Alex Waterman Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List
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Artist Statement
As a cellist, composer, writer and installation artist, I focus on the experience of collective processes of reading, composing, and listening. In an article I wrote for Dot Dot Dot in 2007 titled 'Res Facta', I proposed that through the creation of certain open ended and experimental scoring techniques in music, in particular the employment of "graphic scores", there was a placement of responsibility onto the reader to produce meaning collectively and to make understandable and communicable the as-yet-unsignified/unknowable. It is through a 'social act of reading' that we gain an invigorated sense of participation in the process of composition and reinforce this act as one of intense discussion and listening.
The two exhibitions in New York which followed this article and the show in Barcelona which I participated in, attempted to not only display the "graphic scores" but perform, discuss and publish catalogues that would aid in continuing the process of collectively composing and interpreting music. The most significant projects that followed these exhibitions were my Concerto for Muted Trumpet (based on the story of "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville) commissioned by Dexter Sinister for the Whitney Biennial in 2008, and my co-production of the film "A Necessary Music" with Beatrice GIbson. These two works addressed ideas of the mimetic copy and the technological capture of image and sound. A narrative approach to both works provided the frameworks for an exploration of collective writing on community, the effects of conflating fiction with ethnography, and the refusal to copy as the ultimate tool in the attempt to break down monolithic forms of power.
In my recent works I have continued to work with radio, narratives, text, and film. My music and installation works are composed largely of field recordings of sites that I have studied (sometimes for many years as in the Brooklyn Queens Expressway project, "A Ballad of Accounting"). It is through the recordings and study of long durational changes in the acoustic environment that I've begun to develop ways of imagining slow moving harmonies that are not only to be enjoyed as music, but have gradually evolved into an attempt to create music that can act as noise cancellation devices for the urban monstrosities (roadways, construction sites, air conditioning systems, car horns, sirens, and so on) that we live with. It is through re-imagining blaring traffic as oceanic flow, and the resonant space of the overpasses as long string lengths that can be tuned, that I have begun to experiment with how music could intervene in urban areas and attempt to lessen the physiological and mental fatigue that noise can cause.
My installation works often employ older forms of technology: radios, phonographs, transducers, stroh violins, and combine them anachronistically with digital processes (sampling and spatialization software or iPods and current music gadgets). I am interested in hearing the noise in the signal- to hear how transmission falters, is inhibited, blocked, or weakened, by architectural, technological, and human interventions. These mostly involuntary interactions become traces of presence that are too often not to be found in the more ubiquitous forms of digital/internet based technologies. The internet has a surprising lack of the etherial and its 'noise' is located in other places that are not generally rendered as audible.
I am presently working with artist, designer and writer Will Holder on producing a 'sung biography' of the American Opera composer Robert Ashley, producing soundtracks and radio plays with a number of artists and writers including: Cameron Gainer, Ricardo Valentim, and Mark von Schlegell, and my most recent work has been to take the hundreds of proper names that make up John Barton Wolgamot's 1944 poem, In Sara, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Men and Women, and create a series of filmic landscapes: one landscape for each name, and each landscape contained in each other. This work is being realized as a filmscript and has been performed in London and Antwerp in the form of a radio play. The final work will be impossible to generate as a film but will act as a template in the form of an enormously intricate landscape that can be 'walked through' in order to generate any number of other filmscripts. The first of these subsequent scripts that I am drafting is a film about H.L. Mencken and the magazine and publishing scene of the 1920s and 30s in America. The early 20s to early 30s was a decade where America became modern in its own eyes and didn't like what it saw. It then plunged head first into a depression and another great war. When looking back at this time and seeing where we are now, it is hard not to borrow the phrase from Bruno Latour, and conclude that perhaps we really "have never been modern."
