LISTEN Project: music meets photos

We’re tracking the #CSULB tags today! This lucky lady is...

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:51:03 -0800

We’re tracking the #CSULB tags today! This lucky lady is taking sculpture at CSULB. Cool shot.

So fun seeing everybody’s bust! 😁

INDEPENDENT STUDY | University Art Museum Blog

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:27:23 -0700

Thank you to all of you who have followed the LISTEN PROJECT (you’re awesome). If you want to continue keeping up with the University Art Museum, consider following our BRAND NEW TUMBLR. What is it, you ask?

[It’s a] special showcase of the University Art Museum, CSULB community on and off campus. Artist spotlights, community outreach, studio visits and more are presented by Public Relations Director Amanda.

The UAM strives to provide personal experiences in contemporary art by embracing experimentation and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Don’t believe us? Check it out. It’s real.

Eat up those behind the scenes gallery shots. Did you know this...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:02:00 -0700

So many nail holes to fill!

Edward and SoundLab insulation.

Edward has to jump to be seen over it!

All that's left of STATIC NOISE :(

Ivan gets insulation down w/ a smile!

Art Prep carts can be artsy too

Eat up those behind the scenes gallery shots. Did you know this awesome and super effective sound insulation is made out of denim? I know, shocking.

In the second day of de-installation, we say goodbye to STATIC NOISE: The Photography of Rhona Bitner, Metal Machine Trio: The Creation of the Universe, and SPLIT MOMENT. Soon we will welcome new student artwork into the galleries in INSIGHTS: The Annual Student Exhibition, but for now, I want to take some time to pay homage to the exhibitions that have just closed.

Rolling Stone Spain was lovely enough to feature Rhona Bitner’s work in a great article called La memoria de Rock by Beatriz G. Aranda. With its flowery prose and romantic turns of phrase, we read this piece as more of a poem than anything else. As we watch wonderful artworks leave the galleries, the ephemeral opening to the article is a nice ending note to go out on.

La memoria de Rock (excerpt)

Making music or enjoying it is an activity that humanizes the space.

Titled LISTEN, the New York photographer Rhona Bitner takes us on a journey

To some of the American temples of live music, lucid even in silence

The challenge?

Immortalize the memory of noise.

In Aranda’s words, Bitner “guard[s] a place where something special happened.” In our opinion she does more than that - she upholds empty performance spaces as catalysts for sound art in our imaginations. She wants something special to happen TO US when we look into those vast stages.

Moving forward, we have a lot more special things in the works. Please stay tuned for the University Art Museum at Cal State Long Beach to transition the LISTEN Project into a full fledged museum blog. We hope to join the ranks of fantastic Museums on Tumblr, as highlighted by @MuseumNerd and Tumblr’s own list of Featured Museums very soon.

Don’t leave the party yet, there’s more to come - features on the award recipients for INSIGHTS, community outreach field trips, and even more on the way. If you feel so inclined, you are always welcome to submit content and bounce ideas around!

Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter to stay in the loop.

See you next post,

<3 Amanda

Amoeblog (Amoeba Music) review of STATIC NOISE

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:17:39 -0800

Eric Brightwell of the Amoeblog (AKA Amoeba Music’s Blog) had some very kind words to say about Rhona Bitner’s photographs on view now at the University Art Museum, CSU Long Beach. Thanks, Eric!

“Rhona Bitner’s STATIC NOISE at UAM CSULB

Posted by Eric Brightwell, February 29, 2012 08:06pm | Post a Comment

BROKEN SPOKE, Austin, TX 2010 Color coupler print 20 x 20” © Rhona Bitner

Art and rock fans should check out STATIC NOISE: The Photographs of Rhona Bitner showing until April 15, 2012 at University Art Museum Cal State University Long Beach (UAM CSULB) — concurrently with Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Trio: The Creation of the Universe and Split Moment. All are reflections of museum director Christopher Scoates’s particular interest the intersection of art and music-related pop culture (as previously evinced by 2009’s Brian Eno exhibition, 77 Million Paintings).

New York-based photographer Rhona Bitner previously spent years with a circus and with stage lighting and her earlier photography and surroundings evince a taste for colorful performers and dark, warm shadows. The jump from garish clowns to raffish rock musicians probably wouldn’t have been much of a leap but the subjects of Bitner’s latest are America’s iconic rock music venues and recording spaces themselves, not the musicians and engineers who made and make the music happen.

