Photo by Ismael Quintanilla III
Listening Rituals with Steve Parker + The Ghost Army Screening
Tuesday, February 11, 6:30-8PM
FREE
In conjunction with the exhibition Steve Parker: Futurist Listening, please join us for a series of listening rituals followed by a screening of The Ghost Army, a documentary film by Rick Beyer. Steve Parker will facilitate a series of listening rituals with attendees, including select Sonic Meditations by Pauline Oliveros and a participatory listening ritual work for newspapers, voices, electronics, and pop rocks. Following the rituals, we will screen The Ghost Army, a documentary on an Allied Army tactical deception unit during World War II whose mission was to impersonate other units in order to deceive the Axis armies into thinking Allied troops were larger and more powerful than they were. The GIs, many of whom were recruited from art schools, put on a “traveling road show” utilizing inflatable tanks, sound trucks, fake radio transmissions, scripts, and sound projections. The unit was an incubator for many young artists who went on to have a major impact on the post-war US, including Ellsworth Kelly, Bill Blass, and Arthur Singer, and their work is a source of inspiration for much of the work in Futurist Listening.
Steve Parker is an artist, musician, and curator who creates communal, democratic work to examine history, systems, and behavior. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a Harrington Fellowship, and the Tito’s Prize. Parker has exhibited and performed at institutions, public spaces, and festivals internationally. Highlights include Art Basel, Miami Beach, FL; the Lucerne Festival, Switzerland; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; the Lincoln Center Festival, New York, NY; the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; the Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; the Fusebox Festival, Austin, TX; Tanglewood, Lenox, MA; inSIGHT, Los Angeles Philharmonic, CA; SXSW, Austin, TX; The Stone at the New School, New York, NY; Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA; the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; the Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA; The Contemporary Austin, Austin, TX; Bowerbird, Philadelphia, PA; and the Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL. As a soloist and as an artist of NYC-based "new music dream team" Ensemble Signal, he has premiered more than 200 new works. Parker has been awarded support from the National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, the Copland Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, and the Mid America Arts Alliance. He is the Curator of SoundSpace at the Blanton Museum of Art, Executive Director of Collide Arts, and a full-time faculty member at UT San Antonio. He holds degrees in Math and Music from Oberlin, Rice, and UT Austin.
Rick Beyer is a New York Times best-selling author, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and a long-time history enthusiast. He wrote and produced the PBS documentary The Ghost Army, telling the story of an extraordinary WWII unit that used inflatable tanks, sound effects, and illusion to fool the enemy. He also co-authored a bestselling book on the unit, The Ghost Army of World War II, (with Elizabeth Sayles) now being developed as a Hollywood movie. Beyer has made documentary films for The History Channel, A&E, National Geographic, and others. He is the author of the popular Greatest Stories Never Told series of history books. His most recent book, Rivals Unto Death, is a compelling account of the fateful rivalry of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. He can frequently be found leading historical tours in the US and Europe, and has appeared on CBS, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR, VOA, CNN and elsewhere.
CUE Art Foundation is wheelchair accessible. Service dogs are welcome. There is an all-gender, ADA compliant, single stall bathroom in the gallery. The space is not scent-free, but we do request that people attending come low-scent. The closest wheelchair accessible MTA subway stations are Penn Station and Herald Square Station. If you have specific access questions or needs, please contact info@cueartfoundation.org or call 212.206.3583.