As a cellist, composer, writer and installation artist, I focus on the experience of collective processes of reading, composing, and listening. In an article I wrote for Dot Dot Dot in 2007 titled 'Res Facta', I proposed that through the creation of certain open ended and experimental scoring techniques in music, in particular the employment of "graphic scores", there was a placement of responsibility onto the reader to produce meaning collectively and to make understandable and communicable the as-yet-unsignified/unknowable. It is through a 'social act of reading' that we gain an invigorated sense of participation in the process of composition and reinforce this act as one of intense discussion and listening.
The two exhibitions in New York which followed this article and the show in Barcelona which I participated in, attempted to not only display the "graphic scores" but perform, discuss and publish catalogues that would aid in continuing the process of collectively composing and interpreting music. The most significant projects that followed these exhibitions were my Concerto for Muted Trumpet (based on the story of "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville) commissioned by Dexter Sinister for the Whitney Biennial in 2008, and my co-production of the film "A Necessary Music" with Beatrice GIbson. These two works addressed ideas of the mimetic copy and the technological capture of image and sound. A narrative approach to both works provided the frameworks for an exploration of collective writing on community, the effects of conflating fiction with ethnography, and the refusal to copy as the ultimate tool in the attempt to break down monolithic forms of power.
In my recent works I have continued to work with radio, narratives, text, and film. My music and installation works are composed largely of field recordings of sites that I have studied (sometimes for many years as in the Brooklyn Queens Expressway project, "A Ballad of Accounting"). It is through the recordings and study of long durational changes in the acoustic environment that I've begun to develop ways of imagining slow moving harmonies that are not only to be enjoyed as music, but have gradually evolved into an attempt to create music that can act as noise cancellation devices for the urban monstrosities (roadways, construction sites, air conditioning systems, car horns, sirens, and so on) that we live with. It is through re-imagining blaring traffic as oceanic flow, and the resonant space of the overpasses as long string lengths that can be tuned, that I have begun to experiment with how music could intervene in urban areas and attempt to lessen the physiological and mental fatigue that noise can cause.
My installation works often employ older forms of technology: radios, phonographs, transducers, stroh violins, and combine them anachronistically with digital processes (sampling and spatialization software or iPods and current music gadgets). I am interested in hearing the noise in the signal- to hear how transmission falters, is inhibited, blocked, or weakened, by architectural, technological, and human interventions. These mostly involuntary interactions become traces of presence that are too often not to be found in the more ubiquitous forms of digital/internet based technologies. The internet has a surprising lack of the etherial and its 'noise' is located in other places that are not generally rendered as audible.
I am presently working with artist, designer and writer Will Holder on producing a 'sung biography' of the American Opera composer Robert Ashley, producing soundtracks and radio plays with a number of artists and writers including: Cameron Gainer, Ricardo Valentim, and Mark von Schlegell, and my most recent work has been to take the hundreds of proper names that make up John Barton Wolgamot's 1944 poem, In Sara, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Men and Women, and create a series of filmic landscapes: one landscape for each name, and each landscape contained in each other. This work is being realized as a filmscript and has been performed in London and Antwerp in the form of a radio play. The final work will be impossible to generate as a film but will act as a template in the form of an enormously intricate landscape that can be 'walked through' in order to generate any number of other filmscripts. The first of these subsequent scripts that I am drafting is a film about H.L. Mencken and the magazine and publishing scene of the 1920s and 30s in America. The early 20s to early 30s was a decade where America became modern in its own eyes and didn't like what it saw. It then plunged head first into a depression and another great war. When looking back at this time and seeing where we are now, it is hard not to borrow the phrase from Bruno Latour, and conclude that perhaps we really "have never been modern."
CV
Alex Waterman (1975-)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
-“The Inhabitants” Vilma Gold Gallery, London, March 14 –April 25, 2010.
-"This place you see has no size at all..." Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, December 4, 2009 - February 7, 2010. Curated by Jennifer Teets.
- The Malady of Writing. A project on text and speculative imagination
Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona. November 20, 2009 - April 25, 2010
-Breaking New Ground Underground 2009, Stonescape, Napa Valley, California. A group show curated by Thea Westreich Art Advisory Services. Installation of a permanent 12 speaker sound installation, film and performance. http://www.stonescape.us/installations/
-Talk Show, ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2009.
