Winter 2022 Newsletter

Come experience the premiere of my new quadraphonic sound installation:

EXPLORATIONS OF THE ROBLAR QUARRY/
a moving picture in sound

Presented as one-third of
Mudflat
MILKBAR’s 50th Salon!

featuring works exclusively by Milkbar’s curators:

Mary Armentrout/ Merlin Coleman / Ian Winters

Opening:
March 12th at 3, 5:30 & 8pm

Gallery hours by appointment: 4-9pm
Tuesdays
March 15, 22, 29 & April 5
Fridays
March 18, 25 & April 1, 8

Ground Floor Show:
March 19th at 5:30pm (ADA accessible)

Closing:
April 9th at 3, 5:30 & 8pm

This is a collective show of 3 environmental works with my above-titled sound installation, Video Artist Ian Winters presenting his Tides piece (a 3-channel video installation), and Choreographer Mary Armentrout performing her solo titled “sitting down in it, and listening,” all in honor of our 50th Salon and the reopening of our studio.

COVID SAFETY:
We request that everyone attending be fully vaccinated, or if you have a medical condition preventing vaccination that you have tested negative the same day. We will require that everyone attending wear a mask when in the indoor spaces.


“Explorations” illuminates the voices of five people I interviewed over the past two years related to the proposal of a new Rock Quarry near my home. These voices and their stories have been my springboard, and it has been so enjoyable to work with them. They are: an activist, a government official, a musician and community organizer, a poet, and an ecologist who is also a poet.

Interviewee material is cut and spliced in particular and studied ways, capturing the musicality in the spoken voice recordings, and augmenting their inflections in an emotional tell. Looping, stacking, and repeating layers are integrated with my singing, speaking, and whispered voice, creating new rhythms, chords, and harmonies.

You can listen to a stereo sample of the piece "Rock Trucks" by clicking here.

The work also incorporates an original poem illustrating the somatic multiplicity of the harm extraction causes human, animal, and earthly bodies. These voices, sounds of cello, field recordings of wind, birds, and trucks have all been expertly mixed, mastered, and separated into a 4-channel surround sound system in collaboration with Eric Oberthaler. Eric has been an essential part of the long mixing/sculpting/composing process.


I am deeply thankful for his collaboration on the piece, and I know it is stronger in many aspects due to his wise contributions to the process. Thank you, Eric!

soundcloud.com/soundsliketree

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Instagram: @merlincolemann

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Merlin Coleman