ISCP TalkDecember 15, 2015
Blued Trees for Aqueous Earth
Aviva Rahmani will perform the first three movements of Blued Trees, a five-part symphony that began with an overture in Peekskill, New York during the summer solstice in June 2015 and will conclude on Election Day in 2016. Newtown Creek is the second movement of the symphony, and is conceived in relation to the exhibition Aqueous Earth. Blued Trees at ISCP will be a musical installation with live performers and projections and will include a requiem for the lost habitat of Newtown Creek that has become a Superfund site.
Peekskill was chosen for the overture of Blues Trees because plans for expanded pipelines there would pass within 105 feet of the flawed Indian Point nuclear plant which is only 30 miles from New York City. The music for Peekskill was installed as a series of vertical symbols painted on trees with ultramarine blue and buttermilk, to grow moss and reflect the connection between trees and water. The designated pattern of the painted trees was aerially conceived as one-third-mile-long musical measures. One tree equaled one note. Blued Trees has or will be been installed in 20 sites internationally, and is copyrighted to initiate litigation against the pipeline companies.
This program is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.