Descriptions of pieces by Lewis Gesner, presented at Forfest, 2007

Scream Aria

This piece is designed to address the limits of communications and human contact in a world where circumstance and distance may keep people apart from each other. I draw on my own belief that any difficulty may be risen above, if we can adapt our expectations of what communication and contact is. The expression of the pieces is primal and symbolic. The first result of the denial of contact is frustration. This is present in large proportions in this piece, manifest in the form of the scream. I have tried to organize the power and the passion of the scream into a simple graphic notation or plan, a score of the scream. In the piece, I place a plate of food, dinner, on a chair in the courtyard. The intention is to attract the person I wish to see, the way a bird may make a bough nest, or small gifts to attract another. I then enter the courtyard, on my knees, flipping my notebook of “scream scores” from face to face, advancing a few inches with even flip of the book over the ground. There is maybe a feeling of labor and futility about this, as it is slow, and seems as it may be an endless task, or to no purpose. At mid point in the courtyard, I have placed a music stand. When I reach the music stand with my flipping/ travel, I stand up, open the scorebook, and, selecting a scream score, place the book open on the stand. I remove a map of the world from my pocket and place it on the ground, then, produce a compass. I orient myself with the compass in direction, using the map so that I face the direction in the world of the person I seek to contact. Having done this, I put the compass aside, look at the score in front of me, and begin to read it- I scream. I scream again, louder, again, and again. I stop after a time, and look to the plate of food. I have not attracted my object, I am still alone. I resume my scream, now with more force. Shortly, I stop to look again to see if I have been joined. If not, I continue to scream. I will scream until my voice has given out. I accept for now the limits of my body, though I think there is indication, from my effort, that this would be performed again when my faculties had returned, or until success, as with the endless flipping of the scorebook, perhaps, for eternity. I take my book from the stand, place it on the ground, and again flip it, continuing along the same path I had begun, to the opposite end of the court yard. The music stand suggests a symbol of art for me, the possibility or at least the belief that art can transcend the limits of time, space, and the body. The scores themselves are a means of using the intellect to gain a control of forces, and means there is a place in my belief for the power of thought. The screaming itself is the raw driving force that moves many things, it is passion, longing, love, loneliness. The overall form is ritualistic, and suggestive I hope that there can be a transformation through the spirit that dwells in us, of our circumstances, and of our unhappiness.

Brick pushing with Sticks Trio

This piece of music is very simple. I have three different lengths of stick. There are three performers. They start at the center of the town square together, and each of the trio pushes their own brick with one of the sticks of variable lengths. When the brick has been pushed as far as each can reach without changing their standing position, they then walk to the brick where they have moved it, and push it again from there, eventually, to the edge of the square. There are three separate durational units of fairly continuous sound (the brick on the stone) created here, which are set against each other like three orchestrated rhythmic patterns. This piece is an expression of my theories of “Instrumentism” in which circumstance, material, movement and duration all play equal roles in the generation of composition. There are many elements apparent through examination of the idea and of the performance. The observer/ audience may move around the square, and create their own dominant instrument set (stick, brick) by their own location; closeness to one performer, over another. Relationships are then suggested to be relative. There is no absolute or perfect composition in regards to its various values. They are all in relative flux.

For Winds (Tree Puppets)

Here, in a meadow, I have attached eight one hundred and some fifty foot ropes to trees, around the edges of the meadow. They are in groups of two ropes. Four people go to the four groupings of ropes, and tug at the trees they are attached to. Together, in an improvisation and as separate performance, they produce a synthetic wind that passes through these points in the meadow, as well as interacts with the trees which are at times actually affected by a real wind. It is an application of environment and human intervention in it that generates the “human music” of the circumstance. Again, it is a situation where people may pass through, and move about, and as such it also has some values that are relative to the audience.

Vaclav’s Workshop

I tied many strings to objects I found in Vaclav’s workshop; tools, bags, refuse, tires, and anything that filled the space. I ran the strings from the objects where they were to a chair centered in the room, where I sat at the performance and pulled the strings, variously exploring the sound qualities and curious aspects of both the room, the objects in it, and their performability. This piece could be uniquely performed in any location, in any room of a house. A kitchen for instance would release a unique “kitchenish” quality of utensils, plates, napkins, etc. A living room and dining room would be entirely different. I am interested in the instrumental qualities of spaces, of utility in our lives, and of the innate sound and musical qualities that flow and hibernate in everything.

Surrogate performance as Boris Nieslony

I conceived a way to bring visiting artists abroad without travel, which is to perform as them, as opposed to acting out their works. In performance art, much emphasis is placed on the uniqueness of the artist and of the performance. I rather look for ways to be a “surrogate,” to bear the work like a surrogate mother does a child, to audiences who would not see this performer otherwise. Boris has a unique way of working that allowed me room to create a ten part improvisation with materials. He specified a ream of blank paper. Each sheet, up to twenty, would be taken from the stack, and read like a score. I would perform from this blank score, improvisations with materials, or what I saw fit. This turned out to be a marvelous and challenging structure for me, as I also wished to perform as Boris, to be him, in this performance. It is ongoing, and the list of ten miniature performances I did as this one will be written down and compiled. The piece will be continued for some time, perhaps a year at different opportunities and locations, always as Boris.

Conductance

Here, I use a music stand, sticks, tape and my body to “conduct” the… audience? And invisible orchestra? No one is sure, or sure what to do watching me. I start simply, waving a stick. Sometimes people will try to follow it, to sing. I then attach something to the stick to complicate it, tap the music stand with it, and conduct again- this time, it is more chaotic, harder to read. Is the conducting the performance? Or is the performance inside of myself? I continue the complications of the baton until I am also attached to the music stand, thus completing the complete liquification of the elements of music that might make this a piece that would be understood. I am still trying to understand in what way it might be understood, so I continue to try to perform this.

Dragging Kromeriz

I drag somewhere near one hundred sticks from string on my legs, from the Museum, through the streets, into buildings, and about the town. I am a moving plectrum of many angles to actively play this unique and beautiful environment called Kromeriz. I am always excited about performing with this idea, because I immediately become curious about what is around the next corner, what a surface will sound like when dragged over, and what the overall effect might be for a moving stream of sound through a still or passive environment. Again, it is about releasing innate energies and qualities that exist everywhere.

Lewis Gesner