Artists Space

Abasement #75

Concert
February 3, 2025, 7pm

Performances by Kid Millions and Sarah Bernstein, Zeljko McMullen with Camilla Padgitt-Coles, Clayton Harley, Juliet Rania, and Nico Alonso, Vito Ricci/Lise Vachon, and Organs Obsolete. DJ Bang Bang Bridgette. Visuals by Ed Bear.

Magazine cut-outs and ink drawings are collaged together on a background of bright yellow paper. Pieces of paper with typewritten text listing the performers and event details are scattered around the flyer.
Flyer by Joe Frivaldi. [Magazine cut-outs and ink drawings are collaged together on a background of bright yellow paper. Pieces of paper with typewritten text listing the performers and event details are scattered around the flyer.]

Abasement is a music series featuring 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.

Color image of a performer on stage playing the electric guitar. A couple rows of audience members are visible in the bottom edge, with their backs facing the camera. The performer and the wall behind them are bathed in blue light. An image resembling a galaxy is projected on the wall.
Abasement #75. Performance documentation, February 3rd, 2025, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of a performer on stage playing the electric guitar. A couple rows of audience members are visible in the bottom edge, with their backs facing the camera. The performer and the wall behind them are bathed in blue light. An image resembling a galaxy is projected on the wall.]
Color image of a performer standing in the center of the frame, looking down while playing an electric guitar. In the foreground the backs of audience members are blurred. The scene is decorated with an abstract striped projection resembling a screen glitch.
Abasement #75. Performance documentation, February 3rd, 2025, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of a performer standing in the center of the frame, looking down while playing an electric guitar. In the foreground the backs of audience members are blurred. The scene is decorated with an abstract striped projection resembling a screen glitch.]
Close-up color image of a performer. They are looking down as they play guitar, using a wrench to strum on the guitar strings. In the foreground a sticker reads "WAR IS OVER!". The performer and the room around them is tinted with blue light.
Abasement #75. Performance documentation, February 3rd, 2025, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Close-up color image of a performer. They are looking down as they play guitar, using a wrench to strum on the guitar strings. In the foreground a sticker reads "WAR IS OVER!". The performer and the room around them is tinted with blue light.]
Color image of two performers on stage. The performer on the left is sitting down in front of a laptop. The performer to the right is standing up in front of a music stand, singing into a microphone. Multiple rows of audience members are visible from behind in the foreground. The wall behind the stage has multiple streaks of colored lights and a silhouetted image of tree branches.
Abasement #75. Performance documentation, February 3rd, 2025, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of two performers on stage. The performer on the left is sitting down in front of a laptop. The performer to the right is standing up in front of a music stand, singing into a microphone. Multiple rows of audience members are visible from behind in the foreground. The wall behind the stage has multiple streaks of colored lights and a silhouetted image of tree branches.]
Color image of a fabric tent with an image of the moon projected on the top. The top of the tent is decorated with multicolored stars. The tent and the wall behind it are bathed in pale pink light, with small speckles of white light.
Abasement #75. Performance documentation, February 3rd, 2025, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of a fabric tent with an image of the moon projected on the top. The top of the tent is decorated with multicolored stars. The tent and the wall behind it are bathed in pale pink light, with small speckles of white light.]
Color image of a performer sitting on a stage. Their right arm is reaching out to the side with their hand open, and their left arm is bent in towards their heart with a closed fist. They are wearing a white dress. Their hair and dress are tined by a green light. The wall and column in the background are patterned with multicolored abstract projections.
Abasement #75. Performance documentation, February 3rd, 2025, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of a performer sitting on a stage. Their right arm is reaching out to the side with their hand open, and their left arm is bent in towards their heart with a closed fist. They are wearing a white dress. Their hair and dress are tined by a green light. The wall and column in the background are patterned with multicolored abstract projections.]
Color image of a performer and a small white tent on a stage. The performer is on the left, wearing all white, with a bouquet of flowers in their hand and a stick of insense in their mouth. On the right side of the stage, the tent is lit up with multicolored projections. The top of the tent is decorated with colorful stars. The walls in the background, as well as the audience in the foreground, are lit by patterned projections and blue lights.
Abasement #75. Performance documentation, February 3rd, 2025, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of a performer and a small white tent on a stage. The performer is on the left, wearing all white, with a bouquet of flowers in their hand and a stick of insense in their mouth. On the right side of the stage, the tent is lit up with multicolored projections. The top of the tent is decorated with colorful stars. The walls in the background, as well as the audience in the foreground, are lit by patterned projections and blue lights.]
Color image of two performers on stage. The performer on the left is standing as they sing into a microphone and play the violin. The performer on the left is sitting down playing the drums with their mouth open in an expressive way. The drummer and the back wall are bathed in blue light, with blocks of white abstract patterns.
Abasement #75. Performance documentation, February 3rd, 2025, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of two performers on stage. The performer on the left is standing as they sing into a microphone and play the violin. The performer on the left is sitting down playing the drums with their mouth open in an expressive way. The drummer and the back wall are bathed in blue light, with blocks of white abstract patterns.]
Color image of a performer playing the drums. Their eyes are closed and their mouth is open, they are wearing a black t-shirt and glasses. The face of the performer and the wall in the background are decorated with colorful pattern projections.
Abasement #75. Performance documentation, February 3rd, 2025, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of a performer playing the drums. Their eyes are closed and their mouth is open, they are wearing a black t-shirt and glasses. The face of the performer and the wall in the background are decorated with colorful pattern projections.]
Color image of a performer standing up playing the violin. They are standing in front of a mic stand with their eyes closed. A drum kit is barely visible in the right corner of the image. The wall in the background is tinted with green and blue lights.
Abasement #75. Performance documentation, February 3rd, 2025, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of a performer standing up playing the violin. They are standing in front of a mic stand with their eyes closed. A drum kit is barely visible in the right corner of the image. The wall in the background is tinted with green and blue lights.]

