Here’s the low down on Glenn Kotche’s installation for  Solid Sound from our director Joe Thompson:

I caught MASS MoCA staffer Cody Johnson mounting the first of six speakers to be installed down the 100’ long elevated walkway leading from our lobby to the LeWitt building.  The speakers will be used to create a sound sculpture by Wilco’s magical percussionist Glenn Kotche, for the upcoming Solid Sound ’11 festival.

One of the greatest things about Wilco is the way the band’s aesthetic interests cast such a wide wake, parts of which wash up on MASS MoCA’s shores in felicitous ways.

Guitarist Nels Cline (who just released a fantastic new album with alto saxophonist Tim Berne, and drummer Jim Black) for instance, will be joined by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore in what promises to be a mind-bending set.  Fans who attend the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival here will fondly recall Thurston’s electrifying performance at our 2006 Marathon…which loops me back to Glenn Kotche, who also performs from time to time with Bang on a Can, perhaps not surprisingly, given Glenn’s experimental turn of mind, and his use of intricate, often visually stunning instrumentation. Those of you who attended Solid Sound ‘10 will remember Glenn’s elegant, playable, handiwork placed throughout the LeWitt Wall Drawing Retrospective, which Jeff Tweedy named inGLENNtions.

This year, using the LeWitt walkway as a sort of sonic preamble for the band’s newest (and still unreleased) work, Glenn will orchestrate audio snapshots sampled from the recording process from the band’s upcoming album.  The result of his “fly-on-the-wall� recordings was a rich collection of overdubs, full band tracking, fragments of meal conversations between band members, pinball games and playbacks.   For the LeWitt walkway installation, Glenn selected six of his favorite recording fragments for each of the six speaker locations.

And then, in Glenn’s own words, “I  used the drumbeat that opens the record as a guide for their arrangement – assigning one recording to each voice of the beat.  The rhythms of each voice determine when tracks are audible or muted.  The result is a collage of behind-the-scene mini-clips of our recording work over the past 11 months. Each speaker has a dedicated collage that loops, going in and out of phase with the other 5 speakers over the course of the festival.�

This is one of a half dozen or so Wilco-specific exhibitions that will be installed June 24-26. Look for it when you come to Solid Sound. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that tickets are still available.

In honor of the upcoming 2011 Solid Sound Festival, (just two weeks away) which will be featuring 20 live bands including the one and only Wilco, we have found some of the best Flickr pictures from last year’s festivities. Along with the sweet music; art, comedy and falconry… yes… falconry, will all be in the mix this year. These photos are just a little reminder on what an amazing experience the weekend was in 2010, and definitely an insight into what you can expect this time around.

For those of you who have waited until the last minute to get your tickets, visit Solid Sound now!

Also, for a new addition to this year, MASS MoCA and the City of North Adams have teamed up and created the Solid Ground Tent Site for overnight stay. Camp out within walking distance of the museum, downtown merchants, restaurants, and of course bars at a totally affordable price. Watch and see:

So, if you have no place to stay for this awesome weekend, give our Box Office a call for details and reservations, 413. 662 .2111

In an attempt to bring some extra in-depth information to the newest MASS MoCA exhibition, The Workers, Artist Spotlight is a new blog series focusing on specific artists. Running until March 15, 2012, this show explores the conditions and representation of contemporary labor, which includes almost 40 works in multiple mediums, from 25 emerging and established international artists.

The first up for this series is Tyler Rowland, an American artist born in Reno, Nevada (but actually spent his childhood in Phoenix, Arizona). While attending Vassar College in New York, Rowland decided to devote his life to being an artist, and is currently an adjunct professor of sculpture at Vassar. His artistic point of view is demonstrated through a number of mediums- performances, installation, and sculpture.

His piece in the exhibition, All of the Objects Needed to Install a Work of Art (Gustave Courbet’s The Stonebreakers) is the first work in a series entitled The Realist Manifesto. Influenced by the 19^th century French painter, Gustave Courbet, who led the Social Realist artistic movement, Rowland’s installation displays the typical tools required to hang a painting. Courbet’s famous painting The Stonebreaker’s, completed in 1850 depicts the intensity of two working class men of the time, and is the ‘to-be hung’ piece. Symbolically and physically the painting is missing, as the artwork was destroyed during WWII in 1945.

As described by Rowland, his “…goal is to reintroduce Courbet’s work and philosophies back into the dialogue of current cultural production.� The artwork is very realistic, and might be confused with MASS MoCA’s own installation team’s gear. Included are hooks, a ladder, a hammer and cardboard among other tools that are all made out of recycled materials, which Rowland made out of salvaged materials from when he worked construction jobs to support himself as an artist.

