Before reading this Press Release please play the audio to this video as background reading music: https://vimeo.com/667083716
Captive Portal presents:
“Call, Holler” is a new collection of sculptures, audio/video, and resonating architectural interventions by will owen ( Philadelphia, US). Will explores Appalachian folk craft techniques, global athletic proxies, sound, and various recycled/found materials to explore the artist’s interest in the many inheritances we have in our cyber, climate, and internal landscapes.
Within “Call, Holler” there is a newly composed four channel video and corresponding four part choir composition written in the heritage of Shape Note Singing to be performed by cellular phones, featuring the voices of Amaryah Shaye Armstrong, Liora O’Donnell Goldensher, will owen, and A.I.
The title “Call, Holler” references the multitude of ways the human voice makes external and internal sound. Many of the artworks in the exhibition relate to sound– some works are meant to be explored through the ear, some non-cochlear, some through the phone, and some only in the mind’s ear.
Further live performances and collaborations with Copenhagen based artists in connection to the exhibition will be listed forthcoming.
Exhibition Hours: Thursday - Friday: 15:00 - 18:00 Saturday - Sunday 12:00 - 18:00
**note** Gallery is closed May 25th.
Opening Ceremony: Tuesday May 16 17:00 - 18:30
Closing Ceremony: Sunday May 28 17:00 - 18:30
will owen originally from Western North Carolina, US (Cherokee Nation) is an artist, composer, and curator currently based in Philadelphia, PA (Lenapehoking). Will works mainly with Sound, Sculpture, and Food. Will is continuously curious about sport as proxy, material accountability, and the inherited complexities of contemporary society. Will Owen has exhibited internationally in China, Denmark, France, Iceland, Freetown Christiania, Wales, and Pakistan. Additionally, will has shown work extensively in the U.S. at institutions: The Museum of the Moving Image (NYC), Philadelphia Water Works Museum, Black Mountain College Museum, Independent Seaport Museum (Philadelphia) and Flux Factory (NYC) in addition to many artist run spaces, and non-traditional art spaces such as a burned out petrol station. Will loves to collaborate and has worked most frequently with international arts collective Flux Factory and choreographers Xan Burley and Alex Springer. Will graduated with a Master Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022 and has since taught in the fine art departments at NYU and UPenn. Will’s last solo exhibition “Ringside Sears” was in Kompan Gallery in Siglüfjor∂ur, Iceland January 2023. Will is incredibly grateful to Kristoffer Ørum for this wonderful opportunity :-) TAK TAK TAK
gallery handout here