Motherboard Cockpit Installation by Molly Lowe.

Anxious Spaces 2015: On View

Anxious Spaces: Installation as Catalyst is Clocktower's annual performance and installation festival that introduces a new generation of artists who are based in New York, partner regularly with alternative event spaces and collectives throughout Brooklyn and beyond, and utilize installation work as a platform for performance. The exhibition brings a dynamic selection of these artists onto Knockdown Center's dramatic compound for a month of on-site development, with weekend open hours of the work and its fluid transformation from environment to stage.

The exhibits and installations are on view at Knockdown Center through July 26, Saturdays and Sundays only, from 2 to 6pm. Or by appointment.

More on the installations:

Will Ryman presents Cadillac, a life-sized, 1958 Eldorado Biarritz convertible fabricated entirely out of resin and Bounty paper towels. Measuring 82” x 224” x 78”, Cadillac juxtaposes two iconic American brands: one, a post-war symbol of luxury, class, and power and the other, a mass-produced disposable product, revered for its convenience.

Molly Lowe installs Growth, a sound/video piece and garden environment that draws the viewer out of the sun and into the darkness. It is a hypnotizing, heightened space where external and internal worlds fester in limbo. Here, viewers are invited to sit on a mysterious patch of grass and watch the miraculous minutiae of plant life grow, magnified on screen in a most sinister alien way.

Formed by a set of portable stand-alone single beat organic-analogue drum machines, Lucas Abela's installation, IV:BPM, is made from medical intravenous drip equipment pedals, made possible with support from Death By Audio pedals, and wired to audio gear to generate overlapping complex surround polyrhythms. The public engages with the composition in three ways: by adjusting the IV nozzles to change the BPM, manipulating audio effects to augment the audio, and shifting the IV stands within the space to alter the mix. These participatory elements turn the installation into an instrument/drum machine orchestra, performed en mass by attendees and an organized procession on the day of the event. Using the IV:BPM installation as a backdrop, Abela presents his infamous performance, in which the artist purses his lips against sheets of amplified glass, employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries, turning the discarded shards into crude musical instruments. The results are a wild array of cacophonous noise that is strangely controlled and oddly musical.

Tim Bruniges presents Normalize (the pull of the earth), a site-responsive sound and sculptural installation engaging material tension and acoustic resonance within the architecture of Knockdown Center. Through the use of non-traditional sound (re)production forms, this installation explores the agency of sound as an atemporal and regenerative, autonomous entity. The installation is developed through an artist-in-residence collaboration with SIGNAL, Brooklyn.

Aurora Halal takes over a subterranean annex at Knockdown Center, transforming the space into a veritable dream-world. Darkly lit, in a surreal, hallucinatory way, a floating video is projected onto transparent screens, cloaking the mysterious cave in holographic effects. The video projection is a suspended moment in time, a kind of cubist video painting, in which the subject is filmed and shown from every angle. As visitors to the space immerse themselves in the room, they discover the film to be a motion study of a human figure, exploring the limitless possibilities of its form.

In an off-site ruin at the Maspeth space, Prince Rama present Fountain of Youth 11:11, a mythical water installation and tarkovskian musing on time and beauty. The crumbling brick walls of this roofless structure, set against the Edenic material of the piece—the restorative elixir of a veritable fountain of youth, flowing from discarded cans of monster energy—create a visual and conceptual paradox in the space. Two venus de milo stone sculptures stand ground at the fountain, confronting passersby with an elusive message.

Audra Wolowiec installs Concrete Sound, a modular series of cast concrete forms based on the geometric shapes of sound foam used in recording studios and anechoic chambers. Normally used to control sound, the shift in materiality does the opposite, refusing the intended function to instead create unsettling, muted landscapes. The work commissioned for Knockdown Center is a wall relief of a single panel that accumulates to form a large grid. While the work is directly related to sound, the strong geometric lines also call upon grids found in textiles, architecture, and industrial landscapes.

Anxious Spaces 2015: On View

Anxious Spaces, Artist Interviews

Artists Christian Joy (soft sculpture), Ben Wolf (welded parasite), and Hisham Bharoocha (drum circle) in conversation on site at the Clocktower's Anxious Spaces exhibition at Knockdown Center. On view June 15-July 6, 2014. This program is posted in three parts so listeners can advance quickly to select an artist segment using the player navigation menu. Anxious Spaces is a group exhibition in which six installation artists engage a space beckoning with desire and opportunity. Knockdown Center's cathedral-like complex, with its breathtaking expanse, mysterious sub-chambers, surprise annexes, and hidden pockets, is a dream environment for site-specific and installation art. In addition, these works incorporate dynamic and time-based elements ranging from robotic interactivity to performance events to social intervention. Taken together, the architecture and the artworks transform the space into a surreal bazaar of curiosities for the adventurous.

Anxious Spaces: Installation as Catalyst II

Clocktower presents the second annual group exhibition Anxious Spaces: Installation as Catalyst, featuring a selection of artists whose work incorporates dynamic and time-based elements, ranging from robotic interactivity to performance events to social intervention. Knockdown Center's cathedral-like complex, with its breathtaking expanse, mysterious sub-chambers, surprise annexes, and hidden pockets is a dream environment for site-specific and installation art. Taken together, the architecture and the artworks transform the space into a surreal bazaar of curiosities for the adventurous. Anxious Spaces exhibits and installations by Will Ryman, Molly Lowe, Tim Bruniges, Aurora Halal, Lucas Abela, Prince Rama, Audra Wolowiec, and Ben Mortimer are on view at Knockdown Center through July 26, 2015 Saturdays and Sundays, from 2 to 6pm. Or by appointment. More on the installations:

Anxious Spaces 2015 Closing Party

Anxious Spaces II: July 2015 Mixtape

A collection of audio snippets and interviews from Clocktower's 2015 Anxious Spaces performance festival held in conjunction with the exhibition at Knockdown Center in Queens. You will hear: Sounds from Molly Lowe's installation Growth, a sound/video piece and garden environment that draws the viewer out of the sun and into the darkness. The opening moments of the set by Extreme Animals (Jacob Ciocci and David Wightman), the explosive, hybrid fusion of hardcore, remix, gabber, and experimental electronic noise. Hear the sounds and hear the artist interview with Lucas Abela whose installation, IV:BPM, is made from medical intravenous drip equipment pedals wired to audio gear to generate overlapping complex polyrhythms. Aurora Halal created an immersive environment exploring the limitless possibilities of the human form featuring an audio composition of panning, paranoid soundscapes created with Daniel Martin-McCormick. Some sounds and conversation from Tim Bruniges illustrating his Normalize (the pull of the earth), a site-responsive sound and sculptural installation engaging material tension and acoustic resonance within the architecture of Knockdown Center.