Alanna Heiss at The Clocktower Gallery celebration. Photo courtesy of Dave Potes

Closing celebration for the Clocktower Gallery!

A closing celebration in the Clocktower Gallery's historic building, home to groundbreaking exhibitions, performances, residencies, and radio. After 40 years, this is the absolute final public event for this legendary alternative space. Among some surprises, the festivities include odes to the Clocktower from former Clocktower artists of all generations, and a peek into the future. The event is free and open to the public and RSVP is mandatory, so please do so at the Brown Paper Tickets link below.

Featured artists for the event include:

Sabisha Friedberg is both a visual artist and composer, who interweaves her dual skills into multifaceted creations. Friedberg is currently an Artist-in-Residence 2013 at ISSUE Project Room and has participated in The Bourges International Electro-Acoustic Music Competition (France).

A member of the "DJ elite", DJ Shakey spins with the best of them at venues such as Gemini & Scorpio, Rubulaud, House of Yes, Bass filled Mischief, Dubday Mondays, among many more clubs and events.

Greg Fox is a drummer, solo performance artist, composer and self-taught student of Taoism and I Ching. Fox runs the label Infinite Limbs Records and performs in collaboration with bands both internationally and at home in the United States.

Brooklyn-based band Ava Luna mixes pop, soul, and gospel into upbeat harmonies. The group performs at venues throughout the city, such as Cake Shop and Music Hall of Williamsburg, and alongside Twin Sister and Widowspeak, among other bands.

Master of noise rock art and punk music Dan Friel is known for his grandiose manipulations on the keyboard. Friel has participated in Northside Fest, Hopscotch Fest and has performed with Pterodactyl and Black Pus.

Daniel Carter is a free jazz saxophone, flute, clarinet and trumpet player, who has applied his smooth hand to recordings and performances with the likes of Thurston Moore, Yo La Tengo and Matthew Shipp.

Since the mid 70's, Shelley Hirsch has surprised audiences with her often-improvised vocal explorations that are as colorfully varied as the personal narratives she shares with her listeners. Hirsch has won 1st Prize in the prestigious Prix Futura International Media Competition in Berlin for the radio version of her autobiographical musical, "O Little Town of East New York", and has worked in collaboration with dozens of artists worldwide.

Ashcan Orchestra is a revolving Bushwick-based performance ensemble, who has gained prominence in the D.I.Y. scene. Working with a wide range of traditional to found-object instruments, Ashcan Orchestra's unique sound experience can be found at venues such as the Knockdown Center and the Ace Hotel.

And many more!

Join us, meet our project partners for the coming year's programs, share your Clocktower stories, and celebrate four decades of achievement in the arts, as we prepare for many more to come.

For more information about the organization's upcoming plans and programs, read our recent relocation announcement
here.

DJ Shakey's Audio Control Adventure

Artist, producer, DJ, and audio explorer Julie Covello aka DJ Shakey set up a workshop laboratory in our recording studio to invite innovators, students and creative souls from the electronic music scene to share and innovate together. The launching point for these ongoing sessions, concerts, workshops, and roundtables is her longtime fascination with alternative methods of control for audio gear in live performance. The residency culminated in a major Warper Party event at the Clocktower on January 12, 2012.

Follow DJ Shakey's Audio Control Adventure with her action blog! https://www.facebook.com/events/291745624180085/ And check out her photos of her first controller share session: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150560655944714.430208.556014713&type=3

Greg Fox: Before Te End

Clocktower resident artist Greg Fox is a drummer, a solo performance artist, and a self-taught student of Taoism and I Ching. Fox's work for this residency, entitled Before Te End , is the composition of music performance generated through I Ching divination, accompanied by diagrams indicating the interrelation of various aspects of the piece, along with other ephemera brought forth in the process of its creation. Fox also created a radio program in which he conducted and collaged together interviews with other percussionists, titled Drums and Drummers. For his residency performance, Greg performed the composition Before Te End in the context of its companion written work.

Sabisha Friedberg: Interstice

In this residency at the Clocktower Gallery, Sabisha Friedberg paired her visual practice in drawing and painting with music composition to address the theme of interstice - that which intervenes between things, or breaks what is continuous. Drawings and songs are presented as renderings of a thematic existence of an in-between; an effusive emotive state existing between defined lines is explored in a musical performance presented by Friedberg in the Clocktower’s Upper Gallery. The performance, taking place as a concert in the Upper Gallery in the Fall of 2012, alludes to a period in the early part of the Century, circa 1912, characterized by curious societal tensions, and odd and contradictory movements artistically and musically. Friedberg performed, with five New York-based musicians, both constructed and improvisational melodies and interstitial musical weavings presented as a single passage. The original songs hark to the craft of the ‘teens music, contorting the arrangements of then-popular ballads while introducing experimental arrangements and acousmatic treatments.

Clocktower Celebration Performances

The Clocktower held an all day and night event, celebrating 40 years well spent in the Leonard St. space. This radio show relives the celebratory performances that took place on November 23, 2013.
The artists chosen for the celebration had all enjoyed performing in the gallery in the past and we were honored to have all of them back.
Features line-up includes... Shelley Hirsch, singer, performer, composer. DJ Shakey, customized electronics and conga. Daniel Carter, solo saxophone. Dan Friel, keyboard and electronics. Alanna Heiss, Toast to the Clocktower. Sabisha Friedberg, songs with trio. Greg Fox, drums, with Daniel Carter.