Zemi17’s GamelaTrons bring meditative music to Chelsea (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
FACING EAST
Sundaram Tagore Gallery
547 West 27th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through April 2, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-677-4520
www.sundaramtagore.com
www.zemi17.net
gamelatron slideshow
Since March 4, the northern edge of the Chelsea art district has been alive with the sound of an unusual kind of music, and this is the last week to be drawn in by its meditative mystery and magic. The rhythmic chiming is coming from both inside and outside the Sundaram Tagore Gallery on West 27th St., part of the “Facing East” group show focusing on works by contemporary artists from Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India, and Uzbekistan. Interspersed among such paintings as Hiroshi Senju’s “Waterfall” and Natvar Bhavsar’s “Truptya” is a pair of site-specific audiovisual installations by American artist, composer, and musician Aaron Taylor Kuffner, aka Zemi17, who spent several years in Indonesia studying traditional Balinese and Javanese music. In the back room is “Ansambel Gender Wayang,” what Kuffner refers to as “the world’s first fully robotic Gamelan Orchestra,” with a quartet of percussive GamelaTrons, as well as a sharp-toothed turtle, performing a series of computerized scores that allow visitors to watch the various hammers banging up and down. Meanwhile, “Trompongan Gede,” consisting of dozens of gongs, bells, hammers, mallets, and lights placed throughout the rest of the gallery, play numerous compositions that can be both cacophonous and soothing, restful and energizing. “The reactions vary widely,” Kuffner told twi-ny. “Some people are surprised or even frightened; others are elated and seem to turn into curious children just after hearing a couple gongs ring out.” The show continues through April 2.
Developed with the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots (LEMUR), the GamelaTrons come with a spacey sci-fi back story that you don’t need to know about to enjoy the sounds, but in case you’re curious, here’s how Zemi17 describes it: “In the not too distant future, after massive climate change has transformed the earth and made human life as we know it impossible, our descendants — an ethereal synthesis of our human consciousness and highly advanced robot technology — discover a set of bronze percussive instruments buried in the earth. The sounds from striking these gongs and bells awaken memories and dreams from an era long past. These future beings develop a simple set of networked mechanical mallets that mimic the movements of the human musicians they have seen in their dreams. The songs this robot orchestra plays tell joyful, sad, bittersweet, wise, and wondering stories from the time of the human race’s great transformation.”