THE MASQUE, Los Angeles, CA 2009 Color coupler print 40 x 40” © Rhona Bitner

The impetus for Bitner’s project was the then-imminent closure of CBGB in 2006. As with all the photos that followed (except when additional light was necessary to illuminate otherwise pitch blackness), she photographed it au naturel, without additional arrangement or human figures adorning the stage. An interesting choice because is an empty venue, especially bathed in sunlight, really its most natural state? It’s certainly not the version most of us see unless we work at a club or return as soon as we get off work because in our state the previous night we left our credit card there (I’ve heard of that happening to people). Fast forward to the present and Bitner’s now criss-crossed the US, photographing over 200 other settings, which she reckons is about 2/3rds of her wish list. Static Noise is a well-chosen selection of 28 of the entire, still-growing Listen series.

Bitner, like the filmmakers of the Cinéma Direct movement of the 1950s onward, is apparently keen not imprint too much of herself into the art, remaining as strictly observational as possible and the same arguments about the pursuit of objectivity can be made. The photographs necessarily exist as reflections of both the subject and artist. For one thing, the point of view is generally that of the spectator looking at the performance space rather than from the stage, which distinguishes it from most music-related photography, which usually depicts a guitarist mugging mid-solo, a stylized poster or flyer, or the exterior of a venue with the marquee serving as an in-frame caption.

TUXEDO JUNCTION (the Nixon Building), Birmingham, AL 2010 Color coupler print 40 x 40” © Rhona Bitner

The subjects themselves — the venues — exhibit more variety than one might expect. While many are alluringly colorful, others are Anabaptist in their stark neutrality. There are baroque ballrooms and impressibly sparse dives. There are thoroughly-designed and still functioning studios as well as abandoned, empty rooms — casually decorated by nature and well on their way to returning to dust.

One of Bitner’s stated aims is to convey sound. For someone like me for whom the combination of the words “rock” and “show” is almost as distressing as “sports” and “bar” or “cole” and “slaw,” I was happy that many of the venues evoked nothing more than the buzz of a neon beer sign, the soft clicking of a failing fluorescent tube, maybe the crackle of an amp. Rather than a moldy, punk oldie unwelcomingly lodging itself in my defenseless noggin, I was struck by how these visual depictions meant to evoke sound equally evoke smell - the familiar and almost universal mix of mildew and dank peculiar to crumbling ruins — or the putrid stench of spilt beer, and acrid, bleached bathroom tiles combined with an unfortunate carpet permanently imbued with stale cigarette smoke.

RANDY’S RODEO, San Antonio, TX 2009 Color coupler print 40 x 40” © Rhona Bitner

And that’s one of the interesting things for me; these venues mean different things to different people at different times. The CBGB space opened in 1878 as the Palace Bar and is now an intimidatingly posh John Varvatos menswear store. In the scope of time, if not most people’s view of historical significance, there was only a brief flash when it hosted acts like The Fast, Magic Tramps, Suicide, and Wayne County.

Even more ephemeral is the San Antonio’s Randy’s Rodeo’s brushwith rock significance. The Sex Pistols played there but one time in 1978 on their only tour of the US. Sure, Squeeze, The Ramones, and U2 all played there at least once too but presumably almost no one associates them with the venue. It began life as a bowling alley (Bandera Bowl). Later, soul singer OB McClinton recorded a live album, Live at Randy’s Rodeo, there. Later still it served as a Tejano club that hosted then-rising star, Selena. So whether looking at the picture evokes any of them, The Country Gentlemen, Coal Chamber, or anyone else that’s graced there stage, is in the mind and ear of the beholder.

NEW ROXY THEATER, Clarksdale, MS 2008 Color coupler print 20 x 20” © Rhona Bitner

Finally, although Bitner said that evoking nostalgia isn’t her aim, I for one couldn’t help but feel nostalgic, even elegiac, looking at her photos — even though its a nostalgia for places I’ve never been, and mostly in an era in which I didn’t exist. I’m prone toward that sort of feeling - the smell of a crayon can send me back to elementary school. Rock, in 2012, is also nostalgic for me. From its birth in the 1950s with artists like Little Richard and Chuck Berry, to its final stabs at originality and growth a few decades later, today its dwindling numbers of practitioners, even when undeniably talented, content themselves with either slavish retro recreations or at best, peddle an interesting pastiche. To me, rock is no more alive or evolving than ragtime or dixieland are — and these beautiful images are the golden amber in which it’s embedded.

