Starting September 9th to the 17th, A S A P Gallery allows Brian C. Gibson a week long residency in the studio space for the premiere of his debut in the genre of video art, “In Relative Obscurity; Rhyolite, Nevada”.
The hour-long video art presentation follows Gibson & former collaborator John McVay on a trip to ghost town Rhyolite, Nevada, USA film live ambient music performances to use as source material for Gibson’s heavily edited visual end product.
Both artists approach the performance with a heavy emphasis on improvisation in mind, with Gibson strumming vague guitar drones over slowed cello loops/samples in the key of “singing dunes” & McVay reinterpreting altered cassette tapes of site-specific recordings taken earlier in the month at the location while performing his set under a white sheet with a cowboy hat beautifully (if not a bit sarcastically) adorned, leaving a unique sonic footprint for future artists in the collaborative series to look back and gain context with.
Opening on Gibson’s 34th birthday, plans to contrast his full-length video artwork “In Relative Obscurity; Rhyolite, Nevada” to the life and artwork of Belgian Visual Artist and founder of Goldwell Open Air Museum, Albert Szukalski.
A new series of video art works, “Albert’s Ambiance”, will also be worked on during Gibson’s stay at A S A P Gallery; a new ambient composition with early works from Szukalski’s career not easily found anywhere else.
Ultimately, the plan is to one day take the project to locations outside of Nevada & even the USA.
The Verbeke Foundation, publisher of the biography on Albert Szukalski, “Eenvoudig Dus Moeilik” that was used as source material for “Albert’s Ambiance”, has generously granted written permission for the use of imagery to be used from the book for this multimedia project.
Since the beginning of Gibson’s term as Secretary on Goldwell Open Air Museum’s Board Of Directors in 2022, Albert’s early life & exhibitions fascinated Gibson and validated the young artist by providing a mirror via similar mistakes made and descriptions of the young man from those who were around him at the time, 50 years ago in Antwerp, Belgium.
September 9th sees the opening reception and viewing of the work, which will loop for the 3 hour event, starting at 6pm ending at 9pm on September 9th, 2023.
– Brian Gibson