-Staging the Phenomenal Character: A program of Performances 10 January-7 February 2009, arranged by Anna Craycroft. Tracy Williams, Ltd. New York.
- Possibility of Action: the Life of the Score
Centre d'Estudis i Documentació, MACBA; June 17th, 2008 – October 5th, 2008.
-‘B’ a concerto for muted trumpet, 2 phonographs, Stroh violin, and violoncello, by Alex Waterman. Performance at the Park Avenue Armory, Whitney Biennial 2008. March 23rd, 2008.
-Between Thought and Sound-Graphic Notation in Contemporary Music, The Kitchen NYC, co-curated by Alex Waterman, Deb Singer, and Matthew Lyons. Four performances and a catalogue accompanied the exhibition of 31 artists.
-Agapē at Miguel Abreu Gallery NYC. Organized by Alex Waterman, 7 performances and a catalogue edited by Waterman and designed by Will Holder accompanied the show.
SCREENINGS AND FILM FESTIVALS:
- Migrating Forms, Anthology Film Archives, New York, 2009
- Courtisane Festival, Ghent, 2009
- Loop Festival, Argos Presentation, 2009
- Oberhausen Film Festival, Argos Presentation, 2009
- Hors Pistes, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2009
- Transmediale, 2009
- Winner, Tiger Award for Best Short Film, Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2009
- Nominated, New Vision Award, CPH:DOX, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, 2008
- Official Selection, Hors Pistes, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2009
- Official Selection, Festival Dei Popoli, International Festival of Documentary Film, Florence, 2008
- 10th Baltic Triennial of International Art, CAC, Vilnius, 2009
- A Necessary Music and ‘An Evening with Robert Ashley’ with Will Holder, The Showroom, London, 2009,
- Simon + Tom Bloor + Two Artist Films, Joanna Billing and Beatrice Gibson + Alex Waterman, Eastside Projects,
Birmingham, 2009
- S1/Salon 09, A Season of Artists Film, Selected by Benjamin Cook, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, 2009
- Front Room, Contemporary Art Museum, St Louis, 2008
- Whitney Museum of American Art, ISP Studio Show, Dia Chelsea, New York, 2008
AWARDS, COMMISSIONS, AND GRANTS
Tiger Award for Best Short Film: A Necessary Music by Beatrice Gibson and Alex Waterman, Rotterdam Film Festival 2008.
Finalist in the Prix Italia prize for radio productions. Nominated for the record Eavesdropper and Waterman 2003, Belgian VRT, Radio Klara.
Arts Council England for ‘A Necessary Music’ 2008
Graham Foundation for Art and Architecture for ‘A Necessary Music’ 2008
Radio Klara and Concertgebouw Brugge for Eavesdropper and Waterman (2003) CD recording.
Frascati Theater Amsterdam for Heaven is a Radio (2003). Music for solo dancer Michael Schumacher.
Champs d’Action Ensemble for Plastic Isolation (2002), commissioned for the Brugge 2002 Festival, performed in the Toyo Ito Pavilion.
Black Jackets Ensemble for Tour de France (2002), American Air Festival/ Brugge 2002 Festival. Performed in the Concertgebouw Brugge.
Netherlands Dance Theater III for The Moment (2001), performed at the “Tanz in August Festival” in the Hebbel Theater in Berlin, Germany.
Netherland America Foundation study loan for Graduate work at the Royal Conservatory in Holland, 1999-2001.
Louis Sudler Prize for the Arts, Oberlin College, 1998.
SELECTED RECENT PERFORMANCES AND BROADCASTS
Performance of ‘Beacons of Ancestorship’ by Alex Waterman. Vilma Gold Gallery, London. As part of the group show including artists: Rebecca Quaytman, K8 Hardy, Matt Mullican, Charles Atlas, and Alex Waterman. April 15th, 2010.
Plus Minus Ensemble at King’s Place London, April 12th, 2010.
