In Performance: Bassoonist Joy Guidry in response to ‘Lorna Simpson. Earth & Sky’

In response to the exhibition ‘Lorna Simpson. Earth & Sky’ at Hauser & Wirth 22^nd Street, we are thrilled to collaborate with The Kitchen to present a musical performance by bassoonist and performance artist Joy Guidry.

‘Earth & Sky’ debuts Lorna Simpson’s new body of work exploring our relationships—physical and metaphysical—to unseen forces that work upon us individually and generationally, alternately challenging and empowering our sense of our own humanity. The exhibition encompasses a series of massive paintings inspired by a 1929 textbook ‘Minerals from Earth and Sky,’ along with a pair of monumental paintings depicting the impact of fired bullets. 

Joy Guidry’s solo performance within the exhibition takes inspiration from different forms of Black music, such as jazz, gospel, zydeco and ambient music, and uses the bassoon and electronics to build a reality grounded in expansion and curiosity. The bassoon is typically used in a classical setting, however in Guidry’s practice the instrument is used to expand the sonic possibilities through electronic manipulation and genre-defying styles of music. Guidry pairs the bassoon with low rumbling synths, warm electronic sounds, and poetry that reflect the artist’s lived expanse as a Black trans woman from the South.

This event is free, however, due to limited capacity, reservations are required.  
Click here to register. 

About Lorna Simpson 
Born in Brooklyn, Lorna Simpson came to prominence in the 1990s with her pioneering approach to conceptual photography. Simpson’s early work—particularly her striking juxtapositions of text and staged images—raised questions about the nature of representation, identity, gender, race and history that continue to drive the artist’s expanding and multi-disciplinary practice today. She deftly explores the medium’s umbilical relation to memory and history, both central themes within her work.

Studying on the West Coast in the mid-1980s, Simpson was part of a generation of artists who utilized conceptual approaches to undermine the credibility and apparent neutrality of language and images. Her most iconic works from this period depict African-American figures as seen only from behind or in fragments. Photographed in a neutral studio space, the figures are tied neither to a specific place nor time. Drawing upon a long-standing interest in poetry and literature, the artist accompanies these images with her own fragmented text, which is at times infused with the suggestion of violence or trauma. The incredibly powerful works entangle viewers into an equivocal web of meaning, with what is unseen and left unsaid as important as that which the artist does disclose. 

About Joy Guidry   
Joy Guidry is a bassoonist, versatile improviser, performance artist, and composer of experimental, daring new works that embody a deep love of storytelling; Joy’s music channels her inner child in honor of their ancestors and predecessors. The San Diego Tribune has hailed her performances as “lyrical and haunting…hair-raising and unsettling.” Joy was born in Houston, Texas, into a creative family that has shaped who she is today.

Joy holds a bachelor’s degree in Bassoon Performance from the Peabody Conservatory and a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Mannes School of Music. She has presented her original work at The Whitney Museum for American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, The Kitchen, Redcat, Carnegie Hall, among many other venues. Joy has been commissioned by The National Sawdust, Long Beach Opera, JACK Quartet, Gaudeamus Festival, and the I&I Foundation. Joy has been featured in festivals, including the La Biennale di Venezia, A’Larme Festival, Cologne Jazz Week, Spoleto Festival USA, Big Ears Festival, and many more. In addition, Joy Guidry is the winner of the 2021 Berlin Prize for Young Artists. Joy Is currently playing on a Heckel Bassoon number 6101.

About The Kitchen 
Founded in 1971 as an artist-driven collective, The Kitchen today reaffirms and expands upon its originating vision as a dynamic cultural institution that centers artists, prioritizes people, and puts process first. Programming in a kunsthalle model that brings together live performances, exhibition-making, and public programming under one roof, The Kitchen empowers its audiences and communities to think creatively and radically about what it means to shape a multivalent and sustainable future in art. The Kitchen seeks to cultivate and hold space for wild thought, risky play, and innovative and experimental making, encouraging artists and cultural workers alike to defy boundaries and sending them into the world to remake art history and catalyze creative change.

Among the artists who have presented significant work at The Kitchen are Muhal Richard Abrams, Laurie Anderson, ANOHNI, Robert Ashley, Charles Atlas, Kevin Beasley, Beastie Boys, Gretchen Bender, Dara Birnbaum, Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Julius Eastman, Philip Glass, Leslie Hewitt, Darius James, Joan Jonas, Bill T. Jones, Devin Kenny, Simone Leigh, Ralph Lemon, George Lewis, Robert Longo, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sarah Michelson, Tere O’Connor, Okwui Okpokwasili, Nam June Paik, Charlemagne Palestine, Sondra Perry, Vernon Reid, Arthur Russell, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Spiegel, Talking Heads, Greg Tate, Cecil Taylor, Urban Bush Women, Danh Vō, Lawrence Weiner, Anicka Yi, and many more.