Artists Space

Abasement #64

Concert
August 7, 2023, 7pm

Performances by Patrick Holmes/Jeremiah Cymerman/Chris Williams, Macula Dog, Shelley Hirsch & HxH. DJ Spencer Sweeney. Video by Valeria Divinorum

Magazine cutouts of scattered blocky letters (reading ABASEMENT) and a series of people
Flyer by Joe Frivaldi. [Magazine cutouts of scattered blocky letters (reading ABASEMENT) and a series of people's heads overlay a light yellow background. A chunk of upside down text lists the performers, as well as the time and place of the event.]

Abasement is a monthly music series featuring four performances, a guest DJ, and a projectionist. Beginning in 2015 at Max Fish bar in New York's Lower East Side, the evening brings together artists and bands working in free improvisation, jazz, noise, minimalism, and experimental composition. When Max Fish permanently closed due to Covid, one of the few experimental music venues in Manhattan temporarily ceased to exist. Artists Space is pleased to continue hosting Abasement this summer.

Patrick Holmes hails from Austin, TX and has called New York City his home for over 20 years. Holmes honed his clarinet techniques through frequent collaborative improvisation within NY’s downtown scene, and via studies with Sabir Mateen, Connie Crothers, Andriy Milavsky, among others. He has played with Jon Gibson, Ryan Sawyer, Daniel Carter, Jaimie Branch, Fay Victor, Bob Bert, James Brandon Lewis, Che Chen, the Utter Nots, and many others.

For over twenty years Jeremiah Cymerman has been forging a singular and utterly unique path as a clarinetist, composer, improviser, podcaster, and recording engineer. From sideman work with luminaries such as Butch Morris, Jandek, and Otomo Yoshihide to long-standing collaborations with artists such as Evan Parker, Charlie Looker, Brian Chase, Nate Wooley, Mario Diaz de Leon, and Toby Driver, his work is marked by a dogged commitment to craft, ecstatic collaboration, and expanding a deeply personal and non-idiomatic musical language. Cymerman's music has been documented by the Tzadik, Astral Spirits, and Dinzu Artefacts record labels, as well as his own 5049 Records.

Chris Williams is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based between NYC and LA, and is most at home collaborating with contemporary improvisers and experimentalists. Williams has collaborated with creators Eyvind Kang, Joanna Mattrey, Miriam Parker, Patrick Shiroishi, Bennie Maupin, Nicole Mitchell, Fay Victor, Wendy Eisenberg, Luke Stewart, Amanda Beech, Marjani Forte-Saunders, Eric Revis, among many others.

Macula Dog is an electronic duo from New York City, making music that is just as much pop as the performers are human—it's unclear. While becoming known for their theatrical live shows across the Northeast, Macula Dog has made numerous TV and radio appearances, with live sets on WNYU's New Afternoon Show, Know-Wave radio, and The Special Without Brett Davis. Additionally, they have contributed themes for Adult Swim's Live Crossword Puzzle show and NYC public access programming. In the band’s current live configuration, they carry their gear on harnesses, adorning themselves with impact-resistant clothing to cushion themselves from injury should their exoskeletal sit-stand legs slip out from under them. The duo also carries a camera and hologram projection system, transforming the members into a fully mobile performance rig, each with a mini jumbotron. This allows them to move around performance space without an attachment to cords.

Shelley Hirsch is an award winning, critically acclaimed vocal artist, composer, and storyteller whose mostly solo compositions, staged multimedia works, improvisations, radio plays, installations, and collaborations have been produced and presented in concert halls, clubs, festivals, theaters, museums, galleries, and on radio, film, and television. Her work has been presented on five continents and can be heard on over 70 recordings. Hirsch has received numerous awards in both music and multidisciplinary fields including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award. She is currently working on a recording made possible by a grant from the NYC Women's Fund and a Composers commission from NYSCA. She has collaborated with Christian Marclay for many decades, and will perform the piece NO! which Marclay conceived as a graphic score for solo voice, composed of comic book fragments. A reviewer from the Eclectic Electric Festive in Canada wrote of her performance of NO! "this stirring performance was met with delirious applause."

HxH is the improvisatory electro-acoustic duo of Lester St. Louis and Chris Williams. The duo utilizes a mix of trumpet, cello, and electronics to build worlds traversing through acoustic sound, grainy textures, expansive pools of sounds, breaks, cuts, and beats. The approach is conceived as an expansiveness that holds a personal intimacy.

Spencer Sweeney is known for his psychologically rich figurative paintings, as well as collaborations with various musicians, performers, and artists in the downtown New York City art scene throughout a career spanning over two decades. His creative work oscillates between performance, music, painting, and experimental theater—most recently in his studio salon HEADZ, a communal art and improvisational jazz performance space.

Valeria Divinorum is a Queens-based visual artist & architect working with glass-metal sculptures, art installations, and video art. With formal training in the School of Architecture in Buenos Aires, her work specializes in stained-glass sculptural objects, which she uses as a lens to experiment with the intangible properties of light. She has a deep interest in exploring the optical perception of space through traditional and new media techniques, creating dispersion of light into spectral components.

