Karito Opening Oct 15th at the UN Visitors' Lobby NY
Karito at the UN
an audiosculpture by david barratt
at the UN Visitors' Lobby Oct 15 - Nov 19 2008
North East Gallery
Visitors Lobby
United Nations Visitors Entrance
First Avenue at 46th Street
Subway: number 4,5,6 or 7 trains to Grand Central Station; walk on 42nd Street to First Avenue.
Buses: M15, M27, M42, or M104.
Karito at the United Nations is presented by Louis XIII de Rémy Martin
in cooperation with the United Nations Department of Public Information
What is Karito?
Karito is an audio sculpture made from musical interpretations of the 192 national anthems of the member states of the United Nations layered upon one another, projected simultaneously from multiple sound sources. The position of the listener determines which instrument comes to the fore and which becomes background. The music, unlike most composed pieces, does not have a beginning, middle or end and is not constant. The random selection of instruments and themes from the various sound sources makes it impossible to predict what will happen next.
The random juxtaposition of the various themes creates a new piece, the structure and tone of which are determined by the listener's relative position within the audio sculpture at any particular time.
No two listeners will experience the same piece in the same way.
What is the idea driving the work?
The individual anthems work together to create a greater whole.
Some of the anthems may be considered very sophisticated, others very simple. Often, what might be thought of as a dull melody is transformed into something extraordinary simply by juxtopositon to another .
Occasional dissonances do occur, but invariably time passes and something beautiful and unexpected takes place a few bars later.
On a personal level when I listen to the piece, questions occur:
What is a nation?
What is the relationship between myself and the rest of mankind?
What is the function of identity?
I am sure you will have your own questions every bit as personal as mine.
This musical structure of bringing individual parts together as a new whole, to be experienced from different perspectives, echoes what I believe to be at the core of the United Nations or any other international endeavor.
Where does the name Karito come from?
It is the Esperanto word meaning “love of one’s neighbor”
How is it done?
The individual anthems are first recorded in the same key by violin, viola, cello, bass, trumpet, guitar and piano. The individual themes are then mixed separately to create 1,536 individual music files. The mixed themes are burnt onto several MP3 players, set to "random shuffle mode." Thus, any theme could be playing against any other at any given moment.
Whatisthewritingonthewall?
Lyrics from the various anthems are displayed in a completely random order. The arrangement of these words sometimes creates a visual representation of the words themselves. The overall effect of the typography creates a continuity and flow that seems to have no beginning, middle or end...much like a circle. Without these words, the walls would be blank.
The circular form was created to identify all 192 member states of the United Nations. The form itself is made up 3 sets of 64 rings, equaling 192. Once again, reinforcing the overall theme — a circle alone is symbolic and a thing of beauty, however when united with many others something even more beautiful and powerful is created.
My latest work will on display April 16- May 16 2008 at
"Smooch"
264 Carlton Ave, Brooklyn
NY 11205
ph 718-624-4075
Opening Party May 8th 2008
6.30pm - 8:30pm
Nearly every morning this winter I walked across the park with my dog and often found myself looking at the complicated shapes of the bare branches of the trees. Almost instinctually I started taking photos. of them not realy knowing what I was doing. I played around with the mandala concept and it became clear that that I was seeing more than just the shapes before me.
Fort Greene Park was becoming a meditative space that was part of the rhythm of my life. This exhibition is a record of that time
These pictures form part of a series I will completing throughout the year
10% of all sales to be donated to the Fort Greene Conservancy
FORT GREENE PARK
Fort Greene Park is located in Brooklyn, New York, on a hill overlooking Wallabout Bay and downtown Brooklyn.
1846, Walt Whitman, the celebrated poet and then editor of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was writing almost daily urging for a park in Brooklyn. The park would be a "lung" to provide the densely populated city with free circulation of air and where the people could spend a few grateful hours in the enjoyment of wholesome rest. As a result, Washington Park on the site of Fort Greene was established as Brooklyn's first park in 1847
In 1864, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who had achieved fame for their design for Central Park, were engaged to prepare a design for the park.
The park's master plan also included a monument to the prison ship martyrs. The Revolutionary War prisoners who died aboard the wretched prison ships were buried in shallow graves on the shore of Wallabout Bay. As time passed, their remains were uncovered or washed out to sea. Their bones were collected by Brooklynites and ceremoniously buried in a vault on Hudson Street, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. By the 1860's, this vault was in a state of disrepair, and Olmsted and Vaux's plan created a final burial place and monument for the Martyrs.
