Hear, see and speak about art
Shaking Ray Levi Society presents visual, instrumental performance art on Saturday
An evening of musical and visual performance art will be presented by Shaking Ray Levi Society and Frequency Arts on Saturday night, Nov. 4.
The diverse and provocative program features three segments: an improvised music set from Roughhousing, performance art by Eleanor Epstein and a closing discussion about art, music and performance by Jack Wright.
Roughhousing is the right word for what this trio of sax, double bass and electric guitar does. At first, a listener might think their sound is pure dissonance until realizing it’s all synchronized, close listening to each other from years of playing together.
The three musicians— Zach Darrup, Evan Lipson and Jack Wright— have been residents of the Spring Garden Music House in Philadelphia, and Wright and Lipson have played together for more than a decade, most recently in Wrest with percussionist Ben Bennett.
Eleanor Epstein works in the realms of performance art, jewelry art, photography and filmmaking. Using unconventional means, like those found in surrealistic art, she is inspired to find beauty within ugliness.
A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Epstein’s work has been featured in film, print and in the interactive 3-D art book, “White Rabbit.”
The evening concludes with a talk and discussion from Jack Wright about the state of contemporary art and music.
“Visual artists have been frustrated with the gallery system for some time and entering live performance. Improvisation has been expanded into instrument building, where all kinds of materials are collaged and activated sonically, with or without electronics,” says Wright.
“I’ll discuss what it means to be an artist, the usual term for those exclusively focused on visual art but since Modernism there have been many who start out as musicians of one instrument, then expand to other instruments, and also delve deeply into other art forms, such as painting, performance art, and poetry. The musicians most likely to do this over the past 30 years have been improvisers.”