You have until April 15th to check it out for yourself.”

glitterfreezeband: www.glitterfreezemusic.com © 2012 Ben...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:59:20 -0800

glitterfreezeband:

www.glitterfreezemusic.com

© 2012 Ben Shirai

Photo

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:59:00 -0800

Rhona singles out places with histories. Mississippi’s...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:07:00 -0800

Rhona singles out places with histories. Mississippi’s Red’s Lounge is a juke joint and blues venues where once LaVene’s Music Center was located, and where Ike Turner bought the instruments used to play his well known hit, Rocket 88, which is widely acknowledged as the first rock’n’roll song.

Dang, the place has roots, and tons of talented musicians continue to play there. Check out this video of Satan and Adam gettin’ down and dirty with blues. If you play here, it seems you have to know how to do the blues, like the back of your hand. Soul is what they call it.

Before her LISTEN series, Rhona worked on STAGE. This series...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:02:05 -0800

Before her LISTEN series, Rhona worked on STAGE. This series more focused on the spectacle of performance than the character of the spaces themselves. Her photo of CBGB was the supposed to be the last image in the STAGE series, after rumination from the artist, became the first in a new project, to be titled the LISTEN series. It was the beginning of a new phase of artistic exploration for Rhona.

More on rhonabitner.com

What performance spaces are meaningful to you? Tell us, and join the LISTEN project team.

a-place-in-the-sun:

Rhona Bitner

O1

This is a transcription of KUSC’s Spotlight on the Arts,...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:35:00 -0800

This is a transcription of KUSC’s Spotlight on the Arts, from February 20, 2012. In case you missed the original airing, you can always take a LISTEN on the KUSC podcast (episode archive) page.

“If Walls Could Talk. I’m Brian Lauritzen
Photographer Rhona Bitner pays homage to iconic music venues in the exhibit, STATIC NOISE, now on view at the Cal State Long beach University Art Museum. Twenty-eight vibrant photos show the spaces in a variety of states, like Detroit’s now deteriorating Grande Ballroom, once home to big band music, later an influential punk rock club. Bitner says she relies only on natural lighting when she shoots:

The photographs in a way are the artifacts. I think the real work is my going. It’s the physical act of standing there, and the photographs are what I take away. The venues that are crumbling, that’s the way they are—it’s about what I see that day when I’m there.

STATIC NOISE: The Photographs of Rhona Bitner are on display at the Cal State Long Beach University Art Museum through April 15th. For information visit, csulb.edu.”
For spotlight on the arts, I’m Brian Lauritzen.”

In reading Rhona’s words, it’s clear that her relationship with the spaces she photographs is a personal one, and that she would want visitors to develop a similar bond with the as-is architecture she carefully captures in her work.

For more from Mr. Lauritsen, follow Brian on Twitter @BrianKUSC, or check out the KUSC Blog for behind the scenes looks at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and much more artsy stuff!

Welcome back to the LISTEN project, fine reader. Put your seat...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:34:00 -0800

Welcome back to the LISTEN project, fine reader. Put your seat belt on because we’re about to dive into the stories that build the palpable atmosphere of the dark stage at the legendary Sunset strip venue: the Whisky a Go Go. You might be able to tell from Rhona Bitner’s Whisky A Go-Go, Los Angeles c. 2009, that nights at the Whisky were memorable. The Whisky website quote page has wealth of insights from insiders—the following quotes (from the owner’s son and associate, respectively) shed light on the impact of the Whisky.

“The Whisky was on the forefront of every musical trend including Motown, Rock ‘N’ Roll, Heavy Metal, Punk and New Wave,” says Mikeal Maglieri, son of Mario [Whisky owner].

“That hasn’t changed,” says Scott Lenz, a contributing music editor for Buzz Magazine…”Because the Whisky…has held true to its original focus of nurturing emerging talent.”

-The Los Angeles Independent

Judging from the show list, calling the line ups legendary would be an understatement. Let’s look closer into the rich stories from The Whisky.

A good starting point for discovery is the mini documentary, A Shot of Whisky, which reveals the “untold story of the venue where American Rock & Roll history began.” In the opening of this video, the Door’s John Densmore talks about kick-starting the psychedelic era as the house band at the Whiskey and transitioning away from the Go Go era.

The Whisky was a legitimate launching pad for the Doors, but many other musicians and bands performed there, from Janis Joplin to Led Zeppelin. The Byrds, Alice Cooper, Buffalo Springfield and Love were regulars. Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention secured their first record contract based on a performance at the Whisky in 1965. The Doors became the Whisky house band in 1966. Many British performers were headliners there, among them The Kinks, The Who, Cream, Slade, Led Zeppelin, and Roxy Music. In the late 70’s, the club supported emerging new wave, punk, and heavy metal scenes. The Whisky presented early performances by the Ramones, The Misfits, Blondie, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, XTC, The Police, and The Jam. The Germs recorded its first album there. The Runaways, Quiet Riot, Renegade, X, Mötley Crüe, and Van Halen have also appeared at the Whisky.