The long-standing collaboration between electric violinist/vocalist Sarah Bernstein and drummer Kid Millions unleashes hallucinatory improvisation of driving and expressive high-voltage intensity. Existential poetry punctuates the rhythmic and sonic space, to unnerving and mesmerizing effect.

Artist, composer, and filmmaker Zeljko McMullen creates perpetually shifting walls of sound and moving images to deconstruct the present space of the experiencer. Zeljko has worked with artists Lou Reed, Maryanne Amacher, Tony Conrad, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Larry Clark, and many others. He co-founded Paris-London-New York-West Nile in Williamsburg and is currently launching Potamia, an experimental arts and music venue in Woodstock, NY, set to open in the summer of 2025.

Camilla Padgitt-Coles is a NYC-based multimedia artist who plays with perception through intimate audio-visual installations, projection art, and music for meditative states.

Clayton Harley is an analog photographer and filmmaker based in NYC whose work pushes the physicality of the medium to create still and moving images with sculptural proclivities.

Juliet Rania is an artist born and raised in NYC. She works with mysticism, magic, and microorganisms. She holds a BA from New School University and an MA from Sarah Lawrence College. She is the founder of The Source an experimental community in Woodstock, NY. Juliet is also a bio artist, curator, and member of Bio Art Coven, an international collective of artists and activists.

Nico Alonso is an interdisciplinary artist working in both digital and physical media under the moniker Madam Guru. Nico is an advocate for independently operating artists, curators, and organizers across creative disciplines, previously working with Clocktower, ROOM EAST Gallery, and Cleveland MoCA, among others. She and Zeljko McMullen are co-founders of Potamia, an alternative arts and music venue in Woodstock, NY, which will open in the summer of 2025.

Vito Ricci's leading edge instinct and creativity have made him a vital and prolific composer of illuminating and compelling works. Infused with poignancy and honesty, his music has the power to linger in the listener's memory. An artist who has been called "composer of wide ranging and obsessively fascinating collection of works" by the Wire, and his soundtracks compared to "heirloom seeds put back in circulation" by Pitchfork and "elegant and snappy" by the New York Times.

Lise Vachon, a Montreal singer/songwriter, has been singing with family growing up, studied voice, piano and oboe. She recorded original music early, toured extensively, traveled to research music in West Africa, South America, the Caribbean Islands and the American South. “Lise adopted a universal spirit for her adventures. She captures the spirit of creative singing and delivers with a wallop, interpreting feelings more than stories” (Cadence). Currently living in NYC, Lise has been working with Vito Ricci, an American composer and her partner in life. Commitment to exploration, influences and a vested interest in experimentation has taken her from her early singer/songwriter work to contemporary music including art songs, jazz, electronic ambient, and a spontaneous vocabulary of her own.

Organs Obsolete is the solo project of electric bassist Richard Hoffman, started in 2020. He spent some of his earlier years playing in bands, probably best known as a member of Sightings.

Bang Bang Bridgette is a vinyl addict.

Ed Bear is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, and engineer. Their work with robotics, sound, video, transmission, and collective improvisation recalibrates social relationships with material technology and waste. As an educator and designer committed to an equitable, open-source world, they research material reuse as social practice. Bear founded Kin Circuits in 2020, a consultancy elevating maintenance, care, repair, and reuse in the face of unsustainable consumption and alienating technologies.

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