We are very pleased to present an evening of new live performances by Morrison Gong & J. (Jialing) Shih and by M. Lamar as the 8th of 10 performances events taking place as part of our exhibition “Scrapbook (or, Why Can’t We Live Together)”.
Morrison Gong and J. (Jialing) Shih’s “The Phoenix Lament” is a performance — combining 16mm film, video and overhead projection — about personal emancipation from cultural and social stereotypes and restrictions, including the concept of familial shame. The artists are also interested in the trope of female madness as presented in Eastern and Western literature, especially as portrayed in Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” and Su Tong’s “Wives and Concubines”. Multiple projections of excerpts from movie adaptions from the novels combine with live narration in both English and Mandarin, including stories about the personal experiences of both artists. Performative elements are also incorporated.
In his live sound and video opera “The Lynching Suite”, which will be making its debut, M. Lamar performs a symphonic dirge for male soprano and synthetic strings devoted to “the legacy of lynching in the United States”. Inspired by the thought of black liberation theologian James Cone and in particular his 2011 book “The Cross and the Lynching Tree”, the composition references spiritual and symphonic black metal music, while the visual component — a video projection mixed live — centers around an illustration of a 1863 lynching at the time of the New York City Draft Riots. Both image and music, the artist writes, attempt to “provide spaces for mourning, grieving, catharsis, contemplation and resurrection to cause transfigurations of our guttural cry.”
Morrison Gong & J. (Jialing) Shih
“The Phoenix Lament / 百鳥朝鳳”, 2019
Expanded cinema performance
16mm film, digital video and overhead projection, approx. 15 minutes
Phoenix, a mythological bird that obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. “The Phoenix Lament” is an expanded cinema performance that ties personal narratives of seeking liberation and rebirth from familial shame with re-interpretation of female madness in Eastern and Western literature. — Morrison Gong
M. Lamar
“The Lynching Suite”, 2019
Live sound and video opera
Voice, keyboard, single-channel video, approx. 40 minutes
Composition for male soprano and synthetic strings by M. Lamar
Libretto by M. Lamar
Video by M. Lamar
The Lynching Suite is a symphonic horror dirge for male soprano and synthetic strings. It is the first known composition of classical music devoted to the legacy of lynching in the United States. Guided by the visionary work of black liberation theologian James Cone, the Suite is a liturgical cycle of dirges. Musically, the Suite draws from the structures and colors of the Negro Spiritual and symphonic black metal. Its libretto unearths and airs the cannibalistic ritual and psychosexual bio-political dimensions of lynching, exploring the inescapable implications of the castrations, dismemberments and trophy- collecting that were a recurring feature. The libretto also explores resurrection, overcoming, and Armageddon. — M. Lamar
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Morrison Gong uses film, video, performance and photography to dissect eroticism and confront their cultural taboos of sexuality. Their work often deals with exposure, viscerality and transformation: through recounting personal experiences, or re-interpreting literature and mythology with body movements, cinematic and spoken languages. Gong received their BFA from Parsons School of Design. Their work has been showed at Microscope Gallery, Vox Populi Gallery, Manhattan Independent Film Festival, and Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival. Gong currently lives and works in Queens, NY.
M. Lamar is a composer who works across opera, metal, performance, video, sculpture and installation to craft sprawling narratives of radical becomings. Born May 29th 1984, Lamar holds a BFA from The San Francisco Art Institute and attended the Yale School of Art, sculpture program, before dropping out to pursue music. Lamar’s work has been presented internationally, most recently at The Cloisters at The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Funkhaus Berlin Germany, Kunstgebäude Stuttgart, The Meet Factory in Prague, National Sawdust New York, The Kitchen New York, MoMA PS1’s Greater New York, Merkin Hall, New York, Issue Project Room New York, The Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco; Human resources, Los Angeles; Wesleyan University; Participant Inc., New York; New Museum, New York; Södra Teatern, Stockholm; Warehouse9, Copenhagen; WWDIS Fest, Gothenburg and Stockholm; The International Theater Festival, Donzdorf, Germany; Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York; Performance Space 122, New York; and African American Art & Culture Complex, San Francisco; among others. Mr. Lamar continues to study classical and bel canto technique with Ira Siff, and is a recipient of a 2016 Jerome Fund Grant for New Music (JFund), a 2016 NYFA Fellowship in Music and Sound and grants from Material Vodka 2016, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation (2015), Harpo Foundation (2014-2015), and Franklin Furnace Fund (2013–14).
J (JiaLing) Shih is a musician and multimedia artist currently living and working in NYC/Tel Aviv/Taipei. Shih has performed at venues including the Strathmore, Knockdown Center, Nublu and Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Originally from Baltimore Maryland, Shih began a classical music education at the age of 4. Continuing her visual arts and music studies at the University of Sydney, New York University and Parsons School of Design (2019), Shih combines analog and digital instruments in their audiovisual language that fuses elements of Eastern/Western cultures to promote awareness and coexistence.
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Microscope Gallery Event Series 2019 is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).