Post by Patcat on Aug 24, 2011 13:49:38 GMT -5
I got this note from Mr. Balcer regarding some projects.
Here's some news -- shameless self-promotion -- that you can share with the board, since it will help out a couple of blues musicians. Earlier this summer, I collaborated with the Chinese artist Xu Bing (you can google him) on an artwork that will be part of his exhibition of new works at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond opening Sept. 10 this year. The exhibit is called "Xu Bing: Tobacco Project". It is some two dozen works revolving around the theme of tobacco (you can find articles about it online).
Anyway, the work that Xu Bing and I collaborated on involved my composing a poem using words and phrases from stencils that 19th Century Virginia tobacco farms used to brand their tobacco before sending it to market. Xu Bing incorporated the poem into an artwork printed on cigarette paper. What I composed is an ode to the beautiful black women who broke their backs picking tobacco -- tobacco is an incredibly arduous crop to harvest and still done by hand.
Having written the poem -- entitled "Backbone", I and a musician buddy found two old-timey blues musicians from North Carolina -- Captain Luke and Big Ron Hunter -- to set the poem to music and record it as a blues-country song. The results are now on iTunes and Amazon -- just search "backbone captain luke" and you'll find the song and a nice instrumental version. All proceeds will go to Captain Luke and Big Ron Hunter in Winston-Salem.
I hope you'll enjoy the music -- and if you're in Richmond between Sept 10 and November 20th, be sure to check out the Xu Bing exhibit at the VMFA.
Via Patcat
Here's some news -- shameless self-promotion -- that you can share with the board, since it will help out a couple of blues musicians. Earlier this summer, I collaborated with the Chinese artist Xu Bing (you can google him) on an artwork that will be part of his exhibition of new works at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond opening Sept. 10 this year. The exhibit is called "Xu Bing: Tobacco Project". It is some two dozen works revolving around the theme of tobacco (you can find articles about it online).
Anyway, the work that Xu Bing and I collaborated on involved my composing a poem using words and phrases from stencils that 19th Century Virginia tobacco farms used to brand their tobacco before sending it to market. Xu Bing incorporated the poem into an artwork printed on cigarette paper. What I composed is an ode to the beautiful black women who broke their backs picking tobacco -- tobacco is an incredibly arduous crop to harvest and still done by hand.
Having written the poem -- entitled "Backbone", I and a musician buddy found two old-timey blues musicians from North Carolina -- Captain Luke and Big Ron Hunter -- to set the poem to music and record it as a blues-country song. The results are now on iTunes and Amazon -- just search "backbone captain luke" and you'll find the song and a nice instrumental version. All proceeds will go to Captain Luke and Big Ron Hunter in Winston-Salem.
I hope you'll enjoy the music -- and if you're in Richmond between Sept 10 and November 20th, be sure to check out the Xu Bing exhibit at the VMFA.
Via Patcat