LOVE THE CLEAR DARK by Alex Waterman and Mark von Schlegell, presented alongside the exhibition
"This place you see has no size at all...” curated by Jennifer Teets. Kadist Foundation, Paris. January 7th, 2009.
in memoriam...Esteban Gomez: a night of conversations with Robert Ashley
prepared and read by Alex Waterman and Will Holder
@ the Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona
December 10th, 2009.
A Ballad of Accounting 2009:for cello and Brooklyn Queens Expressway
by Alex Waterman with film by Liz Wendelbo
Artists Space NYC, as part of Performa 2009.
A Fantastic World Superimposed on Reality
Two Nights of Experimental Music
curated by Mike Kelley. (Waterman was music adviser and performer with Lee Rinaldo, Dave Shively, Okkyung Lee and others).
The Grammercy Theater NYC
Nov. 20th & Nov. 21st, 2009.
Plus Minus Ensemble, Kammer Klang
and James Beckett at the ICA London
November 18th, 2009 7:30-10:30pm
Merce Cunningham Memorial at the Park Avenue Armory. Featuring the MCDC and alumni dancers with musicians: David Behrman, Stephan Moore, Christian Woolf, Takehisa Kosugi,Marina Rosenfeld, La Monte Young, Meredith Monk, Alex Waterman and more. October 28th, 2009.
Kiss Me Again: The Life and Legacy of Arthur Russell NYU Tisch Performance Studies, Housing Works Café, and Public Assembly in Brooklyn.
With Arthur's Landing, Alex Waterman, Nick Hallett, Nomi, and Joyce Kirby.October 10th, 2009.
Exact Change Anniversary Night at Issue Project Room. Alex Waterman performs Cardinal Polatuo.
September 26th, 2009.
Stonescape 2009. A group show with Vito Acconci, Lucy McKenzie,Cheyney Thompson, Eileen Quinlan, Alex Waterman, et al.
July 11th, 2009.
True Mirror by Dexter Sinister, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London
May 30th, 2009.
Plus Minus Ensemble in Residence at ICA, London
As part of Talk Show, curated by Will Holder and Richard Birkett.
May 26th-31st, 2009. Public rehearsals and daily showings with a final concert on the 31st.
Plus Minus Ensemble Workshop and performance at Bath Spa University
May 20, 2009.
Ann James Chaton, Andy Moor and Alex Waterman at the ICA, London. As part of ‘Talk Show’ (Will Holder and Richard Birkett).
May 19, 2009.
Either/Or at Merkin Hall
Performances of Helmut Lachenmann, Chaya Czernowin, and Elizabeth Hoffman.
March 26th, 2009.
Alex Waterman, The Night Driver (2009)
Tracy Williams Ltd. Saturday, January 24, 2009.
Festival of New Sounds from Britain & Ireland
Featuring: Angaharad Davies, John Lely, Tim Parkinson, James Saunders and Jennifer Walshe.
Performed by members of Either/Or Ensemble and Object Collection, and special guests.
Organized by Alex Waterman and Travis Just.
St. Marks Parish Hall and Listen/Space in Brooklyn.
December 11-14, 2008.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Dia Beacon.
Musicians for the Merce performance:
Takehisa Kosugi, Curtis Bahn, Keiko Uenishi, and Alex Waterman
December 6th and 7th Performance, 2008.
True Mirror by Dexter Sinister, at The Kitchen NYC
November 25th, 2008.
Lecture/performance for "The Possibility of Action" An exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona, Spain.
October 1st, 2008.
Either/Or presents a night of Early Minimalism.
Steve Reich's Four Organs, Philip Glass's Music in Similar Motion, and Rhys Chatham's Two Gongs.
At Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, October 24th, 2008.
Creative Time presents "Bodies with Organs"
a night of experimental improvisation with David Byrne's organ installation at the Battery Maritime Building.
Featuring: MV Carbon, Zach Layton, Andrea Parkins and Alex Waterman.
July 21st, 2008
Michael Schumacher and Alex Waterman's Dans le Jardin.