Come check out Tyler Rowland in The Workers at MASS MoCA!

The sun is shining, the birds are flying, and just when we thought winter would never end – summer is here and Bureau for Open Culture is kicking it off at MASS MoCA with Beer Garden!

Beer Garden? That sounds pretty great!…Well it is. And it’s happening THURSDAY MAY 27 and FRIDAY MAY 28 alongside the Hoosic River at MASS MoCA.  It is a platform for conversation, community, and beer.  Join us for discussions and local brews.

Don’t worry.  We’re not going to forget the amazing season we had this Winter/Spring.  Let’s review the Best Of’s for the 2011 Winter/Spring Season!

Best Way to Work Up a Sweat in January: Free Day and Bhangra Funk Dance Party

Best Icicle: The One on Geometric Death Frquency: 141

Best Use of the Audience: Rory Scovel

Best Opportunity to Watch Someone Sleep: Habit

Best Picture of Our Crew: This One. (by Danelle Cheney)

Best Double-Take Performance: The Low Anthem

(Club B10. March 5)

(Hunter Center. April 16)

Best Use of Leather: Tragedy

Best Before and After: Nari Ward Sub Mirgae Lignum

Best Sold Out Performance: Iron & Wine

So get out those tank tops. Slip into those flip-flops. And let’s get this party started THIS WEEKEND with Beer Garden, The Workers Opening Reception, and Rosanne Cash!

The best is yet to come…

We want to make sure you’re up-to-date on the exciting events that will be taking place next Saturday!

The Workers is the new installation-in-progress that is scheduled to open on May 28th. This exhibition will feature the works of 25+ artists who will explore work and labor and how it is presented in contemporary art.

Viewers can expect to see photos, video, paintings, and sculptures in this installation. The picture above previews a new work by a local artist, Mary Lum!

Dead Labor Day by Sam Durrant will be shown at MASS MoCA as well! We were able to talk with Durrant’s assistant – Joe Montgomery – about this disturbingly intriguing sculpture. “It’s a recreation of the gallows that were used to hang the Chicago 5,� said Joe.

The hanging took place after a battle for break-time during the work day. “Your break was a sacrifice,� said Joe. The sculpture will replicate the hanging platform, but will also include a water cooler and chairs in which patrons can experience the relaxation that was fought for.

And waddaya know? Rosanne Cash’s performance follows the opening of The Workers. Cash will be rockin’ out in MASS MoCA’s Hunter Center! Author, musician, and daughter of a legend- Cash will bestow upon us her melodic voice that cries out soulful lyrics. Expect to hear covers off of her new album, The List. When Cash was on tour with her father, he made her a list of “100 Essential Country Songs� which she was instructed to become familiar with. The List is a compilation of selected songs from the essentials.

We’re very excited for May 28th! Aren’t you??

Thanks again to Miss Danelle Cheney for the photos of The Workers!

MASS MoCA’s galleries are currently undergoing ANOTHER transformation. On May 29 a new exibition called, The Workers, will open at MASS MoCA: a previous industrial site.  The show will explore work and labor. How the laborer relates to work. And how work is presented in contemporary art.

The show will feature photos, videos, paintings, and sculptures from about 30 artists.  We will be tracking the progress of this show for you on the blog!

Luckily for our readers – we bumped into Joe Thompson, MASS MoCA’s director, and got to pick his brain about this upcoming exhibition.

Joe is particularly intrigued with the installation by Camel Collective.  The artists are installing a 30ft long chain-link fence that will hold messages to reference a previous struggle.

This is a representation of a very similar chain-link fence that previously controlled the access to Sprague Electric.  “Many locals will remember that the fence was an odd shade of lime green,” said Joe Thompson.

The fence was installed in 1971 during a strike at Sprague.  The strike was against the current wage negotiations as prices for electric capacitors went down along the Pacific Rim and oil prices began to rise.  The employees of Sprague would insert paper coffee cups into the holes of the chain-link fence to display messages.

This is a piece that “picks at an old wound” and “evokes a particular moment of the strike,” said Joe.

“When MASS MoCA removed the fence in ’98, you could feel almost a sigh of relief through the town as a stark symbol of a really bleak chapter was removed,” said Joe.

The Workers will include many thought provoking pieces that will definitely be worth a visit! Keep checking the blog for more updates about different pieces!