NO MONKEYING AROUND
Monkey Town, located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is “an ongoing culinary, music & video installation” that “discards the simple floor plan of proscenium-based film viewing and creates a boxed cinema that inaugurates multiple depths-of-field, with jump cuts made by the turn of one’s head.”
Featuring communal seating for 32 people, four screens, 5.1 surround sound (and often, live bands), and food prepared by chefs Coleman Lee Foster and John Cross, Monkey Town’s Spring 2004 calendar includes the series Monkey Town Invitational, which concludes this weekend with performances by video artists David Larcher, Torsten Zenas Burns with Darrin Martin, and MOSTRA (Caspar Stracke and Gabriela Monroy) on Friday, April 16; and Bryan Frye, Benton Bainbridge, Devan Simunovich and Nika Offenbach, with audio by Chris Douglas and Todd Sines on Saturday, April, 17.
Monkey Town was begun in 2003 by Montgomery Knott, who constructed and designed the space. Knott is also lead vocalist in the post-rock collective Stars Like Fleas, whose first album was released last November.
“I had been thinking about a food/performance space for several years, then I started shooting video two years ago,” says Knott. “And then, quite literally, I had a cocktail-napkin moment on a flight back from San Francisco. I drew the basic layout and soon after started designing the furniture with a friend.
“As I developed the concept for Monkey Town, several friends directed me to Gordon Matta-Clark’s FOOD [restaurant] in the ’70s and one of our chefs turned me on to [Filippo T.] Marinetti’s Futurist Cookbook. Both were very instructive as well as cautionary. (Gordon Matta-Clark’s FOOD space wasn’t an inspiration/impetus for me, but that history is still important.)
“The works of Janet Cardiff, Vito Acconci, Bill Viola, Claire Denis, James Turrell, and Ernie Gehr are essential to my visual vocabulary. [Andrei] Tarkovsky spoke of ‘sculpting in time,’ and I think that’s a shared outcome of all their work. They create pieces that feel very alive and tactile, like sculptures.
“Robert Ashley, Nobukazu Takemura, Terry Riley, Henry Cowell, Butch Morris, Morton Feldman, and Pauline Oliveros have all been important sound art influences for me over the past several years. Sound is foundational to my video work.
“I work very closely with the chefs planning the menus. We create very adventurous meals that draw from all cuisines. But we’ve all spent many years in Texas and our dishes tend to be spiced accordingly.”
Next month, Monkey Town launches its first gallery exhibition, “Carton Marquetry: Volume 1,” May 13 – June 13 (Fridays – Sundays, noon – 6 pm), featuring new work by Andy Barrett.
For more information or to make a reservation, e-mail MonkeyTownHQ@aol.com or call 718-384-1369.
In a related note: Eyebeam, the NY-based organization which “engages cultural dialogue at the intersection of the arts and sciences” will present the exhibition Prix Selection, May 21 – July 18, 2004 (Tuesdays – Saturdays, noon – 6:00 pm), as part of Digital Avant-Garde: Celebrating 25 Years of Ars Electronica in conjunction with Ars Electronica, the American Museum of the Moving Image and the Austrian Cultural Forum.
This exhibition will focus on a selection of award-winning works from the Prix Ars Electronica Interactive Art category.
This year’s Ars Electronica takes place in Linz, Austria, September 2 – 7, 2004.
