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Artist Ann Hamilton, Composer Shahrokh Yadegari and the opera singer Elizabeth Zharoff create a recording for the installation of stylus.

To add a “sense of  humanity as well as mystery,” Shahrokh Yadegari explained last week, he and Ann Hamilton chose to incorporate a human voice into stylus’s primary sound composition. They talked with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and were introduced to the singer Elizabeth Zharoff. The three met at Jupiter Studios, a recording studio in downtown St. Louis, where Zharoff sang as Yadegari improvised using her voice and a computer music instrument he invented. The instrument is called “Lila,” a word that literally means “play” in Hinduism but implies creative freedom within a set of boundaries. Zharoff and Yadegari’s collaboration as well as Ann Hamilton’s installation seem to exemplify that concept quite nicely.

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Shahrokh Yadegari, Composer/Sound Designer, and his assistant Toby Algya program player pianos for Ann Hamilton’s stylus. Yadegari describes how the instruments will be used during the exhibition.

When we think of the word “stylus,” what comes to mind nowadays is a touch pen used on a palm computer. The upcoming exhibition’s namesake has many denotations, though, such as a pillar or a tool used to engrave wax. As Matthias Waschek broached in the last “From the Director,” the meanings of “stylus” overlap and fundamentally relate to communication. My favorite image of a stylus is a record player’s needle, which magically emits music from a slab of vinyl. At Friday’s opening, you’ll be able to experience a similarly wonderful transmission of sound.

Shahrokh Yadegari explained last week that voice will be used in a few ways for the installation, including turning player pianos in the Cube and Lower galleries into “talking pianos.” When visitors in the galleries speak into an artfully placed microphone, a piano will play the voice with its keys and talk to whoever is near them. We don’t have video of that yet, so you’ll need to hear it for yourself and be amazed this weekend.

Bob McCabe, Morning Host for KWMU, reads during A Marathon Metamorphoses.

“…how does one communicate the experience of an ephemeral two day reading in our exhibition space?” our director, Matthias Waschek asked today in his very first blog post for the Pulitzer. He is, of course, reflecting on last year’s marathon reading of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which has so far been the only event of its kind in our building.

To capture the experience, a local videographer video taped the almost twenty hours of reading in the Lower Gallery. He then edited the footage down to eight minutes, which includes a shot of each of the seventy-four readers. You can now watch the video and read Matthias’ reflections on it on our A Marathon Metamorphoses blog.

Courtney Henson, our Visitor Services Manager, is an artist and particularly admires the work of Ann Hamilton, so last week, I  interviewed her via g-chat on what she’s looking forward to about stylus. She = pulitzerarts.

4:04 PM me: So how do you feel about the Ann Hamilton exhibition coming up?

pulitzerarts: pause-personally or as the visitor services manager or the combo?

me: Both.

4:05 PM pulitzerarts: Ok. 4:09 PM Well I have been interested in Ann’s work for quite a while. In graduate school, I began to appreciate the performative aspects of her work more. I also liked the ways that she was integrating a space fully in her installations. It is exciting to get an opportunity to see her approach the Ando building with her methods for involving all the senses. It will be a new experience for us as an institution as we have not worked inside the building with a living artist.

4:10 PM me: What will you and the gallery assistants do to get ready for the opening?

pulitzerarts: That is a great question. We may just have to be as prepared as possible for whatever comes up. Ann Hamilton is extremely process driven. I suspect that the best that I and the gallery assistants can do is read up on her other works and try to get a sense for where things might go. We may not really get a full taste until the exhibition is fully installed. There is a possibility that she may ask the gallery assistants to participate in interactive parts of the exhibition.

me: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

4:22 PM pulitzerarts: I feel like the exhibition is hard to write about, because Ann is creating a sensory experience, which is hard to describe. Seeing it, hearing it, being in it will be very important to understanding it. The Pulitzer staff is prepared to go along for the ride and happy to translate, whether information to the guests or to make our building “play” its part. Sound is a major way the Pulitzer building will be a participant in stylus.

Since the end of May, a group of graduates from Washington University’s Sam Fox School have been crafting oodles of paper hands to be in stylus. Lindsay Deifik, an organizer for this venture, answered some questions about the process and e-mailed me some photos from the studio.

What is your role for the installation of Ann Hamilton’s stylus?

I am the Studio Assistant Coordinator for the paper hand production here at Washington University. My responsibilities include overseeing the working schedules of our assistants, cataloguing the hands, directing various aspects of our production and of course making plenty of hands myself. I’m really grateful to have fallen into a job that requires me to be making and producing right after graduating with a BFA. I am also serving as a nexus of communication between Ann, her studio in Ohio, the Pulitzer and our base here at the university. It’s been really exciting to see all of the components and dispersed activity that goes into the production of a show of this magnitude here in Saint Louis.

When did you start working on the project?

Our team got to work on May 24th, the week following graduation. All of us have just graduated from either the Undergraduate or Masters programs at Washington University. We have been applying the intense momentum of studio life towards this project, and, three weeks in, we have over 225 pairs of hands.

What exactly goes into the process of making the hands?

The process turned out to be more complex than we had anticipated. Not only are we forming the hands, but we have also been making much of the paper we have been using. I have experience with making western-style, cotton based paper from my undergrad, but this project has allowed all of us to learn how to make a type of abaca fiber paper. This is much thinner and more translucent than traditional paper. After the pulp is made, it is poured onto a screen in a water bath. Sheets are then pulled and allowed to dry in the sun. It’s pretty magical to see the corners of the finished paper, pulling off the screens in the wind.

