MAZES at the MCA, Chicago, Ben Russell and Joe Grimm
Ben Russell + Joe Grimm – Mazes / La Casa Encendida, Madrid
September 3 · 8:00pm – 9:00pm220 East Chicago AvenueChicago, Illinois
Chicago premiere. Presented in conjunction with the UBS 12×12 Exhibition: BEN RUSSELL (free to those attending the First Fridays opening):
After touring extensively through Europe with PEACE NOISE and appearing at festivals in Bordeaux and Madrid in their newest incarnation, light-noise duo MAZES come to the MCA for their first Chicago performance. Positioned behind a fistful of audio circuits and a pair of 16mm film projectors,… media artist Ben Russell sprays white light in pulsating patterns onto your optic nerves, shaping sound and eyebeam with fingers/hands that intercede between lens and screen. A photon’s throw away, sound artist Joe Grimm weaves a tangle of hand-built electronics into a skin of noise, a further manifestation of light pattern and intensity as real time audio. Light is sound is light, cause and effect and chaos and hypnosis, again and again and again. — Ben Russell