BAND PRACTICE

signs and symbols is pleased to present BAND PRACTICE, a performance and installation by Clara Claus and Melissa Godoy Nieto. The duo will perform their durational drawing ritual all day on June 4 and will continue performing throughout the evening reception. An opening reception will be held from 6-8pm featuring a live musical intervention
by Amedeo Pace. The performance will continue on June 5 from 11am to 8pm. The installation and performance aftermath will be on view through June 9. This is Clara and Melissa’s first collaboration with signs and symbols, BAND PRACTICE will inaugurate our monthly performance series program.

BAND PRACTICE is a live drawing ritual performed by artist duo Clara Claus and Melissa Godoy Nieto. Employing their physicality and architectural surrounding as a backdrop and stage, the two draw together; synchronizing every movement, line and mark with sound as they exploit various mediums of pencils, markers, gouaches, inks, and oil sticks in their collaborative work. As the performance progresses, the paper spreads as a mosaic, the drawing surface expands sheet by sheet building upon and adding to an infinite installation. Clara and Melissa deploy chance encounters as they dialogue through their mark-making practice by adding to each other’s mixed interventions. They absorb each other’s creations, expanding upon them, they move from part to part navigating an introspective voyage. The performative experience is supplemented by a soundtrack created by David Moore, for which he used recordings of sounds produced by the artists while drawing. With captured noises of scribbling and scratching pencils, paper tearing and water droplets from paintbrushes, Moore’s musical composition offers an amplified echo of the drawing tradition. As the pair often collaborate with musicians, this iteration of BAND PRACTICE will additionally feature a live musical intervention by musician Amedeo Pace. Housed at signs and symbols for the first time, BAND PRACTICE is a form in process, a constant state of flux, a live experimentation of action and the creation of new material. Every time the ritual is performed, it acquires and absorbs from its surroundings, weaving in moments and stories into a new narrative, shifting every time with a new air of freshness.