The visual artist Zelene Jiang Schlosberg in a dialogue performance with the oboist Andrew Nogal, and a conversation about the project. A special event on the occasion of Schlosberg's solo exhibition with WOLDT Gallery, London, 16 June - 19 July 2021. Part of the Kensington and Chelsea Art Week 2021. The video is premiered on 24 June 2021, 7pm for the opening night at the KCAW.
Zelene Jiang Schlosberg: Hi Andrew, thank you so much for your improvisation. I really loved it! So I got to know you because you did a series of improvisations last year during the peak of Covid, and I really loved those. You are also a renowned musician in the new music world. So, can you tell me how does improvisation play a part in new music?
Andrew Nogal: Sure! Zelene, thanks so much for having me as part of this project. It's been such a pleasure to get to know you and your artwork and to try to come up with musical ideas that reflect on it in some way or relate to it. Improvisation in new music is an important tool in our tool kit as musicians,
because improvisation pushes us to think about different textures, colors, sounds and pitches and to really think imaginatively about how we play our instruments, and so that kind of lends itself to all of the experimental techniques that I play in new music. Whenever a composer comes up with an idea of “this should sound like a bird freezing in a tree” or something, I need to have an idea of how to make that happen on my instrument. So, I love improvising and coming up with something new and spontaneous right on the spot and thinking about how to play my instrument in a way that evokes
different colors and textures and sounds that you might not expect to come from an oboe.
Zelene Jiang Schlosberg: Yes! So I think you feel the image, feel the color in your music.
You have a degree in art history as well as your education in music, so when you play and respond to my artworks, is it purely intuitive or does your background in art history and contemporary culture play
a part?
Andrew Nogal: That's a really good question! I think it's some of both. There's an intuitive way of looking at art and thinking, for instance, “is this piece more hushed or more vibrant and more aggressive?”, and that that might be the kind of first entryway into a piece for me when I was looking at your artwork. But then secondarily, I was thinking about what materials did you use to produce this piece and how might I reflect that in my playing. What sounds can I make that are cottony soft or
how can I make a field of polka dots or a field of bubbles kind of sound on the oboe, and so I was also thinking about materiality and the artist's hand in the work what you had to do to cut. is it vinyl that you use ?
Zelene Jiang Schlosberg: Yes, I definitely use a lot of cutting, use a lot of stacking, putting things together…
Andrew Nogal: Yes, so I was thinking about stacking, cutting, layering, like what can I do as a musician to sort of reveal a hidden layer beneath the front which is something that your art does so beautifully. So, I guess I was thinking about modernism being this move toward artists using non-traditional materials and, kind of the artist's core reality, your body being part of the art, is a direct relationship with my body being a part of the music that I play. The oboe is really an extension of my lungs when I play music so that's where I've always gotten really excited about the art and music worlds colliding.
Zelene Jiang Schlosberg: I love it! I really love the comments about your movements, your emotions when you play, the gestures you have. For me, for my art, I also put the emotions, the gestures and the movement into my art such as when I am cutting, I do feel the motion of myself. I put the motion to it…when I'm cutting, I feel the lines jumping, dancing, flying, escaping to all sorts of things. So I think art and music definitely support each other. Before our previous conversations, we purposely did not talk much about my art, so that it could be purely spontaneous for this performance. So, what are your thoughts about my art?
Andrew Nogal: Well, the four pieces that I responded to today were all really different so I wanted to give them different kinds of sound characters. The first one was “Ligament” and I wanted to produce a kind of a line with interruptions. So I had some ideas of little gestures that could sort of pop out the way your figures and your colors pop out of the art work and out of the frame, literally. So in that one, I tried to think very horizontally and I didn't do a lot of jumping around up and down because I thought a ligament is like a long anatomical piece, and I wanted the music to reflect that sense of being drawn out and tightened.
For the second work I did, “Four Seasons,” it was the most muted palette. It was all kind of white and off-white and I thought that was really interesting, because you might look at it and think “oh that's only winter!” but you had all four seasons there, so I sort of started in this wintry mode, of playing really airy sounds that are mostly breath, and then I added pitch to that and i thought about the kind of cyclical idea of the four seasons and everything being kind of a growth out of winter, that time of loyalty and faith and optimism, which is how I see winter. So I kind of gently elaborated on that initial idea of just a few pitches with air, but I wanted to also create kind of a sense of a circle in that improvisation.
Then, in “Tendon,” the third one, I was thinking that, actually, it struck me as the most aggressive of the pieces, so I wanted that one to have the most maybe maniacal kind of obsessive quality. There were some kind of characters in that one, figures that were gasping, and I thought there was almost a sense of danger and rescue maybe happening in that piece. So I wanted there to be this committed kind of purposeful action going on in that improvisation.
