PERFORMANCE AND SCULPTURE CONVERGE TO MAKE
L@TE: FRIDAY NIGHTS AT BAM/PFA
THE FRIDAY NIGHT CULTURAL DESTINATION IN THE EAST BAY
Berkeley, CA, January 29, 2010-(Download a PDF version of this press release.) A multimedia lounge show by torch singer, filmmaker, and performance artist Anne McGuire, sound collage artist Wobbly, and a small fleet of projectionists; a one-of-a-kind performance by William Winant Percussion Group on 100 metronomes; a dance/graffiti party hosted by East Bay zine collective Rock Paper Scissors; a performance by so-called “King of Sampling” Carl Stone; a gender-bending event combining video and performance by the collective Brooklyn Is Burning; and a recreation of Jack Goldstein's Two Fencers by the Cal Fencing Team are some of the wondrous, strange, poignant, and sometimes proudly absurd programs planned through the end of April for the East Bay's newest and most eclectic art and performance series, L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA.

L@TE's winter season opens tonight, January 29, with McGuire and Wobbly's performance and a demonstration by the all-16-mm projector ensemble Wet Gate, programmed by BAM/PFA's own film curators Steve Seid and Kathy Geritz. The event will also serve as the opening of award-winning architect Thom Faulders's highly anticipated indoor seating sculpture BAMscape. A hybrid of sculpture, furniture, and stage, BAMscape catalyzes the gallery space, allowing performers and audience to interact with it-and each other-in unexpected ways. Faulders will be giving a talk for the general public at 7:00 p.m., immediately prior to the Anne McGuire/Wobbly and Wet Gate performances.

On February 5, BAM/PFA welcomes San Francisco percussionist William Winant's ensemble and local artists Fred Frith and James Fei. Highlights of the program will be the performance of György Ligeti's Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes and Frith's Stick Figures for six guitars. Winant, Frith, and Fei's performances have been arranged by guest programmer Sarah Cahill, one of the Bay Area's most distinguished advocates of experimental music. Cahill's series, which happens on the first Friday of each month, brings electronic composer and sampler Carl Stone on March 5. The Village Voice has described Stone as “one of the best composers living in the U.S. today.” On April 2, we welcome composer, vocalist, and UC Berkeley professor Ken Ueno and his trio ONDA, sharing the bill with former Kronos Quartet cellist and innovative composer Joan Jeanrenaud.

L@TE programming on the second Friday of each month is orchestrated by guest programmer Franklin Melendez, a freelance art/fashion writer and independent curator. On February 12, Melendez enlists the East Bay zine collective Rock Paper Scissors to host Marker Dance Party. Artist DJs will be spinning tunes while patrons dance and draw on paper draped from gallery walls, ceilings, and ramps. The March 12 event spotlights artists from the Bay Area's fertile noise scene with L@TE NOISE, headlined by San Francisco's Caroliner, described as “one of America's most original and difficult musical entities.” On April 9, Brooklyn Is Burning in Berkeley will expand the boundaries of sex, sexuality, and the body in a dynamic event showcasing video and performance. Sarvia Jasso and Andres Bedoya, the curating team behind the Brooklyn Is Burning legendary site-specific events, will enlist numerous local artists for this one-time-only happening.

Anne Colvin, a Scottish artist based in San Francisco, is programming the Skank Bloc Bologna Number Four series happening on the third Friday of each month. For this unclassifiable series, Colvin welcomes artists contributing spoken word, screenings, musical performances, conversation, and other performances. The remnants of these performances will be the basis for a fourth issue of the paper publication Skank Bloc Bologna. On February 19, members of the Cal Fencing Team will reenact Jack Goldstein's Two Fencers; Ostia by U.K. filmmaker Julian Cole screens; local iconoclast Eugene Robinson reads from his new book; and a Scritti Politti cover band performs. On March 19, there will be Tosh Berman's screening of his father Wallace Berman's hand-painted filmic meditation Aleph; an “action” by professional dominatrix and champion submission wrestler Jennifer Locke; and a performance by U.K. dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnston. On April 16, local artist Allan deSouza offers up clips and wry observations from The Beast in Space-a 1980s Euro-sleaze space saga-in a mash-up lecture. The event also features a presentation of the voice issue of Fools in Print-a Scottish artist-run press edited by Lucy Keany-and includes Rabbit Hole/Acid House by singer and composer Joan La Barbara; a dub reggae, Lancastrian post-punk narration by Paul Rooney; and Ask for It from Jordan Baseman, recorded in a football club in Sheffield, U.K.

The final Friday of each month will be programmed by BAM/PFA curators Steve Seid and Kathy Geritz. The Expanded Cinema series continues on February 26, with projectionist Keith Evans. Evans and a crew of collaborators will bathe the gallery in a “liquid world of reflections, refractions, and spectral resonance” using his own projection contraptions. Experimental filmmaker and artist Paul Clipson will offer a Super 8 optical odyssey through poetic forms of light and shadow with electronic musical accompaniment from Gregg Kowalsky. On March 26 we welcome Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Jordan Birden and his spectral film All That Passes Before You, Already in Ruin. Local artist and curator Konrad Steiner and a small army of poets and verbal provocateurs will repurpose the Japanese tradition of benshi performance-oral narration for silent cinema-as “a cabaret of poetry, satire, and homage.”

L@TE CALENDAR
All events listed below begin at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m. for gallery viewing; DJ and no-host bar begins at 6 p.m.

January 29
Expanded Cinema: Wet Gate; Anne McGuire and Wobbly

February 5
William Winant Percussion Group
Featuring Guest Artists Fred Frith and James Fei

February 12
Marker Dance Party
Hosted by Rock Paper Scissors

February 19
Skank Bloc Bologna Number Four: Cal Fencing Team reenacts Jack Goldstein's Two Fencers; screening of Ostia by Julian Cole; Eugene Robinson; and a Scritti Politti cover band

February 26
Expanded Cinema: Super 8 optical odyssey with Paul Clipson, music by Gregg Kowalsky; projectionist Keith Evans and guests

March 5
Electronic composer and sampler Carl Stone

March 12
L@TE NOISE with Caroliner

March 19
Skank Bloc Bologna Number Four: Tosh Berman screens Aleph; submission wrestler Jennifer Locke, and dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnston

March 26
Expanded Cinema: Neo-benshi by Konrad Steiner and guests; Jordan Biren's spectral film All That Passes Before You, Already in Ruin

April 2
Composer and vocalist Ken Ueno and ONDA; Joan Jeanrenaud

April 9
Brooklyn Is Burning in Berkeley
Curated by Sarvia Jasso and Andres Bedoya

April 16
Skank Bloc Bologna Number Four: Allan deSouza and The Beast in Space; voice issue of Fools in Print with Joan LaBarbara, Paul Rooney, and Jordan Baseman

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

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

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 450 film programs each year. Website: bampfa.berkeley.edu.

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