Symphony (Junkestra) and Videos from the San Francisco Dump November 16, 2007

Oboes and violins will make way for serving trays and copper pipes when musicians perform local composer Nathaniel Stookey’s “Junkestra” an original symphony in three movements under the baton of San Francisco Symphony Resident Conductor Benjamin Schwartz and played by the percussion section from the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. “Here's a hot ticket for those who like to complain that modern music is just so much junk,” writes Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle.


The evening will begin with short videos created by five of the program’s artists, including “I Am Your Appetite” by Banker White, “Dining at the Dump” by Robin Lasser, “The Why of the System” by Nomi Talisman, and untitled video works by Don Ross and Reddy Lieb. After the intermission, Junkestra will take the stage for first large audience event bringing this special performance from the dump to San Francisco’s historic Herbst Theatre at the Civic Center.


During his four month residency in 2007, Stookey assembled what he calls “a sonorous collection of pipes, pans, mixing bowls, bottles, serving trays, deck railings, dresser drawers, oil drums, bike wheels, saws, garbage cans, bathroom fixtures, bird-cages and shopping carts.” The result, he said, “is a richer palette of timbre and pitch than anything I could have foreseen or designed.” Following rave reviews from those who attended one of the three performances at the end of Stookey’s residency last May, the company decided to organize another performance to share “Junkestra” with more people. (For those who can’t attend the event, a rehearsal recording can be also accessed from the company’s website.)


There will also be a short video tribute to the program’s founder Jo Hanson, who passed away earlier this year. Jo was a local environmental artist well known for a project documenting 17 years of neighborhood changes through the litter she gathered while sweeping the streets on her block in the lower Haight. She was a previous San Francisco Art Commissioner who approached Norcal in 1988 with the idea to start the residency program to allow artists access to San Francisco’s trash.


Although the residency program is famous for hosting artists who make found object sculptures, collage, and conceptual art, several artists have also made short videos over the years that have usually been incorporated into a sculpture or used as part of an installation. This is the first time the videos will be shown to a large audience, one after the other, on a big screen.


Since 1990 more than 65 artists have worked at the San Francisco Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Center (“the Dump”) making art from what San Franciscans throw away. Norcal has sponsored artists working in a variety of media and holding art exhibitions at the company’s on-site art studio for 17 years.


Tickets priced at $10 and $15 are available from www.cityboxoffice.com. Proceeds will benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco, Visitacion Valley Club House.


Art made from trash encourages us to be less wasteful – that is the aim of Norcal’s Artist In Residence Program, started by the San Francisco waste haulers to spur people to conserve natural resources and to instill in children and adults increased appreciation for the environment as well as art. More than 65 professional Bay Area artists have completed residencies. Applications are accepted annually (in August) from professional artists from the Bay Area.


Contact:

Deborah Munk

415-330-1414

[email protected]

www.norcalwaste.com/AIR

Official Website: http://www.sfrecycling.com/AIR/nextshow.htm