E.S.P. TV (Scott Kiernan & Victoria Keddie with additional station identification videos by C. Spencer Yeh, Jason Martin, and Matt Wellins), Selected Episodes with Cues and Station Breaks, 2011-2016, video. Courtesy the artists.
8 Ball, 8 Ball Community, 2016, zines, astroturf, printer and photocopy machine. Courtesy the artists.
Chillin Island (Ashok Kondabolu, Jacob Reinstein, Matt Burke, and Sonya Belakhlef), Hi Mom, Hi Dad, It's Me Again, 2016, mixed media installation. Courtesy the artists. Photo: Sonya Belakhlef.
The Kominas performing at the Queens Museum as part of Becoming New Objects, April 10, 2016. Photo: Kuo-Heng Huang.
Show Me The Body performing at the Queens Museum as part of Becoming New Objects, April 10, 2016. Photo: Kuo-Heng Huang.
Show Me The Body performing at the Queens Museum as part of Becoming New Objects, April 10, 2016. Photo: Kuo-Heng Huang.
Bela Shayevich and Ainsley Morse performing as part of an evening of televisual poetry readings organized by Poet Transmit (Victoria Keddie and Cat Tyc) with Ugly Duckling Presse at the Knockdown Center, April 14, 2016. Courtesy the artists. Photo: Victoria Keddie.
Despot performing at the Queens Museum as part of Becoming New Objects, May 14, 2016. Photo: David Cory.
Despot performing at the Queens Museum as part of Becoming New Objects
Heems performing at the Queens Museum as part of Becoming New Objects, May 14, 2016. Photo: David Cory.
Trouble (Sam Hillmer, Lawrence Mesich, and Laura Paris), The Stood Maze, pop-up labyrinth featuring musical performance by Patrick Higgins and live visuals by E.S.P. TV, June 4, 2016. Courtesy the artists. Photo: David Cory.
E.S.P. TV's Scott Kiernan working on live video mixing as part of The Stood Maze, featuring musical performance by Patrick Higgins. Courtesy the artists. Photo: David Cory.
Human Pitch Freeform Ensemble performing at the Queens Museum as part of Becoming New Objects, June 4, 2016. Photo: David Cory.
Logan Takahashi performing at the Queens Museum as part of Becoming New Objects, June 4, 2016. Photo: E.S.P. TV
Logan Takahashi performing at the Queens Museum as part of Becoming New Objects
Still from E.S.P. TV's live video mixing as part of Becoming New Objects, June 4, 2016. Courtesy the artists. Photo: E.S.P. TV.
The Present performing at Trans-Pecos as part of Becoming New Objects, June 24, 2016. Photo: David Cory.
Jesus Benavente performing with Mariachi Real de Mexico at Trans-Pecos as part of Becoming New Objects, June 24, 2016. Photo: David Cory.
As part of Queens International 2016, alternative music and community venue Trans-Pecos presents Becoming New Objects, a series of concerts and experimental music events and Action Fortress, a generative installation featuring interventions by 8 Ball Community, E.S.P. TV, and Chillin Island. Performances, workshops, readings, radio broadcasts, live tapings, and community programs with artist Laura Paris rotate between the Queens Museum, Trans-Pecos’ Ridgewood venue, and the Knockdown Center in Maspeth.
BECOMING NEW OBJECTS
Becoming New Objects is a series of concerts and experimental events that feature a broad range of emerging and established performers in music, poetry, and visual art, whose work speculates on “possible futures.”
See Queens International 2016 events schedule for full details and participating artists
ACTION FORTRESS
8 Ball is an independent organization that—through free, open-access platforms—nurtures and expands a community of young artists in their teens and twenties, providing skill-sets in the fields of publishing, photography, exhibit staging, digital communication, and media. 8 Ball comes in the form of public access TV and Radio stations, a publishing imprint, a fair, a public library for independent publications, and a workshop for art-related trades. For Queens International 2016, the organization presents a selection of zines that visitors can browse and xerox onsite and will host a series of teen zine-making workshops in collaboration with artist Laura Paris.
E.S.P. TV hybridizes technologies old and new, contemporary and obsolete, to realize the live television studio as a site for performance-based works. Directed by Scott Kiernan and Victoria Keddie, E.S.P. TV utilizes a mobile television studio to explore transmission, analog and digital media, and broadcast. Through an ongoing series of live television taping events, they place the control room of the TV studio center stage, making the means of production into a vehicle for performance. E.S.P. TV investigates the language of television through their practice and have built a strong network through artist collaborations. From this ongoing effort, they have amassed an extensive archive detailing these unique explorations of performance, sound, and vision.
Live Taping Installation and Performance:
June 4th, 7-10pm as part of the Becoming New Objects ticketed concert series
Chillin Island is a collective of Queens born and bred musicians and artists that host a weekly program on Know-Wave radio. Chillin Island was founded by Ashok Kondabolu (aka Dap) and is hosted with rappers Despot (Alec Reinstein) and Lakutis (Aleksey Weintraub). Chillin Island’s installation Hi, Mom, Hi Dad, It’s Me Again has two iterations during Queens International 2016. The more permanent installation shows a selection of ceramics and nostalgic tchotchkes alongside a viewing area for a supercut of the landmark 1986 Indian TV miniseries Ramayan and a highlight reel of late 80s and early 90s commercial interruptions. The second iteration of the work is a full-scale recreation of Dap’s childhood Jackson Heights living room, including furniture and decorative elements, diaspora newspapers, media directories, and mannequins adorned with Kondabolu’s actual parents' clothing. Addressing the experience of growing up as an Indian-American child of immigrants in New York City, this elaborate installation will be on view during community workshops and live broadcasts of Chillin Island on Know-Wave radio.
Performance:
May 14th, 7-10pm as part of Becoming New Objects ticketed concert series
Featuring Despot, Heems, Your Old Droog, Lakutis, Big Baby Gandhi, Spanish Broads, DJs Total Freedom and King Solomon. Broadcast on Know-Wave Radio