Sunday, September 19, 2021
5:00pm CT
Streaming on Twitch
FREE, $5+ suggested donation (100% goes to the artists)
Mottel_Mottel; The Image is a Seed
This online broadcast is a public forum to present aspects of the Syeus Mottel photographic archive. His son, Matt Mottel, transforms a yet unexamined cultural history into a social and artistic happening through a collaborative process. Matt has invited those connected to both his and his father’s cultural networks to participate and respond to this presentation; intertwining their own histories and performance practice into a new archive.
ARTIST LINE-UP
Siew-Wai Kok (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
Javier Areal Velez (Buenos Aires , Argentina)
Kevin Ramsay (NYC, USA)
Artist Bios
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, KOK Siew-Wai 郭小慧 started out as a video artist, now active as an improvised vocalist and independent artist-curator & organizer. She received her B.A. in Media Study at University at Buffalo, and M.F.A. in Electronic Integrated Arts at Alfred University in USA, where she based from 1998-2005. Siew-Wai has shown her videos, performed and presented her curatorial video programs in Asia, Europe, Canada and USA, including CTM Festival 2019 (Germany), allEars Improvised Music Festival 2018 (Norway), Hanoi New Music Festival 2018 (Vietnam), Nusasonic 2018 (Indonesia), KaoHsiung Film Festival 2018 (Taiwan), Choppa Experimental Music Festival 2016, 2017 (Singapore), Singapore International Film Festival 2015, Asian Meeting Festival 2015 (Japan), Asian Film & Video Art Forum 2015 (South Korea), Asian Experimental Video Festival in Hong Kong 2014, Video Art Attack! 2013 (Belgium), Bangkok Experimental Film Festival 2012, Malaysia-Japan Video Art Exchange 2009-2010, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2007, Les Rencontres Internationales 2007 (France), solo exhibition & performance in Beyond/In Western New York Biennial 2005 (USA) and many more. Her video-text and improvised vocal performance piece “Language of Self” (2011) was collected by the He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, China.
Siew‐Wai has a deep passion for the experimental and improvisational arts. She feels that it is important to embrace the variety of unique expressions in the arts, especially not to discriminate works that are lesser known or that challenge conventional codes and expectations. After moving back to Malaysia in 2005 and realising the lack of alternative voices in the local art scene, Siew-Wai has decided to devote her time and energy as an artist-organizer. She set up SiCKL (Studio in Cheras Kuala Lumpur), an alternative artist collective with her peers, and organized many DIY video screenings and music events since then. She was the co-director of Sama-sama Guesthouse Mini Alternative Art Festival 2010, a no-budget DIY art festival. Siew-Wai’s most committed role is as the co-founder, co-founder/curator/director of the Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival (KLEX). Through KLEX, she is actively connected with the international experimental art communities, and has shown her curated video programmes in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and USA. She is currently teaching at the Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University, Malaysia.
Siew-Wai’s artworks are mostly personal and poetic, expressing various subjects in everyday life such as emotions, contemplation and the human body. Her greatest inspiration in artmaking comes from “the little things in everyday life”. She works with video and music improvisation, and is most interested in focusing and expressing the moment and reflecting on oneself inwardly. Her artmaking motivation is simple: she believes that insights and wisdom are discovered from the most honest and down-to-earth daily happenings. Her video making method is an extension of diary writing, a self-reflecting activity and a habit that she has adopted since 8 years old. In her improvisational vocal works, Siew-Wai is interested to explore the possibilities of the human voice, which can be a versatile musical instrument and an extension of human emotions. She is also keen on finding the “hidden sounds” within her being. She performs regularly in her native city Kuala Lumpur, and has been invited to perform in Asia, Europe, Australia, Canada and USA.
Javier Areal Vélez (Buenos Aires, 1985) is a composer, improviser and curator, who performs mostly on electric guitar, with or without objects stuffed between its strings. His musical approach relies heavily on a primal technique that emphasizes timbre and rhythm, avoiding traditional forms in favor of intensity and dynamic contrast. The physicality of his interactions with the guitar create estranged sonic entities that evolve haphazardly outside of specific genres.
After completing studies of Electroacoustic Composition at the National University of Quilmes, Javier pursued a fruitful career in experimental music as a soloist, band leader and through collaborations with artists such as Akira Sakata, Paal Nielsen-Love, Chris Pitsiokos, Audrey Chen, Brian Chase, Shayna Dunkelman, Nicola Hein, Axel Dörner, Ryoko Ono, Richard Scott, Andrew Drury, Jorge Espinal, Jack Wright and Violeta García.
Javier’s main group is CALATO (active since 2010), an experimental improvisation and composition quartet consisting of two wildly attacked prepared electric guitars, a drum set, a sampler and an amplified voice that makes all kinds of strange noises but rarely actually sings. CALATO has performed widely in Argentina’s most renowned venues and has toured Uruguay (2014), Brazil (2016, and International Experimental Music Festival 2017), Peru (Festival Integraciones, 2018) and Colombia (2019). CALATO has also commissioned and premiered works by renowned Argentinian composers (Federico Barabino, Lucio Capece, Cecilia Castro, Adriana de los Santos, Fernando Manassero, Nicolás Varchausky, Leonello Zambón and Zypce) and from avant-jazz American composer Chris Pitsiokos.
Other commitments have included performing and composing on noise/postpunk trio COSO (2009-2015) and on bizarre experimental pop band El Helicóptero (2013-2018), as well as being a founding member of Buenos Aires’ Improvisers Orchestra (2010-2011).
In the last couple of years, Javier has also focused intensely on solo performance, with three different setups: LOUD prepared electric guitar; duo consisting of prepared electric guitar and a laptop running a bad-tempered custom MAX/MSP patch that interacts using samples from other musicians; and an electronic set on Elektron Octatrack.
