, LCD Sound System, Jarvis Cocker, Coldplay and others. He has twice won Best Director at the UK Creative and Design Awards; and two D&AD awards. www.blinkprods.com/directors/view-bio/item197/Dougal-Wilson/#artist_dougalwilson
Thank You It would not have been possible to put this ambitious programme together without the good will and active support of all the artists and their gallery representatives (and to English National Opera, Sky Arts and the artists‟ representatives for the short aria films by Werner Herzog, Dougal Wilson and Sam Taylor-Wood). For the making of the new works, we are particularly grateful for support from no.w.here, the London Symphony Orchestra, St Matthew‟s Church Bethnal Green, Steinways and Oxford Brookes University. Our thanks also to Flatpack Festival for their advice and support.
A feature of the programme has been our partnerships with organisations and companies in Birmingham, notably BIAD, the Conservatoire, Giant Screen, Ex Cathedra and Birmingham Opera Company.
We would particularly like to thank our principal partners and supporters, namely Sound and Music, the PRS for Music Foundation and the Institute for Musical Research.
Ikon Gallery 1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham B1 2HS Open Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm, free entry 0121 248 0708 / www.ikon-gallery.co.uk Ikon is supported using public funding by Arts Council England and Birmingham City Council. Ikon Gallery Limited trading as Ikon, registered charity no. 528892.