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Performance Audio 1969-1988

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Performance Audio 1969-1988 --- 2013-09-12

Barbara T. Smith: Performance Audio 1969 - 1988 Produced by LeRoy Stevens and Barbara T. Smith Edited by LeRoy Stevens Design by Alfredo Ruiz Cover: Barbara T. Smith, Untitled Drawing from Sound Piece for Notes and Scores for Sound, 1971. Pencil on paper, 18 x 24 inches. BTS001 2013 Edition of 500 Small World 7714 San Fernando Road Sun Valley, CA 91352 smallworldmfg.info Inside Notes: SIDE 1 18:23 Mass Meal, 1969. 18:23 Smith invited people to her studio, which she had divided into three areas: a section with hanging day-glow plastic sheets holding hot roasts of meat; an area with buckets of red, yellow, and blue paint, a pile of foam rubber pieces and a target. The third area was a sealed sanctuary-like room with tables covered with white foam and white cups of red wine. Initially guests threw foam at the target, ate hunks of meat and broke into the room to get the wine. But soon it got out of control and they completely trashed the space. A key factor in the behavior of the participants was the relentless audio mix in combination with total sensory overload. With the absence of guidance from Smith to direct behavior (she was was in an adjacent office and never seen) the result was chaotic. "I wanted it to be a Mass that contained music from many parts of the world. The recording for Mass Meal was mixed together as a 4 track phased composition by Joseph Byrd. It is very hypnotic, use care when listening to it." BTS, 2013. Audio: Joseph Byrd and BTS SIDE 2 20:22 Starbiker, 1971. 4:57 Poetry written and narrated by BTS, from Starbiker, a docudrama about motorcycle racer Dick Kilgroe, commissioned by KQED in San Francisco. The film follows Kilgroe's lifestyle, examining the motivation for his racing passion. Audio: BTS Filmmaker: Mallory Slate Rock Group: Rocket 88 Sound Mix: Peter Hobe Sound Piece for Notes and Scores for Sound, 1972. 2:00 Created for the exhibition Notes and Scores for Sound, curated by Tom Marioni at Mills College, artists were invited to compose a sound piece and exhibit the diagrams and drawings necessary to create the final work. Smith's piece came from her preliminary drawing of a mystical cat kneading the chest of an ailing man. Her audio consisted of a recording of a cat purring, the sound of an malfunctioning heart, aluminum rods striking the ground and synthesizer. Terry Fox, who was also part of the show, did not attend the opening. Puzzled, Smith discovered that at that very moment he was in the hospital having his sternum removed. She instantly realized there was a connection between her drawing and Fox's surgery. Subsequently, Terry began to use cat purrs in his audio pieces - and although Barbara instructed Tom to give Terry her drawing, he never actually received it, nor did he hear her piece. Strangeness. Audio: BTS, Joseph Byrd Sound Mix: Mallory Slate Heartbeat recording from Si Wexler Lab Feed Me, 1973. 2:47 Realized for All Night Sculpture at MOCA (Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco) curated by Tom Marioni. Visitors were invited to enter a small room, one at a time, and were confronted by Smith sitting naked on a divan. She was surrounded by various foods, tea, coffee, wine, books and massage oils placed on benches against the walls. A repeating audio track of Smith's voice instructed, "Feed Me." The challenge was for the visitor to figure out what to do. The paradox of her nudity, which implied sexuality with the requirement that she be "fed" created the boundary condition of having to get permission for any exchange. In this seminal feminist work, Smith herself had agency and control of the room and could say yes or no. Audio: BTS What Do Dogs Say When They Bark, 1975. 4:57 Originating from a workshop at the Woman's Building, participants were sent out to adjacent MacArthur Park to gather the sounds of dogs barking in different languages. (E.G. Bow Wow, Arf Arf, Vaw Vaw). Subsequently those sounds were incorporated into the piece. During the performance an artist made a wall painting over Smith's white gessoed body, as four standing women draped with beautiful colored fabrics sent up loud, reverberating dog-like howls. Two other women barked the gathered dog sounds in several languages while two real dogs began to howl. Audio: 6 performers and two dogs. A Negotiation, 1977. 5:43 Smith did a performance that required her audience to come down from a balcony and purchase fish from her. The money collected was donated to Save the Children Foundation. Audio: BTS (metronome and bio-feedback tone) Sampled Music: Misa Criolla by Los Fronterizos SIDE 3 24:48 Shatterhouse, 1983. 24:48 The first performance following a brutal assault and rape, Smith recounts the event intermixed with a visionary poem about the psychic-spiritual cry of city life by Liz Rymland, titled Shatterhouse. Audio: Liz Rymland and BTS SIDE 4 23:43 The Pageant of the Holy Squash, 1988. 23:43 There was an initial performance in 1971 called Celebration of the Holy Squash. BTS created the Holy Squash religion coming from a communal meal, where the remains of a giant hubbard squash were cast in resin. The squash was baptized and surrounded with other rituals that took place in the art gallery at UC Irvine and around the campus. Over the 1988 winter solstice, Smith transported a cast replica of a Holy Squash to New York for a three part ceremony. Part one of the Pageant consisted of a play on a nativity scene: a "farmer" and a "cook" brought the Holy Squash to a "manger" in the storefront window of the Fashion Moda gallery. A group of "shepherds" (neighborhood kids) and "three wise women" (feminist historian Arlene Raven, community activist Olene Far, and Seneca medicine woman Twylah Nitsch) visited the holy manger. A piñata full of squash seed packets was cracked open for the audience. The following day, the squash was carried on a litter in a procession from the gallery in the Bronx to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, accompanied by the sound of drum cadences played on multiple boom boxes. Upon entering the stone cutting yard of the cathedral, where the final ceremony took place, the crowd formed a large circle around a bonfire where Smith placed the Holy Squash on the fire. Participants added their own squashes and Twylah shared squash teachings from her Native American people. Following a plunge into symbolic darkness, characterized by haunting vocals and eating of the Holy Squash, dancers performed with fabric covered hoola-hoops that acted as screens, catching projected sacred images. At the end, the entire group sang a Seneca song dedicated to the full moon. Audio Sequence Part 1 Farmer and Cook 1:02 Magi Drumming 1:28 Nursery Rhymes and Singing 2:59 Part 2 Drums Processional 3:41 Part 3 Entering Cathedral 1:08 I Give Thee To The Fire 3:37 Darkness 2:41 Dance with Hoops 5:04 Nissa, Nissa, Nissa 2:25 Audio: Bruce Rudolph, Jan Salerno, Barbara Hendison and others. Voice on Nissa, Nissa, Nissa, Twylah Nitsch. Sound Mix: Michael Blair and others in New York. Thanks to all that have helped in the making of these audio works and apologies to those who's names I cannot remember. So much time has gone by :--( BTS 2013