E X H I B I T I O N

Photo: The Atlas Group, Untitled from Civilizationally We Do Not Dig Holes To Bury Ourselves, 1958-2003

Walid Raad / The Atlas Group
The Dead Weight of a Quarrel Hangs:
Documents from The Atlas Group Archive

January 7 - March 11, 2006

January 7 (Saturday):
5pm Performance-Lecture
6-8pm Opening reception

February 28 (Tuesday):
7pm Performance-Lecture

Free Admission
Exhibition Hours: Tue-Fri, 12-6pm
and Sat 11-7pm

Curated by Debra Singer

The Kitchen is pleased to present the first New York solo exhibition by Walid Raad, titled The Dead Weight of a Quarrel Hangs: Documents from The Atlas Group Archive. The exhibition includes video projections, digital prints, and two performance-lectures, which are all components of the artist’s ongoing venture, The Atlas Group. As the name of both a project and a foundation, The Atlas Group researches and documents the contemporary history of Lebanon, with a particular emphasis both on the wars from 1975 to 1991, and on the consequences of war more broadly on life in cities such as Beirut, New York, Madrid, London, and Baghdad. Presenting a collection of photographic and video documents on subjects as varied as car bombs, horse racing, and captivity, The Atlas Group explores the ways that experiences of violence are formed, represented, and remembered.

Seating for Performance-Lectures is on a first-come, first served basis.

This exhibition was made possible with a grant from The Peter Norton Family Foundation and with generous support from Cristina Enriquez-Bocobo, Anthony Reynolds Gallery (London), Friends of SEAL (Social and Economic Action for Lebanon), and Galeire Sfeir-Semler (Hamburg and Beirut).

The Kitchen’s exhibition programs are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

This exhibition was made possible with support from the Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial and in recognition of the valuable cultural contributions of artists to society.

P E R F O R M A N C E

Photo: Michael Schmelling

Richard Maxwell / New York City Players
The End of Reality

January 12-29, 2006
Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm
January 22 and 23
Sunday and Monday at 8pm
Please note: extra performance added Sunday, January 29 at 3pm

Tickets $15

Known for upending theatrical conventions and chronicling that which is forgotten or unimportant, award-winning writer-director Richard Maxwell explores violence in this daring new work in which physical exchanges take a front seat with the dialogue. A "lobby-citadel" is the setting for his latest theatrical production, where guards attempt to secure a vulnerable area against unidentified intruders. Confusion and conflict, community and containment erupt and become intertwined, as the heart is traced, tracked, and followed to a heretofore unknown place, one that is, for better or for worse, distinctly American.

The End of Reality is written and directed by Richard Maxwell with performers Thomas Bradshaw, Alex Delinois, James Fletcher, Marcia Hidalgo, Shannon Kennedy and Brian Mendes. Set and Lights by Eric Dyer and Costume Design by Kaye Voyce.

The End of Reality was co-commissioned by The Kitchen as well as BITE:06 Barbican, London; Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Trust; Steirischer Herbst Festival 2006; The Walker Art Center; Judith and Richard Greer. Additional support was provided by NYSCA.

Additional support was provided by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

L I T E R A T U R E

Photo Credit: Zoe Strauss

Introducing… A Public Space

February 7th (Tuesday)
7pm

FREE

To celebrate the release of its debut issue, the new independent literary magazine A Public Space hosts an evening of performances and readings. Edited by Brigid Hughes, formerly of The Paris Review, the magazine is a quarterly that takes as its starting point that fiction matters, providing an ongoing conversation about literature and global culture, and serving as a gathering place for ideas, opinions, art, conversations, and stories.

The evening will be hosted by Brigid Hughes, and will feature Claudia Gonson reading from Kelly Link’s “Origin Story”; John Haskell reading his story “Galileo”; and Tim O’Sullivan reading from his first published story, which appears in the debut issue of A Public Space. Lucy Raven will also present a sound piece that is drawn from her Illustrated Guide to Copper Extraction, which is based on her research for a mixed animation/documentary film about copper mining in Utah and Nevada.

Literature programs at The Kitchen are made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

M U S I C

Photo: Gerald Imre

John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble
Inspirations and Aspirations

February 17th and 18th (Fri and Sat)
8pm

Tickets $10

Leading an eighteen-piece ensemble, the versatile percussionist and composer John Hollenbeck presents new, surprisingly intimate, orchestral works that interweave diverse musical influences, ranging from minimalist composition to jazz-influenced free improvisation to ethereal ambient chants. The evening includes works inspired alternately by a monastic meditation guidebook, a Michael McClure poem, and Mahatma Gandhi.

Music programs at The Kitchen are made possible with generous support from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

This performance was made possible with support from the Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial and in recognition of the valuable cultural contributions of artists to society.

P E R F O R M A N C E  -  L E C T U R E

LAB Press Conference

March 25 (Saturday)
5:30pm FREE

First-come, first-served, with no reservations accepted.

This public event will mark the official launch of LAB, a think tank founded in 2005 by conceptual artist Adam Pendleton. Known for his text-based works that investigate the intersection of social space, identity, and the visual manifestation of language in design, Pendleton will present a performance-lecture entitled LAB Lecture:about the language i use i'll use.  Exploring his ideas about how LAB operates within the framework of contemporary art, Pendelton's performance will include his partially-improvised responses to projections of LAB documents. His lecture will be interspersed with protest songs, themselves framed as documents, by Woodie Guthrie and Phil Ochs sung by Kate Fenner. A panel discussion will follow with Adam Pendleton; Bartholomew Ryan, co-editor of LAB Magazine; and graphic designers Susan Sellers of 2x4 and David Reinfurt of ORG inc.