Over the last decade, Javier has toured extensively across South and North America, Europe and Japan. He has been invited to the French New Music Focus (Strasbourg, 2019), the Arts Delegates Program of the British Council (London, 2018), and has attended residencies at the Experimental Center of Teatro Argentino (La Plata, 2018), Centro de Investigaciones Artísticas (Buenos Aires, 2013) and Art Omi (New York, 2012).
His music can be found on a dozen international labels such as HatHut (Switzerland), Buh Records (Peru), Stereo-Neg & Geweih Ritual Documents (USA), Audition Records (Mexico), El Silencio (Chile), Jardinista! and PSH Ediziones (Arg).
Javier is the founder and director of RUIDO, an ongoing music series which aims to present the foremost experimental artists of diverse styles from all over the world for the first time in Argentina, connecting them with local musicians and audiences through a network of concerts, workshops and masterclasses. RUIDO has produced the first visits of Xiu Xiu, Bill Orcutt, Jeremy Gara, Los Pirañas, Julien Desprez and Mark Fell. In 2020, RUIDO has teamed up with experimental label TVL REC to produce STREAMING FEST, an international online festival of experimental music. The series has hosted home presentations by more than 100 artists from all over the world.
Javier’s plans for 2020-2021 include the release of his first solo guitar album (Nefarious Industries, USA), and four releases by CALATO: JOHN CAGE’S VARIATIONS (HatHut, Switzerland); CALATO + VientoX (Vestibular Records, USA), CALATO + 8 COMPOSERS and CALATO x CALATO.
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Javier Areal Vélez es un compositor e improvisador que concentra su trabajo en la guitarra eléctrica, tocada con o sin cosas metidas entre sus cuerdas. Su acercamiento a la interpretación se basa en una técnica primal que privilegia el timbre y el ritmo, evitando formas tradicionales en pos de intensidad, contraste dinámico y rareza generalizada. Las interacciones físicas con el instrumento crean resultados sonoros que escapan a cualquier género específico.
Recibido como Licenciado en Composición con Medios Electroacústicos en la Universidad Nacional de Quilmes en 2009, se dedica activamente a la actividad musical como solista y parte del cuarteto de experimental Calato (2010-).
Anteriormente fue compositor y guitarrista del quinteto de pop experimental El Helicóptero (2012-) y el trío noise COSO (2009-2015).. Ha colaborado con músicos de todo el mundo como Akira Sakata, Paal Nielsen-Love, Chris Pitsiokos, Audrey Chen, Brian Chase, Shayna Dunkelman, Nicola Hein, Axel Dörner, Ryoko Ono, Richard Scott, Andrew Drury, Jorge Espinal, Jack Wright y Violeta García.
Se presentó en salas y festivales de Buenos Aires como Festival Hyperlocal, Ciclo de Conciertos de Música Contemporánea del Teatro San Martín, Ciclo de Ensambles de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Centro de Arte Sonoro, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Centro Cultural de la Cooperación, ConDiT, Centro Nacional de la Música, Tecnópolis, Centro Cultural Rojas y Espacio Fundación Telefónica. A su vez, realizó numerosas giras en países de América del Sur y del Norte, Europa y Asia.
Su música fue editada en los sellos HatHut (Suiza), Buh Records (Perú), Stereo-Neg & Geweih Ritual Documents (EEUU), Audition Records (México), El Silencio (Chile), Jardinista! and PSH Ediziones (Argentina).
Fue invitado a los programas French New Music Focus (Estrasburgo, 2019), British Council Art Delegates (Londres, 2018) y realizó residencias en el Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Argentino (La Plata, 2018), el Centro de Investigaciones Artísticas (Buenos Aires, 2013) y Music Omi (New York, 2012).
Desde 2017 dirige RUIDO, un ciclo creado con el objetivo de presentar, por primera vez en Argentina, a los principales artistas de diversos estilos experimentales de todo el mundo, en conjunción con músicos y audiencias locales a través de una red de conciertos, talleres y clases magistrales. RUIDO produjo los debuts en el país de Xiu Xiu, Bill Orcutt, Jeremy Gara, Los Pirañas, Mark Fell y Julien Desprez, en coproducción con instituciones como el British Council, el Institut Français, el Centro Cultural Kirchner, el Cultural San Martín, la Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero, la Universidad de San Martín y el Centro de Arte Sonoro (CASo).
Otros trabajos en el campo de la curaduría y gestión cultural incluyen la coordinación artística del programa Colón Contemporáneo del Teatro Colón (2011-2019) y del Ciclo de Conciertos de Música Contemporánea del Teatro San Martín (2011-2016), además realizar diversas producciones de nueva música en Fundación PROA, el Centro Cultural Recoleta, la Usina del Arte y en numerosos espacios independientes.
Kevin Ramsay is a composer, producer, recording/mixing/mastering/sound engineer, and musician on several critically acclaimed international albums. Brooklyn born and based, Ramsay’s work focuses primarily on theoretical, practical aspects of sound recording/reproduction with unpredictable pairings of acoustic and electronic instruments. Kevin’s current works explore new ways to capture, mix, and process immersive audio for playback, on multichannel sound systems. In addition to serving as the Lead Sound Engineer at Harvestworks Digital Media, he continues to collaborate with a variety of international artists committed to using sound as their main creative medium. Kevin has worked with notable artist such as Michael Byron, Henry Threadgil, Art Jones, Joan Jonas, Pauline Kim- Harris and Conrad Harris (String Noise), Anne Tardos, Danilio Correale, Maria Grand, Prince Harvey, Emilio Vavarella, Malik Ameer Crumpler, Daniel Belquer, Jon-Carlos Evans and many others.