S/N

May 22 – June 13, 2015
The Kitchen, New York, NY
presented by the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program

May 22 – June 13, 2015

at The Kitchen, New York, NY
presented by the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program

Participating Artists: Cammisa Buerhaus, Sonia Boyce and Ain Bailey, James Coleman, Manon de Boer, Joan La Barbara, Tracie Morris, Vanessa Place, Steve Reinke, Lis Rhodes, SCRAAATCH, Masha Tupitsyn, Ultra-red, Galina Ustvolskaya, and Jackie Wang

Curated by Alex Fleming, Anya Komar, and Blair Murphy, Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program.

S/N, an abbreviation for signal-to-noise ratio, refers to the relation between a message and the background noise emanating from the materials and environments it traverses. An exhibition of diverse practices including video, performance, conceptual writing, and music, S/N examines the material complexities of sound as a force that both allows and frustrates communication. While the works on view employ various media, they all interrogate the historical and political contexts of audibility: how, where, and when something can be heard.

above image: Sonia Boyce in collaboration with Ain Bailey, Oh, Adelaide, 2010, Digital video, black-and-white, sound; 7:11 min. Courtesy the artists. Installation view from S/N

Download the exhibition catalog.

Public Programs

Galina Ustvolskaya’s Piano Sonata no. 6 performed by Cheryl Seltzer of Continuum Ensemble
The Kitchen theater, Friday, May 22, 6pm, Free.

Seating is limited and will be first come, first served.
Composed in 1988, Piano Sonata no. 6 is one of Galina Ustvolskaya’s most challenging compositions. The score consists largely of tone clusters and demands the performer aggressively strike the instrument, speaking to the turbulence and violence at the end of the Soviet era.

Ultra-red: Introduction to Collective Listening
The Kitchen, Saturday, May 23, 12pm, Free.

Sound collective Ultra-red will lead a sound walk and workshop based on its work Protocols for the Wojnarowicz Object, or What Is the Sound of Building Up and Tearing Down? (2012). Participants will gather at The Kitchen at 12pm for a short introduction, followed by a sound walk down the west side of Manhattan. After the sound walk, participants will return to The Kitchen for a discussion of their experiences during the walk.

SCRAAATCH: SCRAAATCH no. 9
The Kitchen, Friday, June 5, 4pm, Free.

SCRAAATCH performs SCRAAATCH no. 9, part of a series of collaborative performance works. Combining live sound processing and performative notation, the duo develops an intricate physical and aural choreography, exploring the difficulties of mediated communication and exchange.

Jay Sanders & Charles Bernstein in Conversation
The Kitchen, Thursday, June 11, 6pm, Free.

Whitney Museum curator Jay Sanders and poet Charles Bernstein will discuss their work in, on, and around sound, performance, installation, dance, poetry, theater, poetics, curating, editing, essay writing, and teaching. They will also reflect on their previous collaboration curating the 2001 exhibition Poetry Plastique at the Marianne Boesky Gallery.

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