We are using two methods to then form the hands. Volunteers sculpted many clay hands when Ann was here in the spring. Paper is then applied to the hands, allowed to dry and then cut off of these forms. We also have plaster molds of these forms, where we press paper into them and then pull them out once they have dried. Both of these methods require us to then mend the hands, a stage in the process where much of their individual characters arise.

Did Ann give you specific guidelines on how the hands should look?

Ann met with some of our team before we began, and gave us some parameters. Our continuing communications and the photographs we have been sending back and forth have contributed to changes in our approach. Ann has been very adamant about each hand having it’s own unique character, allowing the material to dictate the end result.

Who else is involved in the project?

Our team has grown in this short period of time. Chloe Bethany, Yetunde Ogunfidodo, both recent graduates of the BFA sculpture program, as well as Carlie Trosclair and Nick Hutchings from the MFA program have been working from the start. Our team now also includes Ella Brandon, Mamie Korpela, and Megan Bean.

How many hands will you be creating?

We are shooting for 603 pairs at the very least. We have been filling up our workspace with what we have made so far, and they’re taking over our studio! It is my understanding that even more will be made after we reach this initial goal.

What are your feelings about the experience so far?

Chloe and I had taken part in the Saint Louis Art Revolution workshop with Ann and her husband Michael last summer. To a large extent, these two weeks functioned as a platform of research and inquiry into the city for Ann and the rest of our group. I found applying these methods to one’s artistic practice illuminating, and in turn I’m really excited to see how that experience will inform stylus.

The element of collaboration has also been important to me. It has transformed the studio from being strictly the focus of personal pursuit into something much different.

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Director Matthias Waschek describes the meaning of “stylus” and the upcoming Ann Hamilton exhibition.

As I mentioned in our previous post, the Pulitzer is closed for the installation of Ann Hamilton’s stylus. The opening reception for the exhibition will be July 9 (Feel free to RSVP on Facebook).

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Organizers, visitors and participants talk about Art/Food during the event.

All afternoon this past Saturday, a crowd milled about the Art/Food tent trying local concoctions, such as South County honey,  Vanilla Cream Ale, and s’mores from a sun oven. In the video below, Chef John Judy, from L’Ecole Culinaire, describes the Gordon Matta-Clark gumbo that was served. For a full recap of the event, watch the video above.

With the dismantling of the folding tables, came the conclusion of Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark. If you’re ever feeling nostalgic, you can always visit the Transformation site and the web catalogue, which document the exhibition and the ambitious programs associated with it. What was one of your favorite parts of Urban Alchemy?

As we evaluate the achievements of the past few months, we’re also revving up for Ann Hamilton’s stylus. The Pulitzer will be closed for installation until July 9, the exhibition’s opening reception. (To be continued…)

Chef John Judy shows L’Ecole Culinaire’s recreation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s gumbo, which they served at Art/Food.

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Kathryn Adamchick, an Art/Food organizer, talks about how Art/Food relates to the work of Gordon Matta-Clark.

This is a the last week for Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark. As a special farewell to the exhibition, the Pulitzer has joined forces with Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis for a celebration of food and art on Saturday, June 5, 1-4pm, titled Art/Food.

Art/Food will offer dishes prepared from local food by local chefs from a few of St. Louis’ favorite restaurants. Organizations, such as Earthways Center and Slow Rocket Urban Farm, will talk about local food and offer interactive activities that demonstrate sustainable practices.

Admission is free, but there’s a suggested donation of five dollars, or flour, oil, and vinegar to go to St. Louis Campus Kitchen, a non-profit student organizations that feeds people in need.

For full event details, visit our event page.

Slow Rocket Urban Farm talk about their urban farm in South St. Louis. They will give a presentation on their work during Art/Food.

Here’s a shot of Robert Longyear sitting in his installation for Urban Evolution, discussing his work with visitors last Saturday. His friend Dickson Beall recorded a couple snippets of him describing working with kids at Craft Alliance, which you can view here.

This Saturday, May 29, at 1pm, Robert will continue the conversation and read his thought-provoking written piece “Seven Ten Split.” The talk will be held again at the exhibition, in the Woolworth Building (501 North Grand in Grand Center). As usual, there’s no admission fee. Just bring your curious minds and be prepared to look at bowling balls in a whole different light.

From Robert:

“We’re daring to be operatic, like maybe it’s time for us to address critically the fate of our neighborhoods – and if we’re going to be operatic about it -and if this is all about a principled response to the wider world, we all need a foundation.

Remember, there’s a bureaucracy to opposable thumbs.”

In our video recap of the Transformation Project Walk, Katy Mike Smaistrla, Education and Volunteer Coordinator at Earthways Center, explains the structure above, which a Construction Careers Center shop class built as part of their workshop with the Pulitzer, Earthways Center and the Lawrence Group. Last Thursday, the program, which was inspired by the Garbage Wall and formulated to teach sustainable design, drew to a close.

For the final session, representatives from the partnering organizations met with the students in their computer lab to discuss what was accomplished over the past few months. Everyone sat in a circle and took turns explaining what they learned. Afterwards, the class filled out surveys on the computers, as I pulled a few students out into the hallway for some digital feedback. Here is what those students had to say:

One of the key players for the CCC program was Teaching Artist Jackie Masei. In the following video, she describes a session on “building sustainable communities,” as the students work with one another to arrange models of communities out of random objects given to them. You can tell in the 2-minute clip that those kids have a lot of energy; it’s nice to know they may be championing green construction in the future.