9 performances in 5 days in all 5 boroughs of New York City as part of The Joyce Theater
and the City Parks Foundation production, Dance Out! July 16th-20th, 2008.
Rational Rec and Plus Minus Ensemble present a Variety Night at Wilton's Music Hall
The Spitalfields Festival; London, England. June 7th, 2008.
Let's Go Swimming: A Tribute to Arthur Russell at The Kitchen, NYC.
May 16th and 17th, 2008
Dexter Sinister presents 'Bartleby' by Alex Waterman
a concerto for muted trumpet, phonographs, Stroh violin, and gramophone.
At the Park Avenue Armoury, as part of the Whitney Biennial, March 23rd, 2008.
PUBLICATIONS:
Hearing Voices: Alex Waterman on Robert Ashley, Artforum, April, 2009.
“Music Top Ten 2007,” Artforum, December 2007.
Between Thought and Sound, by Alex Waterman, edited by Will Holder. Produced by The Kitchen together with Deborah Singer and Matthew Lyons with Cody Trepte. Edition of 500.
Agapē, edited by Alex Waterman and Will Holder, Miguel Abreu Gallery. Catalogue to accompany the exhibition. Edition of 500.
“SHOOT THE PLAYER PIANO!” Dot Dot Dot Magazine, issue 14, 2007.
“Res Facta,” Dot Dot Dot, issue 12, 2006.
“Robert Ashley’s Trio WHITE ON WHITE (1963) Collective Reading and the Surface of the Score.” FoArm Magazine issue 5 (Autonomy).
http://foarm.artdocuments.org/
DISCOGRAPHY:
Waterman has appeared on, arranged and written music for the following records:
A Ballad of Accounting, D.S. al Coda Records.
“Pussy Cats” Starring The Walkmen by The Walkmen (Record Collection) 2006
Their Refinement of the Decline by Stars of the Lid (Kranky) 2007
Zap Mama-Supermoon (Heads Up) 2007
Ghalia Benali 2006
Gravitones and Strings (Data Records, Amsterdam) 2006
Eavesdropper and Waterman (knobsounds Brussels) 2003
Maartje ten Hoorn String Quartet (Data records Amsterdam) 2004
Henneman String Quartet – Strepen (DVD and CD) and Piazza Pia (CD) 2002-4
STRUNG (Sublingual SLR011) with Jon Rose, Steve Heather, Cor Fuhler and more. 2001
Alex Waterman (1975-)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
-“The Inhabitants” Vilma Gold Gallery, London, March 14 –April 25, 2010.
-"This place you see has no size at all..." Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, December 4, 2009 - February 7, 2010. Curated by Jennifer Teets.
- The Malady of Writing. A project on text and speculative imagination
Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona. November 20, 2009 - April 25, 2010
-Breaking New Ground Underground 2009, Stonescape, Napa Valley, California. A group show curated by Thea Westreich Art Advisory Services. Installation of a permanent 12 speaker sound installation, film and performance. http://www.stonescape.us/installations/
-Talk Show, ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2009.
-Staging the Phenomenal Character: A program of Performances 10 January-7 February 2009, arranged by Anna Craycroft. Tracy Williams, Ltd. New York.
- Possibility of Action: the Life of the Score
Centre d'Estudis i Documentació, MACBA; June 17th, 2008 – October 5th, 2008.
-‘B’ a concerto for muted trumpet, 2 phonographs, Stroh violin, and violoncello, by Alex Waterman. Performance at the Park Avenue Armory, Whitney Biennial 2008. March 23rd, 2008.
-Between Thought and Sound-Graphic Notation in Contemporary Music, The Kitchen NYC, co-curated by Alex Waterman, Deb Singer, and Matthew Lyons. Four performances and a catalogue accompanied the exhibition of 31 artists.
-Agapē at Miguel Abreu Gallery NYC. Organized by Alex Waterman, 7 performances and a catalogue edited by Waterman and designed by Will Holder accompanied the show.
