Lead & Coal: A Sounding - A sound performance by NNN Cook, Nokosee Fields, and Josh Levi with video by Gavin Kroeber and Aaron Owens
Presented by Tulsa Artist Fellowship in collaboration with Counterpublic
“Lead & Coal: A Sounding” is a sound art and critical spatial practice project exploring mining landscapes in St. Louis’ constitutive hinterlands: the Old Missouri Lead Belt and Southern Illinois Coal Belt. 19th-century St. Louis can arguably be understood as an extractivist war machine: digging up Illinois coal, melting Missouri lead, producing armaments for the St. Louis Arsenal, and provisioning the genocidal military forces at Jefferson Barracks. Over the past year, artists NNN Cook, Nokosee Fields, Gavin Kroeber, Josh Levi, and Aaron Owens have been visiting these post-industrial territories and performing “soundings”—sonic experiments conducted on, in, at, with, and for the land.
During this performance, Cook, Fields, and Levi will mark the culmination of the wider project with a new improvised sound composition, drawing on their work together in the field. Video by Kroeber and Owens will accompany the performance and copies of a new limited edition vinyl record by the artists, released by Cook’s Close/Far Recordings label, will be available for sale.
This performance is being held on the occasion of Counterpublic’s inaugural convening, Circus of Life, a festival of artists, writers, and advocates imagining new ways of being in the world. Curated by Laura Raicovich, the weekend-long event hosts performances, workshops, and interactive artist experiences at The Big Top in the Grand Center Arts District.
Vinyl edition preorders can be made at www.close-far.com
Funding for Lead & Coal: A Sounding was provided by The Luminary’s Futures Fund, a regional regranting initiative made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and Tulsa Artist Fellowship, a place-based, durational award dedicated to supporting visionary arts practitioners.
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