Documentation of Sandra Binion performing “Yellow at Noon” with trombonist Garrett List, at Lower Manhattan Loft (New York), 1979. Courtesy of the Artist.
June 2, 2024 at 2:00pm
Experimental Sound Studio (ESS)
5925 N. Ravenswood Avenue
Chicago, IL 60660
Part 1
Sandra Binion performs Yellow at Noon (1979) with trombonist Jeb Bishop. Originally performed with trombonist Garrett List in his New York loft in 1979, Yellow at Noon is a simple action for a barefoot painter/performer who steps into yellow paint and walks a slow, straight path to the seated musician.
“Can performance theatre be a purely visual experience (with emotional connotations), akin to abstract painting? Perhaps.”
- Sandra Binion
Part 2
Musicians Sarah Clausen, Lia Kohl, and Peter Maunu improvise on themes composed for Sandra Binion by Roscoe Mitchell, Frank Abbinanti, Bertram Turetzky, and others.
About the Performers
Trombonist Jeb Bishop has been an active musician in Chicago and other cities since the 1980s. Initially entering the Chicago scene as bassist/guitarist with The Flying Luttenbachers and other groups, he returned to trombone and since 1995 has been working primarily in an improvised music context performing and recording with Ken Vandermark, Peter Brötzmann, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and many others.
Saxophonist, composer, and sound artist Sarah Clausen utilizes space, unique melodic content, and diverse textures to develop an approach to improvisation and composition that is forward-moving and inspired by many musical practices old and new. Her work ranges from solo electroacoustic performances to compositions for large groups.
Lia Kohl is a cellist, composer, and sound artist based in Chicago. Her wide-ranging practice includes solo composition and performance, installation, improvisation, and collaboration. She tours nationally and internationally, working in theater, jazz, rock, and experimental contexts. Her work centers curiosity and patience, an exploration of the mundane and profound possibilities of sound.
Guitarist/violinist Peter Maunu performed and recorded with countless musicians from the worlds of jazz, fusion, popular, and classical music during his years in Los Angeles. While in Chicago he has focused primarily on improvisation, collaborating with Jim Baker, Olivia Block, Ayako Kato, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Lou Mallozzi, Avreeyal Ra, Tomeka Reid, Mars Williams, Michael Zerang, and many others.
Presented as part of Sandra Binion: Autobiography of Looking.
Sandra Binion: Autobiography of Looking is a retrospective survey of five decades of the artist's interdisciplinary work taking place from April 12 through June 9, 2024 throughout Chicago. Curated by Mariana Mejía, the program includes an exhibition at Audible Gallery, a series of performances at auxiliary venues, and guided sessions of the artist's archives at Hyde Park Art Center.
Sandra Binion is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago. The works on display convey the trajectory of her career, from her early stages as a solo performance artist in the mid-1970s through her expansions into installation, video, sound, photography, painting, scent, and literature. The exhibition Sandra Binion: Autobiography of Looking contains visual artworks, artist's journals, and drawings; performance props, scripts, scores, and documentation; as well as promotional materials and reviews from her archives. It also reflects her many collaborations with artists, such as musicians Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Tatsu Aoki, Leroy Jenkins, and Harrison Bankhead; performer Eponine Cuervo Moll; filmmaker Amos Poe; photographer Dirk Bakker; and architect Marc Dilet. An installation of Searching for Emma (2021), a photographic series accompanied by a sound composition by Lou Mallozzi, is also included in this exhibition.
Performances include Sandra Binion's "Duras Piece" (1998) and "Suite for Bass and Ironing Bored Variation" (1983) at Asian Improv Arts Midwest on April 28; "Figure, Painting" (1983) at Roman Susan on May 18; "Yellow at Noon" (1979) at Experimental Sound Studio on June 2; and “Homage à Odilon Redon" (1979) at Galerie Fledermaus on June 6.
On the occasion of this retrospective survey, the artist is self-publishing a 260-page monograph that includes descriptive annotations of over 50 performances, installations, exhibitions from her career; with an introduction written by curator Mariana Mejía and essays by musicologist Ryan Dohoney, performer and scholar Tara Aisha Willis, and art historian Chris Reeves.
Public collections that hold works by Sandra Binion include The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art (New York), Musée Flaubert (Rouen, France), Monasterio de San Lazzaro degli Armeni (Venice, Italy), and University Art Museum of Kyoto City University of Arts (Japan). Her multimedia project Distillé (based on Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary) has been shown in various iterations since 2014 in the US, France, and Japan. She is currently under commission to create a transhistorical video in dialogue with the Norwegian painter Harriet Backer (1845–1932), which will premiere at the Musée d’Orsay (Paris) in September 2024.