AVA is very pleased to announce it’s inaugural Front Room exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist John Andrew, entitled A Room (Dilated), including sculpture and vinyl lettering.

Andrew’s work functions as a vehicle for attuning, or retuning, individual patterns of attention and perception. The works activate perceptual complexity; they create a horizon, in a phenomenological sense, and the perceiver is left to process the information and stretch the mind. At the center of the exhibition is a kinetic sculpture called “Domestic Drone”. The object consists of a harmonica from the 1940’s mounted onto a small German fan from the early 1980’s. When plugged in, a subtle single note drone can be heard. The constant shift in electricity and air, mingled with the purr of the fan causes an audible waver that is trance inducing. Andrew sees this transcendent state as an opportunity to celebrate powers of the human imagination. La Monte Young said the following when speaking of his introduction to sustained tones: “I really felt that it was the most incredible revelation I’d had in music. It became the key to my understanding of the relationship between sound and feeling, and to my theories about universal structure, and our perception of universal structure, and our perception of time…” –As related to David Doty in 1/1: The Journal of the Just Intonation Network [Autumn, 1989].

“Domestic Drone” was recorded to tape and an edition of 100, double sided locked groove copies of the recording have been pressed to 7” white vinyl. The record, along with a blind embossed insert, will be sold during the exhibition. John Andrew has exhibited work at The Living Art Museum (Reykjavik, Iceland), TAKT Kunstprojektraum (Berlin), Fold Gallery (London), and Phillips De Pury (New York). This is his first solo show in New York. A forthcoming show at AVA will take place in the fall of 2009.

?, by Arp, is composed of four site-specific pieces that will inaugurate AVA’s Exterior Sounds series. These sound installations will be transmitted through a permanent speaker box on the facade of the space. Each of the four pieces will be developed in relation to specific times of the day and presented at those times. Day to day life in modern society is so structured around The Work Day. Each phase of the day – waking, preparing to leave the house, transit to work, the work day, the end of work, transit home, dinner, after dinner, before bed, bed, sleep – has its own rhythms, its own tide and pull. Even when not dictated by work, each day has its own phases.

As a listener, and typically someone who doesn’t like to be jarred unexpectedly, each of these sections of the day inspire different listening habits. In Classical Indian music, Ragas are composed with different times of the day in mind. And each raga is performed only at those specific times. ? is an experiment in responding to these different time zones with the hope of inspiring a rarified moment, a moment where the time of day and the sounds meet to take one out of the habitual. –Arp

Arp is a recent project of Alexis Georgopoulos, whose debut album “In Light” was released by Smalltown Supersound in 2008. He is also a member of The Alps, whose debut album “III” was just released by Type (UK) and Expanding Head Band, who released their debut remix for DFA in mid–2008. He has performed in SFMoMA, 303 Gallery, Luggage Store Gallery, Jack Hanley Gallery, New Langton Arts, Yerba Buena Center, and Frieze Art Fair. He has released work on Troubleman Unlimited, Rong, Eskimo, White Columns, and Deitch Projects and has remixed Lawrence Wiener, Lindstrom and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

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Exterior Sounds is a monthly audio series that will feature exclusive site-specific experimental sound works created by select fine artists, performers, and musicians. It’s purpose is to serve those in transit. It could be a 30 second transmission for the night owl at 3am, a 15 minute transmission for the soup kitchen’s homeless line-up (next door), or an hour long transmission for the early morning dog walkers and commuters. The goal is to set the stage for unique public audio encounters. A cohesive schedule of future Exterior Sounds transmissions will be posted on AVA’s website.