[May 13] CTW Performance: 12.6 Lyrae/le chiffre by Raphaele Shirley & Algis Kizys

12.6 Lyrae/le chiffre is an immersive site-specific installation and live performance by the artist Raphaele Shirley in collaboration with musician and composer Algis Kizys. First presented at the project space “The Chimney” in 2016, 12.6 Lyrae/le chiffre takes the viewer from the intimate to the infinite, cyclically and imperceptible arcing back and forth via a subtle modulation of light and sound. The public is surrounded within this visual and auditory landscape creating a journey through time/space, a poetic exploration of states of being by way of layered abstractions.

 “Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is” – Percy Bysshe Shelley

May 13 2017   Doors open @ 7 pm

Tickets $15 advance, $20 at the door / $25 two-night tickets available

Other performance on the evening include: SMOMID and Plan 23

The Knockdown Center 52-19 Flushing Ave, Maspeth, NY 11378.

 

12.6 Lyrae/le chiffre  by Raphaele Shirley & Algis Kizys

 The installation centers on Shirley’s sculpture titled 12.6 Black Star. This works consists of a 12’6” diameter white neon circle mounted, for this installation, below an aluminum ring which hangs on an angle above the viewer’s head. The white light of the neon circle, dims to darkness and brightens to full intensity in a slow and barely perceivable gradual loop, like a fast forwarded sunrise to sunset. Alongside, a set of hazers generate a cloud above the ring, erasing the ceiling and suspending the light into an appearance of void. Following the slow appearance and erasure of the ring and its surroundings, Algis Kizys’ audio work chimes and breathes with the light. Using a 4.1 surround sound with speakers arranged in a circle oriented under the sculpture, Kizys’ 21 minute looped composition engulfs and rotates the audience. The live appearance of musicians, guest performers including Eric Hubel, Laura Ortman and Vincent Signorelli, under Kizys’ direction respond to the soundtrack, augmenting the dimensionality of the installation, layering new live sounds within the echoing lexicon of auditory references. A surprise event concludes the performance, encasing the experience in sense of meaningfulness and an urgency of the now.

 

In 12.6 Lyrae/le chiffre, we step into an environment of dusk. In this dusk, the installation brings to form and returns to void a world within emptiness. “Lyrae”, both the mythical instrument of Hermes and the luminous stars of the constellation Vega, works as our guide in this rhythm of being and absence. “Le chiffre”, in French translating as “the number” points towards scientific nomenclature of cosmological discoveries. It is also the name for fictional character appearing in Ian Fleming‘s 1953 first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, known as a trickster, signaling surprise events which may occur during the performance.

The reference to the constellations (Lyrae) and to numbers and the trickster (le chiffre) underlines the conceptual thread of this work which through the use of perceptual tools of light and sound allows us to grasp and connect unfathomable relations of intimacy and the body with the notions of infinite and nothingness.

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BIO

RAPHAELE SHIRLEY (Wisconsin, USA) is a multi-media visual artist. Her practice centers around site specificity and performance, often including collaborations with musicians and technicians worldwide. Her pieces vary between discrete objects to largescale ephemeral interventions which she then documents. Insterested in the question of how to represent time and a notion of totality, she pairs down the mediums she employs to their most simple expression, creating a tension between the economy of means and the complexity of subject. 

Shirley’s solo exhibitions include: 12.6 Lyrae at the Chimney, New York (2016), 0910 Light Shots, Chelsea Art Museum , New York(2010); Arctic Lights, Dorfman Projects, New York (2010); Jewels of Kvinesdal, Kvinesdal, Norway (2009); Sunken City Episode II, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York, NY (2008). Shirley’s work was also featured in group exhibitions including: Chance Ecologies, Queens Museum (2016); The Luminous Surface, Salisbury University, Maryland, USA (2015); Magnetic North: Artists of The Arctic Circle, UBS Art Gallery, New York, NY (2014); Sandnes 2160, Museum of Moving Image, New York (2013); Free City, Public At installation for The Flint Public Art Project, Flint, Michigan (2013); [PAM] Cyland Festival, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2009); Drift, National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia (2008). Selected fairs and biennials include: Art Basel (2006); Scope, New York and Miami (2005-2009); Docks Art fair/ Lyon (2009); The Dark Fair/Swiss Institute (2008); Mykonos Biennale (2015/2013); Erased Walls, Mediations Biennale, Berlin, Germany (2010); 12th International Media Art Biennale WRO 07, National Museum, Wroclaw, Poland (2008). Raphaele has been the recipient of several grants by the Norwegian Arts Council. In 2009 and 2010 she was selected to be one of the participants of the residency “The Arctic Circle” run by the Farm Foundation. In 2016 she was Harvestwork’s resident with her collaborative project 3by3by3 (with Rhys Chatham and GH Hovagimyan). She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

ALGIS KIZYS is a sound artist, composer, musician and director. He has performed with Swans, Foetus/Jim Thirlwell, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Glenn Branca, Of Cabbages And Kings, Lydia Lunch (Retrovirus/Teenage Jesus), Bag People, Problem Dogs, the Termites, amongst others. He has worked with visual artists such as Eve Sussman, Simon Lee and Matthew Barney with Jonathan Bepler. His film credits include Gus Van Sant, Eve Sussman, David Jacobson and Matthew Barney/Jonathan Bepler, with Simon Lee on an interpretation of Ted Hughes’ “Crow the Life and Song of the Crow” entitled “Where Is The Black Beast?”, and sound design/music for Eve Sussman’s “whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir” which is the permanent collection of the Smithsonian. He is currently involved in several improvisational music projects, the Triangles (an ambient comedy broadcast installation trio), the Hallicrafters (a shortwave radio duet, with Eric Hubel, using live shortwave signals and test equipment to create real time soundscapes), and is constructing a version of Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” as a film/installation. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

http://www.raphaeleshirley.com

http://www.thechimneynyc.com/upcoming-raphaele-shirley-126-lyrae/

http://www.algiskizys.com

Co-sponsored by The Chimney

About The Chimney NYC:

The Chimney NYC is an exhibition and performance venue promoting multidisciplinary and international artists. Founded in June 2015, The Chimney is run by Clara Darrason and Jennifer Houdrouge.Located in the heart of Brooklyn’s creative scene, The Chimney plays on the rawness of its industrial architecture. All works are commissioned to interact with the space, creating immersive environments and interactions with the viewers. In addition to its permanent exhibition space, The Chimney is developing and promoting offsite installations and exhibitions in the United States and abroad. 

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