PERFORMANCES AND ACTIVATIONS FOR CALDER: HYPERMOBILITY

NEW YORK, June 7, 2017—Calder: Hypermobility, opening on June 9 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, focuses on the extraordinary breadth of motion achieved by Alexander Calder (1898–1976) in his works, from the moment he turned to radical abstraction in 1930 and continuing throughout his career. Thanks to an unprecedented collaboration with the Calder Foundation, this exhibition provides visitors with a rare opportunity to experience works set in motion by motors or air currents and further animated by touch. In addition, a number of rarely seen works will be brought to the Museum for special one-time activations led by Alexander S. C. Rower, President of the Calder Foundation and grandson of the artist. These events will take place in both the gallery and theater. A schedule of activations is listed below.

The exhibition features an expansive series of performances and events, bringing contemporary artists into dialogue with Calder as they interplay their own disparate practices with his innovations. Christian Marclay opens this series with a week-long performance that engages with Calder’s first suspended mobile, Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere (1932/33), which also acts as a chance procedure sound score. Marclay will perform this piece alongside his frequent collaborator, cellist Okkyung Lee, during ticketed performances on select evenings. Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere will also be activated for intimate audiences on a timed schedule throughout the week of Marclay’s residency in July.

On August 5 and 6, Jack Quartet, a New York–based string quartet, performs musical compositions in the gallery over the course of a weekend, creating a sonic experience within the exhibition and drawing connections between Calder and composers Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, and others. From September 7 through 10, experimental composer and musician Arto Lindsay will host an event focusing on noisemakers and rattles made by Calder following his visits to Brazil in the late 1940s. From September 29 through October 1, Math Bass and Lauren Davis Fisher will present their performance piece Quiet Work in Session. From October 13 through 15, sculptural installation artist Abigail DeVille, with director Charlotte Brathwaite, debuts a new piece entitled Empire State Works in Progress (2017), bringing together collaborators in the Whitney’s theater. From October 20 through 22, artists Nora Schultz, Jill Magid, C. Spencer Yeh, and others create new performance-based works inspired by Calder’s artistic practice, revealing the many ways in which his art continues to challenge and inform new generations. The complete schedule is below.

The Whitney hosts a screening of films by contemporary artists including Ephraim Asili, Rosa Barba, Lucy Raven, and Agnès Varda, among others, commissioned by the Calder Foundation. This program will be followed by a conversation with the artists moderated by Victoria Brooks, Curator, Time-Based Visual Art at EMPAC/ Rensselaer.

Musician Jim O’Rourke has created an original composition to be experienced as a sound walk through the exhibition. In this piece, elements of jazz, modern composition, and field recordings interact as gradually reappearing musical components, forming a complex internal structure through their own motions.

Organized by Jay Sanders, former Engell Speyer Family Curator and Curator of Performance at the Whitney, with Greta Hartenstein, senior curatorial assistant, and Melinda Lang, curatorial assistant, the exhibition opens in the Museum’s eighth-floor Hurst Family Galleries on June 9 and runs through October 23, 2017.

A complete schedule of performances and activations is noted below. For updates and to purchase or reserve tickets, visit whitney.org.

PERFORMANCES & ACTIVATIONS

Daily activations of works in the exhibition
Monday–Thursday: 12, 2, and 4 pm
Fridays: 12, 2, 4, 7:30, 8, and 9 pm
Saturday and Sunday: 11 am; 12, 1, 2, 3, and 4 pm

Calder Foundation activations
Wednesday, June 21, 2 pm (Floor 8, Hurst Family Galleries): Object with Red Ball, 1931
Wednesday, June 28, 2 pm (Floor 3, Susan and John Hess Family Theater): Boomerangs, 1941
Sunday, July 9, 4 pm (Floor 3, Susan and John Hess Family Theater): Tightrope, 1936
Wednesday, July 12, 2 pm (Floor 8, Hurst Family Galleries): Goldfish Bowl, 1929
Tuesday, July 18, 2 pm (Floor 8, Hurst Family Galleries): Untitled, c. 1934
Wednesday, July 26, 2 pm (Floor 8, Hurst Family Galleries): Untitled, 1938
August, September, and October dates forthcoming

Christian Marclay performs Calder’s Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere
July 19–23
Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Jack Quartet
August 5–6
Hurst Family Galleries

Arto Lindsay (in conjunction with the exhibition Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium)
September 7–10
Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Jill Magid
Thursday, September 28
Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Math Bass and Lauren Davis Fisher perform Quiet Work in Session
September 29–October 1
Susan and John Hess Family Theater

C. Spencer Yeh
October 5–6
Susan and John Hess Family Theater

A screening of films commissioned by the Calder Foundation by artists Ephraim Asili, Rosa Barba, Lucy Raven, Agnès Varda, and others, followed by a conversation moderated by Victoria Brooks
Saturday, October 7
Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Abigail DeVille with director Charlotte Brathwaite, debuts new work, entitled Empire State Works in Progress
October 13–15
Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Nora Schultz
October 20–22
Susan and John Hess Family Theater

ABOUT CALDER: HYPERMOBILITY

This focused survey explores the extraordinary range of motion and sound in the work of Alexander Calder (1898–1976), one of the most innovative and renowned sculptors of the twentieth century. Deeply fascinated by dance and theater, Calder created motorized and wind-propelled sculptures that produce gentle rotations as well as bold, uncanny gestures, and at times trigger unpredictable percussive sounds. While Calder has been widely celebrated for his radical introduction of movement in sculpture, the kinetic aspect of his work has been especially challenging for museums to present. This unique exhibition reveals the diverse anatomical designs within Calder’s practice and provides an unprecedented opportunity to experience the works as the artist intended—in motion.