ISSUE in partnership with Harvestworks is pleased to present a preview of a new music video by musician, interdisciplinary artist, and 2023 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence Keke Hunt (Just The Right Height).
Thursday, June 22, 2023 – 7:00 pm
NYU Brooklyn: The Garage
The event will feature the premiere of a music video for the song “I Love Everything” by Just the Right Height conceived in collaboration with artist Ben Mendelewicz. Hunt and Mendelewicz have created this project utilizing human motion transfer to integrate original choreography by Canadian artist Charlie Diaz into an archetypal pop dance routine performed by digitally created avatars. Mentorship provided through the Harvestworks’ Technology Immersion Program for artists (TIP) was instrumental in developing technical components of the video.
The video will be premiered in NYU Brooklyn’s “Garage” space adjacent to the Jay St. Metrotech Subway stop. The premiere will be accompanied by an introduction from the artist and is followed by a brief reception with refreshments. The video will also be streamable on the ISSUE website for a short period of time.
Hunt’s Just The Right Height project combines blistering samples and algorithmically arranged fragments of existing songs lyrics, in a vocal-based pop-electronic performance that speaks to the tension between the production of market driven “pop products” and the universal power of pop music. Hunt develops short motifs utilizing recognizable era-specific stock drum samples which reference textures from Top 40 hits and dance music of the last 30 years. Using a standard verse-chorus format, she constructs songs where rhythms are dependent on the vocal cadence and phrasing, inverting the expectation that a vocal should follow the meter of its rhythmic backing. Coarse samples are triggered in real time in correlation with a piercing deadpan delivery. Hunt’s deconstructed lyrics teeter between a complete lack of syntax and salient moments of clarity where essential pop sentiments are distilled.
Through these sonic and conceptual approaches, Hunt examines the reciprocal, ever-changing relationship between pop sonic and visual culture with society’s own self-identity, in a poignant subversion of mainstream music.
Keke Hunt’s residency is supported by Harvestworks’ Technology Immersion Program for artists (TIP) and is part of an ongoing program collaboration between ISSUE and Harvestworks, two organizations that are committed to supporting the creation and presentation of experimental performance practices while sharing resources.
Keke Hunt (b. Atlanta 1989) is musician and interdisciplinary artist whose work spans technology, tattooing, and fashion. Hunt has released numerous record and cassette editions, under the project name Just the Right Height while touring as a mainstay of the contemporary underground music scene. Hunt tattoos at an artist-run tattoo shop called Musiquarium. Her influential and idiosyncratic tattoo work is documented in her book Collectors’ Lament released by Paris-based press Numero Dix. Hunt recently exhibited 5 years of works on paper at Whaam! Gallery in Chinatown. Hunt is currently working on her third album I Love Everything to be released with HAORD records.
Founded by artists in 1977, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center is a leader in the art and technology field, educating, commissioning and producing work by composers, sound, visual and multi-disciplinary artists that reach an ever-expanding and receptive audience.
Produced by Harvestworks, The Art and Technology Program on Governors Island is centered on art works created at the intersection of art and technology. It includes artists’ open studios, experimental music performances, exhibitions of digital media art, public workshops and our educational research library. Our goal is to provide exhibition opportunities to electronic media artists and also to educate the public about new technology and how artists use it for artistic expression.
ISSUE Project Room’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.