SHAPE SHIFTERS

AN EVENING OF FILM, MODULAR SYNTHESIZER, IMPROVISED ELECTRONICS & CELLO. FEATURING

Joshua Gen Solondz
Alex Catona & Travis Johns
Tom Boram & Paul Neidhardt

__________________________________ Joshua Gen Solondz is an artist working in images, performance, installation, and sound. He has shown in a variety of festivals including Images, Toronto International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, FIC Valdivia, Viennale, and New York Film Festival (Projections). Solondz has also screened at REDCAT, UnionDocs, Light Industry, Harvard Film Archive, DINCA, and Black Hole, among others, and has received awards from Black Maria Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, and Ann Arbor Film Festival. Solondz studied at Bard College and received his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. He lives in Los Angeles.

 

__________________________________  f.org, formed in 2012 in San José, Costa Rica, is the improvisational duo of Alex Catona and Travis Johns.

Born and raised in Romania, Alex started his early artistic endeavors playing classical cello and studying composition; throughout his ensuing career a number of key encounters/influences with the work of artists such as Ornette Coleman, Jackson Pollock, John Coltrane, Derek Bailey, Bill Dixon, Edward Kienholz, Ken Jacobs, Keiji Haino and Andrei Tarkovski helped helped him begin forging his own path and his own improvisational idiom, a task to which he diligently applies himself to the present day. Under his own name, Alex has composed and performed in dozens of interdisciplinary theatre and film projects and collaborated with such artists as Samir Akika, Markus Michailovski, Norbert Steinwartz, Janet Archer, Lorca Renoux, Alfredo Catania, Hans Klohe, Hernan Jimenez and Jose Arce.

Travis Johns is a sound artist and educator currently residing in Baltimore, Md. As an improviser, he performs primarily on laptop and electronic instruments of his own design; with studies in the field  conducted under the tutelage of Fred Frith, Joelle Leandre and Butch Morris, among others. Active in the Bay Area experimental music scene for several years, Johns moved to Costa Rica in 2011 where he concentrated primarily on building instruments for himself and others – something that he has continued to do since his return to the United States under the nom de plume of VauxFlores. He holds a B.M. in
Technology in Music and Related Arts from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studies conducted with Tom Lopez, as well as an MFA from Mills College in Electronic Music and Recording Media, studies conducted  with Chris Brown, Les Stuck and Hilda Paredes. He has participated in residencies at such places as the Atlantic Center for the Arts and RPI’s Create @ iEar, and has had work featured by el Museo Centroamericano de Arte Video (MUCEVI), the Electronic Music Foundation, Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), the Bienarte 8 Costa Rican Biennial, el Museo Nacional de Costa Rica and the 2013 Biennial of the Central American Isthmus (BAVIC). More sounds/info: https://vauxflores.com/vf-industrial/artists/f-org/

__________________________________  Opening the evening will be a duo of Tom Boram (elec) & Paul Neidhardt (perc.) Two of Baltimore’s best improvising musicians.

Event location:

The Red Room at Normals Books and Records 425 E. 31st Street Baltimore, MD 21218