Then here for the final work, “Fake” which is right behind me, I was really attracted to these dangling kind of threads that shimmer and pick up some of the colors that were in the canvas sections of the piece. So for this one I tried to expand myself vertically the most, and because the name of the piece is “Fake,” I also wanted to play something that was a little bit insipid, like a really simple melody that then kind of gets convoluted, so that's why I drew it out so that it would extend to my uppermost notes. And I ended on a high g-sharp, which is not a note oboists love to play, but I thought it sort of picked up the shimmering kind of brightness of these little dangling edges.
Zelene Jiang Schlosberg: I love it, thank you so much! You inspire me so much and it's my great pleasure to have you with me today.
Andrew Nogal: Thanks for having me, it's a pleasure.
Zelene Jiang Schlosberg: Thank you.
艺术家蒋贞蕾伦敦个展《无间之距》（Air’s Chamber）2021年6月中旬在伦敦WOLDT Gallery London画廊开幕。音乐在蒋贞蕾 的艺术生活中起着决定性的作用。在展览期间，美国双簧管演奏家安德鲁·诺加尔（ Andrew Nogal） 即兴演奏了她的四个作品。
该视频记录了安德鲁·诺加尔精彩的四个即兴演奏，和演奏结束后安德鲁·诺加尔与蒋贞蕾的对话。在对话中，安德鲁·诺加尔解释了即兴创作对于音乐家的意义，他对蒋贞蕾四个艺术作品的感受以及他是如何把这种感受转化到他的双簧管演奏中的。安德鲁·诺加尔的演奏极为生动,是独立完整的音乐作品，同时也给蒋贞蕾的艺术作品带来了新的理解之光。这是艺术家与音乐家跨界合作的一个实验项目。
欢迎点击收看。
首播时间：2021年6月24日
如下是双方英文对话的中文翻译。
蒋贞蕾：您好安德鲁，非常感谢您的即兴创作。太棒了。我真的很爱它们！我认识你是因为你去年在新冠疫情高峰期做了一系列的即兴演奏，我很喜欢你的音乐。您也是新音乐界的知名音乐家。那么，你能告诉我即兴创作如何在新音乐中发挥作用吗？
安德鲁·诺加尔：当然！贞蕾，非常感谢让我参与这个项目。很高兴认识您和您的艺术作品，并尝试以某种方式反映与之相关的音乐创意。新音乐的即兴创作是我们音乐家工具包中的重要工具，作为音乐家，即兴演奏促使我们思考不同的质地、颜色、声音和音高，并真正富有想象力地思考我们如何演奏乐器，因此这适用于我在新音乐中演奏的所有实验性技巧。每当作曲家提出“这听起来应该像一只鸟在树上被冻僵”之类的想法时，我需要知道如何在我的乐器上实现这一点。所以，我喜欢即兴创作，因为能当场想出一些新的和自发的东西，并思考如何以一种观众可能不会期望来自双簧管的颜色、质地和声音来演奏双簧管。
蒋贞蕾：是的！我很确定地能从你的音乐中感受到图像和色彩。除了你的专业音乐教育外，你也有艺术史的一个学位。我的问题是，当你演奏和回应我的作品时，那是纯粹的直觉，或者你在艺术史和当代文化的背景也起了作用？
安德鲁·诺加尔：这是一个非常好的问题！我认为两者兼而有之。有一种看待艺术和思考的直观方式，例如，“这件作品是更安静还是更有活力、更有侵略性？”这可能是我在看你的作品时介入艺术的第一个入口。但其次，我也考虑你用什么材料来制作这件作品，以及我如何在我的演奏中体现这一点。我能发出什么声音像棉花一样柔软？或我怎样才能在双簧管上制作像一片圆点区或气泡区的声音？所以我也在考虑物质性和艺术家的手，你必须怎么做才能切割这些作品？你用的是乙烯基吗？
蒋贞蕾：我确实使用了很多切割，使用了很多堆叠，将东西放在一起......
