Band of Artists: Spectrum Order Disorder

Arcadia University’s ARC Exhibition Program is pleased to present Band of Artists: Spectrum Order Disorder, on display in the University Commons Art Gallery and the Great Room Lobby through February 8, 2015. 

This exhibition, co-curated by Matthew Borgen, exhibition coordinator of the ARC Exhibition Program and Alan Powell, co-director of Band of Artists, presents the work of individuals who, by a variety of creative paths, have converged at the crossroads of art making and neurological variation.

Central to this display is a comprehensive review of the performances of the artistic collective Band of Artists. Founded by Sutie Madison and Alan Powell in 2011, the group consists of artists, dancers, scientists, and educators whose focus is the use of performance, music, and art, as a means for altering public perception with respect to neurological disorders. 

The choreography of Band of Artists’ live stage performances, which are performed with a troupe of dancers and musicians, is a hybrid of ballet, hip-hop, and the motor and verbal tics Madison manifests as a result of Tourette Syndrome. The exhibition presents video documentation of performances representing Madison’s earliest attempts at developing her tics into a personal visual language. These include Future’s Going, Madison Code, and Twitch Trials no. 2 and 3 (2011). Also included is Madison’s work with the Everett Company in Providence, Rhode Island in June, 2011 whose collaborative approach, eclectic influences, and narrative structure would greatly influence Band of Artists’ long form performances such as Unveiling (2012) and Intersection: Tourette Syndrome (2013).

Along with Powell, who serves as videographer for Band of Artists’ performances, Gary Funk uses photography to document the dance troupe as they practice. His images of Madison’s tics, as well as his own landscape photography are included in this exhibit. 

Other examples of photography in this exhibition include a series of close up views of flowers and insects taken by Jeff Schultz, a professor in Arcadia University’s school of education. The artist, writer, and curator Brian Peterson, is presenting photographs from his series I Sing the Body, which are images that combine natural foliage and self-portraiture. Both bodies of work express, in different ways, the changes that come from living with Parkinson’s Disease.

The earliest piece in the exhibition is a video of the performance Cough UP (1975) by the artist and curator Willoughby Sharp, perhaps best known for his efforts in introducing the German artist Joseph Beuys to American audiences.

Connie Coleman, Powell’s late wife and long-time collaborator is represented in the exhibition by the drawing Sweet Talking Guy (1991). The triptych of Dan Rather in front of participants is a fine example of Coleman’s obsessive proclivity for drawing like a machine, in this case mimicking the activity of a dot matrix printer. These drawings serve as a kind of counter-point to the works of Matthew Clifford, a Band of Artists collaborator who utilizes, rather than imitates, the computer as a tool to record thousands of repeated gestures that build up into abstract compositions of squares and circles.

Also included are five drawings by James Mould, a self-taught artist from New York state whose Autism manifested in part through the repeated rendering of a kind of tree of life, more evocative of an organic nervous system than a traditional landscape.

The exhibition also presents documentary films by Joey Abrams, Renee Platz, Eran Preis, Chris Sarachilli, and Katie Waters, which detail the struggle with disorders such as addiction, paranoid schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and general anxiety disorder. Brad Christenson’s Hope: A Documentary About Alzheimer’s and Art as Therapy (2012) tells the story of Dr. William Garfinkle and how he reinvented himself from neuroradiologist to artist after his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s. Several of Garfinkle’s collages are displayed in the gallery. Others contributing video pieces to the exhibition include Lee Clawson, Kyle Dixon, Allee Garry, and Jessica Kroboth.

Band of Artists will be presenting their latest work in the Arcadia University Commons Great Room on Monday, November 17 at 7:00PM. The performance will be followed by a question and answer session with the artistic directors, and a reception held in the Commons Art Gallery. A series of panel discussions with the artists from this exhibition, as well as scientists and educators who focus on neurological disorders will be announced soon.

This exhibition was made possible by a donation to the Gateway Society by Theresa and John Rollins. For more information about the exhibit, contact the ARC Exhibition Program (215-572-2629).