SCREENINGS AND FILM FESTIVALS:
- Migrating Forms, Anthology Film Archives, New York, 2009
- Courtisane Festival, Ghent, 2009
- Loop Festival, Argos Presentation, 2009
- Oberhausen Film Festival, Argos Presentation, 2009
- Hors Pistes, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2009
- Transmediale, 2009
- Winner, Tiger Award for Best Short Film, Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2009
- Nominated, New Vision Award, CPH:DOX, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, 2008
- Official Selection, Hors Pistes, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2009
- Official Selection, Festival Dei Popoli, International Festival of Documentary Film, Florence, 2008
- 10th Baltic Triennial of International Art, CAC, Vilnius, 2009
- A Necessary Music and ‘An Evening with Robert Ashley’ with Will Holder, The Showroom, London, 2009,
- Simon + Tom Bloor + Two Artist Films, Joanna Billing and Beatrice Gibson + Alex Waterman, Eastside Projects,
Birmingham, 2009
- S1/Salon 09, A Season of Artists Film, Selected by Benjamin Cook, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, 2009
- Front Room, Contemporary Art Museum, St Louis, 2008
- Whitney Museum of American Art, ISP Studio Show, Dia Chelsea, New York, 2008
AWARDS, COMMISSIONS, AND GRANTS
Tiger Award for Best Short Film: A Necessary Music by Beatrice Gibson and Alex Waterman, Rotterdam Film Festival 2008.
Finalist in the Prix Italia prize for radio productions. Nominated for the record Eavesdropper and Waterman 2003, Belgian VRT, Radio Klara.
Arts Council England for ‘A Necessary Music’ 2008
Graham Foundation for Art and Architecture for ‘A Necessary Music’ 2008
Radio Klara and Concertgebouw Brugge for Eavesdropper and Waterman (2003) CD recording.
Frascati Theater Amsterdam for Heaven is a Radio (2003). Music for solo dancer Michael Schumacher.
Champs d’Action Ensemble for Plastic Isolation (2002), commissioned for the Brugge 2002 Festival, performed in the Toyo Ito Pavilion.
Black Jackets Ensemble for Tour de France (2002), American Air Festival/ Brugge 2002 Festival. Performed in the Concertgebouw Brugge.
Netherlands Dance Theater III for The Moment (2001), performed at the “Tanz in August Festival” in the Hebbel Theater in Berlin, Germany.
Netherland America Foundation study loan for Graduate work at the Royal Conservatory in Holland, 1999-2001.
Louis Sudler Prize for the Arts, Oberlin College, 1998.
SELECTED RECENT PERFORMANCES AND BROADCASTS
Performance of ‘Beacons of Ancestorship’ by Alex Waterman. Vilma Gold Gallery, London. As part of the group show including artists: Rebecca Quaytman, K8 Hardy, Matt Mullican, Charles Atlas, and Alex Waterman. April 15th, 2010.
Plus Minus Ensemble at King’s Place London, April 12th, 2010.
LOVE THE CLEAR DARK by Alex Waterman and Mark von Schlegell, presented alongside the exhibition
"This place you see has no size at all...” curated by Jennifer Teets. Kadist Foundation, Paris. January 7th, 2009.
in memoriam...Esteban Gomez: a night of conversations with Robert Ashley
prepared and read by Alex Waterman and Will Holder
@ the Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona
December 10th, 2009.
A Ballad of Accounting 2009:for cello and Brooklyn Queens Expressway
by Alex Waterman with film by Liz Wendelbo
Artists Space NYC, as part of Performa 2009.
A Fantastic World Superimposed on Reality
Two Nights of Experimental Music
curated by Mike Kelley. (Waterman was music adviser and performer with Lee Rinaldo, Dave Shively, Okkyung Lee and others).
The Grammercy Theater NYC
Nov. 20th & Nov. 21st, 2009.
Plus Minus Ensemble, Kammer Klang
and James Beckett at the ICA London
November 18th, 2009 7:30-10:30pm
Merce Cunningham Memorial at the Park Avenue Armory. Featuring the MCDC and alumni dancers with musicians: David Behrman, Stephan Moore, Christian Woolf, Takehisa Kosugi,Marina Rosenfeld, La Monte Young, Meredith Monk, Alex Waterman and more. October 28th, 2009.
