“Read me that part a-gain, where I disin-herit everybody”

Gordon Hall
2013–14
Studio 2

Hall worked in residence at EMPAC conducting research on the history of lecture-performances, from the tradition of the soapbox lecture to the relationship between contemporary artists Robert Morris and Simone Forti. The culmination of Hall’s research was a presentation that used sculptural objects, sound, and projected image, titled “Read me that part a-gain, where I disinherit everybody” after a line from composer John Cage’s 1959 Lecture on Nothing. Hall’s lecture-performance offered a succinct history of the form. Hall is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York City and the founder and director of the Center for Experimental Lectures, a roving series of curated lecture-performances that embraces the lecture format itself as a creative medium. The Center for Experimental Lectures emerged from Hall’s studio practice, where sculptures and performances pose questions about the possibilities created and foreclosed by different kinds of platforms, from furniture to politics. Past lectures have been presented by MoMA PS1, Recess, the Shandaken Project, Alderman Exhibitions, and the Whitney Biennial. Hall has exhibited and performed at SculptureCenter, The Kitchen, Movement Research, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others.

Discipline
Contemporary Performance
Artist
Curator
Premiere

April 1, 2014

Production Credits

Commissioned by EMPAC