Sounds Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass by Andrew Deutsch & Stephen Vitiello

March 27, 2009 - PRLog -- SYRACUSE, NY—On April 2, The Warehouse Gallery will open the exhibition Andrew Deutsch & Stephen Vitiello: Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass, an installation composed of audio & video pieces as well as photographs, prints and sculpture. Deutsch and Vitiello are musicians, composers and sound artists who have been collaborating since 1999. A public reception for the exhibition will be held from 5–8 p.m. on April 2, with a lecture by the artists in the Warehouse Auditorium at 6 p.m. The exhibition is intended for audiences of all ages.

On April 14 at 6 p.m., the gallery will host Soundscape Design: Acoustic Creativity—'Klanguage' for Media by Hans-Ulrich Werner, professor for sound, media and acoustic communication at the University of Applied Sciences in Offenburg, Germany, and a visiting lecturer in the Department of Television, Radio and Film, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. All events at The Warehouse are free and open to the public. The exhibition programming will culminate with a Raster-Noton live concert at the Redhouse on June 3 at 8 p.m. For ticket information, please contact the Redhouse Arts Center directly by calling (315) 425-0405.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:

In Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass, their first co-exhibition, artists Andrew Deutsch and Stephen Vitiello provided each other with musical scores for the other to perform. In so doing, they emphasize the visual nature of sound scores, shedding light on this complex, seemingly inaccessible medium called sound art.

In Vitiello’s work viewers will see a shift from landscape photographs (7 Studies for Graphic Scores, 2007) to abstract black-and-white prints (Pond Set, 2008) that continue to refer to landscape through black lines that evoke both reeds and musical notes. In the background of his videos, Deutsch includes imagery from the "Notgeld" (emergency money that was put into circulation in Germany during the economic crisis of the 1920s) as a reflection on our difficult economic times. Deutsch also uses these collectibles in the making of his own sound scores; he has created a narrative referring to the films of Fritz Lang, to illustrated children's books, and to early 20th-century European artistic abstraction, where sound and sight blend into a common experience.

In this joint exhibition at The Warehouse Gallery, they work as equals. This collaboration is based on complete trust in each other despite differing inclinations: Deutsch describes himself as “a composer” who is “dedicated almost exclusively to stereophonic electro-acoustic works,” while Vitiello takes “the full plunge into sound art.”

On March 30, the artists will work with a group of children from Seymour Dual Language Academy and Fowler High School in Syracuse. Vitiello says that “one of the main reasons for making the work […] is to connect with people. Sound art, video art, installation work still feels somewhat inaccessible to some audiences.” Aligned with the gallery’s mission to engage the community, the artists’ collaboration with Syracuse children will be as integral a part of the exhibition as the collaborative work between Deutsch and Vitiello themselves.

A gallery guide containing an interview between Anja Chávez, Curator of Contemporary Art at The Warehouse Gallery and SUArt Galleries at Syracuse University, and the two artists, Andrew Deutsch and Stephen Vitiello, will be available at the gallery and online beginning April 2, 2009.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Deutsch (b.1968) is a sound, video and graphic artist who lives in Hornell, N.Y., and teaches sound and video art in the Division of Expanded Media at Alfred University. He received his B.F.A. in video art and printmaking from Alfred University in 1990 and his M.F.A. in integrated electronic art from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1994. He is a member of the Institute for Electronic Art at Alfred University and the Pauline Oliveros Foundation Board of Advisors, and is a former member of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation Board of Directors (1999–2001). Deutsch is the recipient of an Artists Fellowship in Video Art (1997) from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Special Opportunity Stipend from the New York Foundation for the Arts (1999). You can hear remixes of Deutsch's CD Garden Music on Oval's OvalProcess and Microstoria's Improvisers.

Vitiello (b.1964) is an electronic musician and media artist who lives and works in Richmond, VA. His sound installations, photographs and drawings have been presented internationally in solo exhibitions at such venues as The Project, N.Y.; Museum 52, London; Galerie Almine Rech, Paris; and in group exhibitions including the 2002 Whitney Biennial, the 2006 Biennial of Sydney (in collaboration with Julie Mehretu) and Ce qui arrive, an exhibition curated by Paul Virilio at the Cartier Foundation, Paris. CD releases include Bright and Dusty Things (New Albion Records), Listening to Donald Judd (Sub Rosa), Box Music (12k) and Stephen Vitiello with eighth blackbird (Magic If). Vitiello is currently on the faculty of kinetic imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He is the recipient of many awards, among which are the Independent Radio and Sound Art Fellowship from the Jerome Foundation (1999); Penny McCall Foundation Award (2001); NYFA “Performance/Multi-Disciplinary” (2003); and a Creative Capitol Fellowship (2006).

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THE WAREHOUSE GALLERY is an international contemporary art venue. The gallery's mission is to present artists whose work engages the community in a dialogue regarding the role the arts can play in illuminating critical issues of our life and times.