This is the first night of our CLEAT Series which will be a monthly event featuring artists utilizing the 16-channel speaker system in our space. This inaugural event will have pieces from Hali Palombo and Kikù Hibino w/ Yuge Zhou, but also double as the visual gallery opening event for Hali’s exhbition that will run through March 19th!
Hali Palombo is an artist that works in the Midwest and deals primarily in "liminal space" - i.e. transient areas that are often passed through but never focused on. Hali explores what could be discovered if you stop for just a moment and observe and listen to what exactly lies there - truck stops, gas stations, Wal-Marts just before closing, parking lots in Motel 6s in tiny towns in Iowa, retention ponds in the middle of the night.
Hali's CLEAT performance is a montage of sound that one might hear in a place they don't frequent and simply pass through, subjecting the audience to a sound they may never have considered. Most sounds are field recordings taken throughout the Midwest, with the occasional mumble and cough and footsteps. No man is an island, after all - people still pass through liminal spaces sparingly.
Her drawings, "Nothing To Write Home About", are calligraphy ink drawings on vellum paper of similar liminal spaces - places you might think about for just a moment and then never again.
Kikù Hibino is premiering 3 new multimedia works utilizing CLEAT system, includes “when the East of the day meets the West of the night”, a collaboration piece with video artist Yuge Zhou.
“when the East of the day meets the West of the night” is a two-part video series about the physical and emotional distances between my homeland China and the United States. Part one (Sun) was filmed in one continuous take from opposite coasts on the Pacific Ocean, one near Beijing and one in California. The cameras slowly move laterally as the sun descends and ascends in two skies to create an arc-shaped trajectory. The dual scenes represent longing for what lies beyond.
The soundtrack is a layered combination of ambient nature sound and electronics, as a cosmic reflection of melancholy and nostalgia in the waning warmth of the sun. When the sun from the China side emerges in the lower half of the diptych, Yuge’s mother, a retired classical cellist, contributes a solo as if to call out to me with her instrument. An ancient historically significant Chinese rock formation named “Jie Shi” 碣石 comes into the China side in the beginning of the video. Similarly, on the American side, a rock formation appears at the end. Both rock formations symbolize figures standing on the edge of the ocean, contemplatively gazing into the distance and through the passage of time.
Videography: Dylan Jordee (California side); Xiong Lei (Beijing side)
About KIKÙ HIBINO
Japanese-born sound artist Kikù Hibino produces electronic music that focuses on unusual rhythmic structure and melodies that are inspired by optical illusion and moiré patterns.
From chamber music for media productions to digital micro sound for art installations, he has collaborated internationally with a wide variety of artists and scholars, including Yuge Zhou, Mitsu Salmon, Kawaguchi Takao (Dumb Type), Theaster Gates, Mike Weis (Zelienople) and Norma Field.
His work has been shown in Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago Cultural Center, Three Walls, Compound Yellow, Elastic Arts, Hairpin Arts Center, Hyde Park Art Center, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. He’s a 2017 Individual Artist Grant recipient from Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and 2021 Outer Ear Artist in Residency at Experimental Sound Studio. Kikù lives and works in Chicago.
http://kiku-hibino.org
About Yuge Zhou:
Yuge Zhou is a Chinese born, Chicago-based artist whose videos and installations addresses connections, isolation and longing across natural and urban spaces as sites of shared dreams.
http://yugezhou.com/
$15