Lee Ranaldo, from the catalogue.
For more than a decade, the poet and musician Lee Ranaldo and the artist Leah Singer have been collaborating in multimedia performances. Lee Ranaldo is a founding member of Sonic Youth, Leah Singer is an artist, with film as her primary medium.
The exhibition "iloveyouihateyou" at Magasin 3 is based on an audiovisual work by Leah Singer and Lee Ranaldo. This work is an exploration of how image and sound interact, and will be staged both as a live performance and as an installation. Their performance work and installations combine a flow of images and sounds taken from everyday situations, moments that reveal the beauty of the ordinary and turn the commonplace into something extraordinary.
The exhibition also features three historic experimental films on the theme of “everyday existence” and the capacity to see the greatness in small things. The films are by Gordon Matta-Clark, Terry Fox, Nancy Holt & Robert Smithson.
Curator: Richard Julin
Leah Singer (born 1962) is best known for her live film projection work. She graduated from New York University’s, “Intensive Filmmaking Program” in 1988 and from Ryerson University, Toronto, in 1984, majoring in journalism with a focus on film and photography. In her work Leah Singer experiments with 16mm motion picture film imbedded in a 35mm still camera and she calls upon film as an active performance. She utilizes a catalogue of films in an improvisatory way during live performances through the use of analytical film projectors. This way a story is simultaneously formed and fragmented, enabling viewers to encounter variations in corporeal textures and associations, and each performance takes on a new shape. Leah Singer produced a significant body of sculptural work, drawings, prints, artist’s books, and ephemera. “Copy”, her self-published graphic newspapers produced since 1997and are in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Singer also contributed to the show ”Old News”, a project at CNEAI in Paris Her work has been shown, among others, at the Whitney Museum of Art, New York, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, at Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, at Rocket Gallery, Tokyo, at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, at the Fundacao Serralves, Porto, at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris and at the Kitchen, New York. Leah Singer is the partner and frequent collaborator of musician and poet Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. Their central live film and music performance, “DRIFT”, has been shown in different venues around the world and was recreated for DVD and released with an accompanying book in 2005. In 2008 they did a collaborative exhibition of drawings, prints, sculpture, sound and video ”Space Within These Lines Not Dedicated”, co-curated with Jan Van Woensel at Hudson Valley Community College, Troy, New York.
Lee Ranaldo (born 1956) is a musician, visual artist and writer. He graduated in 1978 from Harpur College/State University of New York at Binghamton with concentrations in painting, printmaking, and cinema. Lee Ranaldo is a co-founder and original member of the group Sonic Youth, formed in 1981 in New York City. Sonic Youth have continued to record new music and tour the world on a regular basis. Ranaldo is presently touring with “Sonic Youth etc: Sensational Fix”, a show examining cultural works of the past three decades through the lens of Sonic Youth’s activities. Recent exhibitions of Lee Ranaldo includes the “Space Within These Lines Not Dedicated” and “Drift”, both in collaboration with Leah Singer; “Possibilities of Action: The Life of the Score”, a show on the visual possibilities of modern scores, musical and otherwise; and “Old News”, a group show centred on artists working with newspapers. Lee Ranaldo is also a member of Text of Light, a group formed in 2001 that performs improvised music to the films of Stan Brakhage and other members of the American Cinema avant-garde of the 1950s-60s. Ranaldo has a vast body of solo and group sound and music works, among others the multi-channel sound installation “Maelstrom from Drift”, 2006. He has also extensively collaborated on film music projects for Todd Haynes, Olivier Assayas, Dania Saragovia, and Richard Linklater. His own films and videos include “Notebook”, “King’s Ogg”, “Book of Dreams: A Visit to Kerouac’s Lowell”, a series of ‘noise movies’, and many others. His published books include “Hello From The American Desert” (poems derived from Internet spam), “Sorry Matt”, “Road Movies”, “Lengths & Breaths “and “Moroccan Journal: Jajouka Excerpt”. Numerous catalogues and publications document his work both as a performer, musician and artist. Ranaldo’s visual art & sound works have been shown most recently at ZKM, Karlsruhe; MACBA, Barcelona; and ISCP, Brooklyn.” Maelstrom from Drift”, a new solo CD, was released in May 2008.
