Ten x Ten 2020/2: Tactile | Spaces
Music performed by Chicago Composers Orchestra
Saturday, September 25, 2021
St. James Cathedral | 65 E Huron St, Chicago
6:45pm Discussion and Q&A | 7:30pm Concert
Presented by Chicago Composers Orchestra, Homeroom, and Spudnik Press
Click here to purchase tickets.
Join us for the second concert and art exhibition in the Ten x Ten 2020/2 series to hear and see world premiers of musical compositions and screen prints.
For the second iteration of Ten x Ten 2020, composers Ben LaMar Gay, Jonathan Hannau, Andrew McManus, and Amy Wurtz will debut compositions for orchestra created in collaboration with visual artists Carlos Matallana, Yoonshin Park, Michelle Nordmeyer, and Susan Giles, respectively. The corresponding screenprints from each visual artist will also be on view at the concert, encouraging viewers to draw connections between the varied, multimedia compositions being presented. In 2022, the music and screen prints presented at this concert will be released as part of an art book and 12" vinyl recording documenting all of the works produced for Ten x Ten 2022.
Ten x Ten 2020/2 is a collaborative commissioned production featuring 10 composers writing symphonic work in collaboration with 10 visual artists producing screen prints. Presenting organizations Chicago Composers Orchestra, Homeroom, and Spudnik Press paired 10 visual artists with a composer. Together, the visual artist and composer are asked to write corresponding components of a single work, though each print and each composition may stand on their own as an independent work of art.
Music and visual art are not typically presented or discussed as complementary art forms. Ten x Ten challenges this notion, asking participants to explore the common ground between one another's work. Collaboration is at the core of this process-driven project. Often, language is a starting point for the pairs: what adjectives might describe their work; how might narratives be embedded in their work; how do they organize and structure their compositions? From these discussions, the pairs develop a work plan and dialogue that allows their creative processes to influence one another.
Through this multimedia partnership, composers and visual artists are challenged to consider new factors and possibilities for creating work. Each artist is encouraged to cultivate a deeper understanding of their own creative process by delving into another, very different artist's approach to creating.
About the Works
Artist Michelle Nordmeyer made Work with Whatchya Got in pandemic lockdown, using found-objects to express the idea of “limitation”. Composer Andrew McManus responds with Feather, echoing the tactile quality of the visual objects, where a feather becomes a slowly blossoming, misshapen chorale for muted violins.
Exploring memory and gesture in recollections of the space of "home", artist Susan Giles and composer Amy Wurtz start from the same source: a recorded story capturing the gestures of a member of a choir for senior citizens with early-stage memory loss. Their dual works focus on how movement and sound connect to memory, place and emotion.
In Lapsus, artist Carlos Matallana and composer Ben LaMar Gay observe –instead of patterns– the spaces in between them: the repetitive divisions that interrupt a line, or define a beat's closing or opening. Their vehicle is the mouth: mouths that surround us among family and friends, each of them unique, either still or gesticulating.
In A River is Found on the Other End, composer Jonathan Hannau starts with a paper cadenza: shredding, tearing, and manipulating paper; until a solitary note finds its voice and a lush melody guides a lone traveler to the end of a river. Artist Yoonshin Park translates the soundscapes into colors, lines, and forms that resonate the dynamics and density of the sound.
We ask that all in-person attendees provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination upon entry. We are actively monitoring local health guidelines and will continue to update as needed.
Other Upcoming Ten x Ten 2022
January 22, 2022
at Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University @ 430 S Michigan ave
Featuring:
Katherine Lampert with Brian Baxter
Lara Zendejas with Luis Fernando Amaya
Record + Book Release
Summer 2022
at Chicago Art Department
1926 S. Halsted
Previous Ten x Ten 2022
January 25, 2020
Alexandra Antoine with David Keller
Jessie Mott with Trevor Watkin
Selina Trepp with Janice Misurell-Mitchell
Azadeh Gholizadeh with Randall West
January 23, 2021
Virtual Sneak Peak #1
Susan Giles with Amy Wurtz
Carlos Matallana with Ben LaMar Gay
Michelle Nordmeyer with Andrew McManus
Watch the video of January’s live stream here .
February 20, 2021
Virtual Sneak Peak #2
Katherine Lampert with Brian Baxter
Rodrigo Lara Zendejas with Luis Fernando Amaya
Yoonshin Park with Jonathan Hannau
Watch the video of February’s live stream here.