Eighth Blackbird
Archive
2021
the light of the dark
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Archive
2021
About the Work
This projection, created by the Chicago-based, Grammy Award-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird and new media artist and filmmaker Xuan, celebrated the Year of Chicago Music in 2021 by spreading joy and adventure through adventurous music.
the light of the dark featured music by renowned composer and Bang on a Can co-founder Michael Gordon, written for and recorded by the ensemble, as the inspiration for projections by Xuan. Xuan’s visual design depicted an exuberant landscape by using bright, colorful shapes, and geometric animations derived from THE MART, simultaneously highlighting architectural aspects of the building’s facade and the intricate compositional structure.
About Eighth Blackbird
Eighth Blackbird is a four-time Grammy award-winning Chicago-based ensemble that has gained international recognition since winning the 1998 Concert Artists Guild Competition. It was named Musical America’s 2017 Ensemble of the Year, was an inaugural recipient of Chamber Music America’s Visionary Award, and garnered the prestigious MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.
About Xuan
Xuan is a new media artist, filmmaker, and pianist working at the intersection of music, art, and technology. Her work encompasses projection design, experimental animation, abstract scenography, and interactive installations, and has been shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as in concert venues across the US and internationally.
“I imagined a chaos onstage, with the musicians grabbing the nearest available instrument and playing music on it. The piece starts with a heavy-metal-esque cello line and builds from there into a kind of out-of-control, late-night jam session, complete with unpredictable crashes, swirling virtuosic fiddling and colliding crescendos.”