event
Event: August 12 - A Conversation and a Concert

About the event

MUSIC AS IMAGE AND METAPHOR
Selections from the Kentler Flatfiles

Co-Curators: David Houston and Florence Neal
Musical track by Michael Kowalski and Allen Otte

Artists: Herbert Brün, Beth Caspar, Phillip Chen, Abby Goldstein, Takuji Hamanaka, Keiko Hara, robin holder, Richard Howe, Hannah Israel, Mary Judge, Kazuhiro Nishijima, Ralph Kiggell, Rosalinda Kolb, Jiří Kornatovský, Robert Lansden, Simon Lewandowski, Jim Napierala, Florence Neal, Margaret Neill, Morgan O’Hara, Gahae Park, Jaanika Peerna, Scott Pfaffman, Orlando Richards, Susan Schwalb, Viviane Rombaldi Seppey, Molly Snyder-Fink, Hugh Williams

ABOUT THE EVENT:  Thursday, August 12
6pm - A conversation with the curators and musicians  / at the museum and online
7pm - Concert: Michael Kowalski and Allen Otte

Composer-pianist Michael Kowalski (Gringo Blaster, Still in Love, Fraternity of Deceit) collaborated with Hall of Fame percussionist-composer Allen Otte (Blackearth Percusion Group, Percussion Group Cincinnati, The Innocents Project) to create forty one-minute musical responses to the artwork in “Music as Image and Metaphor.”  They’ll be joining exhibition co-curators David Houston and Florence Neal for a panel discussion at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum on August 12, to be followed by a short concert featuring three world premieres:
 

• Forms of falling dust  (2017 / 2021) by Rachel C. Walker, performed by Otte on a prepared Chinese yang-qin – a virtual aural tour of the techniques used by Otte in his response to Keiko Hara's "Topophilia Ma and Ki" in the exhibition.
   
• How to Compose Yourself  (1995 / 2021) by Michael Kowalski, an updating of a 1995 monodrama for slightly demented pianist and perfectly sane percussionist, with Kowalski as the aging pianist flipping and muttering through a clip archive while Otte comments musically using still more percussion instruments featured in the exhibition. Kowalski's electronically modified acoustic piano riffs are all based on excepts from his Lisztian solo, Fakebook, and his realization of Toshi Ichiyanagi's graphic score, Music for Piano #7.
   
• Begin Again  (1597 / 1977 / 2021), based on an example from the treatise "Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music" by the Elizabethan composer Thomas Morley, realized on an IBM computer by composer Ed Miller, and now recombined and extended by Otte and Kowalski.  It features Otte’s solo drumming, the recorded voice of soprano Marlene Rosen, and Kowalski’s recombinant mixing.   

Musical Responses to Artworks in the Exhibition
LISTEN ONLINE / press the AUDIO button under each artwork on the exhibition page to open the corresponding music page.


THE KENTLER FLATFILES are an essential element of Kentler International Drawing Space since its founding in 1990. A compendium of artworks by more than 290 local, national and international artists, this living archive represents the breadth, quality and variety found in contemporary drawings and works on paper today.  The Flatfiles are available for viewing by the public and have become an important resource for artists, collectors, curators and anyone interested in the field of drawing and prints. Selections from the Kentler Flatfiles are regularly presented in guest-curated exhibitions at Kentler and in traveling shows.

This show was first presented at the Bartlett Center in Columbus, Georgia.
Special thanks for support of this exhibition: Kay Broda, Judye Harris, Janice Watson


OHR-O'KEEFE Museum of Art
386 Beach Blvd., Biloxi, Mississippi
OPEN HOURS: Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 5pm
Admission: Adults (18+): $10, Seniors (60+): $8, Student 6-17 (College with ID): $5, Children (Under 6): Free, AAA , Military & AARP (with ID): $8