Reception & Artist Talk: Monday, December 22, 6-8 PM
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Dan Gottwald is a sculptor, instrument builder, video/installation/performance artist and composer. His work focuses largely on the tactile and the sonic as temporary events.
Gottwald’s work has been shown and performed in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico as well as in Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco, California. Gottwald holds a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of New Mexico (where he ended up making music) and is currently pursuing an MFA in Electronic Music at Mills College (where he mostly makes sculptures). He is the artistic director and curator of the Analogous Ensemble, a performance collective dedicated to visual arts, music and dance incorporating new instruments.
“My interest in touch is derived from sound and my interest in sound from touch. These driving forces in turn influence my love of the visual aspects of form and performance. In order to hear a sound we need a body to be touched by the rarified molecules of vibrating matter we understand as sound. In order to make a sound we need a body to affect matter. A musical instrument is mid-way between these conditions. It is the thing to touch and it is the thing that makes sound. To take these aspects of form and create something new to explore is my attempt to broaden the field of creative and performative experience. I relish the challenge of making a form inviting, responsive and durable enough to be that kind of interface.
“Whether it is an audience allowed to interact with a piece, the result of a piece acting on an audience or regularly independent media acting together, it is the point of contact, the action of touch and repercussions of those interactions that I find compelling. I believe in blurry lines and I enjoy playing in those material and conceptual spaces where it becomes difficult to classify or discern one thing from the next.”
Visit dangottwald.com for more information.