Wed 9/16, 7PM
Joel Thome: Mandala Concert
at Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street,New York City, in conjunction with the exhibition "Mandala: The Perfect Circle"
This concert, a collaboration between celebrated composer/conductor Joel Thome and noted artist Harry Doolittle, will showcase both Thome's compositions using mandala forms as notation and Doolittle's mandala paintings, which will be viewed on the screen in the museum's theater during the performance. Deeply influenced by Eastern philosophy, Thome is known for creating his own notational system based on mandalas, strikingly drawn on see-through acetate sheets which, when placed one page over another, create an entire mandala form. As in sand paintings, Thome's mandalas are rebuilt for each performance. Ultimately, the players memorize the patterns visualizing the complete structure and use the mandala notations as a means to structure their performance. Doolittle's mandala paintings use acrylic colors both beneath and on the surface of glass which is then cemented to canvas board. Gold leaf and silver aluminum leaf are applied at different places throughout the canvas board which interact with the multiple layers of colors. According to one reviewer, ghis circles (the mandalas) create the optical effect that they are rotating, projecting a sense of cosmic energyc. One can't help making celestial associations to suns, moons and planetary orbs, and studying these circular forms for prolonged periods of time seems to provoke a state similar to meditation." Both artists share a common creative process: they often "dream" their works into existence.
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