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The Williams Center for the Arts Gallery will display Archeology of an Artist 2, an installation by visionary artist Meredith Monk, March 22-May 9.
A pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance,” Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, and light and sound, in an effort to discover and weave together new modes of perception. The exhibit includes a reinstallation of “Silver Lake With Dolmen Music,” created in 1981; a film loop of six works (1966 to 1994); and photo panels that document her extraordinary career.
The exhibition is part of the Roethke Humanities Festival celebration of performance art at Lafayette. Located at Hamilton and High Streets, the Williams Center gallery is open 12-5 p.m. Monday; 10-5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday; and 2-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call the gallery at (610) 330-5361 or email artgallery@lafayette.edu.
A mixed media installation, “Silver Lake with Dolmen Music” was conceived as a site on which Monk and her ensemble could perform. The set figured as part of the work “Recent Ruins” (1979) and was later configured as a formal installation piece.Silver is a color that has been significant for Monk through much of her work, appearing in costumes, sets and objects.
“Dolmen Music” is a suite of six sections Monk composed in 1979 for six voices and a cello.The music can be heard on the headphones suspended above each chair, where visitors are invited to sit and listen.
“By exploring the musical potential of the voice– the original human instrument — I have the possibility of unearthing many colors, textures, characters, landscapes,” says Monk.
The earliest piece in “Continuous Loop of Short Silent Films” is 16 Millimeter Earrings (1966). The silent film was projected onto a large dome held over Monk’s head during the multimedia performance of “16 Millimeter Earrings.” It is black and white with a running time of just under four and a half minutes. Children (1967) also is black and white and silent, lasting nine minutes. Ballbearing (1968) was designed as an installation piece to play continuously forward and backward for an unrestricted time period. It runs six and a half or 13 minutes and is in color. Quarry (1975) was designed to be projected in the performing space during presentation of Meredith Monk’s opera Quarry, which won an Obie Award in 1976. It is black and white and silent, lasting a little over five minutes. The silent Ellis Island (1979) was designed to be screened during theatrical performances of Monk’s Recent Ruins, and is the predecessor to a longer, award-winning film. It features members of The House Company and was filmed on location. It is black and white and runs seven minutes long. The silent Faces (1994) was designed to be screened during the theatrical performances of Monk’s Volcano Songs. It lasts a little more than five minutes and is in color.
Monk is a composer, singer, director/choreographer and creator of new opera, musical theater works, films, and installations. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories. She has alternately been proclaimed as a “voice of the future” and “one of America’s coolest composers.” During a career spanning more than 35 years, she has been acclaimed by audiences and critics as a major creative force in the performing arts.
Monk has been honored with the prestigious MacArthur “Genius” Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Brandeis Creative Arts Award, three “Obies” (including an award for Sustained Achievement), two Villager Awards, a “Bessie” for Sustained Creative Achievement, the National Music Theatre Award, 16 ASCAP Awards for Musical Composition, and the Dance Magazine Award. In 1996, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center exhibited a retrospective, Meredith Monk: Archeology of an Artist, and the Walker Art Center later paid tribute with a major installation, Art Performs Life. She holds honorary Doctor of Arts degrees from Bard College, the University of the Arts, The Julliard School, San Francisco Art Institute, and Boston Conservatory.
In 1978, she formed Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble to expand her musical textures and forms. Monk has made more than a dozen recordings, including a full-length opera, ATLAS: an opera in three parts, which premiered at the Houston Grand Opera in 1991. Her albums Dolmen Music and Our Lady of Late: The Vanguard Tapes were honored with the German Critics Prize for Best Records of 1981 and 1986. Monk’s first feature film, Book of Days (1988), was broadcast on PBS, released theatrically, and selected for the Whitney Museum’s Biennial. Her music has been heard in numerous films, including La Nouvelle Vague by Jean-Luc Godard and The Big Lebowski by Joel and Ethan Coen, and been performed by numerous soloists and groups, including The Chorus of the San Francisco Symphony, Musica Sacra, The Pacific Mozart Ensemble, Double Edge, and Bang On A Can All-Stars, among others.
In 1968, Monk founded The House, a company dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to performance. She is a pioneer in site-specific performance, creating works such as Juice: A Theater Cantata In 3 Installments (1969) and American Archeology #1: Roosevelt Island (1994).
A retrospective art exhibition, Meredith Monk: Archeology of an Artist, opened at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in 1996. Other recent art exhibits are comprised of a major installation, Art Performs Life, at The Walker Art Center, a show “Shrines” at the Frederieke Taylor/TZ’ Art Gallery, inclusion in the 2002 Biennial at the Whitney Museum, and a group exhibit Show People at Exit Art. A monograph, Meredith Monk, was edited by Deborah Jowitt and released by Johns Hopkins Press in 1997.
The Williams Center Gallery is funded in part through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.