Nancy Holt was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1938. She studied at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Nancy Holt is a pioneer in earthworks, public art and environmental sculptures. She also works in media such as installation, film, video, and photography. She collaborated with Robert Smithson in several film and video works, for example “Swamp”. Nancy Holt has produced site-specific environmental works in numerous places around the world and one of her best-known work is “Sun Tunnels” in Utah (1976). Nancy Holt lives and works in Galisteo, New Mexico.
Robert Smithson was born in 1938 in Passaic, New Jersey. Smithson is internationally recognized as one of the groundbreaking artist in earthworks. “Spiral Jetty” (1970), a monumental earthwork located in the Great Salt Lake, Utah is one his most important and well-known works. Smithson produced sculptures, earthworks, drawings, paintings and writings, which have had a profound impact on sculpture and art theory. His work is featured in major museum collections such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo. Robert Smithson died in 1973.
Terry Fox was born in 1943. He studied at the Cornish School of Allied Arts in Seattle and the Accademia di Belli Arti in Rome. In the 1960’s he lived in San Francisco where he was a central figure in the West Coast art movements. Terry Fox worked with performance art, video, sound works and sculptures. His works often had a political content and he explored the ritual and symbolic meanings in everyday objects. “Children's Tapes” from 1974 is a classic video work where Fox investigates these objects in the everyday life. Terry Fox lived and worked in Europe the last years of his life and died in Cologne, Germany 2008.
Gordon Matta-Clark was born in New York in 1943. He studied French literature at the Sorbonne and Architecture at Cornell University. In Paris Gordon Matta-Clark was influenced by the Situationist movement and as other artist like Robert Smithson, he came to reject the commodification of art. Matta-Clark worked with photography, film, video, performance, drawing, large-scale sculpture and architecture. In the early 1970s, Matta-Clark founded Food Restaurant in New York, together with Caroline Godden. It became a gathering place for art, music and performances. Matta-Clark is mostly known for his work that can be described as deconstructive architecture or ‘anarchitecture’, where buildings would be modified in ways of carving and sawing. Gordon Matta-Clark died at a young age in 1978.
Exhibition Catalogue no 40 "iloveyouihateyou"
Published by Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall and Libraryman Co., Ltd. 2008.
64 pages, color. Richly illustrated. Hardback.
Language: English
Price: 180 SEK
ISBN 978-91-976646-4-6
Buy it from www.libraryman.se (click on "WEBSHOP")
Contents
Introduction by Richard Julin, Chief Curator at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall.
Conversation between Richard Julin, Lee Ranaldo and Leah Singer in New York, November 20, 2008
Biographies of participating artists in the exhibition.
Introduction (from the catalogue)
A mental squinting
About twenty years ago my idea about what art can be was shaken thoroughly. I was watching Jonas Mekas three hour, epic experimental movie “Walden”. It poetically depicts brief moments of beauty from quotidian situations. I quickly felt at ease with “Walden’s” quite slow tempo, hand held camera movements and voice-over sound track. So much that I fell asleep after a while. I woke up a bit later to new images of vaguely familiar faces, a snow storm in Times Square, hearing a voice reading something in French, images of a boat ride… and I dozed off again. When I woke up and followed the flow until the film ended I was exhilarated. I realized that I had felt no urge to understand a specific message or plot line. The experience was like being in a stream of image and sound; an allowing environment that embraced contemplation as well as sleep. It felt like a mental squinting where the focus was somewhere between the images, the sound and the thoughts they evoked. A liberating experience!
I got that same feeling when I first saw Leah Singer and Lee Ranaldo’s installation “Drift”. The work can be described as an immersive sonic/visual environment consisting of music, sounds and texts by Ranaldo in response to two 16mm analytical film projectors performed in real time by Singer. Starting in 1991 “Drift” was performed live in museums, galleries, concert halls and performing arts centers worldwide until 2005. At that time the work became a DVD film. This “fixed version” of something that had been in flux for so many years turned out to be a catalyst and starting point for a new work: “iloveyouihateyou”. This is the work that has its premiere as an installation at Magasin 3 during the Spring of 2009.
