Scaffolded Clouds on Yellow Scaffold on the Ranch – FESCH.TV

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Framework: Scaffolded Clouds was commissioned by the Schneider Museum of Art for Art Beyond, an outdoor art exhibition focusing on sculptural and installation based artworks and by invitation of artist Avantika Bawa. The work is composed by Terry Lonshore, and preformed by Left Edge Percussion to be specifically to be performed on the artist’s installation, ‚A Yellow Scaffold on the Ranch‘. This piece was created for the exhibition and erected at Willow Witt Ranch outside of Ashland, Oregon in the summer of 2021.

The performers play on the artwork itself, an idea that came to Terry when Scott Malbaurn, Director of the Schneider Museum of Art, first described the work to him. „I instantly thought of climbing on and playing directly on the scaffolding, but I was afraid that would not be welcomed. It turned out Avantika loved the idea; “Beat the hell out of it!” she said. I was thrilled!“ Similar to Bawa’s works, Framework: Scaffolded Clouds is modular and minimalist in nature, utilizing cells of rhythmic and textural musical material including a technique borrowed from Greek-French composer and architect Iannis Xenakis – “stochastic clouds of percussive sonorities.” Silence is also employed, inspired by the “space between” – a meadow, a cloud, an interior, etc. – one experiences when viewing Bawa’s Scaffold series. The score is arranged in a scaffolded fashion, the cells of musical materials built upon and connected to each other, with instructions to the performers on how to move between them during a performance.

The number 6 is important to the work – there are six players, six locations in each station of the scaffold, and the meter of the work, as well as several rhythmic ideas, are in six. My inspiration for using 6 came from the scaffold itself – there are six sides: the foundation, the four sides, and a platform to stand on (not present in Bawa’s artwork). Also, when looking at the front of a section of the scaffold, it presents six lines: two vertical, two horizontal, and two diagonal.

This premiere of Framework: Scaffolded Clouds was performed by Left Edge Percussion on June 5, 2021, at 4:00 pm at Willow Witt Ranch outside of Ashland, Oregon. Performers: Terry Longshore (Artistic Director), Jade Hails, Delaney Jai, Bryan Jeffs, Bobby Odle, and Parker Stockford.