Performances on Place Publique
Foundry Darling, Montreal. In the context of The House of Dust exhibition
June 22, 2017
Program:
5pm
Guided tour with the curators of the exhibition
6pm
Performances on Place Publique
Michael Parsons, Walk, 1969
Michael Parsons is a British composer, musician, and theoretician. Since the mid-1960s, he has been a leading figure in the experimental music scene. He was notably in the Scratch Orchestra with Cornelius Cardew in the late 1960s, a collective formed to democratize the experience of playing music through a radical transformation of the musical score and the use of everyday objects as instruments. Walk is a score that gives directions for number of steps, speed, direction, and rest for a group of performers who move within the space.
*Alison Knowles, Proposition IV (Squid), 1970*
Proposition IV (Squid), is a performative work created in 1970 to “activate” The House of Dust when it was installed at CalArts. The score was adapted to function autonomously, without the presence of the house, by using a coloured quadrant placed on the ground. It was performed, among other places, at The Kitchen in New York in 1973.
Alison Knowles, #15 Wounded Furniture, 1965
Alison Knowles gave the following description of the Event Score #15 Wounded Furniture: “This piece uses an old piece of furniture in bad shape. Destroy it further, if you like. Bandage it up with gauze and adhesive. Spray red paint on the wounded joints. Effective lighting helps. This activity may be performed with one or more performers, and simultaneously with other events. “Premiered July 19th, 65 at Cafe au Go Go, NY.”