Dorian Wood was planning a major cross-country move when she received an out-of-the-blue phone call that would alleviate some of the stress of upheaval. The call, from multidisciplinary artist Matana Roberts, let her know that she was set to receive a $45,000 unrestricted award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. “It was very humbling,” Wood said over the phone. “It was this huge sigh of relief. It’s been very, very helpful since then to not panic so much about my financial situation.”
Established in 1963 by John Cage and Jasper Johns, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts is funded by artists, for artists. The foundation’s by-nomination award is annually given to 23 artists working in the fields of dance, music/sound, performance art/theater, poetry, and the visual arts, and has a vast history. In music and sound alone, awarded artists include Philip Glass, La Monte Young, Pauline Oliveros, Raven Chacon, Pamela Z, Du Yun, Meredith Monk, and hundreds more. More than a lifeline, it is also a recognition of an artist’s commitment to their craft.
This year’s music/sound winners — Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork, Jamal R. Moore, David Watson, and Dorian Wood — offer a glimpse into different ways of working with sound, whether it be experimenting on bagpipes, creating interdisciplinary sculptures, or composing longform, immersive pieces. Though all of these artists have dedicated many years to their craft, high cost of living, touring, and other financial and life circumstances can make it hard to find time to create. For the three artists we interviewed, this money is providing much-needed space to dive into long-term projects.
With her funding, Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork is working on two large-scale projects to be presented in the fall at the Empty Gallery in Hong Kong. Gork’s practice spans sound, sculpture, and performance, often uniting all three and incorporating extensive research. Many of her works envelop the audience in feedback by placing speakers around the room; her sculptures also sit inside of the space, modifying, reflecting, and creating sound. Recent pieces like Solutions to Common Noise Problems, a six channel sound installation paired with wool and hair coats, and Olistrostrome, a 12 channel installation with large, rumpled foam masses, exemplify Gork’s interdisciplinary practice.
Though she has exhibited there before, working with Empty Gallery is always a special opportunity for Gork. This 4,500 square foot black box theater is built especially for media art, with a focus on presenting time-based, ephemeral works. It’s also completely sound isolated, making it possible to present in the space without distraction or outside noise. “At Empty Gallery, I can really just do anything,” Gork said over the phone. “I’m really excited about that work.”
Both pieces to be presented this fall incorporate Gork’s deep research through multiple mediums. In this particular moment, she has found it imperative to explore themes of war through her art. One work comprises fountains made from American military planes, which will have microphones attached to them to capture feedback, manipulate it, and project it outward. The other delves into the history of Okinawa’s lime caves, which have served as shelters and were used by the Japanese military during the Battle of Okinawa. Gork is interested in looking at these caves from all angles and using them as a vehicle for conversations about war and its effects, as well as personal stories. This depth is a new endeavor, and one that Gork is excited by. “My research tends to start with putting myself physically into acoustic situations and experiencing them and listening to them, and then wrapping my head around all the complexity of what’s happening,” she said. “This is one of the first times where I’m really going in and also looking at the histories and what these spaces signify culturally as well as acoustically.”
David Watson is using his FCA award to take more liberties with the bagpipes and put resources into his curatorial work. Watson has had a long dedication to experimental music, playing bagpipes and guitar, working across compositional styles and genres, and programming shows for the last four decades. He has collaborated with numerous luminaries of the scene, including Phill Niblock, Ikue Mori, Robert Ashley, Yoshi Wada, Lee Ranaldo, and many others. Bagpipes have especially become central to his practice; he has dedicated much of his time to developing a new language for the instrument. His love of the bagpipes ties to his passion for music that lives outside of the mainstream. “It is kind of an outsider instrument, and that’s part of why I chose it — that appealed to me,” Watson said over Zoom.
It takes many hours a week in the practice room to maintain a base level of proficiency on the bagpipes, which is a difficult instrument to master. “I still think I’m a beginner, but I’ve been doing it for 35 years,” Watson said with a laugh. “It’s about just being prepared to not have anything to prove and work that way…being able to see principles inherent in [the instrument] and listening.” Watson hopes to find more balance between perfecting the art of playing the bagpipes with time for performance and experimentation. “I need to [practice], but being able to drop that and not be completely tied to your physical needs is where I feel like the art happens,” he said.
FCA money will also go toward his curatorial work, like his monthly concert series in New York, Striped Light, which he co-presents with Ian Douglas-Moore. As a curator, Watson seeks to create space for cross-genre sharing. He has always been drawn to music that isn’t mainstream and seeks to amplify these voices. “We have ideas, we have directions, but are also open to letting things happen,” he said. “I like to book things that have a hard time finding anywhere else, things that are of good value but don’t fit in somewhere else. That would be a great show for me.”
For Dorian Wood, the FCA award has made it possible for her to transform her way of working. Her boundary-pushing works traverse music and visual arts: current projects include You are clearly in perversion, a tumultuous drone collaboration with Thor Harris (of the influential experimental rock band Swans), La Nada Que Te Ama, a ritualistic performance of voice and body, and Mares Ocultos, a series of experimental compositions that examine heteronormativity.
Wood’s practice requires her to travel often to perform, which means that much of her work is written in short bursts of free time or at artist residencies. With FCA funding, she is renting her own studio. “Getting used to [having a dedicated studio space] has been really joyous, but also it’s taking me out of the comfort zone of being constantly on the move,” she said. “It’s allowed me to really sit and focus more on a period of time in which I am not necessarily caught up in the urgency of being in between things. It’s very much a process of growth.”
In this studio, Wood will work on a variety of projects, including transforming her 12-hour work Canto de Todes into a shorter album version. The three-movement composition is inspired by words written by the late Chilean singer and songwriter Violetta Parra, calling into focus the importance of music as a vessel to inspire social change. Wood’s piece moves between chamber works that blend folk, pop, and experimental sound and a longform composition, and has been performed in venerated spaces including New York’s Park Avenue Armory. The album version offers a different way for people to experience Wood’s work — in their home, creating their own means of immersion and contemplation.
Each of these artists collaborate with others and use music as a place for exploration, storytelling, and connection. The Foundation for Contemporary Arts award makes it possible for them to do what artists do best: Bring people together not only to commune, but to think, to be, and to move forward. “Sound art is so much based on your interactions with people and talking to people, asking how they listen and what they hear, and collaborating with other musicians,” Gork said. “The nice thing about being an artist is that we get to engage with our audience. I am thankful that I’m with a community of people.”
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