I am a big fan of chashama and their work here in town. They have an exciting new exhibit coming next month.

You Are Here is a performance festival in a sculptural maze created by the duo Trouble (Sam Hillmer and Laura Paris) for Chashama's Visual Arts Space at 112 West 44 Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway. The installation / performance series is on view Thursday - Monday, 5 - 11pm, May 6-27, 2007.

A meditation on passage and desire, You Are Here engulfs the space and presents beckoning inhabitants, dead ends, and uplifting epitaphs. The audience enters in search of a performer they may have heard about, drawn in by the beast on the window/stage, or enticed by the ladies of Delicious Beverages (dressed as Minoan Minotaurs) who offer a guerilla open bar. In the maze, performers change location, alternate, and throw sound, so that finding the object of desire may be more complex than anticipated. Light trickles through the leaf-like canopy, illuminating collaged walls. Transparent figures bearing light gesture to the viewer. Calligraphic paintings adorn each cul de sac. The maze contains other surprises of the visual, audio, and experiential sort.

The You Are Here performance festival emphasizes the sprawling and interconnected nature of New York's underground. Medium and genre vary and include music, dance, theater, film, and performance poetry. Overlapping and simultaneous performances are frequent, each performer establishing a different corner or dead end as his or hers. Among the sprawl are Excepter's John Fell Ryan, Ohsees (OCS), Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities, Zs, Dave Longstreth (aka the Dirty Projectors) and Ben Bromley of Fisher Spooner. Over 150 artists, performers, and friends have come together to make this installation and performance festival happen. A full performance schedule is listed below.

About Trouble:

Trouble is devoted to creating extreme environments that have no exterior, public art both condoned and illegal, and other kinds of visual/sound art intended to be used for some purpose. Their work is about community, spirituality, politics, craft, and beauty. Outreach is a part of all of Trouble's projects, as is what they call "in-reach": designing events that strengthen the ties within the DIY art community and the art world as a whole. Trouble is a for-profit organization.

Sam Hillmer has been active as a composer and saxophonist in New York City since 1998. He has lead several ensembles under his own name and co-founded the chamber ensemble/band "Zs". Hillmer is co-founder of Wet Ink, a not-for-profit new music presenting organization, ensemble, and composers collective. In addition to his activities as a composer, Hillmer is active as a saxophonist and improviser performing in and around New York, across North America, and in Europe. Recently he has performed and/or improvised with the Scenery Ensemble, S.E.M. Ensemble, MOTH, Regattas, and "Zs". Hillmer has worked with and played the music of Christian Wolff, Phill Niblock, Roscoe Mitchell, Petr Kotik, Louis Andriessen and Larry Polanski. Recordings of his music are available on Planaria Recordings, Epicene Sound Systems, Tzadik, Sockets CDRs, Shinkoyo, Savage Land, ZUM, and Troubleman Unlimited. Hillmer has been guest artist and speaker at Dartmouth College and the Manhattan School of Music. Hillmer has received fellowships and awards from the Manhattan School of Music, Ostrava Days New Music Festival, and Meet the Composer. Trouble is Hillmer's first collaboration with a visual artist.

Laura Paris' artwork blends her interest in self-development through physicality and community. Her public projects include mosaics, sculptures, and murals that can be seen in various locations in Brooklyn, her hometown. She has shown throughout the world in such diverse places such as Paris, Barcelona, and Honduras. She co-founded the Arts and Literacy arts education program in Brooklyn, New York. This is her first collaboration with a musician.

You Are Here: A Maze
Performance festival schedule

Sunday, May 6
Ecstatic Sunshine (Carpark)
John Fell Ryan (Excepter)
Imaginary People
Sadjelko (Shinkoyo)
Birds in the Meadow (from Richmond!)
Zach Demster + Guests: projections

Monday, May 7
Vizusa
Bad Faces (metalux/childabuse)
Unicornicopia
MOTH (Zs/Planaria/sockets CDRs)
Dj Ben Gerstein

Thursday, May 10
Ben Bromley/Byron Westbrook (Fischerspooner)
Delicate Sen (S.E.M. Ensemble)
Aaron Siegel (Anthony Braxton Sextet)

Friday, May 11
Violet Raid (Metalux/Shinkoyo/Load)
Regattas (Zs/Shinkoyo)
People (I and ear)
Dave Smollen (From Philly!)

Saturday, May 12
John Dwyer/Sam Hillmer (Coachwhips/Zs)
Little Women (Gilgongo)
TBA

Sunday, May 13
Ohsees aka OCS (Coachwhips/Narnack/Castle Face)
Sexy Thoughts
Ben Gerstein (Matt Maneri's Pentagon)

Monday, May 14
Dave Longstreth (Dirty Projectors)
Zeke Healy (the Boggs)
Mike Pride's Drummers Corpse

Thursday, May 17
T. Stewart (Machinedrum)
DJ Mistake
Cyrus Pireh
DJ Sleepware

Friday, May 18
Legends
Hunter-Gatherer (Zs)
DJ Mistake
DJ Sleepware
Julien Poirier + Guests (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Saturday, May 19
Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities (Ghostly International)
FFFfs (sockets cdrs/from DC!)
August Sound Collective
Zack Demster + guests: projections
Coitus Mayfield DJS (Shinkoyo)

Sunday, May 20
Fashe Mello (Shinkoyo)
3-O (Steve Coleman's 5 elements)
Travis Laplant
Coitus Mayfield DJs (Shinkoyo)
Julien Poirier + Guests (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Monday, May 21
Zeke Healy (the Boggs)
Peter Evans
MYO (sockets CDRs/from DC!)
Cyrus Pireh and guests
Astral Projections
DJ Sleepware

Thursday, May 24
Collin Marston (Dysrhythmia/Behold the Arctopus/Relapse)
MOTH (Zs/Planaria/sockets CDRs)
Chuck Bettis/Mike Pride (Mumps Measles Rubella)
Marcella Harb
John Wright
DJ Ben Gerstein

Friday, May 25
Extra Life (Zs/Planaria)
Brown Wing Orchestra
Brian Campfire (Bloody Panda)
DJ Sleepware

Saturday, May 26
J. Graf (Mettalux/Load)
Regattas (Zs/Shinkoyo)
Peter B. (from Baltimore!)
Painted Face (Eyestek)
Julien Poirier + Guests (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Sunday, May 27
Zs (Tzadik/Troubleman/Planaria)
Lake (Excepter)
Collin Langetus (USA Is A Monster/Load)
Dome Theater
Maria Arena/Deborah Karp
The Square Baker
Dan Sofaer
DJ Zebra Blood

Many more performers TBA!
Admission to the installation/performance series is by donation.