NEW MEDIA CONTEMPORARY PRESENTS:
NEW MUS VI - SANDY EWEN | SARAH RUTH | HEXPARTNER - SOUND AND VISUALS | JUNE 6 7P | $20 OR PAY WHAT YOU CAN
tickets: https://app.defytickets.com/il0z3l/q8jhlx
SANDY EWEN
Sandy Ewen is a sound artist, visual artist and architect who has recently relocated to NYC from Houston, TX. Ewen’s audio practice focuses on extended guitar techniques, improvisation, graphic scores and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her unique approach to guitar incorporates a wide array of implements – railroad spikes, sidewalk chalk, threaded bolts, steel wool and other items become an arsenal of abstraction. Ewen has worked extensively with film makers, dancers, poets and musicians to create films, audio recording, sound interventions and performance art. Ewen’s musical collaborations include trio Etched in the Eye, duo with Tom Carter called Spiderwebs, the trio Garden medium, and ongoing collaborations with percussionist Weasel Walter and bassist Damon Smith. For nearly ten years, Ewen has been the leader of an all-female large ensemble. The ensemble conceptualizes and performs sound and performance art, utilizing graphic and text based scores and improvisational constraints. The ensemble performed with an amplified bathtub at Diverse Works in 2016, and performed a suite of installation-specific compositions for Francis Alÿs’ Fabiola Project at the Menil. Sandy has spent much of 2017 touring, performing solo sets and in collaboration with Steve Jansen (tapes and electronics) and Maria Chavez (turntables) around Europe. In years past, Ewen has performed alongside Roscoe Mitchell, Keith Rowe, Lydia Lunch and many others, and has performed and recorded with Jaap Blonk, Henry Kaiser and more. In 2014 she performed at San Francisco’s 13th Annual Outsound New Music Summit, and she has made several appearances at Austin’s annual No Idea Festival.
Born in Toronto, Canada in 1985, Sandy Ewen received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008. Since then she has resided in Houston, TX where she pursues musical and visual projects and her architecture license. Ewen has released several albums, including a duo with guitarist Tom Carter, a trio with bassist Damon Smith & drummer Weasel Walter, and a rock album with Austin’s Weird Weeds. Ewen’s visual work is closely tied to her work in sound; she uses both mediums to explore texture, composition and materials.
Ewen’s microcollages, enlarged through projection and digital printing, are an exploration of material and technique. Using a unique process pioneered by the artist, natural materials and polymers are torn, liquefied, scorched, melted, cut, and fused. When enlarged, the microscopic nuances of these manipulations are manifested in exquisite detail. Ewen has presented prints of her work at 14 Pews (2012), Spacetaker/Fresh Arts (2012), Khon’s (2013) & Galeria Regina (2014).
As an improviser in both art and music, Ewen sees herself as guiding materials and space rather than executing a preconceived composition. “I like to explore mediums and materials and tease out their essence,” says Ewen. “Working with slide projections has focused my eye on the subtitles of natural processes of decay and transformation. Through my work, I am asking questions of the materials rather than dictating answers.”
SARAH RUTH
Sarah Ruth Alexander is a diverse musician and artist – a multi-instrumentalist, she employs hammered dulcimer, harmonium, electroacoustic sound art, and extended vocal techniques. She performs frequently both solo and with multiple bands and improvisational ensembles in the North Texas area. She is a University of North Texas graduate where she focused on vocal studies and electroacoustic composition. She has also studied with Meredith Monk and members of her vocal ensemble.
She enjoys varied collaborations and has worked as a sound artist for art and photography installations and an accompanist for modern dance. She has performed with Damon Smith, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jaap Blonk, Liz Tonne, Sarah Gamblin, Rosemary Candelario, Susan kae Grant, Lisa Cameron, Tom Carter, and Aaron Gonzalez, to list a few. She tours nationally and her recent albums have been released on Sawyer Spaces, Obsolete Media Objects, Balance Point Acoustics, Pour le Corps Music, and Linda Hand.
Sarah hosts a radio program called Tiger D on KUZU LP broadcasting in Denton at 92.9 FM and streaming online at kuzu.fm, playing music and often featuring guest musicians to curate and discuss their playlists. She recently had a chapter titled “Community Building Through Collaboration,” published in Routledge‘s Art as Social Practice: Technologies for Change.
HEXPARTNER
Hexpartner is a neoclassical darkwave composer and performer based in Austin, TX. They are fascinated by electroacoustic composition and combine synthesizers with string instruments and layered vocal harmonies in their work. Hexpartner has opened for a variety of diverse acts (including Mortiis, The Body, and Glass Spells) and bards at The Tiny Minotaur Tavern in Austin.