About the Event
During the Dumbo Arts Festival, the art rock/doom drone band Xiu Xiu, led by Jamie Stewart, will present a durational performance using vibrating instruments activated against the copper sheets of Danh Vo: We The People.
This event is open to the public and will take place at the Pier 3 Greenway Terrace at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Location
From September 27-October 18, Stewart will also be collaborating with Vo on a performative gallery exhibition at The Kitchen in Manhattan. As part of the exhibition, Vo will be on site with two gold pounders from Thailand—where the gold leaf for many of his pieces is made—to work in the space alongside Stewart and two percussionists from his band, Xiu Xiu. Together they will generate syncopated compositions with the pounders’ rhythms. Set against a backdrop of Vo’s finished artwork, they will create a new work in real time.
Jamie Stewart (b. 1978, Los Angeles, CA) is an American experimental musician based in California. He is best known as the singer of Xiu Xiu, which he co-founded in 2002. Stewart has recorded prolifically, releasing thirteen full-length Xiu Xiu albums to date, including Fabulous Muscles (2004), The Air Force (2006), Dear God, I Hate Myself (2010), and most recently, Angel Guts: Red Classroom (2014), as well as nearly 40 singles and EPs. He has also participated in a number of collaborative projects, including Blue Water White Death (with Jonathan Melburg of Shearwater), Creep Show (with Liz Harris of Grouper) and Former Ghosts (with Freddy Rupert of This Song Is A Mess But So Am I and Nika Rosa of Zola Jesus). He has also performed with Swans on recent tour dates. Stewart has released four books of haikuand scored a “gothic ballet” (Dark Material, with Jeremy Wade and Monika Grzymala, 2014). In 2013 he sang “Take My Breath Away” from the movie Top Gun to Danh Vo’s father at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, during the dedication ceremony for Tombstone for Phung Vo.
Danh Vo: We The People is presented as part of the Public Art Fund at Brooklyn Bridge Park Program, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Educational programs and materials are supported by Outset USA, with additional support from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy.
The Leadership Committee for the exhibition is gratefully acknowledged, including Jill & Peter Kraus, founding members; Billie Tsien & Tod Williams; Marcia Dunn & Jonathan Sobel; Agnes Gund; Sonia & Christian Zugel; Wendy Fisher; Patricia & Howard Silverstein; Mickey Cartin; Carlo Bronzini Vender & Tanya Traykovski; Linda Lennon & Stuart Baskin; James Keith Brown & Eric Diefenbach; Robert Soros; Maureen & Cyrus Deboo; and anonymous.
The exhibition is also generously supported by the AllianceBernstein Foundation and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, with additional support provided by Bank of America.
We The People (detail) (2011-14) is presented with the generous support of Galerie Chantal Crousel. Danh Vo’s new garden commission on view in City Hall Park is presented with the generous support of Marian Goodman Gallery.
Public Art Fund exhibitions are supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Special thanks to the Office of the Mayor, Office of the Manhattan Borough President, Office of the Brooklyn Borough President, Department of Cultural Affairs, Department of Parks & Recreation, and Brooklyn Bridge Park.