Image
Two people seated at a small square table on a stage. The woman has her hand in a clapping motion above her head. The man looks t hr with mouth open and hands on table in fists.

Hitting Things, Saying Things

Sean Griffin
January 12–17, 2009
Studio 1—Goodman

Composer Sean Griffin has created large and small-scale concert works, collaborative sound and video installations, film scores, and many projects in between. While in residence at EMPAC, Griffin created and then presented Hitting Things, Saying Things, an evening of performances that spans work that Griffin refers to as “percussion theater.” These staged compositions use ploys such as an aurally driven, virtuosic game of pattycake, theatricalized misuse of household objects, and other dissolutions of music performance into the terrain of theater.

Performers included Don Nichols, Greg Stewart, and Aiyun Huang and the show featured the premiere of a new work for Huang, an acclaimed soloist from Montreal whose theatricality as a performer blends music with theater. Encompassing many languages, styles, media, and forms, Griffin states that his unique compositional works “rely on interdisciplinary incongruities positioned at the intersection of sound, image, performance, and the archive.” His works have been commissioned and presented internationally; Griffin lives and works in Los Angeles.

Main Image: Hitting Things, Saying Things at EMPAC in 2009.

Artist
Curator
Premiere

January 17, 2009