FEATURES A RESIDENCY BY THINGAMAJIGS PERFORMANCE GROUP, INCLUDING A FAMILY WORKSHOP WITH HANDMADE AND FOUND INSTRUMENTS; A MUSIC AND ART FAIR FEATURING EXPERIMENTAL ROCKERS/ARTISTS NO AGE; AND AN EVENING OF SITE-SPECIFIC SOUND WORKS PRESENTED BY MATRIX ARTIST ZAROUHIE ABDALIAN.

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Berkeley, CA, June 18, 2013 - The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive released its summer 2013 schedule for L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA. The centerpiece of the summer schedule is a four-event residency by the innovative project Thingamajigs Performance Group. Formed in 1997, the Oakland-based collective performs and promotes music created with handmade and found materials. With open workshops, rehearsals, and discussions, the ensemble invites audiences of all ages and musical ability to join in a rich local tradition of avant-garde composition and performance. For their BAM/PFA series, Thingamajigs will draw on the contributions of audiences as well as local collaborators to explore the meanings of travel, migrations, maps, and labyrinths.

The residency kicks off on July 21 at noon with Family Workshop: Made and Found Instruments with Thingamajigs. Bring the whole family to learn how to create music with everyday objects. On July 26 the group will present a concert of new compositions titled Thingamajigs: Locating. For this evening the Gallery B performance space will be transformed into a collaborative map with a display of scores and texts. Prior to the performance, Rebar founder and principal Matthew Passmore introduces the new interactive Gallery B seating sculpture Kaleidoscape. Nomadism and dislocation are the central themes of the August 9 Thingamajigs: Nomadism event. The group will invite a number of collaborators and performers to present new music, readings, and other performances. The residency culminates on August 16 with Thingamajigs: Solvitur ambulando (It Is Solved by Walking), the premiere of their new multimedia work of the same name. A collaboration with writer Sasha Hom, the performance includes words, art, and music inspired by issues in international adoption, labyrinths, travel, and walking meditation. True to its name, the performance literally moves through the atrium gallery space during the course of the evening. Visitors can attend open rehearsals for these performances in Gallery B on August 4 and 11 at noon.

Artist Zarouhie Abdalian creates finely executed installations that respond to their specific sites, making viewers aware of their surroundings through subtle gestures. On the opening night of her MATRIX 249 solo exhibition at BAM/PFA on August 2, Abdalian will curate a concert featuring music by composers such as Alvin Lucier and Maryanne Amacher that propose novel treatments of the interaction between sound and the specific site of its production. Sounding the Path of the Signal will be preceded by a conversation between Abdalian and Apsara DiQuinzio, curator of modern and contemporary art and Phyllis C. Wattis MATRIX curator.

Our summer L@TE closer on August 23 features three sonically diverse bands that explore the intersections of music and visual art. The Los Angeles experimental noise rock duo No Age (Dean Spunt and Randy Randall) has continued to amass a growing following and critical accolades since debuting at the New Image Art Gallery in 2006. The Los Angeles Times writes “No Age is the rare band that can score a Rodarte film while also playing an anti-Wal-Mart protest in Chinatown and trolling a Converse promotional event by playing films of sweatshop workers onstage.” Their upcoming album on Sub Pop, An Object, challenges the ephemeral nature of the digital music product and its production by emphasizing the physical process in the album's recording and packaging. The New York–based country psych band Devin Gary and Ross comprised of Devin Flynn, Ross Goldstein, and artist/designer Gary Panter (Pee Wee's Playhouse) are united by an ethic of embracing total sound over song structure. Personalized bare bones originals and cover versions of obscure psychedelia merge with free-form experimentation. Portland and Los Angeles's Sun Foot is a low-volume three-piece featuring Ron Burns, Chris Johansen, and Brian Mumford. The stripped unit emphasizes “creating a situation of laughter and pressure release.” As much a concert as an art fair, the evening will feature collaborative prints made by the musicians, all of whom are also visual artists.