MANDALA
In various spiritual traditions, mandala may be employed for focusing attention of aspirants and adepts, a spiritual teaching tool, for establishing a sacred space and as an aid to meditation and trance induction. Its symbolic nature can help one "to access progressively deeper levels of the unconscious, ultimately assisting the meditator to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the ultimate unity from which the cosmos in all its manifold forms arises
mandala can also used to refer to the "personal world" in which one lives, the various elements of the mandala or the activities and interests in which one engages, the most important being at the centre of the mandala and the least important at the periphery. Depicting one's personal mandala in pictorial form can give one a good indication of the state of one's spiritual life
Hungry Ghosts at Van Brunt Gallery , Beacon NY July 7 > Aug 6 2007
HUNGRY GHOSTS
July 7th - August 6th 2007
Private View July 21 2007
Van Brunt Gallery
460 Main Street
Beacon NY 12508
Ph 845 838 2995
www.vanbruntgallery.com
The Van Brunt Gallery is proud to present Hungry Ghosts, an exhibition of groundbreaking, beautifully manipulated photographic images on canvas by the contemporary artist, David Barratt. The exhibition opens July 7 2007 .
In the Buddhist tradition, Hungry Ghosts are the spirits of greedy humans, who in the afterlife are forced to walk the earth with tiny mouths and huge empty stomachs forever unable to satisfy their desires. Barratt saw the flowering of a thousand skyscrapers across Asian city skylines as the new Hungry Ghosts, manufacturing endless desire which can never be fulfilled. He explores this modern manifestation of the ancient tradition in his series of digitally remixed photographs of the Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, New York & London skylines. Rich in color and grand in scale, the work shows the cityscape in a new light.
Barratt has also composed a series of musical works, exploring the thematic of the Hungry Ghost myth, as part of the gallery installation. The work takes traditional Malay, Chinese, Thai and Indian melodies, and combines them with powerful modern rhythms.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Hungry Ghost series has been shown in Bangkok, Singapore and London.
Originally from London Barratt worked New York music scene till 2004, writing jingles for commercial TV, film and underground New York fashion shows. He has written for everybody from the Sci Fi Channel to Coca Cola. He has also been DJ-ing the New York club circuit for years, and releasing his own music through various indie labels including 3 albums under the pseudonym "Yellow Note" and the critically acclaimed "Walking Down Memory Gap Lane" as Dubchek.
As a producer/ re-mixer/ songwriter, Barratt has worked with Robert Plant, David Bowie, Family Stand and Jeffery Osbourne, securing one platinum and two gold records. His music has been featured in the motion pictures Two Guys and a Girl, Forces Of Nature, Pretty Woman, Bedazzled and Sister Act.
His audio sculpture Karito (www.karito.org) premiers at the United Nations in Summer 2008
Directions to the Van Brunt Gallery from Manhattan
By Rail
Metro North
Grand Central Station to Beacon
By Car
Take the I-95 exit- EXIT 14- toward GEO WASHINGTON BR / CROSS BRONX EXPWY / W 178 ST.
Merge onto I-95 S via the exit on the LEFT toward G W BRIDGE / NEW JERSEY / UPPER LEVEL (Crossing into NEW JERSEY). (2.2 miles)
Keep RIGHT to take I-95 S / NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE S toward I-80 / GARDEN STATE PARKWAY / HACKENSACK. (0.2 miles)
Merge onto NJ-4 W via EXIT 72A toward PARAMUS. (6.9 miles)
Keep RIGHT at the fork to continue on NJ-4 W. (0.1 miles)
Merge onto NJ-17 N toward GARDEN STATE PKY N / MAHWAH. (14.5 miles)
NJ-17 N becomes I-287 N / NJ-17 N (Crossing into NEW YORK). (0.4 miles)
Merge onto I-87 N / NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY N via the exit on the LEFT toward ALBANY / RT-17 N (Portions toll). (29.9 miles)
Take the RT-300 N exit- EXIT 17- toward I-84. (0.8 miles)
Merge onto NY-300 / UNION AVE. (0.2 miles)
Merge onto I-84 E toward BEACON (Portions toll). (4.8 miles)
Take the RT-9D exit- EXIT 11- toward BEACON / WAPPINGER FALLS. (0.1 miles)
Turn RIGHT onto NY-9D / NORTH RD / NY-52 BR. Continue to follow NY-9D / NY-52 BR. (0.7 miles)
Turn LEFT onto MAIN ST / NY-52 BR. Continue to follow MAIN ST. (0.7 miles)
David Barratt - Hungry Ghosts London Asian and London based works Paul McPherson Gallery 77 Lassell Street Greenwich London SE10 9PJ
May 14th - June 1st 2007 Opening Party Thursday May 17th 2007 6 -9pm
HUNGRY GHOSTS
The Paul McPherson Gallery is proud to present Hungry Ghosts, an exhibition of groundbreaking, beautifully manipulated photographic images on canvas by the contemporary artist, David Barratt. The exhibition opens May 14 2007 .