Abasement has been curated by Joseph Frivaldi and Robert Mayson since 2015.

Color photo of a woman captured mid-performance in a dimly lit venue. The performer is situated before a microphone and a music stand, while a crowd of seated and standing audience members attentively watch. Bright spotted lights from a disco ball out of view sparsely illuminate the environment.
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of a woman captured mid-performance in a dimly lit venue. The performer is situated before a microphone and a music stand, while a crowd of seated and standing audience members attentively watch. Bright spotted lights from a disco ball out of view sparsely illuminate the environment.]
Color photo of a woman captured with her eyes closed, standing before a pair of microphones in a darkened performance space. Blue spotted lights and the reddish glow from a different light source shine onto the performer.
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of a woman captured with her eyes closed, standing before a pair of microphones in a darkened performance space. Blue spotted lights and the reddish glow from a different light source shine onto the performer.]
Color photo of two men sitting at a work table that holds various electronic and musical equipment. The man seated closest to the camera is playing a trumpet, while the other performer at his side actively works at a computer. The performance venue is dimly lit while a projection and some pink overhead lights provide some illumination.
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of two men sitting at a work table that holds various electronic and musical equipment. The man seated closest to the camera is playing a trumpet, while the other performer at his side actively works at a computer. The performance venue is dimly lit while a projection and some pink overhead lights provide some illumination.]
Color photo of two men sitting at a worktable that holds various musical and electronic equipment. In the background, various audience members sit and observe the performers within a dimly lit space. Yellow projections shine on the wall behind the performers along with blue and pink spotted lights.
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of two men sitting at a worktable that holds various musical and electronic equipment. In the background, various audience members sit and observe the performers within a dimly lit space. Yellow projections shine on the wall behind the performers along with blue and pink spotted lights.]
Color photo of two performers kneeling on the floor of a dark performance venue. A deep red glowing light emanating from between the performers serves as the only source of illumination. The crouching individuals are wearing quilted pants and have a variety of nightvision gear attached to their legs and torsos.
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of two performers kneeling on the floor of a dark performance venue. A deep red glowing light emanating from between the performers serves as the only source of illumination. The crouching individuals are wearing quilted pants and have a variety of nightvision gear attached to their legs and torsos.]
Color photo of a performer wearing a quilted suit with a variety of equipment strapped to his body. A bright blue glowing projection emantes from the performer
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of a performer wearing a quilted suit with a variety of equipment strapped to his body. A bright blue glowing projection emantes from the performer's gear. He is surrounded by seated audience members who observe the performance in a dimly lit venue.]
Color photo of three musicians captured mid-performance on stage in a dark venue space. The performer in the middle plays the trumpet and is flanked at either side by two men playing clarinets. The musicians are illuminated by green and blue abstract projections that are cast on the wall behind them.
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of three musicians captured mid-performance on stage in a dark venue space. The performer in the middle plays the trumpet and is flanked at either side by two men playing clarinets. The musicians are illuminated by green and blue abstract projections that are cast on the wall behind them.]
Color photo of three musicians captured mid-performance on stage in a low-lit venue space. The central musician plays the trumpet, and is flanked at either side by men playing clarinets. Abstract and fragmented projections in green and yellow-orange shine onto the musicians and cast onto the wall behind them.
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of three musicians captured mid-performance on stage in a low-lit venue space. The central musician plays the trumpet, and is flanked at either side by men playing clarinets. Abstract and fragmented projections in green and yellow-orange shine onto the musicians and cast onto the wall behind them.]
Color photo of a musician captured mid-performance as he plays his clarinet into a microphone positioned near his instrument. The musician stands in a dim venue space with a bright, warm spotlight that shines directly onto him.
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of a musician captured mid-performance as he plays his clarinet into a microphone positioned near his instrument. The musician stands in a dim venue space with a bright, warm spotlight that shines directly onto him.]
Color photo of two musicians captured mid-performance in a dark venue space. Both musicians have their back turned to the camera; the man to the right plays the trumpet while the performer on the left plays the clarinet. Some seated audience members can be seen observing the musicians and are illuminated by deep red overhead lights and the glow from a bright yellow projection light being shone at the performers.
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of two musicians captured mid-performance in a dark venue space. Both musicians have their back turned to the camera; the man to the right plays the trumpet while the performer on the left plays the clarinet. Some seated audience members can be seen observing the musicians and are illuminated by deep red overhead lights and the glow from a bright yellow projection light being shone at the performers.]
Color photo of a large gathering of audience members seated and standing in a dimly lit performance space. The venue is illuminated by white spotted lights from a discoball out of view and soft, pink projections.
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of a large gathering of audience members seated and standing in a dimly lit performance space. The venue is illuminated by white spotted lights from a discoball out of view and soft, pink projections.]
Color photo of two performers sitting on the ground in a dark venue space that is illuminated by deep red overhead lights. The performers are holding up clear, geometric objects against a neon yellow and blue projection on a wall.
Abasement #64. Performance documentation, August 7, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color photo of two performers sitting on the ground in a dark venue space that is illuminated by deep red overhead lights. The performers are holding up clear, geometric objects against a neon yellow and blue projection on a wall.]