Kiss Me Again: The Life and Legacy of Arthur Russell NYU Tisch Performance Studies, Housing Works Café, and Public Assembly in Brooklyn.
With Arthur's Landing, Alex Waterman, Nick Hallett, Nomi, and Joyce Kirby.October 10th, 2009.
Exact Change Anniversary Night at Issue Project Room. Alex Waterman performs Cardinal Polatuo.
September 26th, 2009.
Stonescape 2009. A group show with Vito Acconci, Lucy McKenzie,Cheyney Thompson, Eileen Quinlan, Alex Waterman, et al.
July 11th, 2009.
True Mirror by Dexter Sinister, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London
May 30th, 2009.
Plus Minus Ensemble in Residence at ICA, London
As part of Talk Show, curated by Will Holder and Richard Birkett.
May 26th-31st, 2009. Public rehearsals and daily showings with a final concert on the 31st.
Plus Minus Ensemble Workshop and performance at Bath Spa University
May 20, 2009.
Ann James Chaton, Andy Moor and Alex Waterman at the ICA, London. As part of ‘Talk Show’ (Will Holder and Richard Birkett).
May 19, 2009.
Either/Or at Merkin Hall
Performances of Helmut Lachenmann, Chaya Czernowin, and Elizabeth Hoffman.
March 26th, 2009.
Alex Waterman, The Night Driver (2009)
Tracy Williams Ltd. Saturday, January 24, 2009.
Festival of New Sounds from Britain & Ireland
Featuring: Angaharad Davies, John Lely, Tim Parkinson, James Saunders and Jennifer Walshe.
Performed by members of Either/Or Ensemble and Object Collection, and special guests.
Organized by Alex Waterman and Travis Just.
St. Marks Parish Hall and Listen/Space in Brooklyn.
December 11-14, 2008.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Dia Beacon.
Musicians for the Merce performance:
Takehisa Kosugi, Curtis Bahn, Keiko Uenishi, and Alex Waterman
December 6th and 7th Performance, 2008.
True Mirror by Dexter Sinister, at The Kitchen NYC
November 25th, 2008.
Lecture/performance for "The Possibility of Action" An exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona, Spain.
October 1st, 2008.
Either/Or presents a night of Early Minimalism.
Steve Reich's Four Organs, Philip Glass's Music in Similar Motion, and Rhys Chatham's Two Gongs.
At Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, October 24th, 2008.
Creative Time presents "Bodies with Organs"
a night of experimental improvisation with David Byrne's organ installation at the Battery Maritime Building.
Featuring: MV Carbon, Zach Layton, Andrea Parkins and Alex Waterman.
July 21st, 2008
Michael Schumacher and Alex Waterman's Dans le Jardin.
9 performances in 5 days in all 5 boroughs of New York City as part of The Joyce Theater
and the City Parks Foundation production, Dance Out! July 16th-20th, 2008.
Rational Rec and Plus Minus Ensemble present a Variety Night at Wilton's Music Hall
The Spitalfields Festival; London, England. June 7th, 2008.
Let's Go Swimming: A Tribute to Arthur Russell at The Kitchen, NYC.
May 16th and 17th, 2008
Dexter Sinister presents 'Bartleby' by Alex Waterman
a concerto for muted trumpet, phonographs, Stroh violin, and gramophone.
At the Park Avenue Armoury, as part of the Whitney Biennial, March 23rd, 2008.
PUBLICATIONS:
Hearing Voices: Alex Waterman on Robert Ashley, Artforum, April, 2009.
“Music Top Ten 2007,” Artforum, December 2007.
Between Thought and Sound, by Alex Waterman, edited by Will Holder. Produced by The Kitchen together with Deborah Singer and Matthew Lyons with Cody Trepte. Edition of 500.