In the Buddhist tradition, Hungry Ghosts are the spirits of greedy humans, who in the afterlife are forced to walk the earth with tiny mouths and huge empty stomachs forever unable to satisfy their desires. Barratt saw the flowering of a thousand skyscrapers across Asian city skylines as the new Hungry Ghosts, manufacturing endless desire which can never be fulfilled. He explores this modern manifestation of the ancient tradition in his series of digitally remixed photographs of the Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, New York & London skylines. Rich in color and grand in scale, the work shows the cityscape in a new light.
Barratt has also composed a series of musical works, exploring the thematic of the Hungry Ghost myth, as part of the gallery installation. The work takes traditional Malay, Chinese, Thai and Indian melodies, and combines them with powerful modern rhythms.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Hungry Ghost series has been shown in Bangkok and Singapore and is booked for New York in July 2007.
Barratt moved to Bangkok in late 2005 and his latest photographic work "Portraits/Monsoon Season" premied at Gallery f-stop in March of this year.
Originally from London Barratt worked New York music scene till 2004, writing jingles for commercial TV, film and underground New York fashion shows. He has written for everybody from the Sci Fi Channel to Coca Cola. He has also been DJ-ing the New York club circuit for years, and releasing his own music through various indie labels including 3 albums under the pseudonym "Yellow Note" and the critically acclaimed "Walking Down Memory Gap Lane" as Dubchek.
As a producer/ re-mixer/ songwriter, Barratt has worked with Robert Plant, David Bowie, Family Stand and Jeffery Osbourne, securing one platinum and two gold records. His music has been featured in the motion pictures Two Guys and a Girl, Forces Of Nature, Pretty Woman, Bedazzled and Sister Act.
In Spring 2008 Barrat’s audio Sculpture Karito will be exhibited at the General Assembly in NY
Barratt’s work can be found at www.davidbarratt.com and www.karito.org
posted by David Barratt # 7:59 PM
Monday, February 26, 2007
Opening Party for Portraits/Monsoon Season at Gallery f-stop Bangkok
Opening party for Portraits/Monsoon Season at Gallery f-stop Bangkok is at Tamarind Cafe, Sukhumvit Soi 20 (about 300m on the left
PORTRAITS / MONSOON SEASON Gallery f-stop proudly announces an upcoming exhibition in March 2007 of a groundbreaking series of beautifully manipulated photographic images by David Barratt.
PORTRAITS
Barratt re-imagines the the celebrity publicity photo through his Portraits series. A logical progression from his record breaking “Hungry Ghost” series shown in Bangkok in 2006. Barratt reveals what lies beneath public persona of, amongst others, George W Bush, Elvis Presley, Thaksin Shinawatra & Wayne Rooney .
As our society becomes ever more obsessed with the cult of celebrity, the publicity photo and paparazzi shot assumes ever bigger importance. Alluring, sexual, charming or menacing, the celebrity photo aims to leave the viewer with a distinct impression of the subject. The artificiality of the image is part of its device - neither the subject or the viewer believes in its truth.
MONSOON SEASON
When Barratt was growing up in London he hated clouds. The grey sheets that descended from October till May, and sometimes from May until October as well, cast everything he saw into a dull grainy facsimile of life.
During his first rainy season living in Bangkok he was fascinated by the differences from the sky of my youth. Blues, browns, purples and yellows burst forth forever in flux moving and changing constantly.
The photos from "Monsoon Season" were taken from his apartment in Bangkok during the rainy season of 2006.
Musical works by Barratt wil be played at the opening to complement the photographic exhibition.
Gallery F-Stop is 250 meters inside Sukhumvit Soi 20, a short walk from the MRT Sukhumvit station or BTS Asok station.