Do you have a Whisky a Go Go anecdote? Surely, there are enough crazy stories to fuel a fire. C’mon, baby, light our fire, and submit your own content about the Whisky a Go Go.

Stay tuned for our next post about The Masque in Hollywood, and it’s reverberations in the visual art world.

In our last post, we got into the history of the Grande...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:06:00 -0800

In our last post, we got into the history of the Grande Ballroom, in Detroit. Today, we’re focusing on Kick up the Jams by MC. For Rhona, it’s not about the people in the space, it’s about the space itself. We love these photos of MC5 performing at the Grande Ballroom because they might provide a visual counterpart to the sound someone might imagine when they look at Rhona’s color coupler print, Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI.

In the recent article “Photo exhibit an homage to legendary music venues” by Sam Gnerre, Rhona gives some great quotes that clarify how she views the spaces she photographs as imbued with sound. Here’s a short excerpt from the article that frames Bitner’s experience photographing the Grande:

“‘I’m photographing sound,’ she says, ‘and listening to the space, to what came before there.’

She visited Detroit’s Grande Ballroom on an overcast day in 2008 and found ground zero of the incendiary Detroit rock scene that spawned the MC5, Iggy and the Stooges and Ted Nugent to be in decrepit shape.

‘The sun came out for five minutes while I was there, and I was able to capture the shot,’ she says.

Attempts to preserve and restore the Grande, now owned by a church, have so far been unsuccessful.

[…] ‘I’m not nostalgic,” Bitner says. “I’m not wishing for a better time. I’m just trying to hear the sounds of the rooms as I find them.’”

We think the second verse and second chorus of the song speak to Rhona Bitner’s treatment of her photographs as sound pieces. See below for bolded and italicized lyrics that we think Rhona would be really into.

Yes I’m starting to sweat
You know my shirt’s all wet
What a feeling
In the sounds that abounds
And resounds and rebounds off the ceiling

You gotta have it baby
You can’t do without
When you get that feeling
You gotta sock ‘em out
put that mic in my hand
And let me kick out the jam
Yes kick out the jams
I want to kick ‘em out

Want more? Read up on the awesome history of MC5, or cruise over to founding band member Jarrod Dicker’s blog—Machine Gun Thompson—where you can find stories about their performances at the Grande and totally psychedelic concert posters.

Anyone have an experience they’d like to share about the Grande Ballroom? Let us know!

Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI Originally a dance hall, the Grande...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:55:00 -0800

Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI

Originally a dance hall, the Grande Ballroom was built in 1928. Inspired by the Fillmore in San Francisco, Russ Gibb acquired it in 1966 with the intention to bring psychedelic music to Michigan. Located on 8952 Grand River Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, the Grande became the epicenter of motor city rock. MC5 and the The Stooges were the house bands. Janis Joplin, Jeff Beck, Cream, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf, Joe Cocker, Procol Harem, and even John Lee Hooker and Bo Diddley played there. The Who’s first U.S. performance of TOMMY took place at the Grande in their 1969 tour. The Grande Ballroom closed in 1972 and the building since has fallen into disrepair. Sad!

In our opinion, there’s one need to know fun fact—it’s the home of Kick of the Jams, like, the epitome of 1960s Detroit rock anthems. So much classic American music fit in one place is pretty baffling, and there’s more to come, folks. Thanks for sticking with the Listen Project. The Grande photo shown here is one of the larger 40” x 40” prints in Rhona Bitner’s STATIC NOISE exhibition at the UAM in Long Beach, CA. It and 27 other rockin’ pictures are on view until April 15th, 2012.

We invite you, and you’re specialness, to tack your own epic music venue story to this storyboard. Go ahead, we dare you to join this cool kids’ club.

Have you heard that Ke$ha was at our opening reception for the...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:34:00 -0800

Have you heard that Ke$ha was at our opening reception for the LISTEN project exhibition, STATIC NOISE: The Photography of Rhona Bitner? Well she was!

from left: Amanda Fruta (UAM Public Relations), Ke$ha’s friend, Ke$ha, and UAM Office Manager John Ciulik.

For all the photos from the opening reception, please check out the UAM Facebook page or Flickr.

Last Friday, the the University Art Museum hosted the opening...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:23:00 -0800

Last Friday, the the University Art Museum hosted the opening reception of STATIC NOISE: The Photography of Rhona Bitner. There were over 500 people there, and it was a party dotted with celebrities. We’re not the name dropping type, but Lou Reed was there, as well as KeSha and Bob Ezrin. Consider this photo post an exploration of the Gordon F. Hampton Gallery, our central display space in the museum.

