Skakun&Spadine
In February of 2020, Skakun and Spadine joined PlySpace as the 2020 Spring Fellows. Little did any of us know that this would be a spring to remember, and not for the right reasons. However, Valerie and Pat made the BIGGEST glass of lemonade with their Covid-19 quarantine lemons, and we couldn’t be happier to have them as our shelter-in-place residents. Of course, nothing should overshadow the great work they have done while in residence. Though we cannot hold a physical exhibition of their ‘organs’, we are excited to use this opportunity to launch a virtual gallery at PlySpace and provide everyone with a little ‘organ’ entertainment from the comfort of their own homes. We hope you enjoy the videos, images, and narrative excepts below, written by Valerie and Pat!
Valerie Skakun is an artist/educator based in NYC. Her work spans across several mediums, incorporating sculpture, textiles, installation, performance, sound, and curatorial projects. Skakun received an MFA from Hunter College of the City University of New York in 2019, and a BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2009. She is appreciative to the Queens Council on the Arts for awarding two grants, PlySpace Residency Program for a Resident Artist Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center for an Artist Opportunity Fellowship, and to Highly Authorized for a fully funded residency.
Skakun's red blood cells are mutated, spherically shaped and fragile; at age five she became severely anemic and underwent an emergency splenectomy, leaving her body immunocompromised. For decades, she has researched alternative ways to boost immune systems that do not require daily use of antibiotics.
The philosophy of her recent body of work began in 2014, when she was struck by a car while on her bike and left unable to walk for a year, resulting in permanent damage to her bones and muscles. Informed by the process of being routinely sick and learning to walk again, her work references "organs" as a double-meaning of body parts and musical instrument, physical therapy equipment, prosthetics, and plants/foods which protect and heal our bodies. She has explored sculptures as objects of ritual, labor, and play, ranging from time-based devotions to endurance trainings in order to transform mental and physical states of being. The materials and rituals which help to regain and maintain a somewhat able body and immune system inform the materials and processes used in her sculptures.
Pat Spadine is a composer, tinkerer, scientific tourist, and pack rat nested in New York City. The voice of his practice is the Ashcan Orchestra, which is simultaneously a pen name, revolving performance ensemble, and a growing collection of instruments designed and/or reappropriated to perform new works of theatrical music which attempts to emulate and celebrate the basic mathematics and physics that bind the world around us. Born and raised in the DIY world of basement shows and underground parties, Ashcan has been humbled to also be able to present works at institutions such as the Clocktower Gallery (NYC), the New Children’s Museum (San Diego), Roulette Intermedium (NYC), National Sawdust (NY), Salem Art Works (NY), Issue Project Room (NYC), The Red Room (Baltimore) Pioneer Works (NY), Green Wood Cemetery (NY) and Outpost Artist Resources (NYC) among others.
Valerie Skakun and Pat Spadine have been working as collaborative partners since 2017. Together they work in the realm in which the physicality of sculpture and sound overlap. Skakun & Spadine seek to explore the dual nature of labor and play, as a way to engage the world of wonder within the viewer through a physical catalyst. Their sound sculptures have been performed at art and music venues across NYC, including Outpost Artist Resources, Pioneer Works, NY(G), 205 Hudson, and Club Sourdough.
Four Hinged Sets of Modular Wedge Bellow Frames with the Option for Electric Current, Removable Faces Off, 2020. Wood, plexiglass, hardware.
Hand-cut Triangles for the Wedge Bellow Frames, 2020. Polypropylene, tools.
Hand Mapping the Fabric Pattern for the Wedge Bellow Frames, 2020. Wood, plexiglass, hardware, fabric.
“We have been working hard since February to build our new series of organs (2020-present), a set of 6 rudimentary mechanical representations of lungs which relies on choreographed teamwork of individuals coming together to generate air-based sound that reflects the bodily movements of the performers search for collaborative motion.”
“Each sculpture requires two people to physically coordinate their movements to pump human scale bellows which push massive amounts of air through 4 ranks of interchangeable handmade organ pipes, 75 in total. The sculptures provide the performers with the ability to directly translate their bodily motions into audible illustrations of the physicality of the performer’s breath work, creating sounds that mimic the lung’s repetitive labor and the breathing patterns of the performers.”
