AmidstA Multichannel Video and Sound Installation with Live Performances
In collaboration with swissnex San Francisco, with the support of the Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia
Installation Schedule
Opening reception: Thursday, January 21, 8:30 p.m.
Exhibition runs through Saturday, January 30
Gallery hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 1:00 - 6:00 p.m.
FREE Admission
Swiss artists Ursula Scherrer and Flo Kaufmann continue their thematic series of collaborations with "Amidst."
Ursula Scherrer’s five-channel video is projected onto suspended fabric, drawing the viewer into an architecture of images, colors and light: representations of fleeting and indefinable presence, of everything that is “amidst.” Venetian blinds pouring light and shadows slice the space. A torrential rain shown upside down spreads like fire through the room. The loops of each video channel phase against each other, changing their relationship slowly throughout the course of a day.
Flo Kaufmann creates the sound environment of the installation using homemade instruments and electronic effects. Five speakers placed around and within the structure play their own textured track. Ever-shifting audiovisual alignments occur over time according to one’s position in the space.
As visitors move through the environment, they become an integral element of the installation as they mark the landscape with their bodies, their shadows, their sound.
Performance Schedule
Thursday, January 21, 7:00 p.m.
Shelley Hirsch (US) - voice
Flo Kaufmann (Switzerland) - live electronics
Ursula Scherrer (Switzerland / US) - live video
Saturday, January 23, 8:00 p.m.
Shelley Hirsch (US) - voice
Flo Kaufmann (Switzerland) - live electronics
Ursula Scherrer (Switzerland / US) - live video
Fred Frith (US) - guitar
Performance admissions:
$5 - $15 sliding scale or FREE with membership
Hirsch, Kaufmann, and Scherrer collaboratively manipulate the space. Unintended narratives unfold from various vantage points.
Shelley Hirsch, performing for the third time with Ursula Scherrer, sings and speaks in a voice capable of mercurial transformations: at some times blending in like a chameleon, while at others defining herself as an outside figure: commenting, weaving together the audiovisual constructs thought up by Scherrer, Kaufmann, and the viewers.
Flo Kaufmann samples Hirsch’s live singing, her captured voices becoming a Greek Chorus as he mixes them with the soundtracks he distributes to the different speakers placed in the installation space.
Ursula Scherrer mixes the images live with an antiquated analog video mixer, manipulating the projectors to highlight one area of the installation, darkening another. A handheld projector is used as a spotlight capturing Hirsch on her journey amid "Amidst."
Scherrer, Hirsch, and Kaufmann’s live audiovisual trio will be joined on their second performance (Jan 23) by exceptional guest Fred Frith. The avant garde legend and guitar luminary will add his own blend of sonics to an already potent brew of sound and visions.