Humanities Cultural Programme Ashmolean After Hours

Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the
future  Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.

This event part of the Innovation Provocation: Transnational Avant-Gardes Season 

Ashmolean After Hours: Avant Garde!

Friday 20 May 2022, 5.00pm-8.00pm

This event is free, but registration is required. To register please visit the Ashmolean website.

This launch event is part of the ‘Avant-garde!’ Season, celebrating experimental and new performance, in collaboration with the Ashmolean Museum Oxford.

At this After Hours, come into the museum for pop-up musical and dance performances reflecting the international and diverse objects in the collections. Experience the disruptive, creative energy of avant-garde artistic practice across history, across the world, and into the present. We will explore the transnational reach and momentum of the avant-garde, and celebrate its enduring capacity to engage and excite, innovate and inspire in equal measure. 

The event will feature performances from Tangram Collective and Trio Atem alongside other experimental performers throughout the galleries. 

The Avant-garde Season is part of the Humanities Cultural Programme.  

This event is free, but registration is required. To register please visit the Ashmolean website.

Programme: 

https://torch.ox.ac.uk/files/torchafterhours20thmay3pdf

Performers:

Tangram Collective

Steel and Bamboo

Bio: Reylon Young (Yangqin) and Daniel Shao (Flute) present an eclectic and unique program, from ancient Chinese duets, atmospheric traditional Yangqin music, through to dreamy Debussy and contemporary compositions such as Isang Yun's visceral Etude no 5 for solo flute, interspersed with improvisations. 

Amalia Young:

Jürg Frey - A Memory of Perfection 
Cassandra Miller - For Mira 

Amalia Young is a violinist whose practice encompasses western classical and experimental music. She has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician in the UK and the US, and frequently enjoys collaborating with composers and visual artists. She is currently reading for the MSt in music (performance) at the University of Oxford.

Gavin Osborn

Eye of the Sound

Gavin Osborn is a flautist, composer, sound- & interdisciplinary artist based in the UK. He works across a wide range of contemporary genres, composed, improvised, acoustic, electroacoustic, visual scores, installation & site-specific work. He is also co-director of Trio Atem.   

William Lowry

'Ophanim' (2022)

Drawing on Gothic reliquaries, cave-paintings and sci-fi cinema, Ophanim is an immersive audio-visual light-based installation exploring themes of ascent, memory, myth, technology, modernity, and the body. The title refers to the many-eyed, wheel-shaped celestial bodies which guard the throne of God in the Old Testament. 

Hugo Max

Seated Figures

An imaginative and dedicated artist, filmmaker and musician, Hugo Max believes that the power of storytelling can bring people together. He has performed as violinist and violist at the Barbican Centre, Royal Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room. His original compositions have been premiered by Echo Ensemble, Juice Vocal Ensemble and the Barbican Piano Trio at the Royal College of Music, St. Giles Cripplegate and the Frinton Festival. Hugo studied violin at the Purcell School and at the Royal College of Music Junior Department with Michał Ćwiżewicz where he was awarded the Mary Gotch and Ian Stoutzker Prizes. He is passionate about chamber music and has performed string quartets and piano quintets at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Royal Over-Seas League and St. James’ Theatre, London. Hugo is a Music Scholar at Magdalen College Oxford and also received the Domingos Vasconcellos Award for instrumental tuition while at the university. He is concertmaster of Oxford Baroque Players and Oxford University Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Dance Students from City of Oxford College, Activate Learning

Tanāẓur

This piece is a result of an exchange between the Ashmolean and Dance students at City of Oxford College (Activate Learning).  Students spent time learning about various exhibitions and chose one to use as a stimulus for a dance piece. The performance is based on the Islamic Middle East Gallery and the piece is entitled 'Tanāẓur'. 'Tanāẓur' (an Arabic word translated as ‘symmetry’ in English.)

It is choreographed by the students inspired by the patterns, symmetry, lines, calligraphy, and movement found within the collection. 

Projection:

Photography by Keiko Ikeuchi

Water Lily

Photography by Keiko Ikeuchi

Water Lily is a photographic series featuring Kazuo Ohno (1906-2010) who was a celebrated pioneer of Butoh, an avant-garde form of dance theatre which is often described as the ‘Dance of Darkness’.

The series was photographed in the 1990s when Kazuo Ohno was in his late 80’s. He is dressed as a maiden in a set that appeared to represent a kind of purgatory. Keiko captures the dancer’s physical expressions and gentle movements as they contrast in unexpected ways with his striking appearance.

The title ‘Water Lily’ is taken from one of Kazuo Ohno’s performance pieces, ’Water Lilies’, which was inspired by Claude Monet’s famous series of paintings. 

Keiko was born and raised in Japan and moved to England to study Visual Communication. After graduation, she spent many hours in the darkroom working as a fine art and archival B&W printer. During this time, her early fascination with the body as a subject for photography developed to include the capture of human movement and portraiture. Her collaborations with dancers and dance organisations launched her career as a photographer and graphic designer. 

She is a recipient of the Patrick Litchfield Award from the BIPP (British Institute of Professional Photography) and is a past winner of the Professional Photographer Magazine Portrait Competition. 

Keiko lives and works in Oxford.