I’m very pleased to announce the launch of the new website I designed for Friends of the High Line.

For those living outside of New York, the High Line is a former elevated train track soon to be an elevated park on the west side of Manhattan.  Friends of the High Line contacted me to redesign their site in February 2008 and thanks to a great partnership and fine clients as collaborators I made a site for them that was more graphically rich, intuitive, and flexible.  Tip o’ the cap to Greenhood and Company who developed my designs into the functioning site you see today.

I’m pleased to announce the launch of the “Younger Than Jesus” blog which I designed.

The New Museum’s first triennial exhibition, The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, presents work by fifty artists under the age of thirty-three. On view April 8 – July 5, 2009. 

This blog features related articles, multimedia, and interviews about this Millennial generation.

Enjoy.

Thanks to Andy Horwitz for interviewing me on his terrific blog Culturebot.

For those that missed it or those who want to relive the magic, you can see FLUXCONCERT 20090220-21 above in time-lapse.  To see the regular speed version go to:

http://vimeo.com/3380253

Photos here

FLUXCONCERT 20090220-21 was a two-evening performance of historic Fluxus event scores written by Fluxus pioneer George Brecht.

The show presented more than 30 historic performance scripts over the course of two nights written by George Brecht between 1959 and 1966 – many rarely seen in the United States. Brecht introduced the concept of the event score: a performance script that is usually only a few lines long consisting of descriptions of actions to be performed rather than dialogue.

In tribute to Brecht’s recent passing, the evening’s show breathed new life into these historic scripts ranging from early seminal pieces (Drip Music, Word Event) from his artist book “Water Yam” to later collaborative endeavors with Robert Filliou from their publication “Games at the Cedilla.”

Following were three examples composed by Brecht and were performed in the show:

Drip Music (1959)
For single or multiple performance. A source of dripping water and an empty vessel are arranged so that the water falls into the vessel.

Three Aqueous Events (1961)
ice
water
steam

For a Drummer, Fluxversion 2 (1966)
Performer drums with sticks over a leaking feather pillow making the feathers escape the pillow.

FLUXCONCERT 20090220-21 was performed by Anthony P. Clune, Andrew Dickerson, Ryan Anthony Donaldson, Perry Garvin, Joseph Gross, Rick Herron, Ben Kerrick, Joshua Rubin, and Ethan Wagner. Organized and conducted by Perry Garvin.

I’m pleased to announce the launch of a calendar I designed for the New Museum’s current exhibition It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq: A project by Jeremy Deller.  The show looks promising so take a peek at the speakers and if you’re in New York, drop on by.

Perry Garvin, TUY754, 2008
Tape, graphite, and colored pencil on paper
11” x 8.5”

Perry Garvin, [Title TBD], 2008
Paper, tape, wood, graphite, colored pencil, headphone cable
11″ x 8.5″

Video of FLUXCONCERT 20080925-27: five overlapping performances in rumination on love, loss, and human bonding.

I’m pleased to announce the launch of the minisite I designed and built to accompany the Elizabeth Peyton exhibition at the New Museum.  Features include an audio slideshow, interactive timeline of Peyton’s life and career, and an essay by the show’s organizer Laura Hoptman.  Special thanks to Amy Mackie and Nick Hasty.

This Friday and Saturday is FLUXCONCERT 20080925-27, an instruction-based performance that I wrote and directed.

September 26 & 27, 2008 | 8PM
Abrons Arts Center (directions)
466 Grand St., New York, NY (map)
$10 – RESERVE TICKETS NOW

Five simultaneous instruction-based performances overlap and weave together to develop an oblique exploration of love, loss, and the ambiguities of human bonding.

A total of 71 performances occur simultaneously in 48 minutes, overlapping according to the following structure:

- An action occurs every 1 minute for a total of 48
- An action occurs every 3 minutes for a total of 16
- An action occurs every 12 minutes for a total of 4
- An action occurs every 24 minutes for a total of 2
- An action occurs every 48 minutes for a total of 1

Each action is different, generated according to concise textual instructions. Each of the five performances develops individually and in aggregate to present a quasi-narrative rumination on human emotion.

