Megan and Murray

Truck: Installation Images

Installation documentation of our work in the Truck exhibition.

Truck: Installation Construction

This weekend we opened two of our videos (The Stepping Up and Going Under Method and Bruc Fugue) as part of the TRUCK exhibition in Kansas City (wow, what an art town — more on that soon). We made a box to contain each monitor, which also contained items that have a relationship with each video. Here our some construction images of making the boxes. We'll post final images tomorrow.

Nearly finished

Detail

Rope Storage

Telescope tripod storage

Fitting in the TV

Truck: Video+

This is a drawing of the box we're gonna place our monitors inside for the Truck show (see post below). These boxes will serve as both exhibition crate and display strategy. The inspiration easily comes from three teachers I studied under, Mel Ziegler (the container as art), Dan Sutherland (the art's crate as art) and Bill Lundberg (video as sculpture).

Now that I think about it, there is a long history of containers and art crates, including Marcel Duchamp, perhaps the most well known. Wouldn't it be great/scary if someone assembled a concept diagram that kept track of where art ideas came from?

At the Hunt Gallery thru Dec. 15

Our show opened on Friday night, and we had a great crowd. I forgot to take pictures at the opening, so here's a shot of the final presentation. The show runs through Dec. 15.

Cecille R. Hunt Gallery
8342 Big Bend Blvd.
Hours M – F, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m

Russian Children's Songs

image from Firefly Europa's production Gzhel, [source]

In the course of working on the soundtrack for our video Bruc Fugue, I have been doing research into Russian children's songs.

The fugue (a more sophisticated version of singing in rounds) in the title will be sung a cappella by vocalists and layered over the sound of traditional folk clogging that's native to the video. The lyrics of the fugue are a found poem written from the words of a pamphlet on Cherynobl that we picked up off the ground in Barcelona.

I've been trying to write the score of the fugue from scratch and haven't been happy with the results. The other day, it occurred to me that I should adapt a pre-existing song that's in the public domain into a fugue. What better type of song to use than a Russian children's folk song? I've found a wealth of resources online, and was particularly charmed by this website, which has several examples of songs. My favorites are "We'll Go Through This Trouble" and "Dog Could Be A Biter." Even the children's songs in Russia are morose and none too reassuring.

While doing research, I also discovered the group Firefly Europa (above), a dance company which blends traditional Russian folk dancing with modern. You can see examples of their work here. The costumes alone are worth it.

Back Home

MNAC, Barcelona

We're back in LA after working in Spain for the last four weeks on our next project, which will debut in January 2007. It's in the can, but we're continuing to work on it — the benefit of video installation over live performance installation: time to hone.

This month is another busy one for us as we prepare to establish a new studio in St. Louis, where I have taken a position at Webster University. We're excited to make the transition to a city that's got such a thriving and innovative art scene: St. Louis is the new black.

Performance Rehearsal

Photo: Marie Bukowski

Spain Project in the Can

Part of the set.

Set detail.

Video Lighting Test

Video Shoot Tomorrow

We're finalizing the set and choreography for the shoot tomorrow. Here are two new models.