PERFORMA 2021
The Sound of Morning
Lower East Side Intersection (Manhattan) Corner of Orchard and Rivington, New York, NY 10002
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Oct 14, 9:00 pm—10:30 pm
Oct 15, 9:00 pm—10:30 pm
Oct 16, 8:00 pm—9:30 pm
RSVP full. Some tickets will be available at the performance, on a first come first serve basis.
LIVE STREAM: October 15, click Watch Live, top right corner
Kevin Beasley will present his first outdoor live performance staged at a downtown Manhattan intersection where two distinct neighborhoods meet marking the contrasts inherent to the architecture, inhabitants, and histories that have evolved over the past several decades. Taking place in the Lower East Side—on streets demarcated for closure in NYC’s Open Spaces initiative—Beasley will insert a series of his sculptures, comprised of industrial and utilitarian materials, into the existing infrastructure, creating objects that appear to be interchangeable with existing street furniture. A group of performers will adapt and alter everyday gestures and movements, shifting these actions from the familiar to the foreign. With microphones, that faint sounds that usually disappear into the white noise of the city will be enhanced, creating a sonic sculpture live mixed by the artist.
Curated by Kathy Noble, Senior Curator & Head of Curatorial Affairs
For any questions or accessibility needs please email the box office: boxoffice@performa-arts.org
Press Release
For Press Passes, kindly email Performa@culturalcounsel.com
Your face is/is not enough (2018). Performance at Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial 2018, 14 July 2018. Tate, London, Presented by the Tate Americas Foundation, courtesy of the North American Acquisitions Committee in honour of Bob Rennie, Chair of the Committee 2010-2016, 2017, accessioned 2021. Image courtesy the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York.
Mark McNulty
Credits
Kevin Beasley: The Sound of Morning is supported by Toby Devan Lewis, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Richard Chang, Hill Art Foundation, Joyce Liu, Francesco Aquilini, Bob Mersky, and Donald Porteous.
PERFORMERS:
Dwayne Brown, Ley Gambucci, Wendell Gray II, Paul Hamilton, Raymond Pinto, Angie Pittman, jess pretty, Katrina Reid, Gabriela Silva, and Amadi Washington
PRODUCTION:
Sound Designer and Technical Producer: Daniel Neumann
Choreographer: Paul Hamilton
Kevin Beasley Studio: Barbara Elting, Dante Migone-Ojeda
Stage Manager: Caitlin Adams
Audio Technician: Jade Guterman
Production Assistants: Austin Brown, Mitchell Cheng, Justin Germek
Costume Prep: Maggie Beutner
Volunteers: Kelvin Ponder, P.J. Verhoest, Aliza Russell
Security: Elite Security
SPECIAL THANKS:
Jim Toth, NYC Department of Transportation, SAPO, LES Partnerships, NYPD, Sauce Pizzeria, Trapizzino Restaurant, Plaxall, and Essex Street Academy.
Senior Curator & Head of Curatorial Affairs: Kathy Noble
Senior Producer & Manager of Media Initiatives: Sasha Okshteyn
Performa 2021 Biennial Fellow: Joyce Chung
Performa 2021 Biennial Fellow: Mariana Fernández
Portrait of Kevin Beasley
Photo by David Schulze
ABOUT Kevin Beasley
Kevin Beasley reimagines the spaces in which we live, the institutions we visit, the objects and materials that we use, and the actions of our lives. His work incorporates everyday items such as brightly colored housedresses procured from a former Harlem-based shop, repurposing them into life-size freestanding sculptures and wall-based works draped in resin. Beasley’s sound works blend genre, incorporating samples and live sounds—which he distorts, edits, cuts and pastes using a wide range of analogue, digital, electronic and acoustic instruments. For his live performances he often collaborates with other artists, such as drummer and artist Eli Keszler, conceptualist Ralph Lemon and artist and performer Okwui Okpokwasili, to create hybrid works.
Beasley, born 1985 Lynchburg, Virginia lives and works in New York City. He presented solo exhibitions and projects at A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, 2020, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2012-2019, The Kitchen, New York, 2019, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and The Hammer, Los Angeles, 2017; he was included in Liverpool Biennial, 2018, The Whitney Museum of American Art's Biennial in 2014, and MoMA PS1's Greater New York exhibition in 2015.