Handmade and Salvaged Interchangeable Organ Pipes, 4 Ranks, 2020. Wood, PVC, salvaged accordion reeds. 4 ranks of handmade organ pipes, 75 in total.
“As part of our safe housing at PlySpace, we were given access to the back room of the building, which PlySpace uses as an art gallery. This massive room is an addition to the original building and was built to house the former owner’s mechanical organ collection. It came as no surprise that our organs sound great in this room, the acoustics allow the sounds to bounce with an abundance of natural reverb. We are using this time and space to create a series of video and audio recordings with our box bellow organs.”
“For our fellowship at PlySpace, we were paired with Ball State University as our community partner. We had planned to work with students in the School of Art to choreograph and score the music and performance and also collaboratively perform with our new series of organs at MadJax. We have been fortunate to work with Assistant Professor Rachel Cohn, who is deeply engaged in pedagogy, and her 4D students, a wonderful group of thoughtful young artists.
We had planned a project which would begin with the students learning about the anatomy of an organ (console, pipes, action, wind generator). After attending an organ performance at Sursa Hall of Dr. Stephen Price, Assistant Professor of Organ, we approached him to see if it would be possible to take a tour of the hall and see the working components of the organ. Dr. Price was generous enough to give us all a presentation on the history of the organ, which concluded with a detailed tour of the practice organ room at Ball State University.
Afterwards, the students learned about “deep listening” (the practice of radical attentiveness) and Pauline Oliveros, a composer/performer/humanitarian who coined the term. We presented a handful of graphic scores, which included Oliveros’ radical text “Sonic Meditations”. The following classes were to include presentations on performance and workshops on choreography, and a hands-on experience of dyeing white t-shirts to match the color and pattern the students democratically chose to visually represent the ensemble.
We had just begun to work with the students at Ball State University when the campus closed down due to COVID-19. Pivoting from our original goal of having the students compose and perform with our new series of organs, we began an alternative version of the project through an online platform. The students were asked to choose a sound that they could listen to for long durations and design a sound sculpture to emulate that sound. In order to comply with stay-athome orders, the sculpture had to be made from materials they could find in their homes. Each student created a video document of a 15-minute performance with their sound sculptures, putting into practice the ideas of deep listening we had explored together. The videos were then compiled into one performance, creating a virtual ensemble where the intention of the performers became the unifying thread rather than their physical location.”
Community Project with Professor Rachel Cohn and the 4D students from Ball State University. This project went from being an in-person Collaborative Sound Sculpture Choreographed Performance with our new series of Organs to being a Virtual Deep Listening Performance with Sound Sculptures made from household materials during the COVID-19 stay-at-home order.
Work by: Katerin Alvila-Herrera, Kayla Bethke, Claire Bickel, Hayley Congdon, Laura Danielson, Skye Day, Cassandra Freeman, Devin Good, Rayven Lopez, Mackenzie Lyseng, Reese Martin, Kaylie Packard, Karina Powell, Lindsey Publow, Adriel Scott, Riley Sims, Victoria Stout
“We are in the process of applying for a multitude of grants to obtain funding for our future visit to PlySpace in order to complete what we were unable to, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. PlySpace has offered to host us again for a few weeks in spring 2021 so that we can hire a team of artists to rehearse and perform our new series of sound sculptures, allowing us to present a public performance with a choreographed ensemble. This presentation will be the physical debut of our new series of sound sculptures and will double as a record release of audio composed and recorded during COVID-19 lockdown at PlySpace.”
In between work sessions, Pat and Val got a chance to bowl at Clancy’s!
Special thanks to everyone at Ball State University and Madjax who has helped the PlySpace artists on their making and research journey! Extra special thanks to Prof. Rachel Cohn and the 4D foundations class, and Chet Geiselman and the BSU woodshop crew!
Listen to their album on Soundcloud
Learn more about the artists and their work on their Vimeo site
Or follow them on instagram @aprilmayjuneskakun
PlySpace is a program of the Muncie Arts and Culture Council, in collaboration with the Ball State School of Art, Sustainable Muncie Corp, and the City of Muncie. PlySpace is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The PlySpace Gallery is located at 608 E. Main Street, Muncie, Indiana, and is open for special exhibitions and events. Please check the PlySpace events page for details.