2013 was a banner year for one of New York City's most underrated, often misunderstood galleries.
Of course, I'm talking about Audio Visual Arts in the East Village. (After all, Ben Vida's Slipping Control just barely missed our year-end list of the city's best exhibits.)
From Lesley Flanigan, Maria Chavez and MV Carbon high above midtown at Zabludowicz to G Douglas Barrett's transgendered transcriptions of Schoenberg on St. Mark's, yes, AVA did some summer traveling.
In fact, head proprietor Justin Luke even took his curational skills out of the country--to much success, for sure.
Finishing out last season with a spot-on recreation of Gen Ken Montgomery's old Generator Sound Art space and a Xerox-ed retro of the last two decades of the No-Neck Blues Band, Luke has just announced his first show for 2014.
And, as per usual, it's another must-not-miss.
Opening on January 12 with a grand fête from 4 to 6 p.m. at AVA's home on 34 East 1st Street, Christopher Knowles' Audio Works: '70s-'80s / Objects (a Simon and a few alarm clocks) shows once again why Audio Visual Arts is fast becoming the première destination for recorded art.
Autistic auteur Christopher Knowles has been showing, reading and performing his poetry since his teens, back in the early ’70s.
As Justin Luke explains, "he is perhaps best known for his text-based 'typings,' in which he organizes texts, ranging from lists of top 10 pop songs to single words, into intricate red, black or green patterns using an electric typewriter."
"Knowles has also created a significant amount of tape recordings," he says, "consisting of rhythmically, mathematically and visually organized poems, often involving repeated variations on a word or phrase."
I, myself, hear Knowles' work as the closest American Outsider to Dutch sound poet Jaap Blonk.
When Knowles was just 13, one of his tapes was given to director and playwright Robert Wilson. Wilson then invited the teenager to perform in his production of The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin (1973).
Subsequently, Wilson asked Knowles to contribute to the libretto for his and Philip Glass' "opera," Einstein on the Beach ('76).
And as Luke notes, "Robert Wilson and Christopher Knowles have maintained a close collaborative partnership ever since."
Far from the accusations of director exploiting artist that continue to dog their association, the collaboration went both ways, indeed.
Featuring a selection of archived audio works and objects (i.e. that Simon and those few alarm clocks) from Knowles' personal collection, AVA's show presents a more varied, more aural look at the artist than, say, his recent mounted poetry exhibit at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in the West Village.
Open until February 16, once again, it's Justin Luke's Audio Visual Arts for the win.
© 2024 Classicalite All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
