The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild will present BIO-SPHERE, a unique sonic collaboration between environmental sculptor Ian Laughlin and renowned composer/percussionist David Van Tieghem. This free performance will take place Sunday, August 4 and 2pm in front of the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s Office Complex located at 34 Tinker Street in Woodstock.
David Van Tieghem is an American composer and sound designer known for his philosophy of utilizing any available object as a percussion instrument. In his long career, Van Tieghem has performed and composed for numerous films and productions as well as collaborating with Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, Talking Heads, David Byrne, Deborah Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie, Adrian Belew, Jerry Marotta, John Zorn, Sylvia Bullett and Happy Traum. Along with many other awards, Van Tieghem was the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for Music Composition (2007).
Originally from New Zealand, Ian Laughlin is a multi-media eco-artist who first achieved notoriety in New York City’s Lower East Side in the 80s. A resident of the Hudson Valley since 1990, Laughlin has been dedicated to exploring injustices and finding solutions to the many challenges facing the planet through his many notable art installations and acoustic sculptures. His work can be found at his website.
BIO-SPHERE is the latest Laughlin-Van Tieghem collaboration and it’s sounding the alarm about PFOS, the so-called ‘forever chemicals,’ endangering our species and planet.
“My sculpture utilizes tanks and piping to present a model for water purification of carcinogenic ‘forever chemicals’,” says Laughlin. “It is sonically designed for composer/percussionist David Van Tieghem to signal that alarm in a bold musical way.”
Recent Laughlin and Van Tieghem works have included Chilling Effects and Glacial Survival Instincts (2023) and Lunasa and Pitchfork Chamber Music (2021), the former of which also included collaboration with Laughlin’s partner, the singer/songwriter Sylvia Bullett. Laughlin created the cover art for Bullett’s latest album, All Knowledge There Transcending. Videos of these works can be found here.
Founded in 1902, the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild is a regional center for the arts located in Woodstock. From its 250-acre mountainside campus and its arts and performance center in the village of Woodstock, it offers an integrated program of exhibitions, performances, workshops and artists’ residencies. For info, visit here.
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