M U S I C

Photo: Alec Hanley Bemis / Brassland.org

Clogs and special guests

March 31st and April 1st (Fri and Sat)
8pm

Tickets $10

The New York-based quartet Clogs occupy the space between classical composition and avant-garde improvisation, while also drawing on folk, rock, and world musical styles. Their distinctive music eludes easy classification, though comparisons have been made to the sonic landscapes of artists as diverse as Erik Satie, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, and Miles Davis. The ensemble’s unusual instrumentation features Padma Newsome, the group’s primary composer, on strings and voice; Rachael Elliott on bassoon and recorder; Thomas Kozumplik on percussion and drums; and Bryce Dessner, who also plays in the popular rock band The National, on classical and electric guitars. Special guests include guitarist and acclaimed composer Shara Worden on March 31, and indie-folk singer Diane Cluck on April 1. The set installation is created by Karl Jensen.

Music programs are made possible with generous support from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

D A N C E

Photos: (left, Bernard) Jody Sperling;
(right, Harrell) Miana Grafals

Trajal Harrell / Karen Bernard

February 24th and 25th (Fri and Sat)
8pm

Tickets $10

Curated by Tere O’Connor

This shared evening brings together new works by two distinctly different choreographers. Karen Bernard’s latest solo Totally in Love, unfolds like a series of journal entries. Directed by Maureen Brennan, this piece combines traditional social dance forms with video and audio recordings of the artist and her children as she celebrates and mourns their growing up and leaving home.

By contrast, Trajal Harrell’s choreography melds the worlds of postmodern dance, the fashion runway, and the tradition of “voguing” into highly-stylized, staged vignettes. In his new ensemble piece, Before Intermission, he continues his investigation of a recognizable aesthetic of “cool,” while incorporating references to themes and events in James Baldwin’s novel Giovanni’s Room.

The presentation of Totally In Love is made possible, in part, through the The Field's Artward Bound residency program and The Experimental Television Center. The Experimental Television Center's Presentation Funds program is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. Trajal Harrell's piece, Before Intermission, was developed, in part, through support from The Choreographic Window Project/Tanz im August 2005-Internationales Tanzfest Berlin.

Dance programs at The Kitchen are made possible with sponsorship support from Altria Group, Inc. and with generous grants from The Harkness Foundation for Dance and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

M U S I C

Photo: Anette Aurell

Mike Ladd
Domestica: The Final Theater in the Infesticons Saga

March 9th and 10th (Thurs and Fri)
8pm

Tickets $10

Curated by Howie Chen

Rapper, musician, and hip-hop conceptualist, Mike Ladd pushes the boundaries of experimental hip-hop with his political and sonic explorations, which he describes as “post-futurist soul music”. Accompanied by a crew of MCs and musicians, Ladd performs songs from his acclaimed Since Infesticons/Majesticons trilogy of albums. This series is based on Ladd’s invented sci-fi narrative that chronicles a fictitious rap battle over hip-hop’s future fought between two rival factions, represented alternatively as the assimilated “commercial mainstream” and the rebellious “underground contingent”. The evening also includes the New York-debut of new tracks from the final trilogy installment, Domesticons.

Music programs at The Kitchen are made possible with generous support from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

D A N C E

Photo: Yvonne Meier

Yvonne Meier
this is not a pink pony and Gogolorez

March 16th–18th (Thurs through Sat)
8pm

Tickets $12

Curated by Yasuko Yokoshi

These two new works by veteran choreographer Yvonne Meier possess the wild improvisations and challenging movement theatricality for which she is best known. The evening features an all-star cast of performers, including Fabio deSilva, DD Dorvillier, Miguel Gutierrez, Jennifer Miller, Jennifer Monson, Marion Ramirez, Osmany Tellez, Arturo Vidich, Jeremy Wade, and Nami Yamamoto, as well as music by Chris Jaeger, Michael Jaeger, and Dave Gisler.

this is not a pink pony is a love triangle that is part-fairy tale, part-Dr. Zhivago, in which a “jump rope” figures prominently. Gogolorez is Meier’s ongoing improvisation project using her verbal “score technique,” in which she assumes the role of ringmaster and calls out movement instructions to the dancers who must obey her every command.

Dance programs at The Kitchen are made possible with sponsorship support from Altria Group, Inc. and with generous grants from The Harkness Foundation for Dance and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

V I D E O   S C R E E N I N G

Photo: Video still from Philippe Blanchard’s Taco Monde.

Quantum Leaps
An evening of video screenings

March 21st (Tuesday)
7pm

FREE

Curated by Astria Suparak

This evening of video screenings features recent works by artists who break out of traditional constraints of time and social convention to create alternative fantasy lineages that compress historical eras, catalogue personal heroes, and hallucinate new futures. Artists included are Daniel Barrow, Philippe Blanchard, Dearraindrop, Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, Jim Finn, Caroline Koebel, J. Macdonell, Jim Munroe, Liz Rosenfeld, Seth Price, and Andy Puls (Neon Hunk).

Media and film programs at The Kitchen are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.