Performers

IKONS: music and sculpture

Eric Metcalfe, who won a Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts in 2008, was born in Vancouver and co-founded the Western Front, the city's internationally acclaimed artist-run centre. His work blends different artistic forms and media, with a special emphasis on jazz music. Experimental composer and author George Lewis, a winner of the MacArthur Foundation "genius" award in 2002 is the Edwin H. Case professor of American music at Columbia University. His work includes electronic and computer music, computer-based video and sound installations, and notated and improvisational forms.

In IKONS, these two pioneering avant-garde artists collaborate for the first time. An innovative piece of music, created by Lewis using specially created software, is integrated with a large array of Metcalfe sculptures. Visitors literally create the work from their presence in the space: a person moving across the room to view one of the sculptures is greeted by a sonic provocation, while a fresh sequence of sounds in another part of the sculpture beckons and invites, Ikons provides a unique composition for every audience - and a new experience from every angle.

The launch of IKONS on Wednesday, September 8th will be accompanied by a musical performance by Ellen Waterman (flute) and Damon Holzborn (electronics).

Flutist Ellen Waterman is interested in the dynamics of improvisation as a profoundly everyday activity. We are all constantly interacting with our environment, playing off of tiny shifts in perception to make choices that affect the play of movement and sound around us. Most of this dynamic activity goes unnoticed. Waterman explores musical performances as a sensitive articulation of the micro-ecology of specific moments in time/space.

Damon Holzborn is a Brooklyn-based improviser and composer who works primarily with electronics. In performance, he uses custom software and hardware, traditional effects and interactive processes to manipulate sound sources such as guitar and field recordings. Holzborn is a founding member of the Trummerflora collective and has presented his work in the US, Mexico, Europe, Japan and South Africa.  He has performed and/or recorded with George Lewis, Miya Masaoka, Lê Quan Ninh, Eugene Chadbourne, Matt Ingalls, Andrea Polli, Mike Keneally, and the Nortec Collective.