The Carolee Schneemann Foundation and P·P·O·W, in conjunction with our current exhibition Carolee Schneemann: Of Course You Can / Don’t You Dare, are pleased to announce Rrose’s performance of James Tenney’s “Having Never Written a Note for Percussion”. Originally composed in 1971 as part of Tenney’s Postal Pieces series—short compositions sent on backs of postcards— “Having Never Written…” is a work for a solo percussionist, for whom the only instructions are that the performer must roll a single note from quadruple pianissimo through to quadruple fortissimo and that it should be “very long.”
Schneemann and Tenney met in 1955 in New York and maintained a close connection and collaboration until the latter’s passing in 2006. Their relationship was particularly intense throughout the 1960s, during which time Tenney performed in Schneemann’s production of Meat Joy (1964), starred alongside Schneemann in Fuses (1964-67), and created the sound collages for Viet Flakes (1965) and Snows (1967), Schneemann’s films protesting the atrocities of the Vietnam War.
Upon their meeting in the 1950s, Schneemann recounted that her first remark to the young composer was, “I’m a painter and I treat space as if it’s time.” To which Tenney responded, “I’m a musician and I treat time as if it [were] space.” Both artists’ fascination with temporality, sound, movement, and composition is here made manifest through Rrose’s performance of Tenney’s minimalist arrangement. Surrounded by Schneemann’s many depictions of Tenney, Rrose brings the collaborators and lovers together in sonic union, activating the gallery space through time-based performance.
Doors for the event will open at 6:30pm, and the performance will begin at 7:00pm. Due to the nature of this performance, the doors to the gallery will close promptly at 7:00pm to avoid interruptions.
Rrose is the latest incarnation of Seth Horvitz, an inter-disciplinary artist from California whose 20+ year history weaves in and out of academic circles and electronic music culture. Their work is informed by ongoing interests in microtonality, the limits of perception, and the idiosyncrasies of machines. This approach serves to create a distinctly detailed, sensual, and hallucinogenic form of techno that challenges the mind and body in equal measure. The project extends into specific pockets of the avant-garde, leading to collaborations with luminaries such as Bob Ostertag and Charlemagne Palestine and reinventions of works by 20th century composers such as James Tenney. On stage, Rrose often stands in the shadows, going by he and she interchangeably (Rrose’s name and image allude to Duchamp’s female alter-ego)—an implied interrogation of gender norms and artistry in techno circles, albeit with a hint of black humor (Rrose’s biography states “Born 1969. Died 1909”). Rrose’s first release in 2011 on Sandwell District came cloaked in mystery as to its creator, as did the following collaboration featuring Bob Ostertag’s Buchla 200E synth and a string of vinyl releases on her own Eaux label starting in 2012. In the sync domain, Rrose is equally blowing fuses having recently provided music for Martin Scorcese’s “The Current War”, along with producing music for Alexander McQueen’s Black Show and Harmony Korine’s collaboration with Gucci.