The BQE by Sufjan Stevens.

This past Saturday night I was reminded of how much not a genius I am. I'll say it again and again: Sufjan Stevens is a musical genius. The Brooklyn Acacemy of Music or BAM as most people know it commissioned Sufjan to compose a suite of music based on the BQE, also known as the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.
"Robert Moses' controversial 11.7-mile roadway tears through neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens with the brute force of modern urban planning, and in Stevens' hands becomes an evocation of the intersection of intimate experience and the American Dream. Merging a virtual road trip shot on film with a live band and orchestral ensemble, The BQE discovers abstract patterns and stories in the snaking traffic, potholed pavement, billboards, badly marked exits, and beautiful city views, revealing what happens when Manifest Destiny converges with urban blight.
To tackle this project Sufjan composed roughly 40 minutes of music for a nearly complete orchestra, which is not something new in terms of size. Of course the core band members were in tact. Accompanying the music were 3 small movie house sized projections. The moving images traced the BQE using many different perspectives: on the road, from below, looking out on to scenes of Brooklyn or Manhattan... all in constant movement. To accentuate the notion of perpetual movement and cycles "hoopers" (hoolahoopers) performed in specific moments and with specific choreographed movements. In fact all movements physical, musical and otherwise were in tandem. This created a performance one step further than his normal concerts. At the end and after many standing ovations me and Holly (friend from my gallery) were ready to walk out fully content and inspired. Ahh but it was only time for intermission, Sufjan and Co. were to come back and perform roughly 40 minutes of his "hits".

I see a lot of art and listen to a lot of music. I make a lot of art and I used to make a lot of music.
I make art because the act of making it inspires me. It inspires me to question, investigate and make more beautifully complex things (although, I'm secretly searching for simplicity). Most things in the real world that I find inspiring have to do with nature and it's complex mystery. In addition, I love how wonderfully flawed we are in comparison and how we relate/interact with our surroundings - nature or not. Sufjan Stevens music and overall project is the closest thing to those notions that I can think of.

On Sunday I went searching for pictures of the performance on Flickr. The first image out of hundreds (only 12 hours after the actual event) was a picture of the back of my head looking at the stage. How strange is that?

thanks Tammy Lo.

And here is a scene from the climax of the Hoopers.