To view the L@TE and E@RLY schedules online visit: http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/late

L@TE AND E@RLY CALENDAR

Family Workshop: Made and Found Instruments with Thingamajigs
E@RLY: Sundays @ BAM/PFA
July 21, 12 p.m. (Doors 11 a.m.)
Bring the whole family to this midday instrument workshop and learn how to make music with materials found in our everyday environment.

Thingamajigs: Locating
L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA
Friday, July 26, 7:30 p.m. (Doors 5 p.m.)
Thingamajigs Performance Group partners with other local artists and performers to present a concert of new works and improvisations. Preceded by introduction to the new interactive Gallery B installation Kaleidoscape by Rebar founder and principal Matthew Passmore at 6 p.m.

Sounding the Path of the Signal
L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA
Friday, August 2, 7:30 p.m. (Doors 5 p.m.)
Programmed by Zarouhie Abdalian in conjunction with Zarouhie Abdalian/ MATRIX 249. Featuring works by Alvin Lucier, Maryanne Amacher, and others. Preceded by a Q&A with Abdalian at 7 p.m.

Thingamajigs: Nomadism
L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA
Friday, August 9, 7:30 p.m. (Doors 5 p.m.)
New music, readings, and other performances on the subjects of nomadism and dislocation, belonging and disconnection. Preceded by a discussion and storytelling on related topics by local artists at 6:30 p.m.

Thingamajigs: Solvitur ambulando (It Is Solved by Walking)
L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA
Friday, August 16, 7:30 p.m. (Doors 5 p.m.)
The Thingamajigs residency culminates in this new multimedia work inspired by issues in international adoption, labyrinths, travel, and walking meditation. In collaboration with writer Sasha Hom.

No Age
L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA
Friday, August 23, 7:30 p.m. (Doors 5 p.m.)
Come rock at this music/art fest with experimental punk group No Age, country psych band Devin Gary and Ross (with artist/designer Gary Panter), and feel-good trio Sun Foot.

L@TE and E@RLY Tickets
Admission to L@TE and E@RLY is $7; free for BAM/PFA members and Cal students, faculty, and staff. Tickets are available exclusively to members, students, faculty, and staff until one week before each event, at which time they go on sale to the general public.

Advance tickets for members available online, in person at the BAM/PFA admissions desk, and by phone. Cal students, faculty, and staff may obtain advance tickets at the BAM/PFA admissions desk with valid Cal ID. If a show is sold out, rush tickets may be available at the door beginning at 8 p.m. Please note that there is limited seating at L@TE and E@RLY events.

Support
L@TE is made possible by Ann Hatch/Tin Man Fund, the Thomas J. Long Foundation, and the continued support of the BAM/PFA Trustees. The Thingamajigs L@TE residency is funded in part by the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music's Musical Grant Program.

The Thingamajigs L@TE residency is funded in part by the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music's Musical Grant Program.

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

About BAM/PFA
Founded in 1963, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is UC Berkeley's primary visual arts venue and among the largest university art museums in terms of size and audience in the United States. Internationally recognized for its art and film programming, BAM/PFA is a platform for cultural experiences that transform individuals, engage communities, and advance the local, national and global discourse on art and ideas. BAM/PFA's mission is “to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through art and film.”

BAM/PFA presents approximately fifteen art exhibitions and 380 film programs each year. The museum's collection of over 16,000 works of art includes important holdings of Neolithic Chinese ceramics, Ming and Qing Dynasty Chinese painting, Old Master works on paper, Italian Baroque painting, early American painting, Abstract Expressionist painting, contemporary photography, and video art. Its film archive of over 14,000 films and videos includes the largest collection of Japanese cinema outside of Japan, Hollywood classics, and silent film, as well hundreds of thousands of articles, reviews, posters, and other ephemera related to the history of film, many of which are digitally scanned and accessible online.

Berkeley Art Museum Information
Location: 2626 Bancroft Way, just below College Avenue across from 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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