program cover photo by Matthew Brown
I was fortunate to catch an exciting evening of performance at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in downtown Oakland. The center was founded in 1984.
The first item on the program was titled, Journeys Beyond the Cosmodrome. It was a multi-year project created by Jeanne C. Finley in collaboration with teenagers aging out of the Kazakhstan Akkol Orphanage. It was a collaboration with Lydia Matthews, Lyazzat Khanim, Kri Schlafer and Tamara Poirras of the California College of the Arts.
The Kazakhstan Akkol Orphanage is situated next to the satellite field that signals to rockets launched from the Cosmodrome, en route to the International Space Station. Sixteen teenagers participated in a workshop in which they imagined their journeys upon graduating from the orphanage. Using scientific and fictional images of space travel, traditional Kazakh literature and global popular culture to fuel their imagination, the group wrote about their dreams, articulated potential challenges, and identified aspects of Kazakh culture they would take with them into their new universe. They then playfully performed their imagined future selves, collaboratively staging photographic and video self-portraits with objects found on the orphanage grounds. For this live presentation of Journeys Beyond the Cosmodrome, Kri Schlafer composed music from the teen’s words and stories which were sung by her and the San Francisco Threshold Choir, a female a-Capella group. The piece was performed to the left of the audience, not on on stage (links below).
The first item on the program was titled, Journeys Beyond the Cosmodrome. It was a multi-year project created by Jeanne C. Finley in collaboration with teenagers aging out of the Kazakhstan Akkol Orphanage. It was a collaboration with Lydia Matthews, Lyazzat Khanim, Kri Schlafer and Tamara Poirras of the California College of the Arts.
The Kazakhstan Akkol Orphanage is situated next to the satellite field that signals to rockets launched from the Cosmodrome, en route to the International Space Station. Sixteen teenagers participated in a workshop in which they imagined their journeys upon graduating from the orphanage. Using scientific and fictional images of space travel, traditional Kazakh literature and global popular culture to fuel their imagination, the group wrote about their dreams, articulated potential challenges, and identified aspects of Kazakh culture they would take with them into their new universe. They then playfully performed their imagined future selves, collaboratively staging photographic and video self-portraits with objects found on the orphanage grounds. For this live presentation of Journeys Beyond the Cosmodrome, Kri Schlafer composed music from the teen’s words and stories which were sung by her and the San Francisco Threshold Choir, a female a-Capella group. The piece was performed to the left of the audience, not on on stage (links below).
Journeys Beyond the Cosmodrome projection
Also appearing were, standup comic Dhaya Lakshminarayanan who was MC for the event and had the audience in stitches, Charles Woodman of viDEO sAVant, Tony Miyambo from post-Apartheid South Africa, as well as Kim Anno, Sophia Shen, Kristina Dutton and Ingibjörg Fridriksdóttir.
Terminal Beach
Charles Woodman of viDEO sAVant put me in mind of the Avant-garde music world of the late fifties and sixties. The performance consisted of music accompanied by shifting video images, or shifting video images accompanied by music, depending on your interpretation. It referenced John Cage, Morton Feldman, Edgard Varèse, and Iannis Xenakis.
Charles Woodman of viDEO sAVant
Natural
The visuals provided by abstract painter, Kim Anno, of the California College of the Arts, were accompanied by composer and sound artist on pipa Sophia Shen, vocalist Kristina Dutton, and composer Ingibjörg Fridriksdóttir. They created ethereal sounds that swooped and soared into sonic spaces that were transfixing! The electronics, pipa and vocals would blend to create unique harmonies that were sublime.
Kim Anno, Kristina Dutton, Sophia Shen (pipa)
Tony Miyambo of South Africa had just arrived in the United States the day before the performance. His "report" to the "Academy" about his past life as an ape, Kafka's Red Peter, is based on the "A Report to an Academy" by Franz Kafka.
Speaking before a scientific conference, he describes his former life as an ape. His story begins in a West African jungle, in which a hunting expedition shoots and captures him. Caged on a ship for his voyage to Europe, he finds himself for the first time without the freedom to move as he will. Needing to escape from this situation, he studies the habits of the crew, and imitates them with surprising ease; he reports encountering particular difficulty only in learning to drink alcohol. Throughout the story, the narrator reiterates that he learned his human behavior not out of any desire to be human, but only to provide himself with a means of escape from his cage. Upon arriving in Europe, the ape realizes that he is faced with a choice between "the Zoological Garden or the Music Hall," and devotes himself to becoming human enough to become an able performer. He accomplishes this, with the help of many teachers, and reports to the academy that his transformation is so complete that he can no longer properly describe his emotions and experiences as an ape. In concluding, the ape expresses a degree of satisfaction with his lot. There is an edited version on YouTube (link below).
His performance as he shifted back and forth from human to ape stances accompanied by occasional snorts was astounding!
Speaking before a scientific conference, he describes his former life as an ape. His story begins in a West African jungle, in which a hunting expedition shoots and captures him. Caged on a ship for his voyage to Europe, he finds himself for the first time without the freedom to move as he will. Needing to escape from this situation, he studies the habits of the crew, and imitates them with surprising ease; he reports encountering particular difficulty only in learning to drink alcohol. Throughout the story, the narrator reiterates that he learned his human behavior not out of any desire to be human, but only to provide himself with a means of escape from his cage. Upon arriving in Europe, the ape realizes that he is faced with a choice between "the Zoological Garden or the Music Hall," and devotes himself to becoming human enough to become an able performer. He accomplishes this, with the help of many teachers, and reports to the academy that his transformation is so complete that he can no longer properly describe his emotions and experiences as an ape. In concluding, the ape expresses a degree of satisfaction with his lot. There is an edited version on YouTube (link below).
His performance as he shifted back and forth from human to ape stances accompanied by occasional snorts was astounding!
Miyambo starred in the 2016 comedy film from South Africa, Wonder Boy for President, by filmmaker, John Barker.
Curtain call
Net links:
The Threshold Choir website
Ingibjörg Fridriksdóttir website
Dhaya Lakshminarayanan website
Lydia Matthews website
Tamara Poirras website
Sophia Shen website
Charles Woodman website
YouTube link:
Tony Miyambo, Red Peter's Way Out
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, December 12, 2017
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