Photo by: Scott Livingstone

Click here to listen to a sample of The Rodney Graham Band's music.

"Graham has always kept the question open: Am I a musician trapped in an artist's mind or an artist trapped in a musician's body?"
—Kim Gordon, bassist, Sonic Youth

On Friday, April 11th and Saturday, April 12th, the Public Art Fund will host a performance entitled The Rodney Graham Band live, featuring the amazing Rotary Psycho-Opticon! This spectacular event marks Graham's first New York concert, and provides two don't–miss nights of his signature blend of rock and roll psychedelia with folk music earnestness. Tickets are available online or by calling 212-980-4575. Advance purchase is suggested as seating is limited.

Rodney Graham has been playing music off and on since the late 70's, shifting his creative practice from music to art and back, as circumstances allow. In the lean times of the early 80's, he sold off his guitar and music equipment to finance his studio practice, and focused on art during the subsequent years. When he was once again in a place to indulge his musical side, he purchased another guitar and started up all over again. His recent albums include The Bed Bug, Love Buzz (2000), Rock is Hard (2003), and Never Tell a Pal a Hard Luck Story (2005).

Graham continues to struggle with the demands of his music in the face of his artistic career. "I've always identified with Freud in this respect because Freud had this problem...During the period he was making his most important discoveries, he was being criticized...for spending too much time on his hobbies...But these interests informed the transformation of his ideas."

Graham's work as an artist is heady, often humorous, and deeply varied. His references can be literary or historical, and long periods of research tend to precede actual production in his studio. He frequently creates dialectics between subject matter and media, incorporating the presentation apparatus into the conceptual framework for the art. His first film, Two Generators (1984), consists of a night shot of a rushing river that becomes illuminated by high-wattage studio lights powered by diesel generators. As the machinery begins working, the sound of the technology drowns out the sound of nature.

Some of his more recent works combine his early interest in sound with his current preoccupation with music, such as the "Western"-style mini-musical, How I Became a Ramblin' Man (1999). Arising out of Graham's interest in music videos and historical costume dramas, this 9-minute video manages to be both, a singing Marlboro man, riding off into the sunset. The video is looped so that the cowboy, played by Graham himself, is doomed to ride and ramble until the end of time.

The concerts at the Abrons Arts Center will be a performance of a different kind, with the artist as himself: part musician, part mad-scientist. Most recently, Graham has been performing solo, which, he says, is "too nerve-racking." The two New York performances feature the artist with his 6-man band, and a mind-blowing backdrop, the amazing Rotary Psycho-Opticon. Inspired by the set of a 1970's era Belgian TV show that featured live performances by bands like Black Sabbath, the Psycho-Opticon looks something like a cross between a pedal-powered kaleidoscope and a Marcel Duchamp Rotorelief.

The occasion will coincide with the production of a CD version of Graham's upcoming 12" vinyl ep, which will be available for sale at the performance. The Rodney Graham Band live, featuring the amazing Rotary Psycho-Opticon is being presented in collaboration with The Common Guild, Glasgow. There will be a performance by the Rodney Graham Band in Glasgow on April 25th.

About Rodney Graham
Rodney Graham was born in Vancouver in 1949, where he continues to live and work. He studied at the University of British Columbia, originally pursuing a degree in Literature. In the 1970's he founded new-wave band UJ3RK5 (pronounced "you jerk") with artists Jeff Wall and Frank Johnston, playing and touring widely. He began exhibiting art internationally in the early 80's, with exhibitions in such venues as the Johnen & Schöttle Galerie, Cologne, Germany; the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Lisson Gallery, London; Dia Center for the Arts, New York; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Graham represented Canada at the 1997 Venice Biennale. His next exhibition will take place at the 303 Gallery in New York from April 18 through June 7, 2008.

The Rodney Graham Band includes Rodney Graham on guitar and vocals, David Carswell on lead guitar and vocals, Kevin Beesely-Hammond on bass and vocals, Paddy Ryan on keyboards and vocals, Pete Bourne on drums and Lois Maffeo on vocals and glockenspiel. Maffeo will play the opening set. She is an Olympia, Washington-based singer-songwriter and she records on independent labels K and KillRockStars.

Ticket Information
Tickets are $7 in advance, $10 at the door. Advance tickets are available online or by calling 212-980-4575.

Directions

The Abrons Arts Center is located at 466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street) on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Subways: F to Delancey or East Broadway; D, B to Grand Street; J, M to Essex. For directions by car or bus please visit www.henrystreet.org.

About the Public Art Fund

Public Art Fund is New York's leading presenter of artists' projects, new commissions, installations and exhibitions in public spaces. Since 1977, the Public Art Fund has worked with over 500 emerging and established artists to produce innovative temporary exhibitions of contemporary art throughout New York City. By bringing artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, Public Art Fund provides a unique platform for an unparalleled public encounter with the art of our time.

Current and recent critically acclaimed exhibitions and presentations include Sarah Lucas's Perceval at Doris C. Freedman Plaza at 60th Street and Fifth Avenue (through May 2008); Dara Friedman's Musical at multiple midtown Manhattan locations (2007); Alexander Calder in New York at City Hall Park (2006-7); Sarah Morris's Robert Towne at Lever House (2006-7); Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror at Rockefeller Center (2006); Sarah Sze's Corner Plot at Doris C. Freedman Plaza (2006); Nancy Rubins's Big Pleasure Point at Lincoln Center (2006); William Kentridge's 9 Drawings for Projection at the Central Park and Prospect Park Bandshells (2005); and Alejandro Diaz's A Can for All Seasons on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx (2005). This summer, the Public Art Fund will present The New York City Waterfalls (2008), a large-scale eco-friendly installation of four waterfalls in the East River by international artist Olafur Eliasson.

Last year, the Public Art Fund also presented Variety Show, a concert with Martin Creed and his band at the Abrons Arts Center; The Rodney Graham Band live, featuring the amazing Rotary Psycho-Opticon will be the second of such performances.

Public Art Fund is a non-profit art organization supported by generous contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations, and with funds from National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.