Beast It:  ATHICA’s Experimental Performance and Installation Series

February – May 2018

ATHICA is proud to announce Beast It, a series of installations and performances that is taking place from February through May 2018 at ATHICA.  Bringing together emerging artists in the visual, musical, and performing arts, the series emphasizes experimental, collaborative, and immersive experiences.  To “beast it” means to use great strength and force to accomplish a goal, with a sense of extreme energy.  Many of the works in Beast It are enthusiastic, risk-taking, and raw, powered by the enthusiasms of emerging artists and curators, and untempered by cultural and critical hegemonies.  The program serves ATHICA’s role as a community laboratory for the arts, in which practitioners have a safe space to experiment and explore.

In conjunction with this series, ATHICA is initiating its Artists-in-ATHICA Residency program, generously supported by the James E. and Betty J. Huffer Foundation. The month of February will be devoted to ATHICA’s first Artists-in-Residence, visual visual/performance artist Gunnar Tarsa and composer/musician/performance artist Kyle Lewis, who collaborate as Guy Did Ail.  Tarsa will complete a gallery-wide drawing, hosting open studio every weekday afternoon in February.  Guy Did Ail will produce three scheduled performances within the installation, during which new components will be created.

Other events and installations in the Beast It series include Surround, an immersive installation accompanied by an evening of performances curated by composer Monique Osorio; Surrender, three experimental music performances curated by Artist-In-Residence Kyle Lewis; Emerges: Collaborations, a collaborative installation curated by Jon Vogt and Kira Hegeman; and Lupita’s Revenge, a shadow-puppet play with a live soundtrack of Latin-American classics, performed by the group Tango Hambre.

ATHICA is especially grateful that the organization has received sustaining grant support for its 2018 operations and programming. Beast It is supported in part through the generous support of The James E. and Betty J. Huffer Foundation, the Athens Area Arts Council, Flagpole Magazine, and the Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. GCA also receives support from its partner agency, the National Endowment for the Arts.

Schedule

FEBRUARY

Guy Did Ail / Artists-in-Residence Throughout the Month of February:  Gunnar Tarsa and Kyle Lewis
Tarsa is a visual/performance artist and Lewis a composer/musician/performance artist who collaborate together as Guy Did Ail.  Their residency with ATHICA during the month of February 2018 includes the creation of a sitework by Tarsa as well as three performances by their collaborative Guy Did Ail, in which Lewis’s music is presented in conjunction with live-art-making by Tarsa.

    • Open Studio in ATHICA Gallery, Gunnar Tarsa Wall Drawing In-Progress
      • Monday–Friday 1–6 PM, February 5-27, 2018
      • No Open Studio on Feb 14th
    • Guy Did Ail Performances
      • Saturday, February 17, 2018, 6–9 PM
      • Saturday, February 24, 2018, 8–10 PM
      • Tuesday, February 27, 2018, 8–10 PM

MARCH

Exhibition:  Surround:  A Collaborative Installation, on view March 3-March 11, 2018.  Curated by Composer Monique Osorio.  Featuring the artists A.C. Carter, Kira Hynes, Sara Boden, Margaret Anderson, Jeremy Kiran Fernandes, James David Barsness, Rafael Villanueva, Logan Shirah, Jeremy Raj, and William Danztler.

Surround:  An Evening of Performance and Installation, Saturday, March 3, 2018 7-11 PM. Curated by Composer Monique Osorio with additional sponsorship from Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE).

  • Performance Collaborations
    • The Clown, with Cooper Holmes and music by Monique Osorio
    • Concerto for Beverley with musicians Monique Osorio and  Sahada Buckley and costumes by Ajmal Millar
    • The Restaurant, a play by Scott Crossman
    • Improv Duo:  Killick Hinds (sounds) and Stephanie Pharr (movement)
  • Musical Ensembles
    • Lambda Celsius, with A.C. Carter
    • Moth Sweat, with Rafael Villanueva and Ryder Seigle
    • Richard Gumby, with Scott Crossman and Others
    • Monique Osorio
    • Cult of Riggonia, with Jeremy Raj, William Datzler, and Others
    • New Twist on Drag, with Alex Suarez

 

APRIL

Emerges:  Collaborations, an Installation Exhibition, April 7 – May 13, 2018
Opening Reception Friday, April 6, 2018 6-9 PM
Curated by Kira Hegeman and Jon Vogt.  Featuring the collaborative installations of emerging artists in Athens, including Megan Burchett, Maddie Zerkel, Jon Nowell, Forest Kelley and Alexis Spina. The exhibition is a collaborative effort between chosen emerging artists in conversation with the physical exhibition space and each other’s artistic practice, with a thematic focus on embodied objects and sculptural assemblages using non-traditional materials including ready-made and reuse materials.

Surrender:  Three Evenings of Minimalist, Indeterminate, Improvisatory, and Aleatory Music, coordinated by Artist-In-Residence composer and performance artist Kyle Lewis

    • Saturday, April 7, 2018, 8:00 PM:  Coming Together by Frederic Rzewski, based on letters of an inmate at Attica State Prison, incarcerated during the riot of 1971. Perfomed by the Incongruency Ensemble, a collaborative from Atlanta conducted by Matthew Sadowski, featuring Kathryn Koopman on clarinet, Tyler Jones on trumpet, Alexis Letourneau on flute, Noah Johnson on cello, Sean Askin on viola, and with guest artist Kyle Lewis as narrator.
    • Wednesday, April 11, 2018, 7:30 PM:  Surrender, an original composition by Kyle Lewis, featuring Guy Did Ail.
    • Saturday, April 21, 7:30-9:00: Change 7, Selections from Parts 1-8 by Robert Blatt, a contemporary composer and sound artist; Fluxus Works including works by George Brecht, a major figure in the Fluxus movement.

Lupita’s Revenge, a shadow-puppet play with a live soundtrack of Latin-American classics, written and directed by Abel Klainbaum, performed by the group Tango Hambre, Thursday, April 26, 2018

Featuring the puppeteers Phil Jasen, Anthony Gaskins, and Laura Maria Ramirez and the musicians Megan Cole on vocals/ukulele, Keiko Ishibashi on violin, Elijah Neesmith on bass, Jeremy Raj on guitar, and Abel Klainbaum on accordion. Reception at 7:00 pm followed by performance at 8:00 pm. A limited number of tickets are available in advance for $14 ($1 service fee added) at https://tangohambre.eventbee.com/event?eid=155362333

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image Adapted from Foam Cow (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)