Editorial Note: Thoughtful comments from attendees proved that Rhona’s intent to activate viewers’ imaginations with intriguing empty performance spaces, brimming with atmosphere has succeeded. People told me they enjoyed imagining the scenes of band members that once populated the stages. - Amanda

What concert venues have made an impact on your imagination? Join the Listen Project when you submit your own content.

Last Thursday, Rhona Bitner gave a free lecture to CSULB...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:01:00 -0800

Last Thursday, Rhona Bitner gave a free lecture to CSULB photography students on her work and her photography practice. We hope the students in Intermediate Photography and Color Photography learned some tips of the trade, and we thank Prof. Rebecca Sittler-Schrock and in the CSULB Art Dept. (College of the Arts) for encouraging students to learn. Thanks to everyone who came out!

Photo

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:42:00 -0800

Rhona Bitner’s Site Legacies In our last post, we showed...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:17:00 -0800

Rhona Bitner’s Site Legacies

In our last post, we showed you the installation of Rhona Bitner’s image grid in STATIC NOISE, and promised more information. Well, we keep our promises… Use the Installation Grid Key to reveal the historic context of Rhona Bitner’s images. Have you been to any of these places? Let’s hear from you! Tell us about your experiences at these venues or with artists that have performed at these significant sites.

ROW 1

Chess Records was a record label for blues, soul, gospel music, early rock ‘n’ roll, and jazz, based in Chicago, Illinois.

Broken Spoke was founded in 1964 and hosted the biggest names in country music including Ernest Tubbs, Roy Acuff, Hank Thompson, Tex Ritter, Ray Price, Kitty Wells, Grandpa Jones, Willie Nelson, and George Strait.

Detroit’s Cobo Arena has been the epicenter of countless important moments in music history and has played “live” recording studio to the likes of The Doors and Kiss.

Graceland was the home of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee.

ROW 2

The Howard Theatre was an important venue for rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues during the 1950s and 60s. Among the acts to play there included Buddy Holly, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Sammy Davis Jr., James Brown, Otis Redding, Lena Horne, Lionel Hampton, and all Motown and Stax recording stars.

The Overton Park Shell hosted large name rock acts that included the Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead.

The Sutler is a largely unheralded country music venue in Nashville.

The Sound Factory is a Hollywood recording studio built in the 1960s. Over the past several decades many top acts have recorded there, including The Jackson 5, Linda Ronstadt, Ringo Starr, Dolly Parton, Oingo Boingo, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Rolling Stones, Brian Wilson, and Warren Zevon.

ROW 3

American Bandstand Stage in Austin, Texas was the backdrop to live televised PBS music program, Austin City Limits.

The New Roxy Theater, in Clarksdale, Mississippi was a mainstay for the likes of Sam Cooke, Ike Turner, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.

Mississippi’s Red’s Lounge is a juke joint and blues venue where Ike Turner played Rocket 88.

ROW 4

TheNorman Petty Studio, where then-unknown Texan singers Roy Orbison, Buddy Cox, Waylon Jennings, and Buddy Holly.

The First Church of Deliverance broadcasted its gospel services on the radio. Performances included Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday.

The Pasadena Civic Auditorium, home of Michael Jackson’s first televised moonwalk on May 16, 1983, and many more musical performances from Ella Fitzgerald to Bob Dylan to Stevie Wonder.

Woodstock Music Festival was held on dairy farm grounds owned by Max Yasgur in Bethel, New York.

Exclusive behind the scenes look at the installation of STATIC...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:02:00 -0800

Exclusive behind the scenes look at the installation of STATIC NOISE: The Photographs of Rhona Bitner

UAM Chief Preparator Pet Sourinthone works with interns Miki and Remo to hang Rhona Bitner’s grid installation. Nice shots, Pet! (Craving more image info? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post on the legacy of sites pictured in this installation…)

What studios and stages have made the biggest impact in your life? Tell us in the comments section, or join the movement and submit your own photo to the LISTEN Project.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:06:00 -0800

The microphone! This one’s via Open-Dialogues.

Did you know that CBGB OMFUG stands for Country, Bluegrass,...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:40:00 -0800

Did you know that CBGB OMFUG stands for Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers. No? Well, neither did we.

Founded in 1973, CBGB quickly became one of New York City’s most iconic music venues. Photographer Rhona Bitner captured the scarred stage just before the club’s closed for good in 2006. This photo was the start of Bitner’s LISTEN series.