Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) tossed cymbals, banged gongs, and blew bird whistles into a microphone on Friday night at the Berkeley Art Museum as part four of the Gatherings series curated by David Wilson. Stewart aimed to create sounds inspired by “the night, animal calls, and quietness.” His performance was completely chaotic seeming to be propelled by nothing more than Stewart’s impulses creating an animalistic element.  The crashing cymbals, that even Stewart plugged his ears for, induced a shock that hastened heart rates, increased anxiety levels and seemed to put its listeners on edge. Upon closing my eyes a primal feeling arose inside me as if I were an animal being hunted in the night. Continue Reading More »

A tall slight man carried a blank sign through the sea of seated people silencing them in his wake. Then Liz Harris, of the music project Grouper, trickled through the crowd and the sounds began cascading down from the cement balconies that comprise the University of Berkeley’s Art Museum. Grouper’s installation performance piece SLEEP is part two of four Friday night ‘Gatherings’ curated by David Wilson at the Berkeley Art Museum. In this performance Liz Harris uses tape-collage, live instruments and the cavernous architecture of the Berkeley Art Museum to create a ‘downward-pulling current, lulling with the hiss and resonating pulse of watery sound and light’.

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