Micah Liesenfeld

Paintings, Puppets, and Rock & Roll

vsm

8 years after Grey Planet, Vikings and Sea Monsters displayed and performed at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. While the former took 48 hours to express, the gestation period of V&SM was much longer. A total of 10 songs and 10 paintings showed in front of an audience with the assistance of a keyboard artist (Phil Strangman) and 2 puppets.

A listening station was available near each painting with a CD player and headphones containing only 1 song each. Attendees sat on couches looking at paintings while listening to a handcrafted song by "Silent Skies." Song times ranged from under 2 minutes to over 11 minutes in length. While engaged visualy and audibly, the receptor was invited into a new space of vision and sound completely separate from what their friends might be experiencing sitting at a different sound/vision station nearby.

Color explodes into view after a cobalt blue and black predecessor re-enters the atmosphere of a new world. Small figures, boats, and beasts can be seen exploring the mountains and oceans. Square black frames are replaced with red, gold, birchwood, and white of various shapes, sizes, and designs. A voice in one of the listening stations cries out, "Why won't I let this, my ship, run aground? When all along all I wanted was to be found...?"

2009 ©Micah Liesenfeld