This event is FREE!
NOW BEING HELD ON ZOOM ONLY
Hybrid: On Zoom and at the Fidget Space
Masks optional.
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Event Description:
Annson Kenney was a writer, musician, media, visual and performance artist who lived in Philadelphia and died in a car accident on December 30, 1981. Only 37 years old, at the time of his death he was best known for a series of exhibitions of what he called luminous tubing – or language and gallery based neon art. His work had been exhibited at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia Academy of Art and other galleries. But his recognition as a visual artist was preceded by a decade-long career as a writer, musician, conceptual, video, performance and body artist. Vital, creative and notorious in person, Annson’s work was almost impossible to categorize at the time. Today we can recognize his work as interdisciplinary, intermedial, and an example of the process of artistic self-exploration, performance and the limitations of critical approaches to new art.
Using documents, photographs and objects created by Annson Kenney, the talk will be related to a book in progress by AJ Sabatini. It will focus on Kenney's art and other work in the context of interdisciplinary writing, sound, media and performance art in the 1970s. Sabatini will reflect on how new work provoked and changed the criteria for artists, institutions and audiences. He will also comment on artists, communities and friendships and invite discussion on ideas about artists' biographies, legacies and the use of archives.
Arthur J. Sabatini, also known as AJ Sabatini, met Annson Kenney 1972. They were friends and among a group of writers, poets, musicians and artists based in Philadelphia. After his death, Sabatini, along with members of the new music ensemble, Relâche, and others, curated an exhibition of Annson Kenney’s neon work at Moore College of Art. Shortly after, Kenney’s writings, objects, music/sound art, videos and documents of conceptual and performance art were stored away.
Sabatini is a writer collaborating performer/producer in his own and other multi-media music/theater work. His publications include arts journalism in Philadelphia and academic essays and articles focusing on 20th/21st century avant-garde/experimental literature, new music, art and performance. PhD, New York University. Taught at the University of the Arts, Drexel and was a founding member and now Emeritus Professor of Performance Studies in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance Program at Arizona State University. He lives in Philadelphia.
More about Sabatini and Annson Kenney can be found at:
http://www.public.asu.edu/~ieajs/Welcome.html
http://www.ajsabatini.com/
https://ajsabatini.academia.edu
Funding has been provided by PA Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