安德鲁·诺加尔：是的，所以当时我在考虑堆叠、切割、分层，我作为音乐家可以做些什么来揭示在正面下方的隐藏层，这是你的艺术做得非常漂亮的东西。所以，我想我当时在考虑现代主义朝着艺术家使用非传统材料的转变，以及艺术家的核心现实，即你的身体便是艺术的一部分与我的身体是我演奏的音乐的一部分的那种直接关系。当我演奏音乐时，双簧管真的是我肺部的延伸，这就是我一直对艺术和音乐世界的碰撞感到非常兴奋的地方。
蒋贞蕾：我喜欢！我真的很喜欢你关于动作、你演奏时的情绪、你的姿势的评论。对于我，对于我的艺术，我也将情感、姿势和动作融入到我的艺术中，比如在我切割时，我确实感受到了自己身体的运动。我把动作放到作品里面……当我切割时，我感觉线条在跳跃、跳舞、飞行、逃逸，以及各种各样的动作。所以我认为艺术和音乐肯定是相互支持的。在我们这次谈话前，我们特意没有过多谈论我的艺术，以确保你这次的演奏是完全即兴自发的。那么，你对我的艺术有什么看法？
安德鲁·诺加尔：嗯，我今天回应的四个作品都非常不同，所以我想给它们不同类型的声音特征。第一个回应的作品是《韧带》，我想制作一种有中断的线条。所以我当时是制造一些小手势的想法，这些小手势要弹出，就像你的人物和你的颜色从你的艺术作品和木框里弹跳出来。所以在那个时候，我试着非常水平地思考，我没有做很多上下跳跃，因为我认为韧带就像一个长长的解剖片段，我希望音乐反映那种被拉长的感觉并收紧。
《韧带》、帆布、亚克力、线，102x102x6.35cm，蒋贞蕾，2021 | Ligament, canvas, acrylic, thread, 102x102x6.35cm, 2021
对于我回应的第二个作品《四季》，它是最柔和的调色板，全是白色和灰白色，我觉得这真的很有趣，因为你可能看着它会想“哦，那只是冬天！”但是你有四个季节，所以我一开始在这个寒冷的模式中，演奏非常气韵感的声音，主要是呼吸，然后我添加了音调，我想到了四个季节的周期轮回，和一切东西都其实来自冬天，冬天是忠诚、信念和乐观的时间，这就是我对冬天的看法。所以我温和地铺述了只有几个带空气感的音高的最初想法，但我也想在即兴创作中创造一种圆形感。
《四季》，线、帆布、钉子和珠子，61x53x5cm，蒋贞蕾，2020 | Four Seasons, thread, canvas, nail and beads, 61x53x5cm, 2020
然后，在第三个作品《肌腱》中，我在想，实际上它是我印象中最激烈的作品，所以我希望那部作品具有最疯狂的强迫症品质。艺术作品里面有一些人物，让人喘不过气来的人物，我觉得那作品里几乎有一种危险和救援正在进行的感觉。所以我希望在我的即兴创作中进行这种有目的的行动。
《肌腱》、帆布、亚克力、线，61x61x6.35cm，蒋贞蕾，2021 | Tendon, canvas, acrylic, thread, 61x61x6.35cm, 2021
然后是我身后的最后一个作品《Fake》，我真的被这些悬垂着的珠线所吸引，这些珠线会闪烁并拾取作品画布中的一些颜色。所以在这首曲子中，我尽量把自己纵向扩展，因为这首曲子的名字是“Fake”，我也想演奏一些有点乏味的东西，比如一段非常简单的旋律，然后变得有点复杂。所以这就是我把它拉出来的原因，以便它可以延伸到我最上面的音符。我以高的升G 调结束，这不是双簧管演奏者喜欢演奏的音符，但我认为它拾取了作品里悬垂边缘的闪烁亮度。
Fake, thread, canvas, wire, beads, acrylic, paper collage, 42x38x7.6cm, 蒋贞蕾，2020 | 《假》、线、帆布、金属丝、珠子、亚克力、纸拼贴画，42x38x7.6cm，2020
蒋贞蕾：我喜欢这一切，非常感谢！你给了我很大的启发，今天能和你在一起是我的荣幸。
安德鲁·诺加尔：谢谢你邀请我，我很开心!
蒋贞蕾：谢谢！
简介：
蒋贞蕾 （Zelene Jiang Schlosberg）出生于湖南永州，2001年硕士毕业于北京师范大学，2009年旅美从事艺术创作。艺术创作灵感常来自于建筑和当代音乐。过往独展包括“一个阳光灿烂的下午”（伊利诺伊州立大学芝加哥分校，2012），“过渡景观”（密苏里州北中央学院，2019），“悬崖”（伊利诺伊州东中央学院，2019）。另一个即将举行的个展将于 2021 年底在美华艺术协会Chinese American Arts Council (CAAC)（纽约）举行。参加多个国际和美国的艺术群展。她的画作“方向 #0”是作曲家 约翰利伯瑞特（John Liberatore） 2018 年发行的 CD 专辑“线画Line Drawings”（奥尔巴尼唱片公司）的封面。她的作品也可以在艺术家谈话杂志（英国）、工作室参观（美国）和艺术市场杂志（以色列）上看到。
安德鲁·诺加尔（Andrew Nogal）是一位著名的管弦乐演奏家、室内乐演奏家和当代音乐的诠释者。他是 Ensemble Dal Niente 的长期成员，曾与芝加哥交响乐团、俄勒冈交响乐团、CSO MusicNOW、Talea Ensemble 和 Alarm Will Sound 合作演出。他也在“六月在布法罗”、拉维尼亚音乐节和“纽约爱乐乐团菲尔双年展”等舞台亮相。他是芝加哥当代作曲中心格罗斯曼乐团的成员。最近的国际活动包括日本、澳大利亚、新西兰和北京现代音乐节。作为琉森音乐节学院的校友，诺加尔在 Fischoff 比赛中获得一等奖，在达姆施塔特暑期课程中获得 Kranichstein 音乐奖。
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