The performance draws on the legacies of Fluxus event scores and Conceptual Art to generate an evening of ambiguity, improvisation, and absurdist performance.

FLUXCONCERT 20080925-27 will be accompanied by a collectible poster-sized program designed by David Rager graphically articulating each performance action and explaining the overall structure guiding the show.

FLUXCONCERT 20080925-27 is performed by Anthony P. Clune, Ryan Anthony Donaldson, Joseph Gross, Rick Herron, Ben Kerrick, Paul Moreno, and Ethan Wagner. Written and directed by Perry Garvin.

Some new drawings I’ve completed in the last month or so.

Some new drawings I made.  Just $100 each.  Priced to move!

Perry Garvin, “HEB533″, 2008
Paper, tape
11″ x 8.5″

Perry Garvin, “LBD945″, 2008
Paper, tape
11″ x 8.5″

Perry Garvin, “HEB533″, 2008
Paper, tape
11″ x 8.5″

Perry Garvin, “BMD307″, 2008
Paper, tape
11″ x 8.5″

I’m pleased to announce the launch of a minisite I designed for the New Museum exhibition, “After Nature.”

Visit the minisite here.

I started FLUXCONCERT in 2007 with the mission of presenting instruction-based performance work.

We had our second official show on June 13, 2008: FLUXCONCERT 20080613, an instruction-based musical performance in 13 movements.

If you didn’t get a chance to see the show you can now watch the full 40 minute piece or download the audio CD.  Enjoy!

I founded FLUXCONCERT – an instruction-based performance ensemble – in late 2007. Our first show in March 2008, FLUXCONCERT 20080305 presented 26 historical Fluxus performance scripts written between 1961 and 1969 by major and minor Fluxus artists including Alison Knowles, Ken Friedman, Dick Higgins, Robert Bozzi, and George Brecht.

I’m excited to announce our next show, FLUXCONCERT 20080613, on Friday, June 13, 2008 at 8PM at Lumenhouse, 47 Beaver St., Brooklyn, NY. Tickets are just $8. More info and buy tickets here: http://www.fluxconcert.org/20080613

This is our second show and it’s our first original production. All 13 musical pieces are instruction-based (per our mission) and written by Ethan Wagner – a composer out of Brooklyn.

Instead of following musical notation, the ensemble of nine performers follow texts instructing musical actions to be performed. The concert draws on the legacies of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Fluxus event scores to generate a musical evening of original composition, improvisation, and absurdist performance.

Following are two movements from the show:

Set a noisily ticking alarm clock to ring four minutes after it is set. Run the sound of the ticking through a microphone and sequence the sound, using filters etc. Piece is over when alarm rings.
– Ethan Wagner, Sequenced Ticking, 2008

Try to teach an audience member how to play something incredibly difficult on an instrument that requires a bit of skill (Rachmaninov, etc).
– Ethan Wagner, Music Lesson, 2008

FLUXCONCERT 20080613 will be followed by two performances:

Softwoods, Hardword: Thirteen Trees: A poetry performance in 13 acts featuring brief readings, group acts, interdisciplinary performances, and audience participation. The pieces lean on structural elements such as chance operations, erasures, found texts, and other experimental modes of writing. Influences include Gertrude Stein, Jackson Mac Low, Charles Bernstein, and other contemporary language poets.

A punk-rock episode by Missy Sport. Hailing from a random basement on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the Sport is a very, very loud power-punk trio with musical roots sunk deep in the guts of dirty 1980s punk rock and 1950s teenage active-wear. Influences include the Angry Samoans, Black Flag, the Red Aunts, the Sex Pistols, and Tito Puente.

It’s going to be an exciting evening so come on down.

Perry Garvin, “Sculpture #22″, 2007, wood, tape, foam earplug, 17″ x 1″ x .75″

More pictures here and here

Perry Garvin, “Sculpture #21″, 2007, wood, tape, headphone cable, glue, 17″ x 2″ x 1″

More views here and here and here

Perry Garvin, “Sculpture #20″, 2007, wood, tape, gouache, Yupo, 4″ x 2″ x .5″

More views here and here

Perry Garvin, Untitled (for now), 2007
Wood, blue tape, Yupo