As part of CFEVA’s Post Open Studio Tour 2023.
Collaborative duo: Taji Ra’oof Nahl (aka TR7) and
John Schlesinger present an installation with performances:
‘Frankensteinway v2.0’ @ The House of Schlesinger
3419 Hamilton st. Philadelphia, 19104
October 21-22 (this Saturday and Sunday)
Installation open from 12--6pm.
Saturday Activations:
Through the rubric of TR7’s “The Other Sounds of Philadelphia“ two sets of audio/visual “activation” will take place.
1pm activation – “52 street Planetary Ensemble”; featuring
RyRy (from Joji) - percussion and assorted instruments
Ihba Baskette - winds and skins
Shakoor Hakeem-conga
TR7 - prepared piano, electronics & vocals
Special invited guests
4pm activation – “Sonic Sculpture Ensemble”; featuring
TR7 - prepared piano, electronics & vocals.
Pete Angevine-percussion
Ann Adachi-Flute
Special invited guests
Sunday Activations; 1 and 4 pm:
With special invited guests:
Taji Ra’oof Nahl and John Schlesinger have been working together informally on each other’s installations since 2020. Frankensteinway marks their first major collaboration. The installation has been heavily modified in the past year.
A dilapidated Steinway piano in Schlesinger’s living room has been heavily ‘prepared’ internally (ala John Cage or Ben Patterson) with surgical forceps and other medical instruments to dramatically modify its sound. Physically it has been transformed with scrap stainless steel, video projectors and monitors, photography, aluminum rod, laboratory clamps and over 200 linear feet of salvaged commercial neon, all streaming from its open guts and attaching to the upper walls and ceiling. Much as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was created by surgically cobbled together corpses, our piano mimics this experiment-gone-wrong with laboratory apparatus, beakers and flashing neon, giving the illusion of science temporarily being in control.
Functionally, Frankensteinway serves as the hinge or pivot transforming a living room re-purposed into a hub or locus for musicians to meet, collaborate and take risks as an auditory response to the installation. The performances are videotaped and photographed, and this documentation is then woven back into the work adding layers of history. Thus, this perpetually unfinished installation continually grows throughout the house and mutates over time as musicians perform and as TR7 and Schlesinger add to it physically. The work auto-modifies itself.
We hope you'll be able to stop by and check this out.
Please note:
Seating may be limited
Children should be closely monitored
Web: https://www.araoof.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGkJdgV456JeEjiao3yvxAw
Web: johnschlesinger.net
Instagram: @johnschlesinger
