Aug 18th 2017

The Nightingale is thrilled to present a screening of Los Angeles artist Alison O’Daniel’s The Tuba Thieves. O’Daniel’s long-term film project The Tuba Thieves, made in the wake of tuba robberies from Los Angeles schools, elliptically connects the story of a deaf drummer to the students, band directors, and school communities who must reconcile with missing sound following the thefts. The film is composed of portraits of music and silence in Los Angeles and beyond, and is interrupted by fictionalized re-enactments of two historic concerts: the 1952 premiere of John Cage’s 4’33” at the Maverick Concert Hall in Woodstock, NY and a 1979 punk concert hosted by Bruce Conner at The Deaf Club in San Francisco.

Reversing the typical process wherein a composer responds to filmic imagery, O’Daniel commissioned musical scores by three composers and worked ‘backwards”, accumulating a narrative through a process of deep listening. First-hand accounts and real life details from collaborations with students, musicians, composers, and actors are continuously altering the narrative, which is filmed in segments over time, eventually forming a feature length film. Featuring scores by Ethan Frederick Greene, Christine Sun Kim and Steve Roden.

Total running time: 52 minutes

Poster by Caroline Walp

ALISON O’DANIEL is a visual artist working across film, sculpture, performance and music, inviting audiences and collaborators to navigate, de-construct and re-imagine sound. Her current project The Tuba Thievesis composed of narrative film, performance and sculptures based on commissioned musical scores made in response to an epidemic of tuba thefts occurring in Los Angeles high schools.

She has presented solo exhibitions at Art In General, New York; Samuel Freeman Gallery, Los Angeles; Centre d’Art Contemporain Passerelle, Brest, France and performances at the Hammer Museum, Knockdown Center, and Art Los Angeles Contemporary. She received a BFA in Fibers and Material Studies from the Cleveland Institute of Art, a Post-graduate Diploma of Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a MFA in Studio Art from UC Irvine, CA.

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