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Drift

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Drift --- 2005

DRIFT is a collaboration started in 1991 between visual artist Leah Singer and musician and poet Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. DRIFT is an immersive sonic/visual environment consisting of music, sounds and texts by Ranaldo in response to two 16mm analytical film projectors performed in real time by Singer. Much as a DJ scratches a vinyl record, Singer manipulates her films in a live improvisation with Ranaldo's guitar, poetry and soundscapes. DRIFT has been performed live in museums, galleries, concert halls and performing arts centers worldwide since 1991 and was recently performed live in Los Angeles at the LA Museum of Contemporary Art as part of a Robert Smithson Retrospective in Oct 2004. DRIFT will be presented as an installation at Gigantic ArtSpace in New York, NY from November 4th, 2005 to January 15th, 2006, including a video projection of the film as well as prints, lightboxes and original drawings based around the concept of DRIFT and extending from it. The installation will tour internationally starting in early 2006. The DVD is presented with a 5.1 surround sound mix and is accompanied by a 112-page book of full-color images and poetry, a conversation with Ranaldo and Singer, and texts by experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas, artists Sam Durant and Tom Leeser, writer/musician Alan Licht, curator Roland Spekle and DRIFT exhibition curator Lea Rekow. Lee Ranaldo is the guitarist and a founding member of the band Sonic Youth. His books of poetry and prose include JRNLS80s and Road Movies among others. Leah Singer is a visual artist and photographer and her work has been seen in print, performances and in exhibitions around the world. DRIFT is a production of Gigantic ArtSpace.