Intermissions: Camille Norment

OPEN FOR LISTENING, REGULAR GALLERY HOURS

SAT, DEC 14, 7PM
LIVE PERFORMANCE

Camille Norment uses sound and music as means to reflect on socio-cultural phenomena or dimensions of public life. Her work creates experiences that are both somatic and cognitive—feeding both body and mind—whether she is delving into moments of dissonance or relating human speech to action. Norment’s Untitled (Flame) is an expansive, ongoing project that relates feedback and fire. In Chicago, it takes shape as two complimentary presentations: Untitled (blue heat), a performance at the Renaissance Society, and Untitled (red flame), a concurrent exhibition at the Logan Center for the Arts (Nov 15, 2019–Jan 5, 2020). 

At the Renaissance Society, as part of the Intermissions series, the American-born, Oslo-based artist stages an exploration of audio feedback within the open gallery space. The museum’s distinctive architecture—with its high ceilings, hard surfaces, angular walls, and concave shape—forms an unusually dynamic acoustic environment. Thinking about feedback as both a sonic phenomenon and a metaphor with social and political resonance, Norment brings this space to life through an evening of performance. During the week, the staging for the performance is an active listening experience, open to the public during regular gallery hours.

As the project unfolds, Untitled (Flame) intersects with various histories including that of the Great Chicago Fire, the pioneering feedback experiments by sound artists like Max Neuhaus, and the contemporaneous activities of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). These artists and musicians were part of a global reach towards socio-cultural revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. For Norment, revolution or enlightenment involves both heat and cool; it’s an activity that is both social and internal, active and meditative, echoing red and blue flames.

Curated by Karsten Lund.

Untitled (Flame) is co-presented with Logan Center Exhibitions.

Intermissions launched in January 2017 as a new programming series devoted to ephemeral and performative works, staged in the Renaissance Society’s empty gallery in between exhibitions. This recurring platform presents two events every year, supporting a wide variety of live projects.

CAMILLE NORMENT is based in Oslo. She has recently performed in Sapporo, Japan and The Stone in New York with Ryuichi Sakamoto, and at The Armory in New York with Craig Taborn. She has presented both performances and exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Festspillene Festival in Bergen, Norway, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2015, Norment represented Norway at the Nordic pavilion for the 56th edition of the Venice Biennale.

Intermissions is supported by a gift from Mirja and Ted Haffner.

Image: Camille Norment, Photo: Marta Buso, OCA Norway