Charlie Hooker "Double Vision"

June 6 and 7: performance; through June 14: installation ‘Charlie Hooker is a performance artist, whose background as a painter and musician, working with jazz, rock and orchestral players, has led to an interest in exploring and fusing together various aspects of music, dance, drama and the visual arts. He has performed in Europe, United States, and Australia, and extensively in Britain, where he also teaches and runs performance workshops. Each piece that Hooker makes is related to its location, which provides cues not only for the structure of the work, but also undercurrents of mood and idea. One example of this approach is Mainbeam - A Ballet for Vehicles, performed at night in a multi-storey carpark, with choreographed cars co-ordinated by C.B. radio, being driven within a fluorescent drawing superimposed on the space. Smaller-scale works in galleries or theatre spaces take the internal architecture and acoustics as their initial reference point. A large three-dimensional drawing is made covering the floor and walls of the performance area. All of the marks contained in the drawing provide instructions for the participants situated within it regarding their movement, and consequently the music they play as a result of this moment. The instructions are altered as the piece progresses and gradually the spatial limits are redrawn and the sounds change and become more complex. Many of his recent performances have been carried out in total darkness, using luminous material and pinpoints of light as mark-making devices, together with projected images providing notation for the participants and information for the audience. The instruments are generally tuned and untuned percussion, pianos, orchestral strings and woodwind, voice and pre-recorded tapes playing through portable sound systems. The installation for Double Vision has been designed for the new De Appel space, working from plans and photographs. and will not be repeated elsewhere. The piece will involve the collaboration of up to twelve participants, and although it is likely that Hooker will bring a small number of performers with him from England, any musicians and performance artists who are interested in taking part should contact De Appel. Running concurrently with the installation will be a small exhibition of maquettes, together with a tape/slide programme showing excerpts from some of Hooker’s recent performances.’ (‘Charlie Hooker. Double Vision, a performance and installation’, Newsletter De Appel, 1 (1986) 3.)