Agapē, edited by Alex Waterman and Will Holder, Miguel Abreu Gallery. Catalogue to accompany the exhibition. Edition of 500.
“SHOOT THE PLAYER PIANO!” Dot Dot Dot Magazine, issue 14, 2007.
“Res Facta,” Dot Dot Dot, issue 12, 2006.
“Robert Ashley’s Trio WHITE ON WHITE (1963) Collective Reading and the Surface of the Score.” FoArm Magazine issue 5 (Autonomy).
http://foarm.artdocuments.org/
DISCOGRAPHY:
Waterman has appeared on, arranged and written music for the following records:
A Ballad of Accounting, D.S. al Coda Records.
“Pussy Cats” Starring The Walkmen by The Walkmen (Record Collection) 2006
Their Refinement of the Decline by Stars of the Lid (Kranky) 2007
Zap Mama-Supermoon (Heads Up) 2007
Ghalia Benali 2006
Gravitones and Strings (Data Records, Amsterdam) 2006
Eavesdropper and Waterman (knobsounds Brussels) 2003
Maartje ten Hoorn String Quartet (Data records Amsterdam) 2004
Henneman String Quartet – Strepen (DVD and CD) and Piazza Pia (CD) 2002-4
STRUNG (Sublingual SLR011) with Jon Rose, Steve Heather, Cor Fuhler and more. 2001
Poster of 'A Necessary Music' 2008, image composed of polaroids from the original casting session on Roosevelt Island.
Still # 1 from 'A Necessary Music' from the Swimming Pool scene. VLC snap from DVD print. Original film shot on 4K RED camera.
Still # 2 'ANM' Swimming Pool scene.
VLC snap from DVD.
Still # 3 'ANM' The machine room scene.
VLC Snap from DVD.
Still # 4 'ANM' The amphitheater.
VLC snap from DVD.
'A Ballad of Accounting' 2009-10. Documentation of the recording under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.
Photo by Jason Schmidt.
'A Ballad of Accounting' 2009-10. Recording under exit ramp.
Photo by Jason Schmidt.
'A Ballad of Accounting' 2009-10. Recording under exit ramp.
Photo by Jason Schmidt.
'Waterman Path'at Stonescape,Calistoga, California.
Site of the 12 speaker installation of 'A Ballad of Accounting' 2009-10.
12 hand-built speakers buried into the ground along the path. Multi-channel system driven by Max/MSP patch from a shed offsite.
Photo by Alex Waterman
Detail of speaker in the outdoor installation in California. Transducer attached to 16 inch diameter wooden disc on top of ceramic pots. Buried until wood is at grade. The sound is filtered by the pots and the ground acts as further resonant surface.
Photo by Jason Schmidt.
Live performance with 12 speaker installation. 'A Ballad of Accounting' 2009.
Photo by Jason Schmidt.
'A Ballad of Accounting' projected at the Stonescape site. Film in 16mm, digital transfer, projected as Quicktime file from Mac Mini.
Live performance of 'LOVE THE CLEAR DARK' a radio play by Alex Waterman, story by Mark von Schlegell. Pictured: Mark von Schlegell.
Kadist Foundation, Paris, France. 2010.
Photo courtesy of Kadist Foundation.
'LOVE THE CLEAR DARK' 2010. Pictured: Alex Waterman performing the live Foley and soundtrack and additional voices from the back room at the Kadist Foundation, Paris, France.
Photo courtesy of Kadist Foundation.
'LOVE THE CLEAR DARK' 2010. Additional view of Alex Waterman performing live Foley and soundtrack.
Kadist Foundation, Paris, France.
Photo courtesy of Kadist Foundation.
'Beacons of Ancestorship' 2010. filmscript, appendix, and radio soundtrack.
Installation view:
Filmscript and appendix, printed in black and white with color images on 8 and 1/2 by 11 inch paper.
Tivoli radio, with iPod. Lamp and table courtesy of the gallery.
Vilma Gold Gallery London. 'The Inhabitants' group show, 2010.
Photo courtesy of Vilma Gold.