Leah Singer and Lee Ranaldo’s performance work and installations combine a flow of images and sounds taken from everyday situations, moments that reveal the beauty of the ordinary and turn the commonplace into something extraordinary. The contemporary poetic nature of their work echoes a history of experimental cinema that is included in the exhibition with three older works from the history of American avant-garde cinema: “Swamp” by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson (1971), ”Children's Tapes” by Terry Fox (1974) and ”City Slivers” by Gordon Matta Clark (1976). I doubt the exhibition “iloveyouihateyou” will make you fall asleep. But if you do – enjoy!
I want to thank Leah and Lee for the generous discussions on art that we’ve had and for a great time working together developing the exhibition “iloveyouihateyou”.
Richard Julin, Chief Curator at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall
WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION
“iloveyouihateyou”
Leah Singer and Lee Ranaldo
2008, installation with video and sound
Performance at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall Feb 7 2009
Download the Podcast (part 1, part 2)
“Children's Tapes”
Terry Fox
1974, 30 min, b&w, sound
”City Slivers”
Gordon Matta-Clark
1976, 15 min, colour, silent, Super 8 film on video
“Swamp”
Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson
1971, 6 min, colour, sound, 16 mm film on video
Leah Singer & Lee Ranaldo, "iloveyouihateyou", 2008 |
Leah Singer & Lee Ranaldo, "iloveyouihateyou", 2008 |
Leah Singer & Lee Ranaldo, "iloveyouihateyou", 2008 |
Gordon Matta Clark, "City Slivers", 1976 |
Nancy Holt & Robert Smithson, "Swamp", 1971 |
Terry Fox, "Children's tapes", 1974 |
Leah Singer & Lee Ranaldo, "iloveyouihateyou". Performance at Magasin 3, 7 feb 2009. |
Leah Singer & Lee Ranaldo, "iloveyouihateyou". Performance at Magasin 3, 7 feb 2009. |
Leah Singer & Lee Ranaldo, "iloveyouihateyou". Performance at Magasin 3, 7 feb 2009. |
PROGRAM IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE EXHIBITION
Performance iloveyouihateyou by Lee Ranaldo and Leah Singer on opening day, Saturday February 7 at 4pm.
Thursday April 2, 7pm–10pm. Film evening.
Film evening at Magasin 3 in relation to the exhibition "iloveyouihateyou". Classical experimental films selected by chief curator Richard Julin. The films will be shown on a 16 mm projector. The screening starts at 7pm. Be on time! Café and bar. The exhibition "iloveyouihateyou" will remain open during the evening. Free admission.
"The program consists of personal favorites within experimental film. The ambition is to show films from different time periods and to highlight a number of artists and films that never or rarely have been shown in Sweden before. These films are before their time, some of them produced by the most renowned underground legends. The program has a tempo that moves from ultra-fast clips to slow motion - from silent film to an intense remix of the classic "To Kill a Mockingbird" and its sound track"
/Richard Julin
FILM PROGRAM:
Rose Lowder, BOUQUET 1 , 1995
Len Lye, Trade Tattoo, 1937
Mary Menken, GO GO GO, 1962-64
Jonas Mekas, Award presentation to Andy Warhol, 1964
Abigail Child , Covert Action. Part 5 of Is This What You Were Born For?, 1984
Martin, Arnold, Passage a l'acte, 1993
Rose LOWDER , Bouquet 10, 1995
Total length 52 min
COLLABORATIONS IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE EXHIBITION
The Heart-Lung Foundation, http://www.hjart-lungfonden.se/
The French Embassy, http://www.ambafrance-se.org/
The French Institute, http://franskainstitutet.thalasoft.com/
PRESS CLIPPINGS (in Swedish)
Birgitta Rubin's interview published in Dagens Nyheter 2007-02-06 http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=614322
Clemens Poellinger's interview published in Svenska Dagbladet 2007-02-08 http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/kultur/did_14583128.asp
Cristina Karlstam's review published in Upsala Nya Tidning 2007-02-10 http://www2.unt.se/avd/1,1786,MC=5-AV_ID=578856,00.html
Towe Matre's feature, broadcasted by Radio P1, Studio 1 http://www.sr.se/webbradio
Cecilia Blomberg's review broadcasted by Radio P1, Kulturnytt http://www.sr.se/webbradio
