Highlights Include Musical Performances by Riley and Del Sol String Quartet, a New Series of Expanded Cinema Events That Explore the Bay Area's Rich Tradition of Alternative Film and Video, and a Special Halloween Weekend Event

Berkeley, CA August 6, 2010-(Download a PDF version of this press release.) The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive's eclectic art and performance series L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA returns this fall season with another diverse lineup of events that meld visual art and performance in intriguing new ways. Several of the programs are inspired by themes explored in BAM/PFA's fall exhibitions/film series Hauntology; Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945–2000; and Flowers of the Four Seasons: Ten Centuries of Art from the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture.

The fall schedule opens in grand style on September 3 with the return of pianist-composer Terry Riley, in a concert to commemorate his seventy-fifth birthday earlier this year. Perhaps best known for his Minimalist composition In C, Riley has studied Indian classical music with Pandit Pran Nath, explored jazz with Chet Baker, and reinvigorated the string quartet ensemble via his collaborations with the Kronos Quartet. Along the way, his enormously influential music has inspired three generations of composers around the world and provided the creative spark for rock bands such as Can and the Velvet Underground. Riley, who received his M.A. in Composition from UC Berkeley, performed to a capacity crowd at the inaugural L@TE event in November 2009. The composer will again be joined by his son Gyan Riley on guitar for a transcendent evening of music. Riley's appearance at BAM/PFA is made possible by returning guest programmer and prominent new music advocate Sarah Cahill, whose fall L@TE events will focus on the experimental tradition in American music, with an emphasis on the West Coast. On October 1 Cahill presents San Francisco's acclaimed Del Sol String Quartet, who promise “new music with a global pulse.” Two-time winners of the Top Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the ensemble has commissioned new works from a number of the most distinguished composers working around the world today. For this special performance, the master musicians (violinists Kate Stenberg and Rick Shinozaki, violist Charlton Lee, and cellist Kathryn Bates-Williams) will perform Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov's Tenebrae, Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin's Urban Village 2, and other recent works for the string quartet.

On the second Friday of each month, guest programmer Tomo Yasuda will program a series of events in dialogue with BAM/PFA's major fall exhibition, Flowers of the Four Seasons: Ten Centuries of Art from the Clark Collection for Japanese Art and Culture. On September 10, Yasuda a Japanese-born, Bay Area-based electronic musician, marries visual art with musical performance, quite literally, with an event titled Beginning of the Edo Period. A live performance on the koto, a traditional Japanese stringed instrument, will become a “soundtrack” for a live painting demonstration by Bahama Kangaroos, the artist duo of Naoki Onodera and Yukako Ezoe Onodera. Shoko Hikage and Kanoko Nishi will perform traditional works composed for the koto ranging from the beginning of the Edo period to contemporary times. Tomo's highly conceptual series and fascination with Edo period Japan continues with his October 8 presentation Dog Night with NYMPH. During the Edo period, Japan had a particularly strict law requiring citizens to be kind to dogs and other animals or be punished harshly. In commemoration of this law Daniel Jay will project visuals celebrating man's best friend while Brooklyn-based psychedelic/avant-garde ensemble NYMPH will perform an evening's worth of new music.

On the third Friday of each month BAM/PFA Film and Video Curators Kathy Geritz and Steve Seid will present expanded cinema events that celebrate the arrival of their decade-in-the-making book Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000 and its accompanying BAM/PFA film series and gallery exhibition. On September 17 Geritz and Seid will be joined by guest programmer Christine Metropoulos for Radical L@TE: Advance to Full Fury-Sound and Image Performances. Highlighting the contributions of local avant-garde film and video artists that have emerged since 2000, the evening will feature a scorching set of otherworldly sound and light performances by Andrew Benson and Joshua Churchill; Seth Horovitz; and Curtis Tamm and Michael Campos-Quinn. We commemorate the official release date of Radical Light on October 15 with an evening of light shows, multiple projection pieces, and film loops by Craig Baldwin, Gibbs Chapman, Peter Conheim, and Thad Povey and Alphonso Alvarez. Radical L@TE: Book Launch will feature special appearances by several of the film- and videomakers featured in the book, as well as several of its contributors.

The current BAM/PFA exhibition Hauntology (on view through December 5, 2010), is organized around the ephemeral concept “the logic of the ghost,” ideal subject matter for further exploration on Halloween weekend. On October 29 local artist, musician, and Hauntology co-curator Scott Hewicker presents a night of hauntological sounds, spirited discussions, and phantasmagorical projections. Portland's Indignant Senility, and local artists Barn Owl and Jim Haynes will cast a sonic pall throughout the museum while supernatural film, slide, and video projections, many emanating from the PFA Collection, will be summoned onto screens and gallery walls. Expect dark processions and other tricks and treats. Costumes-especially ghostly ones-are encouraged.

L@TE Calendar
Friday night programs begin at 7:30 p.m. in Gallery B with the exception of the Terry Riley performance, which will begin at 8 p.m.; doors open at 5 p.m. with DJs filling the galleries with sound beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Sept 3
Terry Riley Celebrates 75, programmed by Sarah Cahill
Doors 5 p.m. / DJ 6:30 p.m. / Performance 8:00 p.m.

Sept 10
Beginning of the Edo Period, programmed by Tomo Yasuda
Doors 5 p.m. / DJ 6:30 p.m. / Performance 7:30 p.m.

Sept 17
Radical L@TE: Advance to Full Fury-Sound and Image Performances, programmed by Kathy Geritz, Steve Seid, and Christine Metropoulos
Doors 5 p.m. / DJ 6:30 p.m. / Performance 7:30 p.m.

Oct 1
Del Sol String Quartet, programmed by Sarah Cahill
Doors 5 p.m. / DJ 6:30 p.m. / Performance 7:30 p.m.

Oct 8
Dog Night with NYMPH, programmed by Tomo Yasuda
Doors 5 p.m. / DJ 6:30 p.m. / Performance 7:30 p.m.

Oct 15
Radical L@TE: Book Launch, programmed by Kathy Geritz and Steve Seid
Doors 5 p.m. / DJ 6:30 p.m. / Performance 7:30 p.m.

Oct 29
Hauntology, programmed by Scott Hewicker
Doors 5 p.m. / DJ 6:30 p.m. / Performance 7:30 p.m.

$7 After 5
Beginning on September 3, general admission to the BAM/PFA galleries is now $7 after 5 p.m. on L@TE Fridays. Show your ticket for a same-day PFA screening or gallery visit and get in to L@TE free. Admission is always free for BAM/PFA members and UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff.

About L@TE
Start your weekend in the BAM/PFA galleries! The galleries are open until 9 p.m. or later on most Fridays, with DJs spinning tunes beginning at 6:30 p.m., and an array of performances and other programs in Gallery B. Sarah Cahill programs new music on the first Friday of each month; electronic musician Tomo Yasuda's hybrid programming connects to themes explored in BAM/PFA's major fall exhibition Flowers of the Four Seasons: Ten Centuries of Japanese Art from the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture on the second Friday; and BAM/PFA Film and Video Curators Kathy Geritz and Steve Seid celebrate the arrival their new book Radical Light on the third Friday, with expanded cinema events that spotlight the Bay Area's rich tradition of avant-garde film and video.

Credit
L@TE is made possible in part by Bank of America, the Tin Man Fund, and the continued support of the BAM/PFA Trustees. Special thanks to our media sponsors, East Bay Express and San Francisco Bay Guardian.

More Online
For updates and advance tickets, visit bampfa.berkeley.edu/late.

About BAM/PFA
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is the visual arts center of the University of California, Berkeley, one of the nation's leading research universities. BAM/PFA believes that art inspires the imagination, supports learning at all ages, and contributes to positive social change. One of the largest university art museums in the United States in both size and attendance, BAM/PFA presents 15 art exhibitions and 380 film programs each year.

Berkeley Art Museum Information
Location: 2626 Bancroft Way, just below College Avenue near the UC Berkeley campus.

Gallery and Museum Store Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Open L@TE Fridays until 9 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

Information: 24-hour recorded message (510) 642-0808; fax (510) 642-4889; TDD (510) 642-8734.

Website: bampfa.berkeley.edu

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